E-Commerce Blog

A number of leading authorities have been urging caution on the adoption of Web-based services as a new wave of vendors unveil cloud initiatives. Cloud computing involves computing resources hosted in an off-premise “cloud” rather than an in-house computer room. The system offers organizations a low cost alternative to buying and maintaining a computer infrastructure and allows users to access the applications from their mobile, anywhere and anytime.

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Cloud Computing: The Dark and Stormy Side

“It is a race, and we’re not slowing down.” That is how Ross A. Mauri, the general manager of IBM’s Power Systems product series, describes competing against Sun Microsystems and HP for the Unix server market. IBM announced a number of new products and upgrades Tuesday to help keep its current lead in revenue — 35 percent of the market in the second quarter of 2008 compared to Sun’s 29 percent and HP’s 26.
The Power Systems product line is the latest generation of business computer servers that started with the AS/400 in 1988 in Rochester, Minn.

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IBM Hits Its Stride in Unix Server Race

Yahoo, HP and Intel are collaborating on an ambitious research endeavor called “Cloud Computing Test Bed” — designed to support cloud computing research and education at universities. Users will be able to develop and test software, data center management, and hardware associated with cloud computing on this large-scale grid. The three companies are partnering with the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany on the project.

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Yahoo, HP, Intel Give Ivory Towers a Stairway to the Cloud

Let’s talk information-technology upgrades. We know. Your eyes are already glazing over, your jaw slackening, your hand poised to turn the page. Figuring out your company’s IT system is one of life’s great mysteries. It’s an even greater source of frustration. However, local Las Vegas experts insist even the layest of laypeople can learn to determine when their systems require improvements, and more importantly, how to prioritize on those upgrades to avoid blowing out the company’s budget. So how do you know when you need to re-evaluate your information-technology design?

When Is the Time Right for Your IT System Makeover?

Suppose you took delivery on your new car and the salesman told you, as you signed the order, that the seatbelt, antilock brakes, and the airbags were in a box in the trunk and that if you want to be safer you might want to have an expensive expert install them. That would be about the time you scream a long string of epithets we cannot print here and go running from the showroom.

So how come we all allow our software to be delivered with all the safety features set to a default that allows the porno peddler in Lithuania to store his entire inventory on your computer, not to mention borrowing the username and password to your bank account? And what can we do about it?

Those are the kinds of questions that plague men like Clint Kreitner at the Center for Internet Security (CIS). Kreitner is a Naval Academy grad - went to school with John McCain - who served his country for 13 years and then went into the private sector. He ran some very successful IT companies and a…

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Internet Security: The Seatbelt Is In The Trunk