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Can Macs conquer the enterprise? 11 January, 2008 10:55:53
The field is wide open for a Macintosh insurrection on the business desktop. It could happen, but probably won't. Here's why.If Apple were a football team, the New England Patriots would have had some serious competition this year. - +
Networking's greatest debates in the Data Center 29 October, 2007 07:34:19
All time classic debates include Mac Vs PC, Tape storage vs. disk storage and AMD vs. IntelA look at the greatest all time Data Center controversies in the history of the networking industry. - +
10 IT security companies to watch 20 October, 2007 07:03:02
Data-leak prevention, behavior-based malware detection among focus areasNew companies have to be brash to enter the network security market, given that the industry has witnessed an explosion in creativity over the past five years and considering that big players such as Microsoft and IBM increasingly are throwing their weight around in security.
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. Optimized Back-up and Recovery for VMWare for VMWare Infrastructure with EMC Avamar
A Guide to Next-Generation Backup, Recovery and Archive
Best Practice in Building an Integrated Information Management Strategy
Choices in Storage Architecture for Oracle Environments
Still Sneaking In: The Threats Your Security Tools Aren't Telling You About
The IP Storage payoff: Turning your investment into efficient, affordable results
Radicati Market Quadrant 2008 on Corporate Web Security
Revolutionising Back-up and Recovery
Newsletter Subscription
Open source software is a given in most enterprise data centers, so it's not surprising to see the ranks of open source companies and projects swell. It's not just Linux anymore - community-developed software is offering alternatives for everything from databases to application servers to network management to disaster preparedness. How do you know which open source approach is right for you? We've pulled out a few start-ups that you might not be familiar with, but we think should be on your radar.
Here are ten open source start-ups to watch:
Company name: Cleversafe
Founded: November 2004
Location: Chicago, U.S.
What does the company offer? The Linux File System, which lets Linux computers store information on a dispersed storage grid called the Cleversafe Research Storage Grid. The company plans to offer commercial dispersed-data storage services and software. Why is it worth watching? As companies start taking a closer look at building grids, Cleversafe provides an open source platform to serve as the foundation for commercial dispersedstorage grids that provide secure storage because data components are scrambled and stored in separate locations.
How did the company get its start? The founders were looking for a better way to secure the world's data.
How did the company get its name? A clever approach to secure computing.
CEO and background: Christopher Gladwin, formerly of MusicNow.
Funding: Private, plus angel investors, amount not disclosed.
Who's using the product? There have been nearly 800 downloads of the software from SourceForge.net, where the project is hosted, since the grid was announced in April.
Company name: Digium
Founded: 1999
Location: Alabama, U.S.
What does the company offer? Asterisk, the industry's first open source PBX, and Asterisk Business Edition, a professional grade version of the software.
Why is it worth watching? The open source Asterisk software is making it easier and more cost-effective for companies to launch VoIP projects. "What [Digium] can do for telephony is incredibly powerful and disruptive," says David Skok, a general partner at Matrix Partners.
How did the company get its start? Mark Spencer was 21 when he built a telephone system for his Linux Support Services company, using the Linux operating system. Spencer contributed the code he developed to the open source community, and the project became known as Asterisk.
How did the company get its name? It was just one of the names tossed out by Spencer and a few colleagues.
CEO and background: Spencer was a computer-engineering student at Auburn University when he created Asterisk for Linux Support Services. He shifted his business focus from Linux support to supporting Asterisk.
Funding: $13.8 million from Matrix Partners in August 2006.
Who's using the product? Discovery Research, Sam Houston University.
Company name: Hyperic
Founded: March 2004
Location: San Francisco, U.S.
What does the company offer? Hyperic HQ, an open source platform for managing heterogeneous IT environments, including operating systems and Web, application, database, middleware, and virtualization technology. The company also provides subscription-based services and support, as well as advanced features.
Why is it worth watching? Application and Web monitoring from big vendors such as CA, IBM and BMC Software can be bulky, complex and difficult to deploy. Hyperic takes a different approach to Web infrastructure management and has created a simpler tool that lets IT managers monitor commercial and open source technologies from a single portal. The company's extensive open source experience - the founders helped develop the Apache Web server - adds to its appeal.
How did the company get its start? Company founders originally developed management technology while at Covalent Technologies, a firm that provides enterprise support for Apache deployments, and decided to spin off from Covalent to create a company focused strictly on the management software.
How did the company get its name? The company's name originally was to have been Hyperica, but one of the founders "mysteriously left out the 'a' in the company incorporation documents and Hyperic was born," says Javier Soltero, Hyperic's CEO. He notes that Hyperic is a derivative of hypericin, the active ingredient in the St. John's Wort herbal antidepressant. Maybe Hyperic will turn out to be the antidepressant for over-taxed systems administrators.
CEO and background: Soltero was chief architect at Covalent Technologies and a senior engineer at Netscape.
Funding: $3.8 million from Accel Partners & Benchmark Capital in May 2006.
Who's using the product? eHarmony, National Semiconductor, Ogilvy & Mather, La Quinta Inn.
2008 CIO Summit
19th August, 2008 Four Seasons Hotel, Sydney Developed in partnership with CIO Magazine, IDC, INTEP and the CIO Executive Council.
The world of the CIO is extremely complex and diverse. Multiple priorities demand attention and decisions are needed instantly. Individual teams need to be driven towards common goals, and businesses strive to become more mobile, agile and responsive. For CIOs, the challenge never ends.
Every year the CIO Summit identifies what is top of mind for CIOs across Australia and New Zealand, and offers insight for CIO benchmarking and vendor strategic planning alike.
Recent IDC research shows that over 59% of CIO's believe that 'to achieve their business strategies, technology should be used more aggressively than today.'
Join us on August 19th to discover how this is possible with the latest technologies including Virtualisation, Web 2.0, IP Surveillance and Software as a Service (Saas).
Click here for more information.
Please email Denyse_Robertson@idg.com.au for further information.
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CIO Live Podcast #79: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires Part II 05 October, 2007 06:00:00
For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders. - +
CIO Live Podcast #78: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires 28 September, 2007 17:34:25
For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders. - +
CIO Live Podcast #77: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part III 21 September, 2007 07:00:00
Part three in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance. - +
CIO Live Podcast #76: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part II 14 September, 2007 07:00:00
Part two in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance. - +
CIO Live Podcast #75: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part I 07 September, 2007 07:00:05
Part one in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance.
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Information security governance: Centralized vs. distributed 05 September, 2008 10:15:00
Should security policies, procedures and processes be managed within a central body, or distributed at an individual level? You need to find the middle ground.The management of information risk has become a significant topic for all organizations, small and large alike. But for the large, multi-divisional organization, it poses the additional challenge of determining how to deploy an information security governance program among what are often disparate business units. Should the policies, procedures, and processes that define the program be developed and managed within a central, corporate body? Or perhaps responsibility would be better placed at the individual unit level? Is there a workable middle-ground? - +
DNS error brings Sophos antivirus updates to a halt 05 September, 2008 13:40:00
Optus, Internode and Equinix affected among others.A sporadic Domain Name Server (DNS) error has blocked Sophos anti-virus updates around the world. - +
Ouch! Security pros' worst mistakes 04 September, 2008 08:05:00
We've all done regrettable things on the job, but does any valuable wisdom come of it? Four security pros candidly explain their biggest blunders and what they learned in the processIt was a mistake so bad the person who made it asked that his name and company not be mentioned here. Let's call him Frank. - +
Security ROI: Fact or Fiction? 03 September, 2008 08:32:00
Bruce Schneier says ROI is a big deal in business, but it's a misnomer in security. Make sure your financial calculations are based on good data and sound methodologies.Return on investment, or ROI, is a big deal in business. Any business venture needs to demonstrate a positive return on investment, and a good one at that, in order to be viable. - +
Information Security and the Importance of Context 01 September, 2008 10:00:00
Those entrusted with information security must raise their contextual awarenessWhen the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was first created, it created a sudden need for tens of thousands of screeners. Getting a job as an airport screener was a pretty easy process. It seemed as though if you had a pulse, you were in. Jump forward to 2008 and becoming a screener is a bit harder as the TSA has instituted background checks, has upped the educational requirement to include a high school diploma or GED, and added other significant requirements.
Viva la Verticals! Key to Vendor Growth is Through Vertical Market Opportunities, Says IDC 05 September, 2008 11:05:00
F-Secure delivers fastest protection in the online world 04 September, 2008 16:50:00
Rogue security apps dominate Fortinet's Aug 2008 IT threat report 04 September, 2008 16:00:00
IntraPower Signs Deal with Australia’s Largest Service Station and Convenience Store Network 04 September, 2008 10:07:00
TANDBERG Begins Desktop Videoconferencing Roll-Out at New England Credit Union 03 September, 2008 16:01:00
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Web Security SaaS: The Next Generation of Web Security
Discover the latest web security SaaS solutions. Learn how to increase overall security effectiveness and reduce the burden on your IT department. Uncover the security challenges facing SMB environments today and identify the critical elements that can provide you with lower-cost and easier-to-manage web security solutions.
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