Sean Michael Kerner

Make no mistake about it, Virtual Private Networks (VPN) (define) are still big business. A new report from Infonetics Research pegs the value of the VPN services market in 2005 to have been $23 billion, which represents 14 percent growth over 2004. Growth is expected to continue, hitting $29 billion by 2009. Jeff Wilson, principal […]

IBM (Quote, Chart) has been a huge Linux backer since 1998. Yet despite its love of the penguin, Big Blue’s Lotus Notes product has never fully supported a standalone client for the Linux desktop. That is, until now. Why has it taken so long for IBM to support the Linux desktop for Notes users? The answer […]

FEATURE: Though Microsoft might disagree, open source software in many cases can be a real cost saver. It can also save your neck. Literally. Most information workers spend inhumane amounts of time huddled over their computers. We type away at our keyboards, stare at our screens and remain shackled to our chairs seemingly immobile for […]

A new study by code analysis firm Klocwork has discovered new flaws in open source programs that previous scans by a Department of Homeland Security-sponsored study did not. Apparently, the open source projects in question were notified by Klocwork of their results, but at least one open source vendor disputes the claim. Klocwork, which this […]

IBM (Quote, Chart) is donating some of its IT management wisdom to the Apache Software Foundation. But there’s more to it than just goodwill. You could say that Apache is Big Blue’s open source muse, or at least one of them. The wisdom, in this case, is actually WSDM (Web Services for Distributed Management, pronounced “wisdom”), […]

Oracle doesn’t officially have its own Linux stack, but it is making it easier for users to put together their own. The database giant has rolled out its Oracle Validated Configurations program. It defines an end to end configuration stack of hardware, storage, networking components as well as Linux operating system and application software. This […]

Passwords, passwords passwords. Managing your identity in the Internet of 2006 is a complex Web that requires multiple identities and passwords for multiple sites and services. Enter the Bandit project. This open source effort led by Novell aims to integrate disparate identity standards and projects in an effort to help create an identity system that […]

Smile pretty Ethernet. The networking architecture (define) first developed 30 years ago is about to get a really big closeup now that networking vendors Nortel, Cisco and Juniper Networks have unveiled a barrage of carrier grade Ethernet products. What’s driving the rollout? So-called quad plays, such as voice, data, video and mobile offerings by major carriers. […]

Open Source is changing the way that Gartner Group measures the application development market. The big loser as a result may well be proprietary Java application development tools. Laurie F. Wurster, research director at Gartner Research, explained that Gartner has undergone a major change in methodology. “Previous to this year we counted new license revenue,” […]

The emerging SSL-VPNs (define) security protocol will eventually overtake IPsec (define) VPN deployments for transmitting data across a network securely. But for now, IPsec retains the lead, according to Infonetics Research. Jeff Wilson, principal analyst of VPNs and Security at research firm Infonetics, told internetnews.com that IPsec is still leading the remote access VPN market. […]