Citrix Systems is upgrading XenDesktop, acquiring Virtual Computer, introducing a new type of hardware-assisted thin client and initiating a cloud project in an effort to make its virtual desktop infrastructure offering more attractive.

EMC on Thursday gave more enterprises a way to build all-in-one private cloud systems, providing an alternative to the VBlock architecture that it developed with Cisco Systems and VMware for customers who need to integrate other vendors' technology.

Citrix has abandoned its Olympus OpenStack distribution and will focus instead on its open-source CloudStack operating system, which it has contributed as a project under the Apache Software Foundation.

It is hard to put your finger on any one thing that sums up developments in the world of IT this year, but a speaker at one of Network World's recent IT Roadmap conferences had an interesting analogy that seems apt.

Black Friday is fast approaching, and soon malls across America will be filled with smartphone-toting shoppers--and smartphone thieves eye a bounty of opportunity.