News

• How to avoid 5 common email management mistakes

  Email managers have a lot at stake. After all, the volume of global electronic messages sent via email dwarfs all other forms of electronic communication, including social networking. Since the inception of electronic mail, which, according to some Internet historians, can be traced to a small mainframe app called 'MAILBOX' from the mid-1960s, human-to-human messages have been created, transmitted and stored in electronic format. But early email administrators could hardly have envisioned the complexity of current email infrastructure and the concomitant maze of technical, security, business and regulatory challenges.

• From packet inspectors to WAN optimizers, network add-ons are all the rage

  These days, it seems like a dozen new network "extras" - including traffic monitors, packet inspection technologies and management products, to name just a few - are launched every week, all advertising large-scale gains in performance, security and ease of use.

• Canonical gears Linux upgrade to the cloud

  Canonical is focusing on cloud deployments with an upgrade to its Ubuntu Linux distribution being unveiled on Thursday.

• Microsoft System Center 2012 overhauls licensing, focuses on apps

  Microsoft has formally shipped System Center 2012 management platform, adding features that create application-centric views of corporate infrastructure and - just as important - implementing a new licensing scheme designed to capitalize on customers' frustration with the leading competitor, VMware.

• BYOD: 'the inmates of the asylum have control'

  Mobile devices are multiplying and -- sanctioned or unsanctioned -- finding their way onto corporate networks. For IT pros, the influx of personal mobile devices to the corporate network is raising security concerns, creating management challenges, and swamping the help desk with support calls.

• Cisco acquires home network management company

  Cisco this week said it plans to acquire privately held ClearAccess, a provider of service provisioning and device management software to service providers.

• Can you handle Big Data?

  Big Data is the latest industry buzzword. It's just another way of saying you as a network manager are being inundated with data and you better figure out a way to manage, secure and analyze it.

• 'Insatiable demand' for streaming video puts pressure on providers

  Just as enterprise network managers brace for the flood of bandwidth-consuming content stemming from the NCAA men's basketball tournament, content delivery providers put in a significant amount of time preparing to meet the meteoric rise in demand.

• Will IT bother to block NCAA tournament traffic?

  Every year when March rolls around, so, too do the dire predictions of network-clogging effects from employees who stream NCAA tournament games at work. But do CIOs and IT managers really care if college basketball lovers sneak a peek using company resources?

• HP, IBM, CA deliver powerful toolkits

  A network that measures downtime in millions of dollars per minute (or per second!) needs a serious, enterprise-level network management tool. Nothing less will do.

• How we tested network management wares

  We evaluated each product in several different areas: Discovery and enumeration of devices and computers, support for a variety of device manufacturers and device types, global directory integration, graphical depiction of the network, monitoring of network node status (availability), performance and health, alerts and notifications when network problems occur, automated corrective actions, maintenance of trouble tickets (or integration with a help desk tool), support for virtualized environments and the production of useful, informative reports.

• Lessons learned: Outsourcing managed network services

  This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter's approach.

• Controlling your March Madness traffic outbreak

  As the NCAA men's college basketball tournament begins to unfold, March Madness takes on a more literal meaning for those tasked with controlling activity on the enterprise network.

• Net Optics acquires nMetric, targets network intelligence

  In a move to broaden its offerings for the growing network intelligence and diagnostics market, telecom equipment manufacturer Net Optics recently announced the acquisition of network analytics software provider nMetric.

• Three tips for avoiding tablet management headaches

  Tablets are a tricky proposition for many IT departments since the mobile devices boast many of the content creation capabilities of laptops but lack mature management and security software.