E-week (6 November 2006)

66 Pages·2006·5.074 MB·English

Jim Rapoza:
www.eweek.com
Airport laptop
losses are
taking off
50
T H E E N T E R P R I S E N E W S W E E K L Y
A vote of
no-confidence
BY WAYNE RASH AND
MATT HINES
The conversion to
e-voting systems
offers a lesson
in how not to
manage a large
IT upgrade
22
N E W S P A P E R P E R I O D I C A L
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THIS WEEK
When many of us will be the system ever be perfect? No. Polling Also this week, eWeek Labs takes
doing our civic duty on Nov. systems have been questioned since a look at the Internet Archive project,
7, a good slice of the elec- the first ballot box was stuffed. But in which is trying to collect and store all
torate will be voting on electronic the case of e-systems, we might want of the World Wide Web pages ever
systems for the first time. The new to wait for the first service packs before produced—the ultimate IT storage
e-voting systems have been committing to e-voting. challenge. For yucks, you can check
a priority for state and local Has it really been five out the site’s “Wayback Machine” at
governments since the 2000 years? The Eclipse open- www.archive.org to look at sites from
presidential election debacle, source development platform the 1990s, such as Netscape, when
when the fate of the country turns 5 on Nov. 7. It’s grown it was still the hottest stock on the
hung on, well, a hanging from zero to 2.25 million planet and the dot-com bust wasn’t
chad. The new touch-screen users worldwide, reports even a glint in Jim Barksdale’s eye. ´
or handheld systems are Senior Editor Darryl K. Taft
supposed to replace the on Page 18. The success of Contact eWEEK Editor Scot Petersen at
old lever machines, fill-in- Eclipse is more than just [email protected].
SCOT PETERSEN
the-dot optical scan sheets about being free, Taft writes.
and the dreaded punch-card system. The real “secret sauce,” as coined by
Sounds great, huh? Not so fast. Eclipse Foundation Executive Director
In the haste to deploy the new sys- Mike Milinkovich at the EclipseWorld
tems, election commissions may have conference in September, is Eclipse’s
eweek.com
left a few questions unanswered, such community of developers, vendors
as security and training for polling and partners working together toward
place volunteers, report eWeek senior a common goal. Intel, IBM, Hewlett- Videos
writers Wayne Rash and Matt Hines Packard, SAP and others may all be
eWEEK Video Seminars Twenty-
on Page 22. According to some critics, competitors on some level, but when
somethings are entering the work force;
the process of going to the e-systems it comes to Eclipse, they are one big
they’re used to podcasting, blogging,
is a lesson in how not to manage a happy family.
wikis and RSS. Executive Editor Stan
major technology deployment. Will
Gibson explains how these technologies
will change your company.
F
WEEK.COM
Podcasts
receptions will
not be covered, OnSecurity Jose Nazario, software and
dVIRTUALLY THERE Senior alas, although security engineer at Arbor Networks,
EditorJeffrey Burt plans to
we’ve asked Burt talks with Senior Editor Ryan Naraine
remotely cover the VMWORLD
to bring some about the extent of the for-profit botnet
user conference in Los Ange- resource planning) architec-
Tupperware. scourge and what you can do to mitigate
les Nov. 7-9. Burt plans to ture; globalization of IT and
the threat.
post on VMware’s squirming START THE IT REVOLU- whether it’s merely a matter
and/or preening. The com- TION WITHOUT ME “The IT of offshoring to cut costs or a eWEEK Roundtable Technology Editor
pany is now at the top of the Revolution: Finished? Or just new source of expertise; and Peter Coffee hosts a discussion with
virtualization pack, although beginning?” is the theme for software application innova- eWEEK Labs Director Jim Rapoza,
others are jumping into the AMR RESEARCH’S EXECUTIVE tion—just a memory of the Advanced Technologies Analyst Jason
fray to make some moolah LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE 1990s, or is it moving onto a Brooks and Linux-Watch Editor Steven
over this increasingly popular in Boston Nov. 8-10. Senior new playing field? J. Vaughan-Nichols about the impact
technology. Other goodies WriterMatt Hines is heading of Oracle’s move to offer full support for
CODE CRUSHING Microsoft
from the show that might over to catch former Federal Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
architects and industry gurus
make an online appearance Reserve Board Chairman Alan
are playing with code at DEV- Slide Shows
include pearls of wisdom Greenspan’s keynote. Things
CONNECTIONS in Las Vegas
from Diane Greene, president that might fall under the revo- Fedora Advanced Technologies Analyst
Nov. 6-9. We’ll see Senior
of VMware, who’s presiding lution rubric and which will Jason Brooks walks readers through the
EditorDarryl K. Taft posting
over the first opening general definitely be discussed: next- new features of Fedora Core 6, where he
stories, primarily on Visual
session. Welcome parties and generation ERP (enterprise finds a polished SELinux, new tools and
Studio and .Net.
performance improvements.
4 eWEEK n NOVEMBER 6, 2006 www.eweek.com
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NOVEMBER 6, 2006
Editorial Director Eric Lundquist
Editor Scot Petersen
CONTENTS
Executive Editor/News Larry Dignan
Director/eWEEK Labs Jim Rapoza
Executive Editor/eWEEK Labs Deb Donston
Technology Editor Peter Coffee
Executive Editor Stan Gibson
NEWS
News Editors John Pallatto, Lisa Vaas,
Steve Bryant, Don Sears
Senior Editors Jeffrey Burt, Peter Galli,
Paula Musich, Ryan Naraine,
Darryl K. Taft
Senior Writers Renee Boucher Ferguson,
John Hazard, Matt Hines, Chris
Staff Writers SPrceoimtt eFsebregrugseorn, ,W Daeybnoer aRha sh NEWS& 33 IBM unveils its first
Rothberg 700GB tape storage
gWEEK LABS ANALYSIS machine.
West Coast Technical Director Cameron Sturdevant
Advanced Technologies Analyst J ason Brooks 35 The HSPD-12
Technical Analysts Michael Caton, Andrew Garcia,
Victor Loh 11 Scientists are working on deadlinecould spur
Senior Writer Anne Chen
sensors to create reader- smart-card adoption.
FEATURES free RFID networks. 51
Associate Editor, Solutions Series David Weldon 38 Liquid Computing
15 Novell and Microsoft and Panta Systems
EDITORIAL PRODUCTION reach a set of broad col- look to break into the OPINION
Managing Editor Rick Dagley
Deputy Managing Editor Debra Perry laboration agreements. x86 space.
Copy Chief Jim Williams
Senior Copy Editor Emily Zurich Deyring
Copy Editors Kelsey Adams, Vikki Lipset, 17 Vista presents a host
Shane O’Neill 4 This eWEEK: E-voting
Newsletter Editor Alethea Yip of new options for
has a way to go.
ART DEPARTMENT application developers. fWEEKLABS 8 Eric Lundquist: Data
Senior Art Director Stephen Anderson
Associate Art Director Paul Connolly center technology is no
Senior Production Designer Tara-Ann Fasulo
Senior Designer Chip Buchanan longer neglected.
41 Labs On-Site: The
gWEEK 32 Our View: Oracle will
Publisher Internet Archive stores
Karl Elken and protects petabytes boost Linux’s presence.
Business Manager
Eric Berk of data. 32 Reader mail
Marketing
PeterE Crich iaLcucbheicakro, ,S Aesnsioorc Riaetes eRaercseha Drcirhe cMtoarnager 44 The Internet Archive’s 50 Jim Rapoza: The risk of
Production Manager founder discusses laptop loss is growing,
Michael DiCarlis
Ad Traffic Coordinator storage solutions. so be prepared.
Tim Bennett
46 REVIEW: XMPP- 55 Peter Coffee: A study
ZIFF DAVIS MEDIA 35 based IMsystems suggests people prefer
Chairman & CEO provide new options. talking to typing.
Robert F. Callahan
Chief Financial Officer
Mark Moyer 51 REVIEW: The Sun Fire 59 Spencer F. Katt: Future
Executive Vice President &Chief Content Officer X4500 combines power elections could be
Michael J. Miller
Executive Vice PreGseindeernatl, CLiocuennsseinlg & Legal Affairs, 18 Eclipse, five years later, and data protection. swayed by the Internet.
Gregory Barton has surpassed IBM’s 52 REVIEW: Fedora Core
PRESIDENTS goals in the IDE realm. 6 offers new tools and
Scott McCarthy (Game Group)
Sloan Seymour (Enterprise Group) improved performance.
Jason Young (Consumer Tech/Small Business Group) 20 Labs: Microsoft Office
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENTS Live is set to debut with
Kenneth Beach (Corporate Sales) several enhancements.
Ira Becker (Game Group)
Jim Louderback (Editorial Director, Consumer/Small Business Group)
Angelo Mandarano (Internet) 20 Work in Progress: A FIXING THE
MichMaaerl tVhaiz aSrcdh (wEadrittoz r(iCal uDsitroemct oSro, lEuntitoenrsp rGisreo Gupr)oup) Sangoma card compen-
VICE PRESIDENTS sates for wiring issues. BALLOT
John Davison (Game Group)
Elaine Ebner (Corporate Sales) 26 The Buzz
Karl Elken (Publisher, eWEEK)
Aaron Goldberg (Market Experts) 22 Electronic vot-
Barry Harrigan (Web Buyers Guide)
Kristin Holmes (International Licensing) ing machines,
Michael Krieger (Market Experts)
Ray Ledda (Game Group) and the technol-
Rick Lehrbaum (Internet)
Eric Lundquist (Editorial Director, eWEEK) ogy issues that
JimC MhrcisC Mabaeg i(nPnC ( IMnteargnaezti)ne) come with them,
Scott McDaniel (Game Group) have created one
Paul O’Reilly (Event Marketing Group)
Beth Repeta (Human Resources) of the most dif-
Dave Rock (Circulation) Cover illustration: Harry Campbell
Chris Stetson (Research/Market Intelligence) ficult IT upgrades
Stephen Sutton (Audience Development, Consumer/Small Business)
Stephen Veith (Enterprise Group Publishing Director) ever.
Monica Vila (Event Marketing Group)
Neil Young (Consumer/Small Business Group)
Randy Zane (Corporate Communications)
eWEEK editorial staff members can
be reached at [phone] or
[phone], or via e-mail using
the following formula: firstname_
[email protected]. For example: [email protected].
(Don’t use middle initials in address.)
www.eweek.com NOVEMBER 6, 2006 n eWEEK 7
&
NEWS ANALYSIS
tem developers to do the work?
Well, the drive vendors have been
ERIC LUNDQUIST: UP FRONT paying attention, and the Oct. 31
announcement by Seagate of its
Data centers get exciting
DriveTrust technology is a welcome
addition to this once-neglected world.
While a lot of the attention toward
DriveTrust is around the idea of
COMPANIES SHOULD BUILD COOLER, MORE EFFICIENT RACKS strong chip-based encryption becom-
ing part of the storage system, the
The neglected While power use in the data implications are equally interesting
parts of the center is of great interest, the idea for virus protection. The same encryp-
information of rebuilding your data center infra- tion that can keep your contents safe
infrastructure are structure to accommodate one ven- from prying eyes can also be used to
grabbing center dor’s design is a slow process. Data keep nona uthorized data from enter-
stage as customers centers will be rebuilt, but they will ing your system. Technologies such as
recognize that if be rebuilt based on componentized, DriveTrust may be the biggest advance
they want reliabil- standardized models that allow users in data security in 2006.
ity, security and to mix and match components from And while the acquisition of APC
communication, they are going to a broad array of vendors. and the introduction of DriveTrust
have to invest in the areas that were Schneider is a Paris-based heavy- received a lot of the attention last week,
once the province of experts or were duty electrical components manu- Google’s acquisition of wiki developer
in the backwater of technology bud- facturer looking to recharge APC’s JotSpot should not be overlooked for
gets. Several recent acquisitions and product line through culling some what it means in the business-to-
new product developments empha- products and probably cutting staff business communication space. If
size this trend. and moving more manufacturing to blogs were a pain for corporate IT
At the top of the technology low-cost labor areas. APC, based in execs in terms of management and
acquisition news last week was West Kingston, R.I., is finding itself control, wikis are a joy in terms of
the $6.1 billion acquisition of UPS swallowed up just as the technology being able to quickly deploy com-
(uninterruptible power supply) customer base is ready to pay atten- munication platforms that are easy to
leaderAmerican Power Conversion tion to what is going on in the server use, secure and accessible. If you were
announced Oct. room. Paris and neglecting wikis because you thought
REBUILDING YOUR DATA
30 by Schneider West Kingston they were a consumer product without
Electric. Excite- CENTER’S INFRASTRUCTURE are far apart a role in your company, you should pay
ment and the in culture and attention and spend some time with
UPS industry are IS A SLOW PROCESS. geography, and JotSpot and its wiki competitors. ´
terms not often making the shift
found together, but this acquisition to faster product cycles and common Editorial Director Eric Lundquist can be
qualifies as a big-time deal in an architectures will be difficult. reached at [email protected].
industry undergoing rapid change. If data centers received only lim-
WWWE B R E S O U R C E S
UPS systems are, by definition, sup- ited attention, disk drives received
posed to be boring and reliable: bor- almost no attention whatsoever. What’s a JotSpot?
ing because they should sit silently Disk drives were expected to spin
available, and reliable because, when and be available for storage, and that Find out what Google finds so inter-
you need emergency power, the UPS was all. Every few years or months, esting about this wiki tool developer
is the only thing standing between you’d add disks to accommodate www.jot.com
you and irrecoverable data loss. your additional storage needs. But
However, APC’s stock value has unencrypted data is what gets users Data Center
languished as the company tried to in trouble when their laptops get
inject excitement into the idea of new stolen. And viruses and other evil University
data center design. Rather than build- data devils live on disk drives rather
ing new or expanded data centers, the than CPUs and digital memory. Why This APC site offers certification in
wiser CIO should use the APC prod- don’t disk drive vendors get smart data center design
uct line to build cooler, more energy- and start developing their own disk www.datacenteruniversity.
efficient racks in which to house a protection rather than waiting for com
company’s servers and storage devices. security vendors and operating sys-
8 eWEEK n NOVEMBER 6, 2006 www.eweek.com
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