Drew Robb

New Orleans domain name and hosting provider Directnic.com adopted an interesting strategy during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita — dig in and grind it out. Situated in a high rise in the central business district, IT staff and its crisis manager battled through winds, floods, looting, Army raids, power cuts, diesel shortages, water shut-offs and more […]

Ink jet printers have long since passed the $100 barrier, and PCs are headed in that direction. What does this mean to corporate plans to buy new hardware? In a time when budgets remain tight and finding a bargain is a critical step in the purchasing process, can IT administrators and CIOs afford to look […]

The various operating systems all have their share of proponents and detractors. But as time goes on, the real issue is not so much which is best, but how to get them to play well together. “People start talking about Linux vs. Windows vs. Mac, but the fact of the matter is all these have […]

Last month Microsoft announced a new name for its long-awaited Longhorn operating system – Windows Vista – and followed it up with a first beta release of both the server and desktop versions of Longhorn. But while Microsoft is promoting Vista with the tagline “Windows Vista Brings Clarity to Your World,” it is still not […]

Whether one is talking about a rock band, a sports team, a marriage or getting dressed in the morning, it is not the quality of the individual pieces, but how well they work together. Mick Jagger and Celine Dion? Nope. Shaq and Kobe? Even Phil Jackson had trouble making that one work. Polka dots and […]

Most server rooms and data centers subscribe to the maxim that more is better – more servers that is. According to a survey by market research firm Novo1 Inc., the average data center has 230 servers. That number is rising 10 percent to 20 percent each year. Further, these data centers typically host a diverse […]

Just because TCP/IP may be the de facto standard networking protocol in today’s Internet-driven world, it doesn’t mean everyone abandoned older protocols. DECnet, in particular, can be found in various nooks and crannies, and those using it say they have no plans to eliminate it. Take the case of Quayle Consulting of Columbus, Ohio, a […]

Seattle’s Northwest Hospital and Medical Center recently began to suffer from spyware. Despite the efforts of IT, scores of desktops became infected. ”Pop-ups at desktops became a severe and growing problem,” says Ken Burton, CTO of Northwest Hospital. ”It slowed down performance to many help desk calls.” Burton realized the problem could quickly escalate to […]

Grid computing is normally considered the province of the academic and scientific world…. the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), the Earth System Grid, the European Data Grid, the TeraGrid and other such projects have popularized the field and created a whole new category of computing. And the commercial sector has begun to take notice. ”Companies […]

Grid computing has been the province of academia, government, and science labs for most of its young life. According to some experts, however, it has quietly, albeit steadily, picked up a fan base in the commercial sector. Further, it is expected to become an integral part of the technology landscape in the near future. ”We […]