Stories by Eric Knorr

2011: When cloud computing shook the data center

If I had to sum up in one word the most exciting thing that happened to cloud computing in 2011, I'd have to say it's OpenStack. This open source project, launched by Rackspace and NASA in late 2010, is assembling a private cloud "operating system" for the data center that promises vast increases in operational efficiency. The momentum behind it is phenomenal; at last count, 144 companies back the project, including Cisco, Citrix, Dell, HP, and Intel.

What you need to know about the year of the cloud

2010 saw Microsoft make a big grab for the cloud, while big business got serious about building clouds of its own

What desktop virtualisation really means

Desktop virtualisation harks back to the good old mainframe days of centralised computing while upholding the fine desktop tradition of user empowerment. Each user retains his or her own instance of desktop operating system and applications, but that stack runs in a virtual machine on a server -- which users can access through a low-cost thin client similar to an old-fashioned terminal.

10 steps to SOA

SOA is an idea, not a technology.

The computer hardware hall of fame

There's a special place reserved for the stalwart hardware that many of us have depended on day after day, year after year. Or at least, we believe there should be a special place.

Microsoft's cloud forms

At the Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston, Microsoft made its biggest foray yet into cloud computing with pricing and partnership arrangements for Microsoft Online Services, a family that includes Online versions of Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communications, Office Live Meeting, and Dynamics CRM.

IBM tackles IT energy efficiency in a Big Green way

Project Big Green is IBM's sprawling initiative to increase the energy efficiency of IT. In May 2007, Big Blue announced that it would redirect no less than US$1 billion per year to Big Green, which applies both to solutions IBM offers to customers and to the company's own internal IT operations.

Microsoft: We have services, too

Microsoft has taken another baby step into on-demand services, with a bundle of small announcements that amount to a little rebranding here, and a couple of new services there. The new offerings are Office Live Workspace -- a free, personal, Web-based document storage and collaboration space hosted by Microsoft -- and a fresh edition of the company's Dynamics Live CRM product.

LINUXWORLD - IBM attempts to tackle enterprise data integration

For years IBM has doggedly pursued the massive problem of pulling data strewn across the enterprise into an integrated, harmonious whole. At LinuxWorld on Monday, the company introduced IBM Information Server Blade, an appliance-like bundle intended to make the Herculean task of enterprise data integration faster and easier.

SugarCRM: Open source on the fast track

The cost and complexity of CRM has long stymied IT. But John Roberts, Clint Oram, and Jacob Taylor believed there was a better way. So in the spring of 2004, all three quit CRM software vendor E.piphany and -- after just three months of coding -- launched the Sugar open source project.

Oracle's Project X revealed

Like the mainframe, ERP (enterprise resource planning) software soldiers on, though companies complain bitterly about its inflexibility. Oracle just took a significant step toward softening that rigidity with its new Application Integration Architecture (AIA), announced by Oracle president Chuck Phillips at the company's Collaborate '07 User Group Conference.

The new metrics of online success

Two metrics determine how much money Web sites make from advertising: page views and unique visitors. The number and character of "uniques" -- that is, how many separate and distinct individuals visit a Web site and how much they are likely to spend on products being advertised -- determines the cost of ads on a Web site. It's the page view, however, that governs how much money Web sites take in for ads sold at a given rate.

SOA Software connects mainframes to SOA

Tough business conditions often give rise to ingenious solutions. That was the case at Merrill Lynch several years ago when the economic boom went bust: An urgent desire to reduce IT overhead spurred a Web services initiative that has saved the company an estimated US$44 million in three years.

Venture capitalist sold on SAAS

Hummer Winblad Venture Partners was established in 1989 as the first venture capital fund to invest exclusively in software companies. These days, 12 of the 30 companies in Hummer Winblad's portfolio are SAAS ventures. We spoke with Ann Winblad, co-founding partner, to better understand the extraordinary momentum of SAAS and her company's relationship with IBM.

Software as a service: the next big thing

Applications are evolving into a Web ecosystem. Will enterprises one day get their key apps through the Web?