News

• Facebook outage caused by database glitch

  By Tony Bradley | 24 September, 2010 23:38

  Facebook went offline for the second time in two days yesterday. The Thursday outage -- which lasted more than two hours for some users -- is a tale of a database control gone awry and illustrates the need for effective testing and change control procedures.

• Iran confirms massive Stuxnet infection of industrial systems

  By Gregg Keizer | 26 September, 2010 07:30

  Officials in Iran have confirmed that the Stuxnet worm infected at least 30,000 Windows PCs in the country, multiple Iranian news services reported on Saturday.

• The missing piece of cloud security?

  By Andreas M. Antonopoulos | 22 September, 2010 08:14

  Cloud computing, especially public cloud infrastructure-as-a-service is not yet a reality for the vast majority of companies. Recent announcements however, from VMware, Citrix and Oracle clearly show that enterprise cloud computing is gaining momentum.

• Consulting room: Marketing needs planning

  By Mike Ryan | 17 September, 2010 13:09

  Senior management spends vast amounts of time preparing account plans and sales budgets. Unfortunately, marketing usually comes in as a poor cousin. Marketing plans are seldom written or face the cold, hard scrutiny of an A4 piece of paper. It’s one of the many paradoxes of the IT industry. We evangelise technology and planning, but fail to practice what we preach. Even worse, marketing initiatives that strive and fail to deliver instant results are deemed a failure.

• Red Hat tops list of hottest IT security certifications

  By Carolyn Duffy Marsan | 16 September, 2010 02:08

  Interest in IT security certifications is booming, as more U.S. companies tighten up the protection surrounding their critical network infrastructure and as a growing number of employees view security expertise as recession proof.

• IBM to acquire OpenPages

  By Ann Bednarz | 16 September, 2010 02:08

  IBM is acquiring OpenPages, a privately-held company that makes software designed to help companies simplify risk management and corporate compliance activities. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

• 10 steps to easier access management

  By Tim Greene | 15 September, 2010 01:36

  NEW YORK -- A CISO who spent two years organizing identity and access management for the 15,000 users on his network boiled the whole experience down into a 10-step process he presented at the Security Standard Conference this week.

• Making smart IT decisions: Simple steps small businesses should take for smart IT investments

  By Matt Troka, CDW | 10 September, 2010 03:18

  According to a recent report from Forrester Research, IT spending in the United States is expected to ramp up in the second half of the year with an estimated 19 per cent increase in computer equipment spending, 11 per cent growth in software spending, seven per cent hike in communications equipment spending, and six per cent uptick in consulting services. As the overall IT industry starts to show signs of growth, small businesses -- often the last to display confidence -- are exhibiting cautious optimism as many anticipate increased IT investments in the next six months.

• Smartphone support challenges enterprise IT teams

  By Ellen Messmer | 09 September, 2010 07:04

  Smartphones are among employees' favorite playthings, but keeping workplace toys like the iPhone in good order is a real job in the enterprise, and those that do it say it's tough to find suitable security and management software.

• Cisco, Citrix team on desktop virtualization package

  By Joab Jackson | 08 September, 2010 14:04

  Hoping to ease a typically arduous deployment process, Citrix and Cisco Systems are jointly offering a package for running a large number of virtual desktops across an organization.

• Blue Coat brings in new CEO

  By Tim Greene | 02 September, 2010 02:23

  Blue Coat Systems has brought in a new CEO, spinning the change as a way to free up outgoing boss Brian Nesmith from the daily grind of managing the company to instead work on product strategy.

• VMware vCloud Director gets Zenoss monitoring app

  By Joab Jackson | 01 September, 2010 04:28

  After setting up a cloud infrastructure, an organization needs tools to monitor that it is running as smoothly as planned.

• HP acquires automation vendor Stratavia

  By Ann Bednarz | 27 August, 2010 01:33

  HP has acquired Stratavia, which makes database and application automation software, for an undisclosed amount, the companies announced today.

• Poll: 32 percent approve of web traffic prioritisation

  By David Price | 12 August, 2010 23:59

  Google and Verizon may have moved to quash rumours of a traffic-prioritisation deal, but almost a third of web users would approve of such an arrangement, according to a PC Advisor survey.

• Intel bends to U.S., Google Wave washes up

  By Fred O'Connor | 07 August, 2010 05:28

  It's the end of an era: Intel can no longer offer computer makers perks for using its processors, according to an antitrust settlement that the chip maker reached with the U.S. government. Meanwhile, BlackBerry users in some countries may find their e-mail service terminated if governments are denied access to the network's secure data. Finally, employee paychecks may no longer be safe as hackers look for new revenue sources.