System News for Sun Users

illumos Meetup at FOSDEM

2012-01-28T17:00:00+01:00

Going to FOSDEM? Linda Kateley will be there in the illumos booth and has organized a meetup on Saturday, February 4, at 6:00 PM at the NH Hotel, Rue Bodenbroek 2/4, Brussels.

RSVP here.

FOSDEM

FOSDEM is a free and non-commercial event organized by the community for the community. The goal is to provide Free Software and Open Source developers and communities a place to meet to:

get in touch with other developers and projects
be informed about the latest developments in the Free Software and Open Source world
attend interesting talks and presentations held in large conference rooms by Free Software and Open Source project leaders and committers on various topics
to promote the development and the benefits of Free Software and Open Source solutions

Participation and attendance is totally free, though the organization gratefully accepts donations and sponsorships.

Can't We All Just Get Along

2012-01-25T17:00:00+01:00

"When IT and business staff clash, things can get ugly quick. Everyone has experienced some measure of tension across the business/IT divide. But is that tension a simple clash of personalities -- or is it a clash of cultures? Solve the wrong problem, and tensions are likely to escalate ..."

IT and business are like siblings, sometimes they just can't help teasing, annoying and fighting? Bob Lewis takes a look at "Why IT and Business Just Can't Get Along", more often than not the question isn't one of goals but one of cultures.

Peeling Back the Covers

2012-01-25T17:00:00+01:00

"Troubleshooting Fibre Channel networks can be as much an art as it is a science, but there are some basic best practices you can follow to reduce the guessing and speed resolution. Here are 10 tips to help you get to the bottom of pesky problems ..."

Sooner or later if you are using any type of SAN there will be problems and at the worst possible time. Getting back up quickly is paramount and these 10 tips will enhance "The Fine Art of Fibre Channel Troubleshooting". Just remember there are times when a little luck is required.

Planning for the Unexpected

2012-01-25T17:00:00+01:00

"When you're thinking about business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR), you know you can't protect yourself from every disaster - some circumstances are simply unimaginable. But you can mitigate potential damage by taking a few upfront steps to ensure your data remains safe and secure ..."

Making sure your data is safe is paramount for any IT professional. The "Six Tips to Prevent Data Loss" will make sure that your overall plan for data protection has the major bases covered.

MySQL 5.0 and 5.1 available on Solaris 11

2012-01-24T17:00:00+01:00

MySQL 5.0 and 5.1 are now available for Solaris 11. A post on the Solaris and Systems Information for ISVs site all but performs the install (which it calls "as simple as typing) for you.

The Noose Tightens on Notification

2012-01-24T17:00:00+01:00

"Companies suffering data breaches will have 24 hours to tell the relevant authorities or risk legal action and large fines, EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding has confirmed.

Reding's comments at a Munich conference come in the week her department plans to publish the full details of the draft data protection regime that will sweep away a confusion of different laws across the EU's 27 states. ..."

No longer will companies get around to notifying the authorities about a data loss as the "EU to Enforce 24-Hour Data Breach Disclosure". The world seems to like precedence and this could be the harbinger of actions across other areas.

Adding Pillars to CIA

2012-01-24T17:00:00+01:00

"Security alert: Why compliance and privacy matter: Complex regulations and growing privacy challenges warrant adding compliance and privacy as pillars next to confidentiality, integrity, and availability ..."

For the last 20 yeas CIA (confidentiality, integrity and availability) have been the benchmarks by which security pros were judged. The same pros must now convey to upper management "Why Compliance and Privacy Matter" and must be added to CIA.

Java Spotlight Episode 65: Deployment & Plugin

2012-01-24T17:00:00+01:00

Episode 65 of the Java Spotlight features an interview with Joe McGlynn, Thomas Ng and Henry James of the Deployment and Plugin Team about recent changes in Java Deployment and Plugin. Dalibor Topic, Java Free and Open Source Software Ambassador, and Alexis Moussine-Pouchkine, Java EE Developer Advocate, are this episode's panelists.

Linux Adoption Trends 2012: A Survey of Enterprise End Users

2012-01-24T17:00:00+01:00

The Linux Foundation and Yeoman Technology Group conducted an invitation-only survey of 1893 enterprise Linux users. Among the findings are plans by 80% of respondents to implement Linux servers in the next 12 months; 72% plan to use Linux to support their "big data" operations; the number of respondents with reservations about technical issues declined from 40% in 2010 to 20.3%; 22% fewer cite perceptions by management as an impediment to Linux implementations, and 10% fewer cite no issues at all impeding the success of Linux; and some 66.6% of respondents consider Linux to be more secure than Windows.

Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-8 Facilities Operations for Energy Management Solutions Provider

2012-01-23T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-2 has enabled EnerNOC, a provider of energy management applications and solutions for the smart grid, to improve the performance of its business-critical services. EnerNOC's implementation of two half-rack Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-2 systems has enhanced performance of its real-time demand response database out-of-the-box by 5X and produced a 2x-5x boost in performance of its current Extract Transform and Load (ETL) processing out-of-the-box. I/O resource utilization has declined by over 50 percent, and EnerNOC has deployed both online transaction processing (OLTP) databases and data warehouses in a single centrally managed system.

Ruby Plug-in Available for NetBeans IDE 7.1

2012-01-23T17:00:00+01:00

There is now a Ruby plug-in for NetBeans IDE 7.1 that Geertjian Wielenga announces in his post, noting that it "installs without a hitch." His post features a screen shot of the Projects window that shows a Ruby sample project and the Ruby editor.

Solaris 10 OS and ZFS Cut Costs, Boost Uptime as Alternative to RAID

2012-01-23T17:00:00+01:00

The post by Frederic P "ZFS secures your application" describes a cost-saving alternative to using an internal RAID storage controller in an entry-level server. That solution uses the Oracle Solaris 10 OS and its ZFS file system to mirror the root hard drive. The benefits realized include higher uptime, simpler management, faster deployment, better data integrity and lower hardware cost. It was possible to deploy an application on a Sun Fire X2270 class system vs a X4170 class one -- a 20% difference in base prices -- and to reduce unplanned downtime and maintenance time from hours to minutes.

World Record x86 TPC-C Result

2012-01-23T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle's Sun Fire X4800 M2 server equipped with eight 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon Processor E7-8870 chips and 4TB RAM and 160 CPU threads obtained a result of 4,803,718 tpmC on the TPC-C benchmark with a price performance of $0.98/tpmC using the Oracle Linux OS with Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 2 and Oracle Database 11g Release 2 with partitioning. This result is 2.5x times better performance than the next 8-processor result, an IBM System p 570 equipped with POWER6 processors, and 3.1x times better price/performance than the 8-processor 4.7GHz POWER6 IBM System p 570.

Saving Becomes A Liability

2012-01-23T17:00:00+01:00

"Get Smart about Archiving Backup Data -- Backing up everything isn't just wasteful and expensive -- data that "lives forever" exposes your enterprise to additional risks. We explain a smarter, safer, and less expensive approach to disaster recovery ..."

Ask any IT person about archive and they say 'we save everything'; tell that to a lawyer and see a heart attack in action. Now is the time to "Get Smart About Archiving Backup Data"; fully 90% of most backup data does not have to be saved indefinitely and now is the time to start clearing possible smoking guns.

Passwords Aren't Going Away

2012-01-23T17:00:00+01:00

"A state-of-the-art security system won't much matter if a hacker gets a hold of an employee's password. That's much more likely to happen if you take a laissez-faire approach--or none at all -- to creating and protecting passwords ...

Since they are not going away, this is a good time to take a new look at "9 Password Security Policies for SMBs". Why only SMBs, who knows, we think the policies are worthy of consideration for any company of any size.

Cybercrime Direct Costs Increase by 58%

2012-01-23T17:00:00+01:00

IT's input is critical ..."

Do you think your standard insurance policy covers all the loss if someone hacks you critical database; or you fail to deliver services because of a hard failure in the datacenter? Think again; then ask someone "Do You Need a Cyberumbrella"? You may be surprised to learn you have no one covering your six if problems occur.

Do You Have a Plan

2012-01-23T17:00:00+01:00

"The vast majority of states and territories in the United States have rules requiring organizations managing personal information to notify affected parties if their private information has been breached. However, the laws differ from state to state in the way they define personal information, the requirements for who needs to be notified, and how notification must take place. ..."

If you are storing personal information you need to be aware of four things: what data is stored; where is the person located; where is the data stored; and what are the applicable laws regarding notification. For "Breach Notification: Knowing the Rules" is only the first step.

Documentation for Common Sysadmin Tasks

2012-01-23T17:00:00+01:00

The two principal guides documenting common system administration duties for Solaris 10 are Basic Administration and Advanced Administration. The documentation for Solaris 11 is contained, for the most part, in a single volume, Oracle Solaris 11 Common Tasks Guide. Additional documentation is available in Oracle Solaris 11 Documentation Library and in Setting Up and Administering Printers Using CUPS. Rick Ramsey's blog provides links to each of these titles.

Simplified Administration with ZFS

2012-01-23T17:00:00+01:00

"Simplified administration with ZFS," a post by Isaac Rozenfeld, covers migrating the OS image from an HP Pavillion desktop a1150y to a Sun Ultra 40. With the hardware properly configured, the four-year-old Phoenix BIOS easily detected the ZFS submirror, and the GRUB menu came up quite nicely, showing all of the Boot Environments created over the lifespan of the OS installation when it was on the HP desktop. With the ZFS dataset submirror running, the next step was to add the second disk from the HP machine so that the pool could operate in a non-degraded state.

MySQL: An Introduction for Oracle DBAs

2012-01-23T17:00:00+01:00

Working from the assumption that there are DBAs with MySQL sitting idle on their corporate servers, Patrick Hurley was written "MySQL: An Introduction for Oracle DBAs," which employs a comprehensive approach that begins with connecting to MySQL and extends through such necessaries as determining which sessions are currently connected to MySQL; which users are defined and what is the scope of their authority; what are the techniques for backup and restore; and how does one install MySQL. This is truly introductory but nevertheless useful material, especially for DBAs who have not wet their feet in the mysterious MySQL waters.

A Replacement for DRAM

2012-01-23T17:00:00+01:00

"A new form of nonvolatile MRAM memory with the promise to eventually replace DRAM is slowly making its way into products, but analysts said it could be a long time before DRAM technology is cast aside ..."

SSD rely on DRAM as the linchpin for there underlying technology. The problem is that power has to be available all the time. Now we learn of a new solution; "Could MRAM Ultimately Replace DRAM"? Quite possibly, but not in the near future as density and costs are not comparable to DRAM.

For The Lack of an App

2012-01-23T17:00:00+01:00

"The new rules for enterprise apps; To be successful today, enterprise software must be more user-friendly, get updated more often, and offer users outside your company more transparency than ever before ..."

More and more of your customers are using smart phones and if you are not on the App bandwagon you will lose them. Before you jump in and start apping make sure you understand "The New Rules for Enterprise Apps". If you don't make apps easy to use and intuitive; your competition will.

Never Underestimate Stupidity

2012-01-23T17:00:00+01:00

"Stupid user tricks 6: IT idiocy loves company: IT fight club, dirty dev data, meatball sandwiches -- nine more tales of brain fail beyond belief ..."

IT staff or users can do some really dumb stuff that costs sales, hard dollars, time and resources. In "IT Idiocy Loves Company" we find out from nine examples why stupidity truly has no limits.

A Slippery Slope for Privacy

2012-01-23T17:00:00+01:00

"American citizens can be ordered to decrypt their PGP-scrambled hard drives for police to peruse for incriminating files, a federal judge in Colorado ruled today in what could become a precedent-setting case ...'

A US judge has ruled that "Americans Can Be Forced to Decrypt Their Laptops" indicating that the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution against self incrimination does not apply. The logic is the same as ordering someone to open a safe to see the contents. Will be interesting to see where this ends as appeals are expected. The precedent setting ruling may affect companies that encrypt data and then have to produce the data in a discovery phase of litigation.

Oracle Flaw Discussion Continues

2012-01-23T17:00:00+01:00

"The Oracle flaw: Clarifications and more information; In the wake of InfoWorld's exclusive story on a flaw in Oracle's flagship database product, Oracle weighs in and new developments emerge ..."

Since InfoWorld broke the news of the "Oracle Flaw: Clarifications and More Information" have been forthcoming. There are some patches available and Oracle support is well aware of the problem. There is also information about tracking the SCN number with some scripts available from Oracle.

No Protection from Litigation

2012-01-23T17:00:00+01:00

"The rules governing e-discovery apply to social media and trump both a social media website's privacy guidelines and an individual user's privacy preferences ..."

So you think that whatever you write on your social media page is protected under privacy laws? Think again. "In Civil Litigation, 'Private' Social Media Data Isn't Private"] and anything requested for the plaintiff or defendant in discovery must be revealed. One other thing to remember is that your providers privacy policy become null and void in the face of a court order.

Oracle Certified Associate (OCA), Oracle Solaris 11 System Administrator

2012-01-23T17:00:00+01:00

Become an Oracle Certified Associate (OCA), Oracle Solaris 11 System Administrator, the newest certification available for Oracle Solaris system administrators with a strong foundation in the administration of the Oracle Solaris 11 Operating System and are proficient in essential system administration skills such as managing local disk devices, managing file systems, installing and removing Solaris packages and patches, performing system boot procedures and system processes. Candidates can earn the OCA certification with a single exam: The "Oracle Solaris 11 System Administration" exam (1Z1-821) at the greatly discounted rate of $50 USD. Exam appointments are available now at pearsonvue.com/oracle.

vBeers Houston - Hotel InterContinental near the Galleria

2012-01-22T17:00:00+01:00

Join us for the next Houston vBeers! Meet with local Virtualization enthusiasts and talk about technology, theory, politics of the industry or whatever else gets your propeller spinning.

Vbeers.org webpage

NO marketing blather, NO Sponsors, and NO PowerPoint but you do have to buy your own drinks!

This is a great opportunity to meet with other virtualization enthusiasts and professionals and enjoy discussing all things virtualization, and in fact anything else that comes up in conversation�

InterContinental Houston near the Galleria, The Lobby Lounge
2222 W Loop S Fwy, Houston, TX 77027
Thursday, January 26th
5pm to 9pm ' arrive and depart any time

Relax with your technical colleagues

Please share this invitation with your IT colleagues.

Join the vBeers Houston LinkedIn group to learn about future events.

vBeers South Florida - Dubliner, Mizner Park, Boca Raton

2012-01-22T17:00:00+01:00

Join us for the next South Florida vBeers! Meet with local Virtualization enthusiasts and talk about technology, theory, politics of the industry or whatever else gets your propeller spinning.

NO marketing blather, NO Sponsors, and NO PowerPoint but you do have to buy your own drinks!

This is a great opportunity to meet with other virtualization enthusiasts and professionals and enjoy discussing all things virtualization, and in fact anything else that comes up in conversation�

The Dubliner, Boca Raton, FL
Mizner Park: 435 Plaza Real, Boca Raton FL 33432
Wednesday, January 25th
5pm to 9pm ' arrive and depart any time

Relax with your technical colleagues!

Free parking. Use parking lot A - Enter from US 1.

Please share this invitation with your IT colleagues.

Join the vBeers South Florida LinkedIn group to learn about future events.

New ZFSSA firmware release

2012-01-20T17:00:00+01:00

ZFSSA software release 2011.1.1.0 is available, Steve Tunstall blogs. Users will need 2010.3.2.1 or greater to upgrade to 2011.1.1. This major software update contains numerous bug fixes and important firmware upgrades, Tunstall reports, then lists the various new features in the release, among which are:

Significant cluster rejoin performance improvements
Significant AD Domain Controller failover time improvements
Significant zpool import speed improvements
Significant NFS, iSER, iSCSI and Fibre Channel performance improvements due to elimination of data copying in critical datapaths
ZFS RAIDZ read performance improvements
Significant fairness improvements during ZFS resilver operations

Some Fabrications Don't Go Away

2012-01-20T17:00:00+01:00

"You would think that rank-and-file IT staffers and leaders would understand the advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing by now. However, the misconceptions continue to show up, some of which are disconcerting ..."

The cloud is well on the way to becoming a mainstream solutions for companies. The "4 Cloud Myths That Won't Go Away" are keeping companies from looking over the fence to see what all the hub bub is all about.

Build It Better

2012-01-19T17:00:00+01:00

"we are now in a state of ongoing national cyber espionage. It's not cyber war, but it's cyber espionage on a grand scale. That's absolutely going to carry on. However, I do think the year ahead heralds a fantastic opportunity. It will be the first time when virtualization hardware and its uses within computer systems, generally, dramatically change the odds in favor of security ..."

The bad guys are bad but they are far from stupid and in some cases frighteningly brilliant. After all, they only have to be right once to get results. You have to be correct 100% of the time and "Smarter Hypervisor Use Can Lead to Big, Big Change in Security." We should see the results built into systems this year leading to better security.

What's Keeping You Up at Night

2012-01-18T17:00:00+01:00

"Analytics and business intelligence will be the top technology priorities for CIOs this year, according to Gartner Inc.'s annual survey of IT executives ..."

CIOs are like jugglers of glass balls; there are always items in the air and if one drops the results could be disastrous. The annual Gartner survey of "The Top 10 Tech Priorities of CIOs" show a change from last year; for one thing, the Cloud is no longer number one.

Hot Security Subjects for 2012

2012-01-18T17:00:00+01:00

"The cloud can be a godsend for enterprises struggling to keep up with burgeoning data loads and high user demand. In the blink of an eye, you gain access to all the resources you desire, and at a fraction of the cost of building out additional physical infrastructure ..."

Cloud Security is finally getting attention and deservedly so. This is no fault of the Cloud as technology often outruns some of the basic protective mechanisms needed to ensure information is protected. Here are "Eight Cloud Security Predictions for 2012" that end users, Cloud providers and vendors to the Cloud will be looking at in the coming years.

Hot Cloud Subjects for 2012

2012-01-18T17:00:00+01:00

A Huge Oracle Problem

2012-01-17T17:00:00+01:00

"A design decision made by Oracle architects long ago may have painted some of Oracle's largest customers into a corner. Patches have arrived, but how much will they correct? ..."

InfoWorld has been sitting on story before revealing a "Fundamental Oracle Flaw" so that Oracle could fix the problem. The patch was released at 1pm PT on January 17. The problem had to do with what's called the Systems Change Number (SCN), this is the linchpin that makes sure all information is synced and current within one database or several databases sharing information. All Oracle DBAs must apply the hot-backup patch, for older databases this may mean an upgrade.

Oracle Sun Fire X4800 M2 Sets x86 World Record on TPC-C Benchmark

2012-01-17T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle's Sun Fire X4800 M2, running Oracle Database 11g Release 2, achieved an x86 record of 4,803,718 transactions per minute (tpmC) with a price/performance of $.98/tpmC. The X4800 equipped with eight Intel Xeon E7-8870 processors and 4 Terabytes (TB) of Samsung's Green DDR3 memory was nearly 3x faster than IBM's eight-processor result for a p570 and nearly 60 percent faster than the best DB2 result on IBM's x86 server. The Sun Fire X4800 M2 delivered nearly 3x better price per TPC-C transaction than a 64-processor HP Superdome server and over 2.65x faster than HP's best Proliant DL580 G7 score.

Disaster Recovery for Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud with Oracle Exadata Database Machine

2012-01-17T17:00:00+01:00

The Oracle white paper "Disaster Recovery for Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud with Oracle Exadata Database Machine" deals with a subject much on the minds of users lately: disaster recovery with the Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud. The principles under discussion apply to deployments on an Oracle Exalogic Machine with an Oracle Database and to standalone deployments on an Oracle Exalogic Machine. Oracle Fusion Middleware Disaster Recovery -- the heart of Maximum Availability Architecture -- uses storage replication technology for disaster protection of Oracle Fusion Middleware middle tier components, supporting hot-pluggable deployments and offering compatibility with third-party vendor-recommended solutions.

PeopleSoft OVM Red Paper

2012-01-17T17:00:00+01:00

"PeopleSoft Oracle Virtual Machine Templates Development and Customization Guide" is an Oracle red paper intended for technical users, installers, system administrators, and programmers responsible for leveraging Oracle Virtual Machine (OVM) as a deployment infrastructure for PeopleSoft applications. It provides insight into the construction of PeopleSoft VM templates in order to help users customize and extend the delivered templates. The document can also provide guidance for the creation of VM templates needed to run on other hypervisors. The contents of the paper have not been subjected to any formal Oracle test, nor has the paper been officially reviewed.

Developing a Sound Data Strategy

2012-01-17T17:00:00+01:00

"As data warehouse practitioners, one of our fundamental objectives is to help our organizations turn data into actionable information in order to achieve goals that include improving the decision-making process, identifying new opportunities, and recognizing issues and problems in time to take corrective action. ..."

As the old saying goes, "Hope is not a strategy". If your strategy is based on hoping you have the right data for processing, disaster recovery and business continuity you have a big problem. By the way, save everything is not a good strategy either. Here are "10 Key Elements of Your Data Strategy" that need to be addressed and incorporated sooner than later.

ZFS+10: illumos Meetup

2012-01-17T17:00:00+01:00

In his post on dtrace.org Adam Leventhal summarizes the 10th anniversary celebration of the creation of ZFS. The post includes three videos on the subject, the first of which is with Matt Ahrens, co-creator of ZFS, who discusses the new stable ZFS interface designed for programmatic consumers of the solution. John Kennedy explains his work on the ZFS test suite, and Chris Siden of Delphix discusses his work on ZFS feature flags and Async Destroy, which allows datasets to be destroyed asynchronously in the background, which is especially helpful when gigantic datasets need to be erased, Leventhal observes.

Become the Last One they Release

2012-01-17T17:00:00+01:00

"12 effective habits of indispensable IT pros; Ditch the slackers, take on dirty work, do it with data -- here's how to get the inside track on a highly rewarding career in IT ..."

No one likes to keep looking over their shoulder to see the man with the axe is closing in; the answer is to keep you head down, keep paddling and develop several of the "12 Effective Habits of Indispensable IT Pros." The most effective one in my book is number 8; you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Knee Jerk or Good Planning

2012-01-17T17:00:00+01:00

"Online shoe and clothing retailer Zappos has taken assertive steps after breach, but is it enough? ..."

The release of 24 million records at Amazon's Zappos poses a huge problem in terms of costs, reputation and lost business. Was the "Zappos Data Breach Response a Good Idea or Just Panic Mode?" We know the direct cost could be close to $5Billion (24MM x $217) but as for the reputation and lost business we will have to wait and see the public's reaction. Have you asked yourself what is my plan if sensitive data is released? If not, you need to!

A Lack of Consistency

2012-01-17T17:00:00+01:00

"Data Recovery Services Pose Data Breach Risk Without Security Guarantees ..."

A whopping 87 per cent of companies have used an outside source to recover data. The problem is that "Data Recovery Services Pose Data Breach Risk Without Security Guarantees." You may have very tight guidelines about you data but your third party vendor may not even come close to meeting your standards for protecting data and notifying you if there is a problem.

Errors Using PCI

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

If your company processes credit cards you fall under the Payment Card Industry guidelines. Failing a PCI audit can put your company at risk. Here are the "Top 10 PCI Compliance Mistakes" that will help correct problems and insure your PCI audits do not have any surprises.

What Goes Around Comes Around

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

"Are you prepared as global IT outsourcers shrink onshore staff? These tips will help you keep projects moving as offshore IT service provides cut back on the on-site staff that used to work as liaisons between customer and provider ..."

Reports from India indicate that the largest providers are cutting back; if your projects are based offshore there may be dark clouds ahead? Here are "5 Tips To Keep IT Outsourcing On Track as Global Providers Cut" back on liaisons not based in the country and other areas.

One Stop IPv6 Info

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

"Looking for practical, non-biased advice about how to deploy IPv6? The Internet Society is launching a new Web portal that will be a central resource for standards documents, best practices, case studies and other useful information for network engineers planning to adopt IPv6, the next-generation Internet Protocol ..."

IPv6 is coming and if you aren't looking at an implementation plan now you will be on the short end of the pier when the ship departs. Getting information is tough as everyone has a story, hype and version of what you need to know. Now there is a site that offers "Unbiased Info About IPv6" through a new portal dubbed Deploy360.

How to Add Storage Capacity to Your Oracle Linux Environment

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

The procedure for using Sun ZFS Storage Appliance iSCSI LUNs in an Oracle Linux environment to augment storage capacity is the subject of an oracle.com post by Andrew Ness. Ness discusses how to install the Oracle Linux iSCSI initiator on an Oracle Linux server and how to configure an iSCSI LUN on the Sun ZFS Storage Appliance so the LUN can be accessed by an Oracle Linux server using iSCSI protocol. Ness provides procedures for configuring the LUN and then describes how to prepare the LUN for use by the Oracle Linux server.

LibreOffice 3.4.5 Available for Download

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

In its latest release LibreOffice 3.4.5 includes several bug fixes and an improved level of stability. The Document Foundation, the parent organization of LibreOffice, reports that the solution won InfoWorld's BOSSIE Award 2011 as the Best of Open Source Software and the Open World Forum Experiment Award of Most-Popular Software. Downloads of LibreOffice 3.4.5 are immediately available, as are extensions.

Now Available: Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database 11g Release 2

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle's application-tier in-memory database Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database 11g Release 2 is now available. The release incorporates significant performance and scalability improvements for real-time online transaction processing (OLTP) applications and introduces new functionality to support analytic applications with real-time in-memory data management. The solution now ships with Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management, enabling that solution to achieve significantly faster response time, higher throughput and can support more subscribers than prior releases. Furthermore, Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database for Exalytics will also be available for Oracle Exalytics In-Memory Machine as an application-tier in-memory database cache.

Adapting to BYOD

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

"IT departments in the age of mobile computing must adapt to newly empowered users who select not only their own devices but their applications as well. This adapation -- as difficult as it may seem -- has a strong benefit: Enabling a modern workforce ..."

IT has one of two options for BYODs; adapt or die. The reason is that employees are going to use whatever tool(s) they have (approved or not) to get their jobs done effectively and efficiently. To that end the "BYOD Movement is Forcing IT to Adapt." The question is one of attitude and the successful IT departments will view BYOD's as true benefits to be exploited with one huge advantage�IT did not have to pay for the devices.

Memory Breakthrough

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

"It takes about one million atoms to store a single bit of information, unless you're a scientist with IBM Research. IBM scientists reported Thursday that they had successfully demonstrated the ability to store information in as few as 12 magnetic atoms ..."

Moore's Law has gotten a new lease on life as "IBM Engineers Atomic-Scale Memory." How about reducing the number of atoms needed to store a single bit by 100,000 give or take a few atoms. IBM Research has demonstrated the ability to store a single bit on 12 atoms, currently this takes 1,000,000 atoms. WOW!

Too Much of a Good Thing

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

"Experienced CIOs see the opportunities presented by 'Big Data' in context. They know that maximizing big data to deliver real business results will require a focused strategy that leverages and protects their existing data assets, develops new capabilities that are production-ready and reusable, and is able to manage the deluge of new data that will be created in the process..."

Data is both a boon and the bane of every company; too little and you starve, too much and you drown. The secret is getting the level just right and that decision is based on business needs. Here's "What Every CIO Needs to Know to balance the needs of the company and the resources that are available.

Oracle Critical Patch Update Announcement - January 2012

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle's January 2012 Critical Patch Update provides fixes for 78 new security vulnerabilities affecting a wide range of Oracle products families, Eric Maurice posts. These included Oracle Database, Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Supply Chain Products Suite, Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise, Oracle JDEdwards EnterpriseOne, Oracle Virtualization, Oracle Sun product suite, and Oracle MySQL. He points out that security fixes for Java SE continue to be released on a different schedule because of commitments made before the completion of the Sun acquisition.

Netra SPARC T4-2 SPECjvm2008 World Record Performance

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle's Netra SPARC T4-2 Server equipped with two SPARC T4 processors running at 2.85 GHz set a world record result of 454.52 SPECjvm2008 Peak ops/m on the SPECjvm2008 benchmark. This result surpassed the previous record, which was run on a similar product, Oracle's SPARC T4-2 server. This level of performance is 41% better than the SPARC T3-2 server and similar in performance to Oracle's SPARC T4-2 server. The Netra SPARC T4-2 server with hardware cryptography acceleration greatly increases performance with subtests using AES and RSA encryption ciphers. There are no SPECjvm2008 results published by IBM on POWER7 based systems.

Using Deduplication as a Primary Storage Technology

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

Deduplication as a for primary storage tool is discussed in Carol Sliwa's searchstorage.com interview with Dave Russell of Gartner Inc. In both backup and primary storage, Russell asserts, commonality of data is the chief consideration. If an embedded technology is available for dedup use in primary storage, Russell recommends its use; if not, then an attached appliance will serve the purpose. NetApp's ability to perform deduplication/compression on primary storage data makes it attractive technology, he says. When choosing vendors consider the possible need to reinflate compressed data when using one vendor for backup and another for primary storage.

Download MySQL Enterprise Backup 3.7.0

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

MySQL Enterprise Backup 3.7.0 (MEB 3.7.0) is available with several advanced features that include:

Redo Log only Incremental Backup
Incremental Backup without specifying LSN
Validation of Backup Image using checksums
Hot Backup of InnoDB .frm files
Performance Improvements and
Enhancements for Third-Party Media Managers

Users can download the MEB 3.7.0 package from the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud web site. MySQL Enterprise customers can deploy MEB 3.7.0 immediately, while users without a MySQL Enterprise license can evaluate MEB 3.7.0 free for 30 days with the request send feedback to mysql-backup_ww@oracle.com.

Solaris 11 Compliance with DISA Security Guidance

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

In his post on Solaris 11 compliance with DISA Security guidelines Jim Laurent cautions readers not to construe his comments as a declaration of compliance by either Oracle or DISA but rather a casual review of Solaris 11 against current DISA Security Guidelines. Laurent notes that an issue raised in his review a year ago has now -- with the release of Solaris 11 -- been fixed. That was the inability to mount /var as a separate file system as the scripts require. The default installation now automatically sets of /var as a separate ZFS data set, Laurent writes.

Moving Up the Tier Ladder

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

" Lots of IT shops use data deduplication for backups, but far fewer use the technology with primary storage. For what types of data does deduplication make sense with primary storage? ..."

We all know abut the dramatic savings that dedupe can have on backup space and data is not often accessed. Serious questions need to be asked before we move dedupe into Tier 1 storage. There may be a place in "Primary Storage Deduplication Helping with VMs and Virtual Desktops." The questions have to do with rebuild times and vendor change.

When Your Partner Goofs

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

"Vendors and contractors play an important role in your business. But what happens when a partner's systems are compromised? Here are a few tips ..."

No company is an island unto itself; there are partners ranging from small bit players to major trusted business partners. So "What Do You Do When Your Business Partner is Breached?" Using these tips you will be able to respond when your partner calls and says "Houston, we have a problem!" Hopefully you won't be left to fend for yourself wondering how bad you are affected.

Hype vs. Adoption

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

"While the hype around cloud computing was in full swing in 2010 and businesses stuck their toes in the water in 2011, this year looks like the one where cloud computing will become real at more companies ..."

There is a wide chasm between vendor hype and market adoption; such was the case in 2011 for the cloud. Looking at "The State of the Cloud: Getting Real in 2012" we may find that this year is when the hype gets toned down from doses of reality and the market starts to adopt the technology for what the cloud can do along with the limitations and risks.

A Candid Observation

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

"Enough with the Truth Already: A Cloud Conversation with Jon Toigo ..."

One of the things I have learned from meeting Jon Toigo is that what you see on stage is exactly what you see in private, candid, brutally honest insights. A lot of vendors don't care for Jon for one simple reason; he calls them as he sees them. In the extensive article "Enough With the Truth Already; A Cloud Conversation with Jon Toigo" we get a two paragraph statement that exemplifies why the cloud is never going to match up with mainframes.

Optimizing GlassFish Server Performance

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

Optimizing performance of the GlassFish Server is the topic of Rene van Wijk's post on Middleware Magic. He shows how to improve server performance by adjusting a few deployment and server configuration settings. Choosing throughput optimization as the method, van Wijk also shows how to optimize performance of the JVM. He demonstrates as well how to avoid performance constraints imposed by operating system restrictions. The post concludes with a test regime.

Live Upgrade and ZFS Versioning

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

The post Live Upgrade and ZFS Versioning concludes with the tip that one should attempt to restrict shared ZFS datasets and pools to the lowest versions supported by the oldest boot environments in use. One can always use upgrade -v to see what versions are available for use, the post suggests, and by using -o version= and -O version, users can create new pools and datasets that are accessible by older boot environments. This last bit can also come in handy when users are moving pools around systems that might be at different versions.

Pay Me Now or Later

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

"If your company were hit with a cyber attack today, would it be able to foot the bill? The entire bill, including costs from regulatory fines, potential lawsuits, damage to your organization's brand, and hardware and software repair, recovery and protection? ..."

Cyber crime and data loss are becoming all to common, just last week Zappos reported the loss of 24 million customer records; at $214 per record, that comes out to almost $5 Billion. "Cyber Insurance Offers IT Peace of Mind - Or Not" looks at what you can and cannot expect if you buy insurance to cover this type of loss.

Sooner or Later You Will be In the Crosshairs

2012-01-16T17:00:00+01:00

"Manage the Breach or the Breach Will Manage You - Several high-profile security breaches occurred in 2012. What's ahead for security administrators in 2012, and how will IT respond? ..."

Thinking your company is too small to be a target can be the worse stance you can take; 9 out of 10 companies hacked are names no one would recognize. The bottom line is either you "Manage the Breach or the Breach Will Manage You." These five suggestions may just give you a heads up to either prevent or control the incident; either way you are ahead.

Keeping Staff

2012-01-12T17:00:00+01:00

"Here's a look at why employee benefits matter and how you can provide them even if your company bank account is tight ..."

The economy is starting to grow again and that does not bode well for keeping employees. Many companies are not aware of the disconnect with their employees until they give their notice. While this article was written for the sales channel, the ideas and insights of "Providing the Perks to Retain Your Best Employees" will help you keep the best instead of losing the best.

Cyber Security Insurance Is in Your Future

2012-01-11T17:00:00+01:00

"More Patient Data Risks, Lawsuits Predicted In 2012: The new year promises to bring greater patient data risks as healthcare organizations increase their use of mobile technology and social media sites ..."

With more and more companies exposing sensitive information through various mistakes and errors the number of litigious actions will increase with health care at the forefront. A recent report indicates that "More Patient Data Risks, Lawsuits Predicted for 2012". You don't need a crystal ball to see the fallout; every company that handles sensitive information is a target for legal action.

Cloud and disaster recovery: Load-balanced data centers not a perfect solution

2012-01-11T17:00:00+01:00

"With multisite load balancing, the lack of centralized control of application and infrastructure configurations can lead to trouble at both sites ..."

Apparently a light has gone on in the heads of DR planning that the cloud may be the answer; one primary and one hot site i.e. the cloud. Looking at this solution we may find that "Load-Balanced Data Centers Are Not a Perfect Solution" for a variety and very important reasons.

Bringing Games to Business

2012-01-11T17:00:00+01:00

" ...kids, as well as young adults, are attracted to video games like flies are attracted to light ... the kids are paving the way for business training and IT's role in tomorrow's companies ..."

We don't mean the actual games but the thought process that makes games so addictive to anyone under 30. The future will demand that you understand "How 'Kids' Games Transform Business". This series of slides addresses the ideas that have made games so popular and can do the same for business. These under 30 people will be with us for a long time; they will use technology that makes the feel comfortable.

Who Knows What Danger Lurks

2012-01-11T17:00:00+01:00

"The hidden danger of touchscreens: Smartphones, tablets, and now touchscreen PCs all can lead to stress-related injuries of your hands, arms, back, and eyes -- unless you use them right ..."

We all know about the dangers of using mobile devices when driving; but do you know of The Hidden Dangers of Touchscreens? As these devices become even more popular the physical strain of using touchscreens will become evident with damage to finger and wrist joints and eyestrain.

Cold Calls

2012-01-10T17:00:00+01:00

"I pity the vendor who wastes my time. But if you try to dodge all of those sales phone calls and emails, you're missing an opportunity ..."

Sales people sometimes look like sharks circling around a potential target; on the other hand sales people have valuable information�sometimes. The trick is sorting the wheat from the chaff. Here are "Four Tips to Get More From IT Vendor Salespeople". Sales people can consume all your time if you don't control the process; by not interacting with sales people you run the risk of missing an important emerging technology.

Only the Faces Change

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

"Three Trends Driving Data Security Strategies in 2012: In 2012, businesses must align data security with customer value ..."

The security problems we faced last year are still here but with different focuses. There "Three Trends Driving Data Security Strategies in 2012" are the same ones that have always been around: data protection, compliance, audit, etc. but the areas that are affected are changing.

Nexenta Trashes Win8 Storage Spaces

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

Microsoft's Storage Spaces may well be fine for storing family photos and other personal memorabilia but as an enterprise storage tool? Not so much, contends Nexenta CEO Evan Powell in The Register article by Chris Mellor, noting the absence of such features as double and triple parity RAID, the ability to snapshot and replicate data, and the cryptographic-strength 256 bit checksums of ZFS-based solutions found in NexentaStor, which provide end-to-end data integrity. In addition, Powell points out the 16 Terabyte (16 TB) limit in the capacity of Storage Spaces. "It just isn't enterprise class," Powell asserts.

Java Spotlight Episode 64: NetBeans 7.1 Release

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

Geertjan Wielenga, Principal Product Manger in Oracle Developer Tools for NetBeans, is the guest on Episode 64 of the Java Spotlight podcast in a discussion of the NetBeans 7.1 release. NetBeans IDE 7.1 introduces support for JavaFX 2.0 by enabling the full compile/debug/profile development cycle for JavaFX 2.0 applications. The release also provides significant Swing GUI Builder enhancements, CSS3 support, and tools for visual debugging of Swing and JavaFX user interfaces. Additional highlights include Git support integrated into the IDE, new PHP debugging features, various JavaEE and Maven improvements, and more.

New SPARC T4-Based Carrier-Grade Servers Deliver 5x Performance Boost

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle's new single processor Netra SPARC T4-1 and dual processor SPARC T4-2 servers, and the Netra SPARC T4-1B server module, give telecommunication service providers infrastructure built to meet the needs of today's market. These servers provide up to 5x better performance over the previous generation of servers. In recent tests running Oracle Communications ASAP on the new Netra SPARC T4-2 server, each SPARC T4 processor delivered 7.7x the performance of the Intel Itanium 1.7 GHz processor in an HP server. Combined with Oracle Solaris, these new Netra systems can reduce TCO and drastically shorten service development and deployment times.

MySQL Enterprise Edition Produces 65% Cost Cuts at Globo.com

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

Using MySQL Enterprise Edition Globo.com improved the performance and scalability of its web portal while improving flexibility and reducing costs by 65%. Globo.com set up a copy of MySQL Workbench in DBA's computers, ensuring autonomy for data modeling. The company also adopted a decentralized server architecture, freeing the IT team from its previous efforts at balancing network load. This structure enabled Globo.com to accommodate large traffic spikes without compromising site performance, such as 9.8 million Web visits and 31.5 million page views in one day during the 2010 World Cup.

Oracle Security Inside Out Dramatizes Data Security Issues

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

A recent Independent Oracle Users Group Data Security Survey found 60% expect the likelihood of a data breach or at least are not sure what to expect over the next 12 months. Oracle's Security Inside Out site has posted a video on data security that illustrates the different ways organizations are susceptible to security breaches that Oracle can help mitigate. The video features actors portraying an oil company CEO and an Eastern Block exfiltrator in a scenario suggesting that major infiltrations are easier than one might assume. Oracle Audit Vault is offered as a safeguard against such damage.

Ops Center 11g Update 3 Is Released

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

An 8:40 minute video by Alain Geenrits concerns the new update for Ops Center 11g which has been released with a number of improvements, most notably SPARC T4 processor support. The update to the enterprise controller and proxy appears in the available downloads in the user interface, or can be downloaded shortly at edelivery.oracle.com. An updated readme file covers all changes and installation instructions. A webcast on Thursday, December 22 reviewed the key enhancements in Update 3. The webcast also covered download and upgrade instructions.

Making Peace with Marketing

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

"IT and marketing too often work at cross purposes. Here's how to end bad behavior and drive more revenue ..."

Why do companies suffer from infighting between departments when everyone is supposed to be on the same side? A couple of the most common battle are Sales vs. Accounting and IT vs. Marketing. Here are "5 Rules to Help CIOs and CMOs Be Smart Partners". Number 2 is a no brainer that is rarely implemented.

Innocent Looking Storage

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

"Managing storage continues to be one of the most significant challenges for email management, but the right tools can change this from a daily headache to an easy win ..."

Email can be one of the more storage consuming applications that IT has to contend with every day. Here are "6 Reason to Enforce Email Monitoring"; of course if you have lots of footprint, lots of power, plenty of staff and the budget to keep buying LOTS of disk you don't really have to read this.

A Sign of Future Announcements

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

"Seagate and Western Digital are cutting hard drive warranties from five years to one in some cases ..."

Seagate and Western Digital "Slash Hard Drive Warranties" from five years to one for popular PC drives. Other drives were cut from three year to two. Could enterprise drives face warranty cuts that will have to be passed on to users in terms of higher maintenance fees and shortened system warranties?

Is Planning an Important Function

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

"A culture of planning has many facets. One of those facets is how the organization views and executes the task of planning ..."

Many companies address disaster recovery planning based on what has happened in the past; much to their dismay when the unexpected happens. Companies need to develop "A Culture of Planning" in order to effectively account for all possibilities. These 10 characteristics of a planning culture will help you decide if the shoe fits.

Analyzing Interrupt Activity with DTrace

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

Interrupts are events delivered to CPUs, usually by external devices and can cause performance and observability problems for applications. Tim Cook's post explains the use of DTrace in identifying the source of interrupts and solving the performance problems caused when an interrupt "steals" a CPU from an application thread, halting its process while the interrupt is serviced. Cook calls this pinning (the interrupt will pin an application thread if the interrupt was delivered to a CPU on which an application was executing at the time). Cook cites several DTrace scripts to use in assessing the effects of pinning.

Gartner Names Oracle ATG in Leaders Quadrant for E-Commerce

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle ATG Web Commerce Suite, a comprehensive and scalable commerce software platform, aids enterprises in the delivery of a personalized customer buying experience across multiple customer touchpoints, including the web, contact center, mobile devices, social media, and physical stores. Gartner has named the solution to its Leaders Quadrant in the 2011 Magic Quadrant for E-commerce. Technology providers in the Leaders Quadrant are recognized for demonstrating an optimal blend of insight, innovation, execution in their corporate vision.

Java Spotlight Episode 63: JavaME Network APIs

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

In Episode 63 of the Java Spotlight Alok Patel shares his expertise on the new Java Network APIs. Patel is Principal Product Manager with the Java Mobile team. The Network API is a set of APIs provided by network operators to enable client/server access to such major cellular network functionality as messaging, location, and payment. The Network API requires only the basic functionality of the mobile terminal, allowing for wide deployment in emerging markets such as BRICA. MIDlets on lower-end phones, hybrid applications on powerful feature phones can all use Network API.

Oracle Database Firewall Extended to Support MySQL

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

Several important new features are included in the latest release of Oracle Database Firewsall. Among them is protection against data breaches extended to MySQL databases. In addition, there are now various reporting capabilities that include 10 new out-of-the-box reports to further help organizations comply with privacy and regulatory mandates, and a new reporting infrastructure for running and modifying the layout of existing reports. Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher customers will now be able to take advantage of all capabilities offered for authoring, managing, and delivering highly formatted documents that can be designed using familiar desktop products.

More Information

When Build Out is Not An Option

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

"How to grow your data center with colocation: Some enterprises find it's quicker and a lot less expensive than building your own facility ..."

For a variety of reasons, location, power, zoning, networks, cost, etc. you may not be able to build a new data center. Here's "How to Grow Your Data Center With Colocation". The process is not without issues and problems but if you do your homework, understand your requirements and read the contract with a fine tooth comb the results could be pleasing to management and users.

Hope for the Best; Plan for the Worst

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

"How to move a data center without having a heart attack: Before the event, consider everything that can go wrong, make contingency plans, exploit opportunities to upgrade, and label everything ..."

Any move requires planning, planning and more planning coupled with hard work, good staff and crossed fingers. Here are some tips on "How To Move a Data Center Without Having a Heart Attack". Did we mention that planning is a key part of the process?

A Voice of Reason for Security

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

"Surveys show IT's unfounded mobile security fears. In their attempts to scare enterprises, security companies have failed to produce any smoking guns ..."

BYOD security is the talk of the C-Level based on what's being reported. Recent Surveys Show IT's Unfounded Mobile Security Fears to be more self serving by vendors that reality indicates. There are problems no doubt with all devices including BYOD's, but the sky is not falling just because vendors point out one acorn.

Eight Things You Should Never Say In a Job Interview

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

"'Hiring for Attitude' is a book intended for recruiters, but in its pages author Mark Murphy reveals the game within the game that applicants need to understand to make the best possible impression in an interview ..."

Sooner or later everyone goes on an interview; even if you with your existing company forever. The opportunity to make a good or bad impression usually occurs during a memory lapse; here are "Eight Things You Should Never Say In a Job Interview". Is this a complete list? No, but you get the idea. Take the time to understand your strengths and weaknesses and the company you are talking with and always be on your a game.

2012 Virtualization Review Reader's Choice Awards

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

Virtualization Review has published its 2012 Readers' Choice Award and Buyers' Guide. A number of Oracle solutions appear in several categories. Each category has an overall winner, a preferred product plus a new category, ISV winner, created to highlight some of the smaller vendors who are cranking out really cool and innovative products. There is a link to a PDF that includes the complete 2012 Comprehensive Buyers' Guide.

Automated Diagnosis for Sun SPARC Servers Offered by My Oracle Support

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle Sun SPARC T-Series servers now feature automated diagnosis as part of the My Oracle Support services. Users are strongly urged to upload an Oracle Explorer when asked in the Service Request (SR) creation process in My Oracle Support (MOS), which will allow the SR to be handled by Automated Diagnosis and speed up the service process significantly. By not uploading an Explorer during SR creation or shortly afterwards Service Requests will follow the normal process. Automated Diagnosis will not be used on P1 Service requests or Accounts that have special handling instructions.

Anatomizing an Oracle Solaris Binary File

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

When application object files and executable binary files become unhandily large, it is helpful to be able to see inside such files. In order to do that it is necessary to know what tools are called for in such an inquiry and which parts can be reduced in size. In her oracle.com/technetwork post Miriam Blatt discusses these issues, reviewing the contents of binaries and the tools that are available to read, extract and delete sections. She concludes with a discussion of the effect on binary file size of compiler flags and how to reduce the size of the executable.

The Oracle Big Data Appliance

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle has announced the availability of Oracle Big Data Appliance, an engineered system of hardware and software that incorporates Cloudera's Distribution, Including Apache Hadoop with Cloudera Manager, plus an open source distribution of R. Big Data Appliance, which runs on Oracle Linux, also features Oracle NoSQL Database Community Edition and Oracle HotSpot Java Virtual Machine. In addition, Oracle simultaneously announced the availability of Oracle Big Data Connectors, a software product that helps customers easily integrate data stored in Hadoop and Oracle NoSQL Database with Oracle Database 11g. This system scales by connecting multiple racks together via an InfiniBand network.

How to Use Oracle Solaris 11 Network Virtualization and Resource Management

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

Users can now monitor, control, guarantee, and reconfigure network infrastructure to provide applications with the required data connections using Oracle Solaris 11 Network Virtualization and Resource Management. Duncan Hardie's post on Oracle tech network showing how to apply bandwidth limits to both data links and user-defined flows to manage network traffic. Hardie also shows how data link bandwidth limits all traffic through that data link, whereas bandwidth limits applied to flows can be based on network packet characteristics. These technologies allow users to create a flexible and controlled environment to meet all their network resource management needs.

Activity of the ZFS Adaptive Replacement Cache

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

Using the statistics generated by kstat and the tracings derived from DTrace, Brendan Gregg examines ZFS Adaptive Replacement Cache (ARC) activity in detail. In addition to calculating hit and miss rates, Gregg discusses other statistics including prefetch and metadata ratios, then writes about using tracing to observe information from the ARC - including who is using the ARC and why, ARC buffer sizes, the age of the ARC buffers, lock contention timings and eviction details. He points out that more can be traced as needed: ZFS with DTrace provides great performance and observability.

Still the Best Solution

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

"Some think it is past time to retire passwords, for what they say is the obvious reason: They don't protect users, since they are so easily hacked ..."

There is a lot of talk about killing off the use of passwords in favor of two factor authentication, biometrics, etc. The problem isn't the passwords per se but there use and administration. So "Passwords Aren't Dead, Though Maybe Yours Should Be" takes a look at what makes a formidable barrier to the bad guys looking for a chink in the armor.

No End in Sight for Data Growth

2012-01-09T17:00:00+01:00

"Data Storage: Storage Management: 10 Business Factors That Will Impact IT Pros in 2012 ..."

Along with this exponential data growth at "10 Business Factors That Will Impact Storage Pros In 2012" and all of them are related to storage. The big issues will be cost, budgets and staff. Same problems as the past, the data growth just adds fuel to the fire.

Standing on the Shoulders

2012-01-07T17:00:00+01:00

"Along with Steve Jobs and Dennis Ritchie, 2011 marked the passing of many computer visionaries and technology pioneers. The computing industry came of age in the 1950s, and many of the individuals who laid the groundwork for modern computing, smart electronics and the Internet are now in their 80s ..."

We often hear that we stand on the shoulders of giants. Here are some giants whose life worked touched each of us in various ways. "In Memoriam: 17 Tech Pioneers Who Died in 2011" and left a legacy of innovations, leadership and inspiration.

Start the Year Right

2012-01-06T17:00:00+01:00

"Segmenting, hardening, encrypting, insuring, and planning -- a few good New Year's resolutions for database administrators ..."

Database security is a never ending battle, you have to right 100% of the time, the bad guys only have to be right once. These "7 Housekeeping Duties for Better Database Security in 2012" won't guarantee success but will let you sleep a little better knowing a few more holes have been covered.

Large Need, Small Pipes

2012-01-06T17:00:00+01:00

"InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) CIO Tom Conophy has no reservations when it comes to the cloud. The hospitality giant, which manages, franchises or leases 4,500 hotels in 100 countries, has been able to improve the customer experience and reduce costs by moving storage and in-house applications for mobile phones to multiple data centers in the cloud ..."

Everyone is jumping on the Cloud bandwagon with one exception; network gurus. The know that "Bandwidth Bottlenecks Loom Large in the Cloud" and there is no easy answer. Before you sign on the bottom line make sure you test the apps and storage with a senior network persona close by.

The Year of the SSD?

2012-01-06T17:00:00+01:00

"It's seen major new and maturing products and technologies, big-time venture capital funding, and catch-up efforts by major storage vendors shoehorning fast SSD into array architectures designed for much slower disks ..."

The pundits are again citing the up coming year as the breakout year for SSD; unfortunately that line has been used for the last 10 years. There is no doubt that the pricing for SSD is coming down but enough to justify 100% SSD shops? I have doubts that SSD will mean the "End of High-End HDD Storage", just like HDD has never completely replaced tape.

2012 Predictions

2012-01-06T17:00:00+01:00

"2012 will bring the whole concept of the data center into a new light. Continue on, and see some of the ways this will happen in the coming year ...

Looking into the future is always fun if not accurate; but then so is life. These "10 Data Center Predictions for 2012" are well rounded and touch on all aspects of a data center. What's interesting is that centralized may be out and distributed may be the new focus. As they say everything old becomes new again.

5 reasons it will be hard for Microsoft "win" the future desktop/tablet/Win8 race

2012-01-06T17:00:00+01:00

Brian Madden is an opinionated, super technical, fiercely-independent desktop virtualization expert. He's written several books and almost 2,000 articles about desktop and application virtualization.

In a recent blog, he provides 5 reasons when he believes it will be hard for Microsoft to win the future.

Madden say can boil them down to five core areas:

1. Microsoft's platform dominance is based on apps and OSes installed onto desktop computers

2. Microsoft's core money making products are for devices with large screens, real keyboards, and precision pointing devices

3. Microsoft has to make money selling the OS and apps, and their device makers have to make money selling devices

4. Microsoft is not a "tech titan" anymore

5. Microsoft is way behind

Where will this all end up? Will Microsoft get it together? Who knows?

Check out the comments on his blog.

Illumos User Group Meetup - Menlo Park, Tuesday, January 10, 2012, 7:00 PM

2012-01-06T17:00:00+01:00

There is now a Meetup.com group dedicated to Illumos.

The next Meetup event will take place on Jan 10th event at the offices of Delphix. The Meeting Topic is, "ZFS is ten years old!"

A live video stream of the Meetup will be here.

Matt Ahrens of the ZFS Working Group will talk about what's new and what's coming in ZFS, with time for discussion about other topics of interest to the community. Pizza and beer (and soft drinks) will be provided.

For future meetings (after this one) we'll trade locations between Delphix's Menlo Park office and Joyent's San Francisco office, to spread the commute burden. Frequency of meetings TBD.

Illumos is a fully open community project to develop a reliable and scalable operating system. It began as a fork of the former OpenSolaris operating system.

Sponsors of the Illumos project include Joyent, Nexenta, OpenIndiana", box.com and Delphix.

Deploying a Java EE 6 Application Using WebLogic 12c, NetBeans, and MySQL

2012-01-06T17:00:00+01:00

In his 27 minute video on Java EE 6 Using WebLogic 12c, NetBeans, and MySQL Arun Gupta shows how to develop and deploy a Java EE 6 application on WebLogic 12c using NetBeans. It builds a simple application using Java Persistence API 2.0, Enterprise JavaBeans 3.1, Servlets 3.0, Java API for RESTful Web Services 1.1, Java Server Faces 2.0, and Contexts & Dependency Injection 1.0. The video also explains how to configure MySQL database in NetBeans and use it for accessing the database tables in the Java EE 6 applications.

Migrating to the Cloud: Oracle Client/Server Modernization

2012-01-06T17:00:00+01:00

The responsible parties in any company planning on a database migration, desktop application migration, or that has IT infrastructure consolidation projects, will find the information in "Migrating to the Cloud", the new book by Tom Laszewski and Prakash Nauduri, a useful guide. The book, which focuses on Oracle grid relational database technology and Oracle Fusion Middleware, provides recommendations on tools, strategy and best practices and serves as a guide as an enterprise plans, determines effort and budget, designs, executes and rolls its modern Oracle system out to production.

Oracle On-line Analytic Processing (OLAP) - Exadata Performance Demonstration White Paper

2012-01-06T17:00:00+01:00

"Oracle OLAP Exadata X2-2 Performance Demonstration," an Oracle white paper, describes a performance demonstration of the OLAP Option (On-line Analytical Processing) to the Oracle Database running on an X2-2 Exadata Database Machine half rack. With a community of 50 users and each user querying the database non-stop (without waits between queries), median query times ranged from .03 to .58 seconds, and average query times ranged from .26 to 2.32 seconds, while 95 percent of queries returned in 1.5 to 5.5 seconds, depending on the type of query.

When Less Is Better For the Bottom Line

2012-01-06T17:00:00+01:00

"As CIO one of your most important jobs is to get as much out of your IT department as is humanly possible. You'd think that that best way to do this would be to always be pushing harder and harder ..."

To say that speed in IT ranks high would be an understatement. A recent study has shown "How Going Slow Can Be Very Good for An IT Department". The insight boils down to doing things right or doing the right things; guess which proves to be a better investment of time and resources.

IT�s Not Them, It's You

2012-01-06T17:00:00+01:00

"Non-competitive pay is the main reason for high turnover rates among IT pros in their 20s and early 30s. That's the consensus from dozens of comments posted on Network World's Web site in response to an article published over the holidays ..."

All companies face turnover, typically the lower the turnover the better the company and vice versa. CIO's are complaining about the lack of loyalty from "IT staff and IT Pros Lament: Low Pay, No Perks". People don't change jobs for just money, but if things like respect, advancement, training, decent hours, tools, etc. aren't there then guess what, they leave at the first chance. Take a look in the mirror if your staff has a bunch of new faces every year.

Start the Year Right

2012-01-06T17:00:00+01:00

"As organizations gear up for a new year, now is the perfect time to look at processes and technologies and reassess how well they really are mitigating risks ..."

Database security is a never ending battle, you have to right 100% of the time, the bad guys only have to be right once. These 7 Housekeeping Duties for Better Database Security in 2012 won't guarantee success but will let you sleep a little better knowing a few more holes have been covered.

Making Storage Life Easier

2012-01-06T17:00:00+01:00

"Virtualized storage is growing more and more common in the IT industry. Companies are inding new and creative ways to save storage space or at least eficiently utilize the space they have available ..."

Much like what virtualization has done for servers, storage will be the next recipient of the technology; but not without bumps. Here are some tips on how to "Overcome Storage Virtualization Challenges" and come out with you sanity and the respect of your peers.

Avoiding Damage with BYOD

2012-01-06T17:00:00+01:00

"Enterprises have an increasingly difficult challenge as users bring their own devices -- and continue to lose laptops -- and as portable storage becomes even cheaper and more common ..."

Regardless of you policy employees are going to store sensitive data on their laptops and personal devices. Your job in "Managing Mobile Mayhem" is to make sure that all bring your own devices are encrypted and/or can be wiped quickly; and there's the rub.

IPv6 by the End of the Year

2012-01-06T17:00:00+01:00

"Next year (2012) will see one more regional Internet registry run out of IPv4 addresses, but 2012 will be more of a year to prepare for the inevitable shift to IPv6 than an Internet doomsday, according to networking experts ..."

There's no getting around facts regardless of the time spent looking for another answer; IPv6 will become the standard sooner or later. The experts are saying that "IPv6 Doomsday Won't Hit in 2012"; take heed, they didn't say never, they just said not this year. Bottom line is that you need to get your IPv6 act together.

Things to Research for 2012

2012-01-06T17:00:00+01:00

"There are a variety of new technologies advancing in 2012 that you should investigate, if you aren't already doing so, to give your small business a leg up on the competition ..."

Every company these days seems to have a smaller, better, faster, cheaper, safer solutions to whatever problem you have. If the solution falls into one of these "Tech That Should Be On Your" Company's Radar for 2012 you may want to invest some additional time to determine if the shoe fits.

Watson Gets a Job

2012-01-06T17:00:00+01:00

"IBM's Watson supercomputer is about to begin work evaluating evidence-based cancer treatment options that can be delivered to the physician in a matter of seconds for assessment ..."

The first real job is announced as IBM's [url "Watson Shows Up for Work at Cedars-Sinai Cancer Center". The health field is perfect for Watson as data changes often across so many fronts that medical providers can not keep up. There is a help at hand from the offspring of the Jeopardy! Champion.

EOL for RAID

2012-01-06T17:00:00+01:00

"Recent developments point to a change in how we protect the loss of a data element on a failed disk ..."

RAID has been the lynchpin of data protection at the physical level for over 20 years' the problem is TB drives and rebuild times. Now users and vendors are asking about [url "Life After RAID"; Randy Kern introduces erasure codes that offer protection as well as reduced build times.

Nothing is Off the Record

2012-01-06T17:00:00+01:00

"Social networks are a veritable minefield for professionals these days. Saying the right thing on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and other social platforms requires thought and finesse. Saying the wrong thing is all too easy. And don't be fooled into thinking that what gets shared in your circle stays in your circle ..."

Many times we have something to say to the world and our handy smart phone fills the bill nicely to do just that. Before you starting typing review these "10 Social Networking Posts That Sink Careers"; if you still think what you have to say is important wait a couple of days and do a reality check.

Oracle Announces Release of NetBeans IDE 7.1

2012-01-05T17:00:00+01:00

With the release of the free, open source NetBeans IDE 7.1 there is now an IDE that supports JavaFX 2.0 and JDK 7, available for Oracle Solaris, Oracle Linux, other Linux distributions, Mac and Windows. Support for Java EE includes cluster and instance deployment support for GlassFish Server; 50+ CDI support enhancements in the Java editor; and JSF component suite supporting improvements in Java Persistence, Web Services, EJB; and support for Oracle WebLogic Server 12c. NetBeans platform enhancements include Windows system APIs and support for multiple window layouts; enhanced TopComponentGroup behavior; visual window layout designer; and pluggable multiview components.

2011 International Magnetic Tape Storage Applications & Systems Roadmap

2012-01-03T17:00:00+01:00

The 2011 INSIC Magnetic Tape Applications & Systems Roadmap, released on November 30, 2011, is available for download.

The new Applications & Systems Roadmap is the culmination of a yearlong effort, led by INSIC's Barry Schechtman (Executive Director Emeritus and Technical Director for INSIC's TAPE Research Program) and which involved the participation of representatives of Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Imation, Oracle, Quantum, Spectra Logic and Symantec, as well as key inputs from industry analysts and applications experts in various fields.

The final report is balanced and credible, and delivers an optimistic outlook for tape storage going forward. However, INSIC also believe that this optimistic outlook will be fulfilled only if the tape storage industry continues to invest in the research and advanced development necessary to provide the future technologies that are needed.

Java ME Regains Ground as O/S Platform for Mobile

2012-01-02T17:00:00+01:00

Net Applications analysts posted results of their findings on OS net usage share in November 2011 which revealed Apple's iOS dropping seven points and Android two points. These losses contrasted with a hike in usage by Java ME 2, which captured a 20% usage share for the same period. RIM's Blackberry and Symbian also showed slight gains while Microsoft's Windows Phone platform trailed the pack with less than one percent.

Igloo Enjoys Cool Implementation with Oracle Sun SPARC T-Series Servers

2012-01-02T17:00:00+01:00

Igloo Products Corporation, the world's #1 cooler manufacturer, has migrated its legacy IBM mainframe IT infrastructure to Oracle's Sun SPARC servers and Oracle software in a move that is anticipated to deliver 169% ROI in three years and a break-even point in the first year. Igloo has consolidated its operations on two Sun SPARC Enterprise T-Series servers -- the Sun SPARC Enterprise T5140 and T5240 -- in a virtualized system employing Oracle Solaris Containers. Igloo has determined that it can reduce its former monthly hosting fees by half now that it uses 66% fewer servers and 83% fewer CPUs.

GlassFish Open Source and Commercial Editions

2012-01-02T17:00:00+01:00

The differences between the GlassFish open source and commercial editions are examined in Arun Gupta's blog, where he notes that the GlassFish Server Open Source Edition provides a full Java EE 6 compliant, is free, and an open source application server. The Oracle GlassFish Server is Oracle's commercially supported GlassFish Server distribution and constitutes a suite of features that improve performance, allow automatic backup of configuration and application data, enable fine-grained monitoring, and enable more secure and highly available production deployments. Customers also get 24 x 7 support, priority for their bug fixes and patches/hot fixes for them.

Top Five Business Continuity Issues for 2012

2012-01-02T17:00:00+01:00

Among the five trends in business continuity during 2012 that David Honour, Editor of Continuity Central has identified are these:

More resources will be moved toward resilience and away from reactive business continuity measures

Information security will increasingly be recognized as a major business continuity issue

Expect disruptive changes in the area of standards as BS 25999 is withdrawn and ISO 22301 issued.

Cloud computing will continue to be a disruptive force.

The 2012 Olympics could bring with it serious logistical and transportation complications.

Read on for details.

Are Auto Backups Safe

2012-01-02T17:00:00+01:00

"Previously I've warned about the way some off-site backup companies and their automated software work. Simply put, if you delete a file by accident, many companies will delete their off-site backup of the file 30 days later ..."

The answer is probably but like a loaded gun, there is always the potential for serious problems. Take a minute to think over "The Down Side of Automated Backups" to consider the consequences of malicious activities on files and other nefarious acts that may be going on announced or unannounced.

Oracle Storage Eye charts

2012-01-02T17:00:00+01:00

Steve Tunstall had made available version 10 of his product summary document which he refers to as his Storage Eye Chart.

Oracle Storage ZFSSA "7000" Family
Tape Drives and Libraries
Mid-level to Enterprise Modular Disk Storage (2500M2 and Oracle's Pillar Axiom 600)
Oracle Flash and SSD

Version 10 adds the Axiom and 2500M2 to a new page and also updates the ZFSSA with the new updates.

The Definitive Guide to NetBeans Platform 7

2012-01-02T17:00:00+01:00

Heiko Boeck's new book The Definitive Guide to NetBeans Platform 7 has caught Geertjan Wielenga's attention, which is reflected in his post that lists the book's entire table of contents. Boeck's publisher, Apress, says of the book that it " ... provides a completely updated definitive guide to the NetBeans Platform, using the latest APIs, coding patterns, and methodologies. Focuses strongly on business features in an application, since Oracle's customers are particularly interested in business-related aspects. For example, how to use OSGi, how to add authentication/security, how to monetize from a modular application."

Which IO Option for Which Server?

2011-12-31T17:00:00+01:00

If you need to know which IO option cards are available for which server, there is now a new portal on wikis.oracle.com.

This wiki contains a full list of IO options, ordered by server, and maintained for all current systems. Also included is the number of cards supported on each system.

The same information, for all current as well as for all older models, is available in the "Systems Handbook", the ultimate answerbook for all hardware questions.

Oracle Virtual Desktop Client for iPad 1.1

2011-12-31T17:00:00+01:00

There is a new version of he Oracle Virtual Desktop Client (OVDC) for iPad in the iPad App Store. With OVDC for iPad you can connect from the iPad to your hosted virtual desktop in the data-center infrastructure. See my blog article OVDC for iPad in action with an explanation and sample use-cases.

The improvements in the new release:

External Keyboard Support
Improved On-Screen Keyboard Language Support
New on-screen button icons
iPad Settings
New Gesture

With OVDC for iPad you can connect from the iPad to your hosted virtual desktop in the data-center infrastructure. See the blog article "OVDC for iPad in action" with an explanation and sample use-cases.

Java Spotlight Episode 61: Jim Weaver, Java Champion, on Java FX 2.0

2011-12-31T17:00:00+01:00

Episode 61 of Java Spotlight features Jim Weaver an independent Java and JavaFX developer, author, and speaker with a passion for helping rich-client Java and JavaFX become preferred technologies for new application development.

Conservative is the Keyword

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"In the last few years we've seen advances in storage technology that have tremendous potential for IT customers. Some of these are enabled by investments made in developing flash solid-state drive (SSD) technology and adapting it to enterprise storage systems ..."

Go back to the early days of RAID and you find lots of pushback from the storage admins and upper management. "Storage Technology Adoption Is A Slow Process", the problem is that storage technology is not. These two conflicting points can cause a serious delay in adoption, especially these days in determining the value of data.

Simplifying Complexity

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"Wouldn't it be great if you could focus on supporting critical business initiatives instead of just keeping the lights on? ..."

The IT environment is getting so complex that staying on top is a losing battle. Today's airliners are a paragon of automation, letting pilots focus on what's important. The same is true for data centers; here are "10 Ways to Automate the Mundane". Take a look at the comments, especially Tip 11 espousing practicality and common sense when looking at any global project.

Views Into the Morass

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"... some high-quality network management tools based on open source and available at little or no cost ..."

Morass may be too strong of a word, but complicated and confusing may fit. With decreasing resources available for a growing list of problems across the board; here are "26 Helpful Open Source Network Management Tools" for little or no cost. If only one bears fruit you are way ahead.

The Hallmark of Greatness � Steve Jobs

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"As I sat stunned by the news that Apple Chairman Steve Jobs -- technology visionary, founder of two computer companies and master marketer -- had died, I couldn't help but think about his life and career, both at Apple and during his time away at NeXT and Pixar ..."

The footprints someone leaves behind if often a key into the person. Such is the case in "Lessons From Steve Jobs". Here was man that made footsteps in the world that won't be soon forgotten if ever. The world has lost one of the true great innovators and leaders.

Staying Off the Pink List

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"Unemployment is hovering around 4% compared to a national unemployment average of about 9% across all industries. Nonetheless, job security still feels elusive for many ..."

Rumors of layoffs, downsizing, rightsizing or whatever the name-du-jour is these days, getting laid off, fired and let go is painful. Keeping you job is tough and these "5 Ways for IT Pros to Become Indispensable" will give you a leg up on staying off THE LIST.

Don't Do the Cloud To Save Money

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"Cloud computing is often sold as a way for companies to cut their tech bill by only paying for the IT they use ..."

Moving to the cloud just to reduce expenses is an ROI that will bite you. If you "Think Cloud Computing Will Save You Money? Forget It" is an interesting article that comes from a senior CIO that looks at the cloud, mobile devices and social media. Interesting thoughts on all three.

Delivering vs. Promises

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"Can you depend on the cloud to be reliable, available and secure? Probably not if you are depending on the public internet to deliver your services ..."

All to often providers of any service, shall we say, embellish their products just a tad�OK, a lot. The Cloud is no different and for the success "Cloud Computing Needs Better Quality Assurance" in the areas of availability, performance and security. When these three are up to par, the Cloud will truly be Enterprise ready.

Must Haves for Security Effectiveness

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"The ideal information security environment is different depending on who you talk to. Your typical security engineer may say it must have firewalls, intrusion detection or any number of security focused technologies ..."

Security is like herding cats, no matter what you do; one of those little creatures seems to always be a step ahead. Understanding the "10 Security Essentials for the Networked Enterprise" will go along way in making sure that you've got the obvious holes covered. Remember, the bad guys are just bad, not stupid.

Coding Problems

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"Coding and system modification strategies can weaken your cloud apps over time, so keep these steps in mind to keep your code functioning"

Putting applications into the cloud could be an issue if you don't pay attention to the details. Here are 16 tips on "How to Head Off Coding Errors in the Cloud". The proof of the pudding is in the details, miss one and big trouble may lie ahead.

Batter Up for Big Data

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"With big data being hyped as the next big strategic initiative for business, it's time for IT to lay the groundwork ..."

There's good news and bad news on the horizon for big data; The good news is that the C Levels are starting to hear about big data; the bad news is that the C Level is hearing about big data. Here are "5 Things You Should Do Now" to get ready for the impact of big data on the data center and to have answers ready when the question comes down from above.

The Winds of Change

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"Gartner analyst Ken McGee has a radical assessment of IT and what CIOs need to do about. Read his principles of the 'new CIO manifesto.' ... "

IT is no longer a bastion of skills sets that supports the business, IT must become an enable of business strategies. To that end, one Gartner analyst has "15 IT Best Practices to Kill" in order to facilitate this change. Some of these have been around a long time and will meet resistance; never the less, changes are afoot.

The Cloud Turns into Thunderstorms

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"Google App Engine's price hikes and VMforce's quiet death give enterprise cloud developers and CIOs reasons to tread carefully ..."

The recent price increase from Google indicate that uncertainty about cloud pricing may put a damper on activity. We use the word 'may'' so you can "Beware The Bait and Switch in the Public Cloud". Again as we have often stated, forewarned is forearmed.

Is IPv6 a Pandora�s Box?

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"We definitely see these attacks, we just can't say where we are seeing them -- Lisa Donnan, who leads Salient's Cyber Security Center of Excellence ..."

Like any technology IPv6 has many good points but there are also some chinks in the armor that the bad guys will exploit. The "Scariest IPv6 Attack Scenarios" are just the tip of the iceberg and as more companies implement IPv6 other scenarios are sure to appear.

IT Leaders are Made Not Born

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"Leading an IT organization is one of the toughest jobs in the world. Responsibilities are complex, most executives consider it a necessary evil, and everyone in it knows more than you do ..."

No one is born a leader, maybe rich, smart or good looking but not a leader, that's a learned skill. Our good friend Bob Lewis gives insight with The "8 Essential Habits of Highly Effective IT Leaders". If you are like me you quickly realize that these skills are not relegated to IT.

FUD As a Selling Tool to Executives

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"Nick Johnson, CBCP, discusses the pros and cons of using a 'fear-based' approach to getting business continuity buy-in. ..."

Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) is a powerful tool in selling an idea. The problem is that we need to ask "Are We Fear-Mongers? Business Continuity and the Boy Who Cried Wolf" looks at using fear judiciously when present BC concepts, solutions, and results.

Security Actions Speak Louder Than Words

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"There's been no shortage of high-profile and damaging data breaches in the past year. And the targets are widely varied-they include security firms RSA Security and HBGary Federal, defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, entertainment giant Sony ..."

In a recent study of 9,600 companies, 43% of respondents indicated they were security leaders. Something is wrong as indicated by the number of breaches, data loss etc. over the past year. The question then becomes "Are CIOs Too Cocky About Security?" The answer is three fold, they don't understand the nature of the problem, they don't care or there are other items on the list with higher priority.

The Ultimate I/O Solutions Going Slowly

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"So if converging the I/O infrastructure in data centers is all the rage, what's taking IT shops so long to do it? ..."

Can you imagine one connection through which all the I/O passes? These "Six Factors Slowing Adoption of Converged I/O" will get addressed but the process is expensive and time consuming. Ethernet is the backbone of the entire process and that the old saying of you can have Ethernet fast, functional or cheap but you get to have two of the three at any one time.

Bad to Worse in 9 Steps

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"Spend enough time in the tech industry, and you'll eventually find yourself in IT hell -- one not unlike the underworld described by Dante in his 'Divine Comedy' ..."

We've all been there, that slippery slope in IT that no matter what you do, things get worse. The "Nine Circles of IT Hell" take us through the IT Inferno that we've all experienced in one way or another.

Decision Making

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

Being the leader in business is much like being a battlefield commander; decisions have to be made in the best interest of all and quickly. The CEO of OfficeMax, Michael Feuer, lists the qualities of The Benevolent Dictator: Keys to Successful Decision-Making with insights that do not make the title seem like an oxymoron.

In the Wake of Hurricane Irene

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"In the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, it's never too late to review and implement these business continuity best practices ..."

Hurricanes are unique from a DR standpoint; you get advance warning. Unfortunately there are companies that don't heed the warnings and suffer accordingly. Here are "10 Things you Should Do Today to Minimize the Impact of a Disaster". DR is not a one time knee jerk reaction; DR along with Business Continuity is an ongoing part of an effective IT strategy.

IPv6 Action Items

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"With the official exhaustion of IPv4 open-pool addresses in February, the long migration path to IPv6 has passed another important milestone ..."

With IPv4 addresses gone the option of moving to IPv6 is gather steam; albeit slower than expected. Here's "What You Need to Do Now" to get ready for IPv6. If you wait till the last minute everything will cost more, take more staff, take longer and the project will still be in trouble.

Fix Faulty Data At the Source

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

The rant in "Three Ways IT Can Fix Data Quality, Even if Business Users Won't" certainly hits home. So many companies are stuck in the past on data entry that errors are absolutely going to happen and get passed down the food chain. Lets fix the problem and the beginning of the food chain where the cost is minimal not at the end where the cost is enormous.

The Game Changes with BYOD

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"Progressive CIOs and their organizations can realize big benefits, but tread carefully ..."

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is not the panacea that most people outside of IT would lead us to believe. While there are some real benefits of employees bringing their own devices inside the henhouse there are risks. Is "Allowing Personal Devices At Work A Faustian Bargain?" Not if you take the suggestions at the end of the article as policy basics.

BYOD Consumeration Fears

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"Increasingly it is staff - and not the IT department - who are calling the shots when it comes to what technology they should use at work ... "

More and more companies are allowing their employees to Bring Their Own Devices to the office; like companies have a choice. Here are "Five Ways to Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway". This consumeration of IT is not going away and to fight the flow is a losing battle, so you might as well learn to live with them and secure your company as best as possible.

Risks Associated with BYOD

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"Mobile device management and a new spin on user awareness training are essential to the enterprise mobile explosion ..."

CISOs are caught between a rock and a hard place; letting BYOD run free or draconian measures to stop all BYODs. Either way will not work; nevertheless, "Smartphones Are the New Lost and Stolen Laptops of Data Breaches". CISOs need to become aware quickly of what options are available to protect the company and increase productivity of the users.

Do It Right Or Don�t Encrypt

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"Poor encryption deployments risk too much critical information within databases ..."

Protecting databases is critical and encryption is the right solution. Unfortunately, these "Five Worst Practices In Database Encryption" are far too common. Check how many your company is at fault.

Not Your Granddads� Data Center

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"Data centers are beginning to look quite different from the energy-guzzling, inflexible server farms of the past ..."

A person that hasn't visited a data center in the last five years would be confused at the "Extreme Makeover For Data Centers" that has occurred. Technologies such as Virtualization, going green and the cloud have really had an impact.

Social Media Risks Are Real

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"Enterprises are allowing employees to log onto social networks from the workplace, but they might be paying a price to offer the privilege ..."

52% of companies that allow employees to use social media at work have reported infections. The end result is that "Most Enterprises Face Increased Malware Risk" from Social Media and things are not going to get better. Social media couple with social engineering means that the bad guys are getting closer and closer to a mother lode of valuable information.

Be Aware of These Security Threats

2011-12-30T17:00:00+01:00

"Cloud security threats come in all shapes and sizes ... cloud security panelists believe that these threats can be addressed ..."

Security threats are in the eyes of the beholder, some real high priority and some not; gaining insight into the difference is extremely important. Eight "Experts Explain the Greatest Threats to Cloud Security" so that you might have a basis to prioritize the top threats from the lesser threats. Also remember that even a minor threat can become a major threat in your shop.

OpenStorage Summit Evokes Interest in Alternatives to Conventional Storage Technologies

2011-12-26T17:00:00+01:00

Reporting from the recent OpenStorage Summit, 451 Group analyst Dave Simpson notes a healthy degree of interest in open source alternatives to traditional storage systems. The economies that open source storage technologies such as Nexenta offer have apparently proven sufficiently compelling that Korea Telecom, for example, Asia's largest public cloud provider, has implemented those technologies and offers its services to customers at considerably reduced rates. Simpson also mentions new products from both Nexenta and Symantec, which have attracted considerable interest in the industry. These include NexentaStor 3.1.2 and Symantec's OpenStorage APIs.

Ten OpenStorage Predictions for 2012

2011-12-26T17:00:00+01:00

Nexenta's Evan Powell offers 10 open storage predictions for 2012 and, in a commendable mood of candor, grades himself on predictions for 2011. One A+ mark involves his prediction that growth and demand for storage capacity would be exponential. He sees the same for 2012. Powell offers his A+ view that hardware commoditization will play an ever bigger role and awards an A+ for the prediction that sales in the server channel will increase, as he expects them to do in 2012. One last A+, and that is for predicting that Nexenta is the fastest growing storage company ever.

Obituary for Java on Ubuntu Is Premature

2011-12-26T17:00:00+01:00

With the advent of OpenJDK as the reference implementation of Java 7, it was thought reasonable, if alarmist, to assume that Java as a part of Ubuntu was history. Not so, writes Simon Phipps in "Why Java Isn't Dead on Ubuntu." This is simply housekeeping, he assures panicked readers, not withdrawal by Oracle of support for Java in Ubuntu. The Distro License for Java (DLJ) -- which OpenJDK supplants -- was never more than a stop-gap measure, Phipps argues, instituted to promote Java adoption on Linux while the inevitable announcement of true open source Java was fermenting.

The Document Foundation

2011-12-26T17:00:00+01:00

The paragraph below from the Document Foundation Blog handily summarizes the year's achievements: "2011 was the year of our first stable release. ... Today, over 30 million people use LibreOffice in 109 languages, a software developed by 40 core developers and over 300 active developers plus 280 localizers. ... 230 of those developers are totally new, have never been contributing code to the free office suite before, and were attracted by our open, transparent, meritocratic and inclusive community. Over 16.000 mailing list subscribers are on our 100 mailing lists, and TDF now counts 138 members.

Asiana Airlines Improves Efficiency with Exadata Database Machine, Oracle Business Intelligence 11g

2011-12-26T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Business Intelligence 11g enable Asiana Airlines to perform just-in-time customer and revenue analysis. Asiana IDT, a subsidiary of Asiana Airlines and the airline's IT service provider, selected Oracle Exadata Database Machine to deploy a high-speed BIS integrating and processing more than 12TB of airline reservation, ticket issuance and shipping data from various operational systems. The integrated solution enabled Asiana Airlines to improve its business agility by speeding up data analysis processes from 10 hours to less than 10 minutes - a 60x improvement - and to reduce batch processing time by over five hours.

Oracle VM 3.0.3 Released to General Availability

2011-12-26T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle has announced the release to general availability of Oracle VM 3.0.3, including Oracle VM Server for x86 and Oracle VM Manager, delivering improved usability, manageability and security. Further details on the enhancements in this release are to be found in "What's New." Downloads of the software are available at Oracle Software Delivery Cloud, where users can select a Product Pack (Oracle VM) and Platform (x86 64-bit).

Oracle VM VirtualBox Version 4.1.8

2011-12-26T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.1.8 (a maintenance release) is out on the streets and ready for download. The issues that have been fixed are shown in the ChangeLog.

Oracle Solaris Binary Application Guarantee Extended to Solaris 11

2011-12-26T17:00:00+01:00

Applications developed on earlier releases of Oracle Solaris will run without difficulty on subsequent versions, enabling customers to purchase new systems or upgrade the OS on older systems without concern for investment protection. With the Oracle Solaris Binary Application Guarantee applications that run on an OS release of Oracle Solaris 2.6 or later, including their initial release and all updates, will run the latest releases of Oracle Solaris. Oracle offers an Preflight Application Checker tool for Solaris 11 that checks an application for compatibility with Oracle Solaris 11. The Oracle Solaris Guarantee Program is valid through December 31, 2013.

OTN Architect Day Presentations: Phoenix, AZ - December 14, 2011

2011-12-26T17:00:00+01:00

Presentations from OTN Architect Day Phoenix are on Slideshare:

Engineered Systems: Oracle's Vision for the Future with Ralf Dossmann
Cloud Computing Industry Trends and Directions with Ron Batra
Cloud Computing: Making IT Simple with Scott Mattoon
Innovations in Grid Computing with Oracle Coherence with Randy Stafford
Rationalization and Defense in Depth: Two Steps Closer to the Cloud with Dave Chappelle
Oracle Enterprise Manager with Adeesh Fulay
Oracle VM Consolidation and Path to the Cloud with Ronen Kofman
Oracle Cloud Reference Architecture with Anbu Krishnaswamy
21st Century SOA with Jeff Davies

A Stop-gap Measure for Archive Creation and Recovery in Oracle Solaris 11

2011-12-26T17:00:00+01:00

In the absence of a Flash Archive Installation (FLAR) in Oracle Solaris 11, jbutler draws readers' attention to a set of steps that can be utilized to create re-deployable archives of installed systems. FLAR, Butler writes, was initially meant to simplify patch deployment, a notably difficult process in patching a Solaris system. FLAR allows a system administrator to patch up a system and then create an archive of it, which can be used to install subsequent systems. One side effect of this is that a full archive of the given system is created, which can be utilized to restore the system in case of catastrophic failure. In this way, many admins have utilized FLAR as an element of their disaster recovery plan. The remedy Butler cites is "How to Perform System Archival and Recovery Procedures with Oracle Solaris 11." Butler describes this document as containing " ... a set of operations which can be scripted if required. Otherwise, the manual steps described therein may be utilized as a stop-gap until some of the functionality finds its way into Solaris 11."

The (Mobile) Sky is Falling

2011-12-25T17:00:00+01:00

"CSOs, IT security staff, and other risk managers by nature are supposed to be paranoid, to see risks everywhere. Not only are their glasses half empty, but they're likely hiding a tasteless, slow-acting poison. You want some of that in your organization to identify risks. But that paranoid thinking is inappropriate to decide the risks you act on ..."

Just like Chicken Little with a pessimistic view of the world, "Security Grinches' Misleading Scare Tactics" do the same, all smoke and no fire. Do not get sucked into the year end musings of vendors that have all sorts of horror stories about the impact of security failures. We know the risk and know where to look for answers.

SSDs Offer Speed and Power Advantages

2011-12-25T17:00:00+01:00

"A good rule of thumb when budgeting for SSDs is that each will cost about 10 times as much as a hard disk drive of the same capacity...."

SSD advantages comes at a premium price. "Getting Started with SSDs" is very straightforward, they look and act like a normal HDD with none of the mechanical delays and less power. Performance increases of 50-100% are realistic and as storage bandwidth improves the SSDs will keep up.

Sub $5K NAS Shootout

2011-12-25T17:00:00+01:00

"Five- and six-bay NAS cabinets from Iomega, Netgear, QNAP, Synology, and Thecus compete on speed, ease, and business features ..."

Looking for an inexpensive NAS filer? Here are the results as "5 Storage Servers Battle for Business". Even if one of your choices is not of the list you can compare the guidelines and results with you choice to determine if you choice makes sense.

Don't Let Stress Become Life Threatening

2011-12-25T17:00:00+01:00

"A survey that the Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA)_ conducted back in 2006 showed that even then, workplace stress was a problem. ... If things were that bad before the recession, imagine what they're like now. So ADAA has identified some helpful tips for managing stress at work ..."

Any one will tell you that a high level of stress over a prolonged period can be dangerous. These "Fourteen Tips for Managing Work-Related Stress" will go along way to getting your life back. Pay special attention to 11 and 13, the life you save may be your own.

Batter Up for Big Data

2011-12-25T17:00:00+01:00

"With big data being hyped as the next big strategic initiative for business, it's time for IT to lay the groundwork ..."

Ongoing Battle of SSD, Disk and Tape

2011-12-25T17:00:00+01:00

"Companies may want to skip using a tiered storage architecture and move directly to an all-SSD (solid state drive) architecture, according to a new report from Forrester Research. In the report, Forrester contends that while enterprise-class SSDs are vastly more expensive than hard disk drives, deduplication can reduce capacity requirements, making flash a cost-effective, better-performing alternative ..."

While tape is not mentioned specifically in the article the 30,000 foot view of data storage, protection and access has to include all three. The problem with "Skip Data Tiering, Go Directly to All-SSD Storage" is the assumption of two things. Prices for disk won't fall and the deduplication that is mentioned is not applicable to traditional disk and tape. Both are incorrect.

Unexpected Expenses

2011-12-25T17:00:00+01:00

"The cloud is moving past the hype stage and starting to deliver tangible benefits, primarily increased flexibility and agility. But moving to the cloud can also mean added costs, some of which are unexpected, according to IT executives whose organizations have implemented or are considering cloud services ..."

Most of us know by now that when a vendor does your ROI calculations that there may be one or two surprises in store. To avoid sticker shock with the first of many invoices start "Preparing for the Real Costs of Cloud Computing"] by taking these four areas into account up front.

There�s A Network Bottleneck Ahead

2011-12-25T17:00:00+01:00

"According to a recent Cisco report, annual global data center IP traffic will reach 4.8 zettabytes (that's 4.8 million petabytes) by 2016. In 2015, global data center IP traffic will reach 402 exabytes (that's 402,000 petabytes) per month. What's more, global data center IP traffic will increase fourfold over the next five years. Overall data center IP traffic will grow 33 percent per year from 2010 to 2015 ..."

What happens when you try to put 5 gallons per minute thru a 2 gallon per minute hose? Now you see the problem as "The Cloud is Growing Faster Than the Networks It Relies On." The answer is either faster pipes or more likely restrictions on how much data you are allow in and out. Make sure you cover this with your cloud provider before you sign on the dotted line.

The Winds of Change

2011-12-25T17:00:00+01:00

"Gartner analyst Ken McGee has a radical assessment of IT and what CIOs need to do about. Read his principles of the 'new CIO manifesto.' ... "

Relieving Stress

2011-12-25T17:00:00+01:00

"Do you find that some of your IT workers always think in worst-case scenarios, even when there's no indication that the worst will happen? Or, do they they lash out over relatively minor setbacks? ..."

Anyone in a management or leadership position has to deal with personal and organizational stress. Knowing how to recognize the signs and make changes is key to being effective. Here are "Five Ways to Help Your IT Employees Deal with Stress"; and don't forget to look in the mirror occasionally.

Failures Are the Roots of Success

2011-12-25T17:00:00+01:00

"Henry Ford is credited with saying, 'Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.' He would have known, because he endured significant setbacks before finding a winning formula in the automobile industry ..."

There have been some huge flops from people that have gone on to great accomplishments. Here are "10 Failures Who Became Huge Successes"; getting knocked down is not the end, staying down is.

Reasons to Implement iSCSI

2011-12-24T17:00:00+01:00

"Storage connectivity is evolving away from wires and embracing the Internet ... Fibre Channel ... most often used in large data centers for high-transaction workloads, has been on the market for decades ... Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) - an end-to-end protocol for transporting storage I/O block data over an IP network - has matured ..."

Setting up a SAN or NAS may or may not be the solution for you data center now that iSCSI has come into the picture. Here are "10 Reasons Why 10Gb iSCSI Connectivity Wins Acceptance in Data Centers". One of the big reasons is that iSCSI is open standards-based and you avoid vendor lock in.

Coding Problems

2011-12-24T17:00:00+01:00

"Coding and system modification strategies can weaken your cloud apps over time, so keep these steps in mind to keep your code functioning"

Iowa Network Services Gains Performance Efficiencies with SPARC T-Series Implementation

2011-12-21T17:00:00+01:00

Iowa Network Services, an ISP, has implemented Oracle Solaris on Oracle's SPARC T-Series servers and improved the availability and reliability of their services, achieving close to 99.999% uptime for their 80,000 subscribers. Thirty-six servers have been consolidated onto four SPARC T-series servers, reducing its footprint by more than 85 percent, and reducing support costs, decreasing power and cooling requirements and improving personnel efficiency, resulting in a 15% reduction in operational costs. Consolidation has increased the flexibility of server resources and provided a 25% performance improvement.

Digicel Haiti Implements Oracle Exadata Database Machine

2011-12-21T17:00:00+01:00

With the purchase of a half-rack Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-2 Digicel Haiti has improved analysis and report performance of call data records by a factor of 16x without any additional changes. Daily reports are now processed and delivered each morning to assist the business in strengthening and refining the company's sales strategies and campaigns.

CRN.com Names the 10 Best Open-Source Products Of 2011

2011-12-21T17:00:00+01:00

The ten best open source products of 2011, as named by CRN.com are these, in reverse order:

Fedora 16
Ubuntu 11.04
OpenStack
Asterisk 10
MySQL 5.6, Beta
Android 3.xx, or "Honeycomb"
Firefox for Android
Linux Mint 12
Ubuntu 11.10
LibreOffice

(Selected by Edward F. Moltzen, CRN)

Video: The Rise & Development of Illumos

2011-12-20T17:00:00+01:00

The video of Bryan's talk is now available. He is a great speaker and he adds much to the slide deck. Warning: some of his remarks are quite frank.

The Illumos project is the fully open community fork of the OpenSolaris operating system lead by Garrett D'Amoreat of Nexenta.

Joyent VP for Engineering Bryan Cantrill colorfully details "Fork Yeah! The Rise and Development of illumos" in his presentation that answers the question "WTF is illumos?" in the following way:

An open source descendant of OpenSolaris, which itself was a branch of Solaris Nevada which was the name of the release after Solaris10, and was open but is now closed, and is itself a descendant of Solaris2.x, but it can all be called "SunOS5.x" -- but not "SunOS4.x" --"(that's different).

Oracle's Q2 Earnings: Operating Cash Flow Up 45%

2011-12-20T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle reports that its GAAP earnings per share were $0.43, up 17% compared to last year while non-GAAP earnings per share were up 6% to $0.54. GAAP operating cash flow on a trailing twelve-month basis was $13.1 billion. 'Non-GAAP operating margins increased to 45% in Q2,' said Oracle President and CFO, Safra Catz, 'and we expect those margins to keep growing. Operating cash flow over the last twelve months grew to $13.1 billion; that's up a remarkable 45% compared to the preceding twelve month period.'

Oracle Solaris Studio 12.3 Released

2011-12-19T17:00:00+01:00

With the release of Oracle Studio 12.3, enterprise developers will find it possible to use the new Code Analysis tool to quickly detect application vulnerabilities, including memory leaks and memory access violations, improving application quality and reliability. Furthermore, the release accelerates performance of SPARC T4 and x86-based applications up to 300 percent by leveraging Oracle's advanced compiler technology. Developers will also find it convenient that Oracle Solaris Studio 12.3's built-in remote access capabilities, makes it possible to create Oracle Solaris or Linux applications easily, whether from Oracle Solaris, Linux, Windows, or Mac OS desktops.

New Release of Oracle Tuxedo 11g

2011-12-19T17:00:00+01:00

The features and the optimized integration with Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud available in the new release of Oracle Tuxedo 11g application server for C/C++, COBOL, and dynamic languages, enable users to gain increased application performance, accelerated and simplified migration and modernization of mainframe applications. Oracle Tuxedo 11g also includes Oracle Tuxedo Application Runtime for IMS 11g, a new product within the Oracle Tuxedo family that helps customers substantially reduce IT costs, increase business agility and reduce risk by accelerating and simplifying the migration of IBM mainframe IMS applications to open systems.

Design Proposal for Hosted Virtual Desktops Based on Full Oracle Stack

2011-12-19T17:00:00+01:00

The Oracle white paper "A Design Proposal for Hosted Virtual Desktops" discusses a design proposal for Windows 7 virtual desktops hosted on Oracle Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, proposing infrastructure for 500, 1000 and 1500 users. Jaap's VDI Blog Space reports that the topics under discussion include high-level architecture, capacity planning, design decisions and performance optimizations. The infrastructure is based on the full Oracle stack of products, ranging from the end-user client to the storage in the data-center.

Using dTrace to Troubleshoot a cp-r Hang

2011-12-19T17:00:00+01:00

The blog post by samwan, "a dtrace example to troubleshoot 'cp-r' hang," shows how using opensnoop from the DTrace Toolkit located the particular file being read at a given moment, enabling the user to identify the pipe file on which the system was hung.

Explaining a Big Data Implementation and its Components

2011-12-19T17:00:00+01:00

In his use case approach to explaining a big data implementation, Jean-Pierre Dijcks uses the example of Smartmall, which he characterizes as "multi-channel customer interaction," or luring customers into the online store rather than have them shop via smart phone. He identifies the elements of such a system and follows the data flow from end-to-end by way of example. Big Data, he writes, allows users to leverage tremendous data and processing resources to come to accurate models while also allowing users to create more accurate models, new ideas, and new business.

Oracle Linux 6 .2 Released to General Availability

2011-12-19T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle has announced the release to general availability of Oracle Linux 6.2 for x86 (32 bit) and x86_64 (64 bit) architectures. Both, Oracle explains, ship with two sets of kernel packages and include both a 32 bit and a 64 bit Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel:

1: Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel [kernel-uek-2.6.32-300.3.1.el6uek] (installed and booted by default)

and

2: Red Hat Compatible Kernel [kernel-2.6.32-220.el6] (installed by default) This release also includes several network driver updates and storage driver updates.

CRN Includes MySQL 5.6 in 10 Best Wins Best Open Source Product of 2011 Awards

2011-12-19T17:00:00+01:00

CRN has named MySQL 5.6 as among the 10 best open source products for 2011, Bertrand Matthelie reports on Oracle's MySQL Blog. He quotes the CRN announcement, which said, "MySQL 5.6, now in beta, includes significant advances in text-based search inside a database, as well as performance enhancements. With the growth of the world's data set to explode like never before with the advent of data-capturing and data-creating mobile devices, MySQL 5.6 is firmly in place as the strongest open-source database.'

Using the Paint Application to Achieve Deeper Integration of JavaFX in NetBeans RCP

2011-12-19T17:00:00+01:00

It is possible (and relatively easy), writes Geertjan Wielenga, to have changes in sales properties be reflected in the javafx.scene.chart.BarChart. Wielenga began with the Paint Application, added JavaFX code and a node hierarchy to obtain the desired result. The simplicity of this exercise, he contends, suggests just how well JavaFX can be made to fit into what he terms the "real world of existing Java desktop applications." He advises against dismissing Swing, which he terms unnecessary.

Java ME Remains the Platform for Majority of US Cell Phones

2011-12-19T17:00:00+01:00

Politics is not the only realm in which corporate interests (include the media in this category) distort the truth for their benefit, Hinkmond Wong reminds readers in his article "Mobile Trends for 2012: Majority of US phones still use Java ME tech." The media, he asserts, would have us believe otherwise. Wong includes a link to Josh Smith's GottaBeMobile.com article "7 Mobile Trends for 2012: NFC, Nokia, Apps and HTML5" for corroboration.

Using NexentaStor ZFS storage appliance with vSphere

2011-12-16T17:00:00+01:00

Last year, Tomi Hakala wrote an article describing how to use NexentaStor to create an NFS share on a commodity x86 box and make that share available to vSphere. Those steps with version 3.0 are still the same with version 3.1:

Install NexentaStor; obtain a unique key; enter key
Create a ZFS volume
Create a folder
Configure NFS Server (use NFS v3)
Note the mount point in which folder is available to NFS client
Open vSphere Client and mount NAS datastore

NexentaStor 3.x is a major release, with many new features, improved hardware support, and many bug fixes over the older Developer Edition including:

In-line deduplication for primary storage and backup
Free for up to 18 TB of overall raw storage capacity (i.e. sum of all ("raw") disks sizes, excepting logs, caches and spares)
Supports easy upgrade to future Community Edition releases and to Enterprise Edition licenses
Support for user and group quotas
The ability to automatically expand pools

NexentaStor 3.x Community ISO CD images can be installed on "bare-metal" x86/64 hardware. VM installed images are also available.

Oracle Solaris Studio 12.3 Released

2011-12-14T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle Solaris Studio 12.3, Oracle's advanced C, C++ and Fortran development tool suite, delivers accelerated application performance of up to 300% on Oracle Systems. The release provides extreme application observability and enhances developer productivity. Oracle Solaris Studio 12.3 is optimized for Oracle Solaris, Oracle Linux, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating systems to deliver up to 300% faster SPARC T4 and up to 150% faster x86-based applications with Oracle Solaris Studio C, C++ and Fortran compilers, Terri Wischmann blogs. Users can perform remote development of server-applications from any Oracle Solaris, Linux, Microsoft Windows or Mac OS desktop.

Record Performance Result for a Two Processor Intel-Based System with TPC-C Benchmark

2011-12-14T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle reports that its Oracle Database 11g Standard Edition One and Oracle Linux with the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 2, running on a Cisco UCS C250 M2 Extended-Memory Rack-Mount Server with two Intel Xeon X5690 3.46 GHz processors, achieved 1,053,100 transactions per minute (tpmC) with a price/performance of $0.58/tpmC.com/us/corporate/press/1425234. This is in contrast to the nearly 11 percent lower per tpmC of the nearest competition -- the HP ProLiant DL380 G7 -- on a configuration utilizing identical Intel processors and memory capacity.

Learning to Work with Security

2011-12-14T17:00:00+01:00

"Many organizations see database security projects arrive DOA because the DBA is not on board ..."

Certain groups don't seem to work well together; sales and accounting; marketing and product design and now security and DBAs. Can "Security Teams and DBAs Play Nicely", left to there own, probably not. The issue is not the players but the team and the players must put aside their dominions and work together for the common good.

Join Java Spotlight Episode 60 to Celebrate 10th Anniversary of Globalcode

2011-12-14T17:00:00+01:00

Episode 60 of Java Spotlight features Vincius and Yara Senger, co-founders of Globalcode, the largest Brazilian educational center specializing in software development on the organization's 10th anniversary. Mike Lehmann, Oracle senior director of product management, joins the Java All Star Developer Panel to provide insight on the Oracle Weblogic 12c release.

New Documentation for with JavaFX 2.0.2 Release

2011-12-14T17:00:00+01:00

New information has been added to the documentation for the JavaFX 2.0.2 update. This includes the following:

Styling Charts with CSS describes how to alter the visual appearance of charts in your application.
The Menu chapter of the JavaFX UI Controls tutorial describes how to build a menu bar in your application
Handling JavaFX Events describes how to create and use event handlers and event filters
Using a Doclet with JavaFX describes how to use the Javadoc doclet
Deploying JavaFX Applications describes a new JavaFX Ant helper parameter, <fx:argument>.

You can download JavaFX 2.0.2 from OTN.

TimesTen and In-Memory Database Cache

2011-12-14T17:00:00+01:00

Blogger Sam Drake takes a look at how one might simultaneously exploit the fast memory-centric performance of TimesTen, and the large capacity and familiarity of the Oracle Database. He suggests using IMDB Database Cache (TimesTen) on the application server configured to cache tables from the Oracle Database. Thus, changes made by the application in TimesTen are automatically reflected in the Oracle Database. When a user logs off, data stored in TimesTen is erased, freeing RAM space for the next user, Drake writes, leaving the bulk of the database workload of your site handled in RAM, by the TimesTen database.

Creating Oracle Solaris Zones in Oracle Solaris 11

2011-12-14T17:00:00+01:00

To familiarize users with the basic operations of Oracle Solaris Zone configuration and management in Oracle Solaris 11, blogger Duncan Hardie has written a post that explains how to create, install, boot, and configure an Oracle Solaris Zone. This makes it possible to clone the zone so you can roll out multiple, duplicate resource-controlled environments quickly and easily. The procedure demonstrates how a ZFS data set is automatically created and how the networking is set up automatically. In addition, Hardie shows how to add an application to an Oracle Solaris zone using IPS and then clone that zone.

Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management

2011-12-13T17:00:00+01:00

Performance testing has revealed that Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) running on Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud, and three Oracle Exadata Database Machine racks, all running Oracle Linux, achieved processing speeds of 926 million event detail records (EDRs) per hour, almost doubling expected performance requirements and far exceeding LTE processing requirements of the largest service providers. Extrapolated results demonstrate that, " ... if all seven billion people on earth made any combination of phone calls, texts or content downloads, Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management could process them all in a single day," Oracle claims.

Comparing FCoE to iSCSI

2011-12-13T17:00:00+01:00

"I've attended two conferences recently where a speaker talked about storage efficiency and the growing capacity demand problem. The speaker said that a part of the problem is we don't throw data away. That blunt statement suggests that we should throw data away ..."

While the article is biased towards FCoE there is benefit into learning how FCoE is different that iSCSI. Under the guise of "Converging SAN Traffic In the Data Center", a Cisco solutions architect provides very good insight into how FCoE solves business problems associated with SANs and iSCSI. Just remember that no one technology is the panacea for all data storage, access and backup issues.

Mitigating DDoS Attacks

2011-12-13T17:00:00+01:00

"Over the past couple of years, DDoS attacks haven't just become more sophisticated -- they've gone mainstream to the point that attackers aren't shy about using them brazenly in the name of social and political activism. Perpetrators rarely face any form of punishment, and it doesn't help that some judges have deemed the practice legal. ..."

The bad guys are getting better; you need to perfect every time, the bad guys have to be successful once. These six suggestions on "How to Deny DDoS Attacks" may not make you bullet proof but may provide enough resistance for the bad guys to find easier targets.

Overused and Outdated Terms

2011-12-13T17:00:00+01:00

"Phrases that once sounded clever have been reduced to clichés. Some of them actually are rooted in real business concepts. Others are fluff that somehow became part of the corporate lexicon. Either way, like that annoying song that stays stuck in your head, they must be ignored, erased, or replaced. ..."

We all use them and we should all get rid of them. Here are "10 Business Phrases That Must Die Now"; and the sooner the better. Take a look at any of your presentations, proposals or business plans to see if any of these terms or other overworked and meaningless term appears.

The Future of the Locomotive

2011-12-13T17:00:00+01:00

"The world of hypervisors is complicated by the fact that there are proprietary and open source tools and the latter are often pressed into service in different ways, say nothing of the fact that the whole market is evolving quickly ..."

There is no doubt that the hypervisor is what leads the train of virtualization solutions. So "What's Next with Hypervisors?" Several experts take a look at open and proprietary hypervisors, vendors, clouds, mixed environments and other areas of interest.

Nothing is Ever Off the Record

2011-12-13T17:00:00+01:00

"However fair or unfair, strategic networking at holiday office parties can be a career boon ..."

That's especially true for office parties; we have all said things at gatherings that was not in our best interest. "Make the Most of Office Holiday Parties with These 12 Tips" and while these are aimed at this season they make sense for any get together, seminar, presentation, conference or networking event.

Not Your Grandmother�s DR

2011-12-12T17:00:00+01:00

"Disaster recovery is a growing part of IT's budget, but IT still needs quicker, more efficient, and more affordable backup and recovery solutions into one seamless process ..."

Over the last 40 years DR has been relatively stable in terms of DR execution. Now "Disaster Recovery is Driven By Tight Budgets and New Technology". The Cloud, CDP and constant replication are all solutions that companies are looking to implement.

A Wide View of Past, Present and Future

2011-12-12T17:00:00+01:00

"From islands of storage to the consumerization of storage, IT storage administrators had their hands full this year. What challenges will they face in 2012? ..."

Our good friend and defacto storage authority Jon Toigo looks at the "Storage Year in Review and a Preview of 2012". You may not always like what Jon has to say but the insights and breadth he brings to the table makes his articles interesting and he never beats around the bush much to the chagrin of many vendors.

The Bad Guys Don't Rely on Technology

2011-12-12T17:00:00+01:00

"How do you protect against a sophisticated, motivated criminal? A professional spy who has targeted your company's trade secrets? A skilled insider with a specific purpose in mind? These types of people know that information comes in many forms, not just electronic, and they are trained to exploit any vulnerability ..."

Technology is a part of their bag of tricks but technology is outsourced, innovation isn't. The bad guys are bad but far from stupid. You have to be on your toes 100% of the time, they only need to find a small crack. The "Multiple Dimensions of Corporate Espionage" takes a look at the broad range of techniques that the bad guys use to peel back the layers of you company to get to the gold.

There's A Right Way and a Wrong Way

2011-12-12T17:00:00+01:00

"Lowe's, the big home-improvement chain, decided to use Facebook to explain its decision to pull ads from the television series All-Amerian Muslim ..."

Using social media of any kind to explain a corporate position is at best a risky situation. Lowe's "Social Media Fall" is a prime example of unintended consequences. Before anyone uses social media as a corporate message board take a hard look at the end goal and consider what will happen if the ball goes the other way.

Free Help for WI-FI Analysis

2011-12-12T17:00:00+01:00

"Even if you have an enterprise-level Wi-Fi spectrum analyzer, like Wi-Spy or AirMagnet, free Wi-Fi tools can also come in handy ..."

Any one tool does not do everything regardless of what the vendors say. Here are "8 Free WI-FI Security Tools" that provide stumbling and surveying solutions for large or small shops.

Google Finds That IPv6 Supported Does Not Mean Complete

2011-12-12T17:00:00+01:00

"In a project that has taken longer than company engineers anticipated, Google is rolling out IPv6 across its entire internal employee network ..."

Trailblazers in one way or another get the arrows from leading the way. This was especially true as "Google Deploys IPv6 for Internal Network" use. There is no turning back for any company moving from the old protocol to the new; the only question is how painless can you make the process.

Integration of LDoms Networking with Networking Enhancements in Solaris 11

2011-12-12T17:00:00+01:00

The network stack for Oracle Solaris 11 has been substantially re-architected in an effort known as Project Crossbow, a main goal of which is to virtualize the hard NICs into Virtual NICs (VNICs) to provide more effective sharing of networking resources. Raghuram Kothakota blogs on how LDoms networking is integrated with all the networking enhancements in S11, mainly with project Crossbow. His post is a high-level view of how LDoms virtual switch in an S11 service domain and LDoms virtual network device in an S11 Guest domain.

Gifts that Keep on Giving

2011-12-12T17:00:00+01:00

"As the holiday season approaches, people are making wish lists ... In the corporate world, executives and users are looking at around their businesses and thinking of things they'd like to get from the IT department ..."

Companies don't look to IT for flash in the pan headline grabbers; they want ideas, projects and solutions that add to the business. Here are "10 Things that Business Wants from IT This Christmas" and all year round. IT is an important part of any companyís success and our success depends on every other department being successful.

Made Not Born

2011-12-12T17:00:00+01:00

"This guide will help you bring out the qualities within that will allow you to emerge as an organizational agenda-driver. ..."

No one is born being a leader; and like every other skill you have to pay your dues and learn from your mistakes. Here are "10 Ways to Stand Out as a Leader"; and remember, just because you don't yet have the title or responsibility doesn't mean you aren't a leader.

Silos No Longer a Necessity

2011-12-12T17:00:00+01:00

"One size fits all is a bad idea for IT -- so we have to find new ways to split the difference between build and buy ..."

Back in the good ole days, companies had legions of support staff that were specialist in a given area. Companies bought hardware and built solutions. That is no longer the case with "Homegrown Solutions: The Good and the Bad." Companies are forced into buying solutions and then trying to make all the pieces work.

Know What You Want

2011-12-12T17:00:00+01:00

"The proliferation of large-scale data sets is just beginning to change business and science around the world, but enterprises need to prepare in order to gain the most advantage from their information, panelists said at a Silicon Valley event this week. ..."

Companies are filling every nook and cranny with data in all forms. There is gold in that data; "Big Data Has Potential But Requires Care" as companies are putting the cart before the horse. Companies must decide first what they need before deciding on how to get there.

Deletion Is An Option

2011-12-12T17:00:00+01:00

Enough is enough, companies need to understand that every single byte of data does not have to be stored forever. Companies need to ask "Why We Keep Data" that is no longer required by regulation or litigation or accessed.

The Mouse is 43 Years Old

2011-12-12T17:00:00+01:00

"On December 9, 1968 Douglas Engelbart stepped to the podium at what was called the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco and showed off the world's first mouse ..."

Hard to believe that the ubiquitous mouse has been around so long. On the 43rd Anniversary of the "Mother of All Demos", the first mouse has withstood the ravages of time and technology. Take a few minutes and look at the slide show at the end on 25 other watershed technology moments.

Learning to Work with DBAs

2011-12-12T17:00:00+01:00

"Many organizations see database security projects arrive DOA because the DBA is not on board ..."

24x7 is Now the Norm

2011-12-12T17:00:00+01:00

"IT consumerization often leads to users working all the time. CIO blogger Mark Gibbs explains why that can be both good and bad ..."

Turns out that social media has trained "The Always On IT User" to expect service all the time. One of the biggest losers will be the scheduled outages; users don't want to know about our needs, they only want us to solve theirs.

Made Not Born

2011-12-12T17:00:00+01:00

"This guide will help you bring out the qualities within that will allow you to emerge as an organizational agenda-driver. ..."

Free Help for WI-FI Analysis

2011-12-12T17:00:00+01:00

"Even if you have an enterprise-level Wi-Fi spectrum analyzer, like Wi-Spy or AirMagnet, free Wi-Fi tools can also come in handy ..."

Any one tool does not do everything regardless of what the vendors say. Here are "8 Free WI-FI Security Tools" that provide stumbling and surveying solutions for large or small shops.

Doorway to the Cloud: Oracle WebLogic Server 12c

2011-12-12T17:00:00+01:00

WSJ's MarketWatch reported the release to general availability of Oracle WebLogic Server 12c, which it describes as, " ... the Number 1 application server for conventional systems, engineered systems and cloud environments," with considerable enthusiasm. Market Watch celebrated the innovative new capabilities of Oracle WebLogic Server 12c for building, deploying and running Java Platform, Enterprise Edition Java EE) applications and the capability to leverage Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE7) features in the creation of cleaner, more easily maintainable code.

Magic Quadrant for Midrange and High-End Modular Disk Arrays

2011-12-10T17:00:00+01:00

The 2011 Magic Quadrant for Midrange and High-End Modular Disk Arrays from Gartner has found the midrange and high-end modular disk array storage market grew 8.2% from 3Q10 through 2Q11, as reported in storagenewsletter.com. The Gartner report profiles the 15 vendors who figure significantly in the market, noting strengths and cautions in each case. Among the conclusions Gartner draws is that, it is clear that vendors such as Dell, HP, IBM and Oracle, which have large and global distribution organizations, prefer to own their own ECB disk storage IP rather than sourcing it from a competing or enabling vendor.

Loose Slips Can Sink Ships

2011-12-09T17:00:00+01:00

"A key part of the data leak prevention effort is making sure that email and other messaging systems are used securely. Here are some tips on how to keep email leaks to a minimum..."

One e-mail containing sensitive information sent to the wrong person can wreak and long lasting havoc. "Getting the Leaks out of Enterprising Messaging" should be a top priority of every company.

OVM 3.0 Tutorial on Installing a VM with Oracle Linux 5u6

2011-12-09T17:00:00+01:00

If you are interested in how to create an Oracle Linux 5u6 in Oracle VM 3.0, Steen Schmidt explains the procedure in a Youtube video that takes less than five minutes, start to finish. His tutorial explains all the steps involved.

Investigation Results in 2000x Performance Win

2011-12-09T17:00:00+01:00

"Picking a non-C locale can hurt performance - something that has been known for many years. In this case, a GNU grep(1) bug inflated the translation overhead to slow down performance by a huge degree: up to 2000x. In short: leave LANG=C; aim DTrace at everything - even grep(1)." This is the recommendation Brendan Gregg arrives at in his post "2000x performance win." He recounts his experience in testing hypotheses framed to discover performance degradation in a production SmartOS cloud environment and the code samples involved with arriving at the conclusion above.

MySQL Enterprise Monitor 2.3.8 Mainjtenance Release in General Availability

2011-12-09T17:00:00+01:00

Readers can find MySQL Enterprise Monitor 2.3.8, a maintenance release that fixes several bugs, in General Availability on the My Oracle Support (MOS) web site and, within one or two weeks, on the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud. Similarly, binaries for the new release are also available on the MOS site and the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud. The changelog contains full details on this release.

OVM 3.0 Tutorial on Installing a VM with Microsoft Windows XP

2011-12-09T17:00:00+01:00

In less than three minutes, watch a Youtube video on how to create a Windows XP Pro in Oracle VM 3.0. Steen Schmidt describes the steps in the process.

Oracle Enterprise Manager Screenwatch Demos Series

2011-12-09T17:00:00+01:00

There are nine demos in the Oracle Enterprise Manager Screenwatch Demo Series, which includes the following titles:

Cloud Management
Lifecycle Management
Application Quality Management
Enterprise Monitoring
Application Management
Middleware Management
Database Management
Hardware and Virtualization Management
Enterprise Manager Framework and Infrastructure

Most of these videos are hosted on YouTube.

Solaris 11 Customer Maintenance Lifecycle

2011-12-09T17:00:00+01:00

A post on the Patch Corner of oracle.com announces the creation of The Solaris 11 Life blog where readers can learn about all aspects of the Solaris 11 Customer Maintenance Lifecycle, including policies, best practices, resource links, clarifications, and other pertinent matters. In the first post on the site, Gerry Haskins includes a presentation on the Solaris 11 Customer Maintenance Lifecycle presentation, originally given at Oracle Open World and the recent Deutsche Oracle Anwendergruppe (DOAG) conference.

Java Spotlight Episode 59: Alan Bateman on the NIO2 APIs in JDK 7

2011-12-09T17:00:00+01:00

In Episode 59 of the Java Spotlight Alan Bateman, an engineer in the Oracle JDK team, discusses the NIO2 APIs in JDK7. Bateman's focus as part of the Oracle JDK team has been chiefly on the core libraries/APIs and lead JSR-203 that defined the new file system API and asynchronous I/O APIs that are new in JDK 7. Regular member of the Java All Star Developer Panel Dalibor Topic, Java Free and Open Source Software Ambassador, assumes his usual seat.

Three Important Enhancements to the 7000 ZFS Storage Appliance

2011-12-09T17:00:00+01:00

In his post to oracle.com on ZFSSA - Tips & Tricks with your Oracle 7000 ZFS Storage Appliance Steve Tunstall announces the release of three new options for Oracle's Sun ZFS Storage portfolio:

Write-flash-cache SSDs have gone from 18GB to 73GB each.
New long-range transceivers for the 10GigE cards
3TB drives for the 7120 model; The 3TB drives for the 7320 and 7420 are in the works.

Tunstall's post also includes this End-of-Life information for the 2TB drive-equipped base model of the 7120 and the 18GB Write Flash Cache.

Oracle Solaris 11 Launch Videos: Engineering and Customer Panels

2011-12-09T17:00:00+01:00

Until now the video available from the launch on November 11, 2011 of Oracle Solaris 11 featured only the executive keynote. Two additional sessions have been added, which are a panel of some top Oracle engineers discussing what's new in Oracle Solaris 11, and a panel of customers discussing why they chose Oracle Solaris for their mission-critical services. The videos of those sessions (plus the executive keynote) are now available. Registration and log-in are required.

A Redefinition of Roles

2011-12-09T17:00:00+01:00

"Revenge of the 'stupid' user: Consumerization of IT; It's a new era for IT and management as technology permeates business, falling firmly into users' hands ..."

Remember when you first got your drivers licenses and quickly discovered there was more to driving than you though? The same is true with end user tools for technology. The "Consumeration of IT" has changed the interaction of IT and end users from one of non drivers to new drives. IT has an obligation not to look at the evolution of end user computing as the enemy but as an opportunity to teach what makes good IT skills (i.e. good driving skills).

Capacity Planning Models for the Unknown

2011-12-08T17:00:00+01:00

"How capacity management changes in the cloud; Resources have different availability and costs in the cloud, and the models don't yet reflect that variation ..."

Those of you that have been involved in planning for server, storage and network growth will be facing new problems address the cloud. Understanding "How Capacity Management Changes In the Cloud" will go a long way to getting a handle on the slippery slope leading to accurate predictions for the cloud.

2012 Crystal Ball

2011-12-08T17:00:00+01:00

"Gartner, Inc. has revealed its top predictions for IT organizations and users for 2012 and beyond. Analysts said that the predictions herald changes in control for IT organizations as budgets, technologies and costs become more fluid and distributed. ..."

Gartner takes a SWAG at next year with some interesting "Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users for 2012 and Beyond". The most interesting are 7 (sensitive data), 8 (IT expenditures outside IT), 11 (global energy surcharge) and 12 (big data).

Brewing Better IT

2011-12-07T17:00:00+01:00

The brewers of Bavaria represent the clearest analogy to the "engineered systems" approach to IT, according to Constantin Gonzalez's post "The Rise of Engineered Systems." In IT itself, Gonzalez labels the iPad " ... the ultimate consumer Engineered System: Hardware and software and applications merged into a single, optimized system that lets you 'just work'." Engineered systems represent the wave of the future, Gonzalez writes: enabling users to appreciate better performance, faster networking, fewer bugs, more capable technical support (because the guy on the other end has a system identical to yours), better security, and shorter time to market.

Oracle Database Appliance; Oracle Database 11g; and Linux

2011-12-07T17:00:00+01:00

In his post "Game Changer Appliance for SMBs Powered by Oracle Linux" Zeynep Koch considers the payoff from the engineered systems approach in his praise for the Oracle Database Appliance as a way to take advantage of Oracle Database 11g, the world's most popular database, in a single, easy-to-deploy and manage system. Koch describes this combination as " ... a complete package of software, server, storage, and network ... engineered for simplicity," that saves users time and money by simplifying deployment, maintenance, and support of database workloads.

Oracle Releases Oracle Solaris Cluster 4.0

2011-12-07T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle has announced the availability of Oracle Solaris Cluster 4.0, the first release providing extended high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) capabilities for Oracle Solaris 11. Oracle Solaris Cluster works by extending Oracle Solaris to provide the HA and DR infrastructure required for deploying mission critical workloads in private, public and hybrid clouds as well as enterprise data centers. Among the other strong points of the solution are built-in support for cloud implementations and cloud-ready application protection through fine-grained monitoring and policy-based application management, along with restart and failover capabilities.

Start Now to Keep Employees

2011-12-07T17:00:00+01:00

"IT jobs market: Three factors that could spark a backlash among overworked techies ..."

Doing more with less means more stress on your staff; longer hours, less pay increases, decreased training, old hardware, etc. There are "Three Factors That Could Spark A Backlash Among Overworked Techies"; if you notice any of the signs now is the time to make changes to make sure your keep people don't jump ship. Remember people move to new jobs for more money, but they usually leave because of lack of respect.

Is Support Heading for the Basement

2011-12-07T17:00:00+01:00

"In the course of over 100 articles, I've been politely and quietly working to inform everyone about cloud and CRM best practices. After having wasted hours on a typically crummy support line of a cloud vendor, I can be quiet no more, I need a moment to rant ..."

In the parlance of economists, racing for the bottom means that companies start to compete on price and price alone. The result is that service is the first victim. We are now asking "Is Cloud Support Racing to the Bottom?] The answer is almost and in the end, selling on price is in no one's best interest.

Obsolete HW, Now What

2011-12-07T17:00:00+01:00

"Find A Data Destruction Service; What To Do With Your Used Equipment ..."

The last thing anyone wants is to toss out old equipment and then find your name on the front page in violation of hazardous material disposal. So how do you "Find a Data Destruction Service" that is reputable, reliable and in compliance with all local, state and federal laws.

The Rise & Development of illumos

2011-12-07T17:00:00+01:00

The illumos project is the fully open community fork of the OpenSolaris operating system lead by Garrett D'Amoreat of Nexenta.

Joyent VP for Engineering Bryan Cantrill colorfully details "Fork Yeah! The Rise and Development of illumos" in his presentation that answers the question "WTF is illumos?" in the following way:

A complicated topic that Cantrill illuminates with style.

Start Now to Keep Employees

2011-12-07T17:00:00+01:00

"IT jobs market: Three factors that could spark a backlash among overworked techies ..."

Developing Intuition

2011-12-07T17:00:00+01:00

"We're often told that rational decisions trump 'gut calls.' But that's not always the case. Intuition and instinct are intangible - even mysterious - qualities. Yet, they're essential for those who'd rather lead with a bold sense of innovative vision than play it safe with the consensus model..."

As Albert Einstein said "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." Sometimes leaders have to feel their way; here are "10 Ways To Harness Your Intuition". If you wait till you have all the information nothing will ever get done; develop the skill to make bold decisions based on incomplete information.

Good To Great

2011-12-07T17:00:00+01:00

"Successful organizations should stress long-term planning and an intense focus on understanding their own businesses and markets, say authors Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen in the book, 'Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck: Why Some Thrive Despite Them All' ..."

Great IT departments aren't a matter of luck; great takes time, effort, vision and leadership. While the "Ten Rules of Great Companies" addresses companies, the ideas can be targeted to include IT departments.

Consultant Shenanigans

2011-12-07T17:00:00+01:00

"Metrics are dull unless you do them wrong. If you do, the disaster that ensues will make you wish for dull ..."

Sooner or later most companies need some help in to improve or embellish one area or another for which they either don't have the expertise or time. Hiring a consultant is the most logical step and then waiting for the metrics to prove what can be done. These "Stupid Consultant Tricks" puts the metrics measurement of success into the proper light. Remember that anyone can improve anything as long as they get to decide the test and the metrics by which success is measured.

Partitioning and Oracle Licenses

2011-12-07T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle VM for SPARC is now explicitly named as a hard partitioning technology. A guide from oracle.com provides information on "Server/Hardware Partitioning" that discusses the attributes of server partitioning and comments on how companies can leverage partitioning to optimize their software licenses. Also discussed are the two principle tyes of partitioning: soft partitioning using OS resource managers to partition the OS into segments; and hard partitioning, which involves physically segmenting a large server into distinct, smaller systems The implications of licensing agreements as to partition type are considered.

SPARC T4-4 Processor:: Foundation of Oracle SPARC Supercluster

2011-12-07T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle has produced a true SPARC Engineered System that integrates Solaris on SPARC, Exadata and Exalogic. And this new system is the Oracle SPARC Supercluster, which is built on the new T4 chip and its new architecture, which has resulted in the SPARC T4-4 Server as the the top of the line 5RU model. SPARC Supercluster also includes the integration of Infiniband and the flexibility of Logical Domains (LDoms) as well as a ZFS Storage Appliance to support the Exalogic clustering storage needs, plus Exadata Cells.]

Advanced Persistent Threats

2011-12-07T17:00:00+01:00

"Corporate networks face a variety of attacks every day, yet pinpointing the most serious attacks are no easy matter ..."

The vast majority of APT (Advanced Persistent Threats) come from China. "Discovering Who Is Attacking The Network" is not as easy task as social networks are the main door for the attackers. This also implies that the door is opened by one individual not paying attention.

Carrier IQ False Alarm

2011-12-07T17:00:00+01:00

"Only now are some skeptical voices being raised that the case against Carrier IQ may be a rush to judgment without a real, or at least an adequate, basis in fact ..."

Last week a fire storm exploded over a 20 minute You Tube purporting that the rootkit software would transmit user data. Now "Skeptics Find Flaws in Carrier IQ Application Analysis" and while the software does have some potential there is no indication that user data is being transmitted.

IT Needs to Join the Team

2011-12-06T17:00:00+01:00

"Take these concrete steps to get closer to customers and help your company's marketing and customer service teams do a better job ..."

Customer Service is not a department, customer service is an attitude. The attitude is sorely lacking in companies these days and IT isn't helping companies change. Here are "7 Ways IT Can Improve Customer Service" as the old saying goes 'if we don't take care of our customers, someone else will'. IT is perfectly position to make customer service more than lip service.

Unexpected Expenses

2011-12-05T17:00:00+01:00

Meet the MySQL Experts Podcast: Focus on Backup

2011-12-05T17:00:00+01:00

On a recent episode of the Meet the MySQL Experts Sveta Smirnova from the MySQL technical support organization provides an overview of the common MySQL backup practices and tools, specifically the benefits of using MySQL Enterprise Backup. MySQL Enterprise Backup provides hot online backup for InnoDB, which has been one of the most requested features from the MySQL user community for years.

IDC Finds 11% Growth in 3Q11 for External Disk Systems Worldwide

2011-12-05T17:00:00+01:00

IDC's "Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker" found that external disk storage systems factory revenues posted year-over-year growth of 10.8%, totaling just under $5.8 billion in 3Q11. The total disk storage systems market grew to $7.6 billion in revenues in the quarter, 8.5% up from 3Q10. EMC led the external disk storage systems market with 28.6% revenue share in the third quarter, followed by IBM and NetApp tied for second with 12.7% and 12.1% market share. In total worldwide disk storage systems, EMC finished in the top position with market shares of 21.7% followed by HP with 18.9% respectively.

SPARC T4-4 Beats 8-CPU IBM POWER7

2011-12-05T17:00:00+01:00

The four-processors SPARC T4-4 Server bested the eight-processor per-core results of both IBM's Power7 and HP's ProLiant DL980 G7, achieving 205,792 QphH@3000GB with price/performance of $4.10/QphH@3000GB, 7% faster than the IBM Power 780 server with POWER7 processors (total of 32 cores) on the TPC-H @3000GB benchmark and 27% faster than the HP ProLiant DL980 G7 server with x86 processors. The SPARC T4-4 Server also outperformed its IBM and HP rivals in data loading and refresh function while achieving a peak IO rate from the Oracle database of 17 GB/sec and showing linear scaling from TPC-H @1000GB to TPC-H @3000GB.

Control of the Data Flood Gates 2012

2011-12-05T17:00:00+01:00

"The overriding theme for 2012 is control of data: how data enters a system, where it resides, how it is processed, and who can access and manage it, as well as who can store and archive data. That's where the real power is. Those who know how to control both the archival and current views are most often the ones who come up with significant new ideas and promote business progress. ..."

A paradigm shift in the alpha dog is going to occur in the data center during 2012; "It's All About Control of the Data". Companies are realizing that everything in the data center can be replace with one exception - data. Who ever controls the who, what, where, when and how data is stored, accessed and protected will be in the cat birds seat.

Dedupe Innovation

2011-12-05T17:00:00+01:00

"it is safe to say that data deduplication technology on the backup side has now gone mainstream. At the enterprise level we estimate that almost all companies have installed some form of data deduplication technology, even if the percentage of data under the jurisdiction of dedupe is closer to 40 percent ..."

The acceptance of deduplication is an established fact of storage management; the problem is that every vendor has their own implementation and there's the rub. When the question is about Deduplication and the Innovation Race - It Isn't Over as both the vendors and the users try to come up with a common format. The problem is that common format means commodity pricing and the big boys don't want to give up their hold on their proprietary solution i.e. profits.

How 2012 Is Shaping Up

2011-12-05T17:00:00+01:00

"here are some educated looks at the 2012 storage landscape, courtesy of chief technology evangelist David Chapa of Quantum. Chapa previously was a senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. ..."

While predicting the future specifically is not going to happen with any certainty there are "Predictions for the Storage Industry in 2012" that may give some insight. What should come as no surprise is the chart on slide 3.

There�s A Network Bottleneck Ahead

2011-12-02T17:00:00+01:00

Everything Old is New Again

2011-12-01T17:00:00+01:00

"Before tablets, smartphones, and PCs became prominent, "big iron" mainframes led down the path to computing, becoming a staple of enterprise business worldwide several decades ago. Rather than going the way of the dinosaur as PCs and the client/server model emerged, mainframes remain stalwarts in heavy-duty transactional applications ..."

Here are two numbers that may be of interest: 70/40. 70% of all shops need these people and 40% of these people will be retiring. Guess what is "IT's Most Wanted: Mainframe Programmers." Yep, this technology is still the heart and soul of 80% of Fortune 500 companies; if you know of someone that is looking to make a mark, you may want to have them look to the old days.

Oracle Solaris 11 Training and Certification Programs

2011-12-01T17:00:00+01:00

A recent press release introduces readers to Oracle University's offerings on Oracle Solaris 11 Training and Certification, pointing out the value this training delivers in enabling graduates to foster the migration of their respective enterprises to the cloud. The newest courses in the curriculum include What's New in Oracle Solaris, previewing the latest innovations in Oracle Solaris 11; Transition to Oracle Solaris 11, designed for experienced Oracle Solaris 10 system administrators; and Oracle Solaris 11 System Administration and Oracle Solaris 11 Advanced System Administration, intended for new Oracle Solaris or UNIX system administrators.

Know What the Cloud Means to Your Enterprise Before You Enter

2011-12-01T17:00:00+01:00

In his post on syngress.com "A Brief Introduction on Migrating to an Oracle-based Cloud Environment," Tom Laszewski prudently begins at the beginning and suggests that his readers do the same: defining what the cloud means to an enterprise. He points out the four characteristics that distinguish the cloud from virtualizing IT infrastructure and making it available on the web. Those characteristics are:

Provisioning
Metering and Charge-back capability
Multi-tenancy
Elasticity

For further information, Laszewski points his readers to his 400-page book "Migrating to the Cloud" (co-authored with Prakash Nauduri).

Using the sysconfig Command to Configure Oracle Solaris 11

2011-12-01T17:00:00+01:00

Art Beckman explains "How to Configure Oracle Solaris 11 Using the sysconfig command." He writes that the Oracle Solaris 11 sysconfig command replaces the Oracle Solaris 10 sys-unconfig command and enables you to configure, unconfigure, and reconfigure systems, letting you generate system configuration profiles for use with the Automated Installer or with sysconfig itself. Beckman provides four examples of how to use the new Oracle Solaris 11 sysconfig command to unconfigure a system, configure a system, interactively reconfigure a system without a full reboot, and generate a configuration profile and use that profile to noninteractively reconfigure a system.

SPARC T4-4 Server Outperforms HP and IBM for 12th World Record

2011-12-01T17:00:00+01:00

In a recent press release Oracle announced a new performance record for its SPARC T4-4 server: a best-in-class TPC-H benchmark result at the three TB scale factor. Oracle Database 11g Release 2 and Oracle Solaris 11, running on a SPARC T4-4 server with four SPARC T4 3 GHz processors, achieved a stellar result of 205,792 QphH@3000GB with a price of $4.10/QphH@3000GB, over two times better performance per processor with 36 percent lower price per query (reported as $/QphH@3000GB) than IBM's most recent result by an eight processor Power 780 server running Sybase.

Java Spotlight Episode 58: Peter Korn and Ofir Leitner on ME Accessibility

2011-12-01T17:00:00+01:00

Java Spotlight Episode 58 features a discussion with Peter Korn and Ofir Leitner on mobile and embedded accessibility. Korn is Oracle's Accessibility Principal, as well as Technical Manager of the AEGIS project, leading an EC-funded �12.6m investment building accessibility into future mainstream ICT. Ofir Leitner is the architect of one of LWUIT's key features - the HTMLComponent which allows rendering HTML within LWUIT applications and embeding web-flows inside apps. The regular members of the Java All Star Developer Panel, Dalibor Topic, Java Free and Open Source Software Ambassador, and Alexis Moussine-Pouchkine, Java EE Developer Advocate are also featured.

Dual Boot Oracle Solaris 11/11 and Linux

2011-12-01T17:00:00+01:00

"Please back up your data carefully before trying any of this" is the prudent caution blogger Hartmut Streppel offers in his post "Dual Boot Oracle Solaris 11/11 and Linux (Ubuntu 11.10/grub2)." Beginning with the uninstall of Oracle Solaris 11 Express and an Open SuSE installation and then consulting the web, Streppel found instructions on the dual boot of Linux and Windows. He also found that Ubuntu needs an active partition and that grub2 uses a different numbering scheme for the partitions. Finally, using the grub CLI and a tool from sourceforge.net, Streppel confirmed the correctness of his basic setup.

Oracle Exadata Database Machine Consolidation: Segregating Databases and Roles (Sep. 2011)

2011-12-01T17:00:00+01:00

The Oracle white paper "Oracle Exadata Database Machine Consolidation: Segregating Databases and Roles" demonstrates how to isolate and secure each of the application databases on Exadata Database Machine so that the grid infrastructure as well as the application database can be administered separately and securely. The authors contend that treating the segregation of all databases and their administration from one another with separate diskgroups in a consolidated environment nevertheless offers an opportunity to consider such predictable variations as chargeback requirements or hybrid implementations that involve control by a single administrator of multiple databases, for example.

NetBeans IDE 7.1 Release Candidate

2011-12-01T17:00:00+01:00

For a rundown on what's new in NetBeans 7.1 see Arun Gupta's post on the availability of the download for NetBeans 7.1 RC1. Among the new features or improvements Gupta notes are Support for JavaFX2; enhanced Java editor; enhancements to support for Java EE; and changes involving CSS3, GUI Builder, Git, Maven3, etc. Gupta cites as his favorite the ability to create a Java EE 6 application, deploy on GlassFish, and then re-deploy the same application by changing the target to Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (internal build), which enables users to see the same application deployed to both servers.

Best Practices For Database Consolidation On Exadata Database Machine (Nov. 2011)

2011-12-01T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle Exadata, combined with Oracle resource management, provides a simpler and more flexible approach to database consolidation than other virtualization strategies such as hardware or OS virtualization. "Best Practices for Database Consolidation on Exadata Database Machine," an Oracle white paper, provides the best practices for setting up and managing applications for maximum stability and availability. Chapters include:

Planning for Exadata Consolidation
Resource Management
Maintenance and Management Considerations

The authors contend that these best practices maximize stability when supporting multiple applications and databases that use shared resources in a consolidated database environment

Haste Makes for Problems

2011-12-01T17:00:00+01:00

"People often feel that when it comes to email they are always on call. But the pressure to answer emails immediately should be resisted ..."

How many of us in the name of providing good service respond immediately to any email? That immediacy is not in your best interest for lots of reasons; these "Four Ways to Fight the Urge to Fire Off a Rapid Reply" will help you regain a sense of control. There are no doubts that there are fires during the day, but not every email announcement should set off your fire alarm.

Managing Virtualization with OracleVM: Oracle Magazine Article by Philip J. Gill

2011-12-01T17:00:00+01:00

The November/December 2011 issue of Oracle Magazine features a cover story by Philip J. Gill titled, "Managing the Virtual World," which focuses on how virtualization with Oracle VM consolidates servers and makes applications more available, reliable, and manageable. Gill writes about the experience of Lawrence Livermore National Lab and Pella Corporation in using virtualization. The article also considers the evolution of virtualization beyond consolidation, specifically Oracle VM 3.0's focus on "Application-Driven Virtualization."

Survey of Enterprise Storage Trends

2011-12-01T17:00:00+01:00

If Gestalt is your thing and you have a sharp machete, you might enjoy weeding your way through Stephen Foskett's piece on enterprise storage trends in DatacentreManagement.org. Foskett covers the field, touching on such trends as solid-state cache; virtualization-optimized storage; capacity optimization; automated tiered storage; and innovation in storage. It's hard going but that machete will get you through the tangle.

The Keys are The Key

2011-11-30T17:00:00+01:00

"Enterprises are having trouble recovering business information because they are not properly managing the data encryption keys, which effectively lock them out of the critical data they sought to protect ..."

Encryption is no longer an �if' question only a where, how and from whom. In a Symantec survey or 1,575 enterprises they found that "Poor Encryption Key Management Leads to Unrecoverable Data" (which should come as no surprise). Moreover, 40% of these companies did not have confidence in retrieving keys in times of need.

True DUH Insight

2011-11-30T17:00:00+01:00

"A study shows the human aspect needs to be included in security studies, where humans are the 'weakest link' ..."

An engineer and criminologist at the University of Maryland are researching how "Cyber-Crime Victims Often Provide Access Unwittingly" to the bad guys. What is surprising is that attacks are more likely to happen in broad daylight than late at night; the reason, users are surfing sites that infect their systems.

Legacy Issues

2011-11-29T17:00:00+01:00

"Recent hacks reveal that admins and vendors have fallen behind on protecting legacy systems ..."

Passwords are nothing new, they have been around forever and the problem is that legacy systems can be "Doomed by Default Passwords." Some vendors had default passwords that did not require users to change; others had hardwired passwords that invited intrusions. Either way big problems are on the horizon is you haven't checked the security on your legacy boxes.

Possible Successors to NAND Flash Even as 3D NAND Shows Promise

2011-11-29T17:00:00+01:00

If you've not yet heard of "phase-change memory (PCM), magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) or resistive RAM (RRAM) SearchStorage.com senior writer Carol Sliwa is certain you will. IBM's announcement this summer that thermal-based PCM might enable systems to retrieve data 100 times faster than NAND flash and to endure at least 10 million write cycles drew attention. In the view of some knowledgeable storage industry insiders, though, NAND's demise is years off because the cost of manufacturing these technologies is still prohibitive. Sliwa's article covers the range of technologies drawing attention both in the lab and the board room.

Worldwide Server Shipments Grew 7% - Gartner

2011-11-29T17:00:00+01:00

Gartner reports that server shipments worldwide are up 7% and revenue up 5% in 2011Q3. IBM led the worldwide server market based on revenue while HP declined 3.6 percent year-on-year and Oracle exhibited flat growth. HP held on to its leadership position in server shipments despite a decline for the quarter. Dell was in second place and IBM in third. The Register confirms Gartner's finding, noting that "shipment and revenue levels on a global basis have more or less recovered to the levels prevailing ahead of the server crash in the wake of the Great Recession three years ago."

Mod Data Centers

2011-11-28T17:00:00+01:00

"Prefabricated data centers can add serious efficiencies to construction, management, and operations. A report from The Green Grid indicates that organizations benefit enormously by adapting a modular and prefabricated approach to data center construction ..."

We aren't talking mod from the 60s but a shortened from of modular. CIO's and board rooms often have to build out data centers larger than what is currently needed to reduce the TCO. The problem is that space goes unused. When "Data Centers Go Modular" a JIT (just in time) mentality starts to take shape for both growth and contraction.

Holiday Traps

2011-11-28T17:00:00+01:00

"During the holiday season, cybercriminals are the Grinches of the tech world, trying to wreck everyone's holiday cheer with cyber scams. This year, security vendor McAfee says scammers will be working overtime to trap online gift buyers ..."

Those of us in IT know a scam when we come across one. Our friends and family tend to believe that whatever comes across the Internet is OK. MacAfee has put together a list of "The 12 Scams of Christmas"; take a minute and send these to you friends and family to make them aware that the bad guys are out there.

It�s Office Party Time Again

2011-11-28T17:00:00+01:00

"Holiday get-togethers can be a nice way to mark the season and to share a little warmth and appreciation with co-workers, but they can also be danger zones, social minefields into which you step at your own peril, dark and confusing places where your inappropriate behavior could have unintended consequences ..."

For those of you who think that the traditional office party is a anything goes affair, think again. Nothing is off the record and if you commit and of these "10 Office Party No-Nos" you could end up not invited to the next one�because you won't be there.

Getting Ready for the 2012 Summer Olympics

2011-11-28T17:00:00+01:00

"While London's massive Olympic park is still very much a frenetic construction site, IT engineers are fine tuning the equipment that will be used to transmit scores, let athletes send e-mail and transmit high-definition video of the Games ..."

The Technology Operations Center is in full swing as "London Wires Up" for the 2012 Olympic Games. The goal is for the 400+ people to become bored during the games with no issues. They know that is not going to happen but they are planning for every possible issue, problem, delay or outage that can be imagined.

The Next Evolution

2011-11-28T17:00:00+01:00

"Although IT professionals and vendors often think of storage efficiency in different ways, there are usually two main methods of handling it. One is through efficient storage systems that maximize resources. The other is through data management that determines where data is located and how it is protected ..."

Controlling data both in terms of efficiency of space and access is a time consuming business that is both an art and science. There is no doubt that "Efficient Storage Systems and Data Management Add Value", the problem is up until now vendor viewed these two as distinct areas. That is about to change in the near future.

Squeeze Every Last Byte

2011-11-28T17:00:00+01:00

"Recent flooding in Thailand has affected many hard drive manufacturers, resulting in price hikes for hard drives of as much as 50 to 100 percent. How long this will last is unclear, but in the meantime, you can postpone new purchases of storage gear by implementing these methods to help reduce unnecessary files, reduce the space used on the system, and allow for expansion with existing systems ..."

An interesting dichotomy exists in the storage world, prices keep dropping but yet the cost of storage keeps growing. Easy to understand when you look at data growth but the cost is still frustrating. Here are "Five Ways to Get the Most of Existing Storage" to help mitigate future expenditures.

Ongoing Battle of SSD, Disk and Tape

2011-11-28T17:00:00+01:00

Survey Finds 75% of European Businesses Might Not Recover from Disaster

2011-11-28T17:00:00+01:00

The recently published EMC-sponsored "European Disaster Recovery Survey 2011" found that more than half of all organizations (54%) lost data or suffered systems downtime in the last 12 months. The reasons were hardware failure: 61%; power failure: 42%; and data corruption: 35%. And the economic impact of these losses were loss of employees productivity: 43%; loss of revenue: 29%; and delay in product development: 27%. The survey also found that 80% of organizations using tape are looking to move beyond it, with the top reasons cited as speed of restoration 39%; faster backups 33%; and lack of durability 26%.

Better Late than Never

2011-11-28T17:00:00+01:00

"... handling enterprise storage is getting more complicated and requires more professional expertise as time goes by. Increasing creation of huge volumes of data from broad new array of devices along with the rapid expansion of virtual machines and increased federal regulation on securely retaining data archives are only three of the major reasons for this trend ..."

Even today there are companies that exhibit a laissez faire approach to DR until the hammer drops. If your company is not up to speed here are "10 DR Tips That Could Save a Storage Admin's Career." Most of these make a lot of sense and need to be done now.

The Straight Scoop

2011-11-28T17:00:00+01:00

"While organizations are deploying firewalls, public key cryptography and complying with various security and privacy regulations, many of them are still hanging onto certain misperceptions, 'falsehoods' and approaches that don't work ..."

There are two types of people that know about security; those that know and those that don't. These "Top 10 Dumb Computer Security Notions and Myths" really bog down the efforts of security pros that have to fight these every day.

Not Getting In from Pen Testing

2011-11-28T17:00:00+01:00

"The goal of a penetration tester is often misunderstood. It isn't centered around getting shell on a client's critical Web server or domain admin within its Microsoft Active Directory environment. Sure, those things are fun and can cause us to dance around like tweens at a Katy Perry concert, but there's more to penetration testing. The purpose of the test is to demonstrate the risk and impact that existing vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and lack of security awareness training can have on a business ..."

Most companies expect that hiring a penetration consultant will result in a entry somewhere; not necessarily. "Not Getting �In' Is An Option" for those companies that have a mature, well staffed and funded security operation. The goal in this case is to confirm that the effort, time and money was well spent.

You May Already Have IPv6 Devices

2011-11-28T17:00:00+01:00

"If your IPv6 strategy is to delay implementation as long as you can, you still must address IPv6 security concerns right now. If you plan to deploy IPv6 in a dual-stack configuration with IPv4, you're still not off thhook when it comes to security. And if you think you can simply turn off IPv6, that's not going to fly either ..."

This may come as a shock; even if you haven't deployed IPv6 you have devices that are IPv6 enabled. There in lies the problem as "Hackers Target IPv6" and you haven't done anything about IPv6 security. While IPv4 devices will ignore IPv6 messages, those devices on the network that are IPv6 enabled will see the messages and react.

What Made Steve Jobs Special

2011-11-28T17:00:00+01:00

"Walter Isaacson's biography of Apple's co-founder, Steve Jobs: The exclusive biography, tells the story of Jobs' life - from his rebellious teenage years and growing hippy leanings to his passion for tinkering with electronics and the friendship with Steve Wozniak that ultimately led to the founding of Apple in Jobs' parents' garage.

Isaacson also reveals the evolution of the Apple boss' business strategy, which enabled him to make his second term at Apple even more successful than his first - and to push the company to heights few would have thought possible years earlier ..."

Love him or hate him but no one was ambivalent about Steve Jobs. His style was straightforward and uncompromising as is the "Ten Leadership Lessons from the Steve Jobs School of Management." Are you and I going to become another Steve Jobs? No. Will we understand, adapt and incorporate what works for us? Yes.

Plan Before You Leap

2011-11-27T17:00:00+01:00

"Cloud Technology Partners execs share advice on avoiding common traps as you move from legacy enterprise infrastructure to the private cloud ..."

The cloud sounds so good; reduce costs; improve performance; react faster; and the list goes on. The problem is that the cloud is not all cream and cookies. Before you start, address these "Six Big Questions for Private Cloud Projects"; and these are only the beginning of the due diligent process.

One Step At A Time

2011-11-27T17:00:00+01:00

"Virtualization and cloud computing increase efficiency and flexibility in providing data and applications to users, yet managing performance of applications and transactions in the cloud is neither simple nor easy ..."

Getting your apps into a cloud is like herding cats; there are a few issues along the way. These "10 Steps to Moving to the Cloud" should allow you to make a document detailing what needs to be done, who needs to be involved and when each step needs to be completed. Like any project document, the cloud plan is not engraved in stone but evolves with real time information.

Small issues Cause Big Problems

2011-11-27T17:00:00+01:00

"Sometimes it's the unknown or overlooked little mistakes that leave an organization wide open to attack: a missing hash mark in a server configuration, a long-forgotten PBX user account, or an embedded Web server in an office printer ..."

Security follows life in a lot of ways, often times we worry about big things when in fact little things cause the most problems. Take a look at these "Six Deadly Security Blunders Businesses Make" and then take a look at your own environment to see how man exist/

The Winds of Change

2011-11-27T17:00:00+01:00

"Gartner analyst Ken McGee has a radical assessment of IT and what CIOs need to do about. Read his principles of the 'new CIO manifesto.' ... "

Solve DARPA Puzzle and Win $50k

2011-11-27T17:00:00+01:00

"If you like puzzles and think you could make shredded or severely damaged documents whole again in a particularly cool way, then the scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have a challenge for you ..."

Shredded documents are a little difficult to reconstruct; to find innovative outside solutions "DARPA Offers $50,000 Prize If You Can Figure Out These Shredded Puzzles". There are five documents that have been individually shredded, then mixed together with some pieces missing or pieces added. Should be very interesting.

It�s the Little Things that Eat You Alive

2011-11-27T17:00:00+01:00

"IT administrators are often so busy just trying to keep up with the obvious security threats that many more problems fly under the radar. ..."

Mosquitoes are amazingly annoying little pests and they can wreck havoc on you weekends and you health. Likewise these "10 Security Problems You Might Not Realize You Have" can wreak havoc on you and your company; As always it's the little things that eat you alive.

Board Prepared

2011-11-27T17:00:00+01:00

"As CIOs increase their interactions with the board of directors, it is vital that they improve their knowledge of this unique and independent audience, according to Gartner, Inc. Only 16 percent of board directors have any IT background or experience ..."

Sooner or later the CEO is going to ask you to present to their boss. These "Seven Points CIOs Must Know About the Board of Directors" will help you navigate the mine field. Two thing to remember; don't step in anything and don't surprise your boss in front of the Board.

Don't Let Stress Become Life Threatening

2011-11-27T17:00:00+01:00

IT Is Not Being Consulted

2011-11-27T17:00:00+01:00

"Cloud computing rapidly gained traction because of its ability to manage the complexity of multiple legacy environments while consolidating infrastructure. But as organizations move forward with various cloud initiatives, many CIOs are now wrestling a sprawl of clouds that seems to be spinning out of control ..."

One of the problems IT is facing daily are the number of end users that are signing up for cloud services without any input from IT and then expecting IT to support their choices. IT is looking at solving this issue through "Federated Cloud Strategies"; What CIOs Need to Know when addressing both the cloud and the users.

Consultant Translator

2011-11-27T17:00:00+01:00

"Consultants have been a mainstay of IT departments forever. But in the cloud the commercial language is filled with a new set of euphemisms you need to understand. Here are some to look out for ..."

Ever have a talk with a consultant, walk away and then come to the conclusion you don't have the foggiest idea what just went on. Here's What Your Cloud Consultant is "Trying to Tell You" when you hear any of these statements.

Employee Firing Errors

2011-11-27T17:00:00+01:00

"Terminating an employee is one of the hardest things a manager will ever have to do. Because firing someone can be so emotionally charged and logistically complicated, it's an easy process to mess up. Here are six more common mistakes managers make ..."

No doubt that tiring an employee is tough; even when deserved. Here are "6 More Mistakes Managers Make When Firing Employees"; watch out for these in this litigious era.

Pay Attention During the Day

2011-11-27T17:00:00+01:00

"We've all been there: you've got a million things on your to-do list and yet somehow you find yourself reading about a man who ordered a giant monster slipper or watching a video of a skateboarding dog ..."

Have you ever stepped back and looked at where you spend you time during the day; or do you wonder at the end of the day where the time went? If you are in the later here are the "Top 10 Ways to Avoid Distractions at Work". Will this make you immediately more productive, who knows, but one thing is for sure, you can be proactive instead of reactive to the distractions during the day.

Relieving Stress

2011-11-27T17:00:00+01:00

Solaris 11 Launch Blog Roundup

2011-11-27T17:00:00+01:00

Contantin Gonzalez has compiled what he terms the "Solaris Launch Blog Carnival Roundup," where blogs pertaining to the Oracle Solaris 11 launch are grouped into helpful categories such as:

Getting Started/Overview
Automatic Installation and the Image Packaging System
Networking
DTrace
Security
Developers-
Desktop and Graphics
Performance

A lot of Oracle and non-Oracle bloggers contributed helpful and informative blog articles.

No One is 100% Secure

2011-11-27T17:00:00+01:00

"Data breaches are inevitable. Ask Sony CEO Howard Stringer, who called security a 'never-ending process' ..."

Hacking and data breaches are, unfortunately, a fact of life. Taking data, network, server and access security lightly is a sure path to big trouble. Here are "10 Tips for Fortifying Network Security". The bottom line is that constant vigilances, testing, analysis and training are the only ways to stand a chance of discovering a problem.

Sub $5K NAS Shootout

2011-11-27T17:00:00+01:00

"Five- and six-bay NAS cabinets from Iomega, Netgear, QNAP, Synology, and Thecus compete on speed, ease, and business features ..."

Technical Product Guide for Sun Ray Clients

2011-11-25T17:00:00+01:00

On Jaap's VDI Blog Space readers will find a link to the new technical guide for all three Sun Ray clients: Sun Ray 3, Sun Ray 3 plus, and Sun Ray 3i. The online documentation provides detailed information about the similarities and differences between the three Sun Ray client hardware models. The "Sun Ray 3 Series Clients Product Guide" lists the features and technical specifications of the Sun Ray Client such as number of ports, chassis, graphics, network interfaces, power supply, operating conditions, MTBF, reliability, and other standards. The guide also contains a separate chapter about environmental data.

84 Open Source Companies Ranked By Momentum Index

2011-11-25T17:00:00+01:00

MomentumIndex.com has ranked 84 open source companies with Acquia at the top of the list, followed by talend and Jaspersoft. Others include

Automattic - WordPress.com
SugarCRM - Customer relationship management
Engine Yard - PaaS for Ruby on Rails and PHP
Appcelerator - For rapidly developing native and HTML5 mobile web apps
Kaltura - Open Source Online Video Platform
Alfresco - Enterprise CMS
Nexenta - Open source enterprise class storage solutions based on Solaris

MomentumIndex identifies exposure to cloud computing as responsible for those companies exhibiting the fastest growth.

Richard Bair on JavaFX 2.0 Architecture and Programming Model

2011-11-25T17:00:00+01:00

In his JavaOne 2011 presentation on JavaFX Architecture Richard Bair's program agenda covers architecture, observable collections, properties, events, callbacks, and threading. Rather than concentrating on the JavaFX Public APIs and Scenegraph, Bair focuses his presentation of the implementation on the toolkit interface, the quantum toolkit, Prism, and Glass. Blogger robilad provides links to both Nicolas Lorain's Introduction to JavaFX 2.0, which he recommends as an introduction, and to Bair's above mentioned presentation. Both talks are on parleys.com and both are one hour plus in length.

Creating a Solaris 10 Branded Zone in Solaris 11

2011-11-25T17:00:00+01:00

Jeff Savit recounts his experience of building what he terms "a low effort way" to create a virtual Solaris 10 zone on Oracle Solaris 11. With the Oracle VM Templates for Oracle Solaris 10 Zones now available, Savit says, one can download a complete Solaris 10 install in a guest virtual machine that can run on any host OS that supports VirtualBox. Both sets of downloads (and he includes the link in his blog) provide a quick - and extremely easy way to set up a virtual Solaris 10 environment.

Transitioning From Oracle Solaris 10 to Oracle Solaris 11 (Overview)

2011-11-25T17:00:00+01:00

"Transitioning from Oracle Solaris 10 to Oracle Solaris 11 (Overview)" is a guide that provides answers to some of the questions likely to arise in the course of the transition. The guide also includes, when applicable, information about transitioning from Oracle Solaris 11 Express to Oracle Solaris 11. Most Oracle Solaris 10 applications are known to work on Oracle Solaris 11, and supported applications can be run as is. One can even run applications that rely on features excluded from Oracle Solaris 11 in an Oracle Solaris 10 virtual environment.

15x Performance Improvements Without Really Trying?

2011-11-25T17:00:00+01:00

Dr. John Feo summarizes his findings on two dozen personal codes: those written by single users or small research groups for their own use and not otherwise distributed. For all but two of these programs, Feo writes, it was possible to improve single processor performance by margins of from 2x to 15.5x with a simple average of 4.75x. Feo concludes that personal scientific research codes are highly inefficient and not running parallel chiefly because developers are unaware of simple optimization techniques. His recommendation is to require graduate students to take a semester length course in optimization and parallel programming.

Oracle Solaris 10 Compared to Oracle Solaris 11

2011-11-25T17:00:00+01:00

There is a feature-by-feature comparison of Oracle Solaris 10 and Oracle Solaris 11 on the oracle.com site. The comparison is in tabular form that includes a column with links devoted to additional information concerning all the features under discussion, some of which are listed below:

Booting from a root device
Booting from the network
Booting (recovery)
Desktop environment
Installation (graphical)
Installation (interactive text)
Network configuration (manual and automatic)
Network configuration (DHCP)
Network configuration (wireless)
Packaging (software management)
Security management
System configuration and reconfiguration
User account management

Much is the same, but much has also changed.

New Shell In Oracle Solaris 11

2011-11-25T17:00:00+01:00

The new shell in Oracle Solaris 11, "Korn Shell 93," replaces both the Bourne Shell (/usr/bin/sh or /sbin/sh) and Korn Shell 88 ((/usr/bin/ksh), reports Rick Ramsey, noting some incompatibilities between the shells and where to find them described. In addition, Ramsey includes a list that tabulates "If this doesn't work"/"Use This" instances that enable users, in cases where scripts have compatibility problems, to use the legacy shell by changing the she-bang line.

Oracle Solaris 11 ZFS File System on Oracle Solaris 11

2011-11-25T17:00:00+01:00

In the sun.com post "Oracle Solaris 11 ZFS File System on Oracle Solaris 11" readers will find a multi-part hands-on tutorial on the basics of Oracle Solaris ZFS that describes how devices are used in storage pools and considers performance and availability. It also looks at the various types of Oracle Solaris ZFS datasets that can be created and when to use each type. Participants will learn about file system snapshots, cloning data, allocation limits and recovering from common errors. The exercises take participants through creating some zpools and exploring different types of virtual devices (vdevs).

Java Spotlight Episode 57: Live From Devoxx 11

2011-11-22T17:00:00+01:00

Java Spotlight Episode 57: Live from Devox 11 features an interview with Ben Evans and Martijn Verburg from the London JUG along with Yara Senger from the SouJava JUG. Under discussion are the JCP Executive Committee Elections, JSR 248, and Adopt-a-JSR program. Host Roger Brinkley points out that both the London JUG and SouJava JUG are JCP Standard Edition Executive Committee Members. He identifies some new faces on the Java All Star Developer Panel as well: Geertjan Wielenga, Principal Product Manger in Oracle Developer Tools; Stephen Chin, Java Champion and Java FX expert; and Antonio Goncalves, Paris JUG leader.

Open Source Is Not a One Man Band

2011-11-22T17:00:00+01:00

Open source is about very much more than avoiding licensing fees, Simon Phipps contends in his blog Open Source Nurtures Innovation. He argues cogently that absence of the need for an individual or a small group of developers to maintain code libraries (a must with proprietary software) frees writers of software to concentrate on new applications. In the world of open source, " ... instead of being solely responsible for the sustaining of every innovation they add, innovators can contribute their work to the shared code commons and have the sustaining shared by everyone," according to Phipps.

The Future of the SPARC M4

2011-11-21T17:00:00+01:00

Timothy Prickett Morgan speculates on the future of the SPARC M4 processor and the respective roles Oracle and Fujitsu might be expected to play in its manufacture. "Speculates" is the operant word because Morgan concedes that neither company is being particularly vocal about the M4. The piece concludes with the opinion that the Oracle-Fujitsu collaboration might well be viable, with Oracle concentrating on entry- and mid-level systems and Fujitsu on HPC interconnects and SPARC chips tuned for massively parallel supercomputers. Given Oracle's reticence on the subject, the author is pursuing Fujitsu for details. More later ... or not.

Creating User Home Directory Encryption with ZFS

2011-11-21T17:00:00+01:00

In the blog "User home directory encryption with ZFS" Darren Moffat demonstrates how to exploit the ability of ZFS encryption to delegate key management to individual users, combined with a PAM module he wrote, to provide per-user encrypted home directories. All the necessary code is included in Moffat's post.

Migrating from Hyper-V and vSphere to Oracle VM (Oracle's Virtualization Blog)

2011-11-21T17:00:00+01:00

In three simple steps it's possible, according to Ronen Kofman's blog, to migrate from Hyper-V and vSphere to Oracle VM. Those steps are:

Package your VM as an OVA (on vSphere simply export it as an OVA)
Import it to the Oracle VM manager as an Assembly
Treat this like any other assembly; create a template and clone it as often as you wish

No dedicated tools or converters, Kofman claims: simplicity in itself.

Oracle VM VirtualBox Gains a Fan

2011-11-21T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle VM VirtualBox has become the new favorite tool of Ginny Henningsen, who writes that, in testing database installation procedures, she discovered how simple it was to create multiple OS installation test cases as well as snapshot her progress at various points along the way. "Oracle VM VirtualBox turned my simple x86 system into a non-production sandbox, [and] ... taking Oracle VM VirtualBox snapshots along the way let me return to a known working operating system state," she writes. Oracle VM VirtualBox benefits system administrators familiar with one OS who are learning to perform tasks in another, new OS.

Installing Oracle Solaris 11 in Oracle VM VirtualBox

2011-11-21T17:00:00+01:00

In the first of a series of hands-on labs dealing with Oracle Solaris 11 readers will find the steps involved in using the Oracle Solaris 11 Image for Oracle VM VirtualBox to get up and running quickly with Oracle Solaris 11. The lab is divided into four exercises, as follows:

Exercise 1: Download the Oracle Solaris 11 VM for Oracle VM VirtualBox
Exercise 2: Import the Oracle Solaris 11 VM into VirtualBox
Exercise 3: Start the Oracle Solaris 11 Express VM
Exercise 4: Take a snapshot

Enjoy!

Java Spotlight Episode 56: Stephan Janssen

2011-11-21T17:00:00+01:00

Java Chamption Stephan Janssen joins Roger Brinkley on Java Spotlight Episode 56 for a discussion of Devoxx and Parleys. Janssen is the CTO of the Java Competence Center at RealDolmen and has been involved with developing and implementing real world Java solutions in the finance and manufacturing industries. Server Side has named him as one of the 54 Who is Who in Enterprise Java 2004. Sun recognized him in 2005 for his efforts in the Java Community and has engaged him in the Java Champion project. Seated on the Java All Star Developer Panel are Dalibor Topic, Java Free and Open Source Software Ambassador, and Alexis Moussine-Pouchkine, Java EE Developer Advocate.

Board Prepared

2011-11-17T17:00:00+01:00

Appliance Sizing

2011-11-17T17:00:00+01:00

"Buying a backup appliance simplifies the entire integration effort, because you no longer worry about how the software and hardware work together. That's the good news. The bad news is that you still have a sizing decision to make, and picking the wrong sized solution can impact your success ..."

One of the many frustrations with backup is that the quantity of data is never the same; sometimes drastically. The best you can ever do is "Over- Or Under-Size Your Backup Appliance on Purpose". Using straightforward questions and subsequent data will get you close and any choice will not go wasted.

Policies that Work

2011-11-17T17:00:00+01:00

"Striking the right balance between risk mitigation and the commercial demands of the business is an essential skill, which must be adapted according to the nature of your industry and the size, culture and risk appetite of your organization. This role needs to have clear ownership at senior management level ..."

Ever get the feeling that policies are not working or ever worse ignored? You may have poorly written and enforced policies; while the intent was great the execution wasn't. Here's a guide to "Policy Excellence in Six Steps" that will take the intent and combine with good execution for policies that can be understood, implemented and tracked for follow-up, review and modified if necessary.

Don't Let Stress Become Life Threatening

2011-11-17T17:00:00+01:00

An Ounce of Prevention

2011-11-17T17:00:00+01:00

"it's time for our society to adopt a new set of street smarts - technology skepticism. Blindly trusting electronic resources, connectivity, or services puts our identities, finances, and privacy at risk. It's time to pay attention and take precautions ..."

The bad guys are everywhere; fortunately for most of us we are not on their radar unless we happen to be low hanging fruit. Here are "Ten Technology Opponents You Can Beat" by applying some good techniques and awareness.

Keeping Out of Court

2011-11-17T17:00:00+01:00

"Many employers now see the benefits of their staff using social media but that doesn't mean businesses should turn a blind eye to the legal risks, says lawyer Kate Hodgkiss ..."

More and more companies are understanding the power of social media; what they don't have in place are any policies governing their use. Here are "Five Things You Need to know to Avoid a Social Media Lawsuit"]. The last thing you want to say in court is 'I didn't know'.

More Life for IPv4

2011-11-17T17:00:00+01:00

"It is clear that IPv4 is going to be with us for decades to come and there are strategies to prolong the lifespan of IPv4. Are these strategies worthwhile or are they distracting and confusing the industry from moving to IPv6? ..."

IPv4 is not going away any time soon regardless of what the IPv6 pundits would like us to believe. That being said something has to be done and "Techniques for Prolonging the Lifespan of IPv4"] will likely be forthcoming.

Why Fees are Going to Go Up

2011-11-17T17:00:00+01:00

"Congestion on the Web means more profits for providers -- and less bandwidth and higher prices for us ..."

In an interesting treatise on "Why the Big Carriers Won't Build Out Their Networks" the author uses an interesting analogy. While the paper referenced is from June 2008, the impact is current. As long as the networks stay congested someone will pay dearly for faster speeds and in the end we all pay higher fees for poorer performance.

Moving Security Expertise

2011-11-17T17:00:00+01:00

"There are definitely inherent advantages and disadvantages to moving to a cloud-based firewall ..."

As more and more functions move from in house to out house (no pun intended) there is a cost in skills. No where is this more evident than with security. Looking at the "Pros and Cons of a Cloud-Based Firewall" we see that security expertise moves from your control to the providers' control. You need to make sure you have the expertise to monitor any incidents effectively.

IT Is Not Being Consulted

2011-11-17T17:00:00+01:00

Building an Infrastructure Cloud with Oracle VM for x86 + Enterprise Manager 12c

2011-11-17T17:00:00+01:00

Setting up an infrastructure cloud service is a piece of cake, so to speak, blogs Richard Rotter on Oracle Systems Blog Austria. He did it himself, he writes, in a mere three hours -- configuring a complete cloud environment with three x86 servers and a small JBOD. All the process required was Oracle VM for X86, Enterprise Manager 12c and some experience with both those solutions. He outlines the process aspect by aspect, moving from hardware to virtualization and concluding with cloud management. Rotter's post is an ideal place for the relatively uninitiated to begin in familiarizing themselves with the cloud. He promises a technical cookbook on the subject in a matter of weeks.

CIOs Strive for Smarter Use of IT in 2012

2011-11-17T17:00:00+01:00

Some major shifts in emphasis among CIOs of European Communciations Service Providers (CSPs) were discovered in a survey conducted by PwC. Chief among these changes was the declared intention to outsource a number of areas of their business in 2012, including network and fault management, and provisioning and order management. Another major change is in the area of bespoke applications, which are being replaced by commercial off-the-shelf applications. Respondents contend that their increased use of COTS in 2012 and the associated lower total cost of ownership will allow them to target more of their budget to growth activities.

How Much is Enough

2011-11-16T17:00:00+01:00

"Cadillac or Kia? How much security is enough, and how much is too much? Can you even have too much security? Is seeking perfection in security a luxury or a necessity? ..."

In the era of reduced budgets the balancing of safety vs. cost is ever present. In "Why Not Spring for Cadillac Security], the author makes one important point. Companies have to be correct 100% of the time in security, the bad guys only have to be right once! You can cut back if the C levels will tell you where the danger will appear, when the danger will appear and what the danger looks like�so much for cutting back.

Completely Disabling Root Logins on Solaris 11

2011-11-16T17:00:00+01:00

With Solaris 11 it is possible to completely disable all need for a root password even for access in single user mode, Darren Moffat blogs, explaining that two complementary new features make this possible. The first is the ability to change which password is used when authenticating to a role. The second feature involves changes to the sulogin program, enabling it to authenticate a specific user. He includes the sequence of commands that transform a root from a normal root account and grant the user the ability to assume the root role and enter single user mode.

Solaris 11 Resources for System Administrators

2011-11-16T17:00:00+01:00

"Solaris 11 Resources for System Administrators" is a blog posted by Rick Ramsey that very helpfully collects in a single place a variety of resources pertinent to the responsibilities of system administrators. The resources are divided into several categories:

Oracle Solaris 11 Documentation Library
Oracle Solaris 11 Training
Indexes and Feeds of Our Best How-To Articles
OTN Systems Community Home Page
And, at a more informal level, the Facebook, Twitter and blog pages and sites

Just about everything a sysadmin might wish to know.

Recent Benchmarks Using Oracle Solaris 11

2011-11-16T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle's BestPerf site lists a series of links to recent benchmarks using Oracle Solaris 11. Among them are the following:

SPARC T4-2 Delivers World Record SPECjvm2008 Result with Oracle Solaris 11
SPARC T4-4 Produces World Record Oracle OLAP Capacity
SPARC T4-2 Server Beats Intel (Westmere AES-NI) on ZFS Encryption Tests
SPARC T4 Processor Beats Intel (Westmere AES-NI) on AES Encryption Tests
SPARC T4 Processor Outperforms IBM POWER7 and Intel (Westmere AES-NI) on OpenSSL AES Encryption Test
SPARC T4-1 Server Outperforms Intel (Westmere AES-NI) on IPsec Encryption Tests

See the BestPerf site for details.

Advanced Security Whitepaper on Oracle Utilities Application Framework

2011-11-16T17:00:00+01:00

A new whitepaper is now available from My Oracle Support that outlines common security requirements for industries and markets and outlines the solution that can be implemented using native facilities from the Oracle Utilities Application Framework and/or Oracle Identity Management Suite. Anthony Shorten blogs that the Oracle Utilities Application Framework contains security facilities that can be used standalone or in conjunction with components of Oracle Identity Management Suite to provide a complete solution. The whitepaper itself is designed to inform partners and customers of common security requirements and where the Oracle Utilities Application Framework facilities can best be used and where inclusion of components of Oracle Identity Management Suite can be used as well to meet those requirements. Registration and login are required at My Oracle Support and the whitepaper is available at Doc Id: 1375615.1.

Work Smarter Not Harder

2011-11-16T17:00:00+01:00

"Managing the growing amount of accumulated data can be difficult for any business, but those that apply the right management tools will find ways to increase the efficiency of their storage environments. ..."

If you continue to do what you've always done the trying to get control of an ever increasing storage pool will only get frustrating in the future. "Storage Efficiency is Key to Managing Fast Growing Data" where you can do more with your current staff.

The IPS System Repository

2011-11-15T17:00:00+01:00

In earlier OpenSolaris releases, after each global-zone update, each non-global zone had to be updated by hand, attaching and detaching each zone, Tim Foster blogs. During that detach/attach the ipkg brand scripts determined which packages were in the global zone and updated the non-global zone accordingly. In Solaris 11 each zone is installed as a linked image, connected to the parent image, which is the global zone. During packaging operations in the global zone, IPS recurses into any non-global zones to ensure that packages are kept in synch between the global and non-global zone.

SPARC T4 OpenSSL Engine

2011-11-15T17:00:00+01:00

Among the important new features of the SPARC T4 microprocessor are several new instructions available to perform cryptography functions in hardware, according to a blog post from Dan Anderson. These instructions are used in the OpenSSL 1.0 t4 engine available in Solaris 11. These new crypto instructions are different from previous generations of SPARC hardware, which has separate crypto processing units. The major difference lies in solving the problem of kernel and buffer overhead, Anderson writes. These new instructions are non-privileged: any program can create or use these instructions'no kernel environment, root permissions, or special setup is needed, he explains.

Before you Download Solaris 11 Find Out Which Devices Are Supported

2011-11-15T17:00:00+01:00

Before a user installs Oracle Solaris 11, it would be helpful to know which devices the solution supports. In a recent blog post, Rick Ramsey explains how this can be determined. Consulting the x86 Device List (part of the Oracle Solaris Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) will reveal that information, Ramsey writes, listing the steps to access the table that will list all the devices of that type that are supported by Solaris 11, including PCI ID and vendor.

GlassFish at Three

2011-11-15T17:00:00+01:00

The third anniversary of the first GlassFish v3 shipment is the subject of Moussine-Pouchkine's blog in which he also announces the imminent release of version 3.1.2, due in 2012. This version includes new features as well as updated components and, of course, bug fixes. Mouchkine-Poussine's favorite new features include DCOM node support and GMS non-multicast support. There is a link in his blog that readers can use to register their preferences on additional new features and fixes for the release.

Solaris AESNI OpenSSL Engine

2011-11-15T17:00:00+01:00

The new Intel Westmere microprocessor has six new instructions to accelerate AES encryption, Dan Anderson blogs. They are called "AESNI" for "AES New Instructions," and are unprivileged instructions, so no "root", other elevated access, or context switch is required to execute these instructions. These instructions are used in a new built-in OpenSSL 1.0 engine available in Solaris 11, the aesni engine. The combination of these solutions makes e-commerce cryptographic operations easier and lower in cost, Anderson contends. He identifies the six instructions and discusses their use with the Oracle Solaris 11 and OpenSSL software optimizations.

'Java Performance": New Title by Charlie Hunt and Binu John

2011-11-15T17:00:00+01:00

High praise comes for the new 700-page book "Java Performance" by Charlie Hunt and Binu John in a blog by Alexis Moussine-Pouchkine, where he describes the tome as " ... a definitive guide to performance." The contents of "Java Performance" include such topics as performance goals, JVM monitoring and tuning, hotspot-detailed architecture and behavior, Java EE and application server performance and tuning, the blog reports. Four entire chapters are devoted to multitiered applications, web applications, web services and JPA and EJB performance, he writes.

Building a Solaris 11 Repository Without Network Connection

2011-11-14T17:00:00+01:00

In blogger Jim Laurent's view one of the great new features of Oracle Solaris 11 is the repository-based Image Packaging system (IPS), which not only introduces new cloud based package installation services, but is also integrated with the zones, boot environment and ZFS file systems to provide a safe, easy and fast way to perform system updates. Laurent explains that users without network access can now employ the IPS and locally stored repository to create a Solaris 11 system. He provides a "quick and dirty" procedure to create the repository and an explanation of how each command functions.

Taking Your First Steps with Oracle Solaris 11

2011-11-14T17:00:00+01:00

Since Oracle Solaris 11 is distributed with several different installation options, Brian Leonard and Glynn Foster have created a procedure to guide users through the interactive graphical installer, officially known as "Live Media." With the graphical installer, Oracle Solaris 11 can be booted into RAM, causing zero impact on an existing operating system, the authors explain. After it is loaded, users are free to experiment with Oracle Solaris to determine whether it is something they would like to install on their systems. The blog post contains the necessary code samples and illustrative screen shots to render a complex process manageable.

What's Ahead in 2012

2011-11-14T17:00:00+01:00

"... my predication for technology are all about communication and the information stream. Technology in 2012 and beyond will significantly shift and enhance the exchange of information for people and for enterprise organizations ..."

The bottom line is that no one really knows exactly what the future holds; however, these "Seven Technology Predictions for 2012" should not be that far off. The one surprise is #5, haven't seen any sign of this but who knows.

Reasons to Implement iSCSI

2011-11-14T17:00:00+01:00

Everything Needs to be Cut Back in the Cloud

2011-11-14T17:00:00+01:00

"Year after year, the cost of disk space has plummeted. Since you can pick up a terabyte for $50, it's often seemed a false economy to be careful with storage. But in the clouds, the rules are different. If you've got too much low-value data or too many copies of files, it can cost you ..."

Data whether in the cloud or your back yard can get out of control and become unmanageable (and expensive). Here are some "Strategies for Pruning Data in the Cloud"; I suspect that the same techniques could be used for pruning data in your captive environment.

Java Spotlight Episode 55: Georges Saab, VP of Core Java Development in the Java Platform Group

2011-11-14T17:00:00+01:00

Georges Saab, VP of Core Java Development at Oracle, joins host Roger Brinkley for Episode 55 of the Java Spotlight. Saab's history includes his current work on the Java language, core libraries, and the Java Virtual Machine. Saab is a 20-plus-year veteran of programming language and platform development. Members of this episode's Java All Star Developer Panel are Dalibor Topic, Java Free and Open Source Software Ambassador, and Alexis Moussine-Pouchkine, Java EE Developer Advocate.

New World Record for SPARC T4-2 on SPECjvm2008 Result with Oracle Solaris 11

2011-11-14T17:00:00+01:00

The SPARC T4-2 Server equipped with two SPARC T4 processors running at 2.85 GigaHertz (GHz) and using Oracle Solaris 11 and Oracle JDK 7 Update 2 set a world record of 454.25 SPECjvm2008 Peak ops/m on the SPECjvm2008 benchmark, a benchmark suite for measuring the performance of a Java Runtime Environment (JRE). This level of performance is 41% better than the mark set by the SPARC T3-2 Server. The hardware cryptography acceleration built into the SPARC T4-2 was found to greatly increase performance on subtests using AES and RSA encryption ciphers.

Where are Your Docs

2011-11-14T17:00:00+01:00

"DropBox, GoogleDocs, Microsoft Office 365, SkyDox ... the field of companies urging you to put your documents in the cloud is growing by the minute. Appealing as this concept might seem, CFOs and IT teams have to take a step back and evaluate the benefits and risks ..."

There is good news and bad news about docs in the cloud. The good news is that the docs are in the cloud; the bad news is that the docs are in the cloud. You need to take a hard look at "Company Docs in the Cloud: The Risks and Rewards". Employees will put them in the cloud and you need to have policies and procedures in place to make sure where they are, they are protected and you can get them back.

Basic Business Skills Lacking in College Grads

2011-11-12T17:00:00+01:00

"... says he doubts any new college grad could easily fill any of those roles. Undergraduate and graduate programs aren't able to keep up with the needs of enterprise IT shops ..."

Colleges are good at some things; making grads ready for the real world is not one of them. IT execs discuss the "7 Key Skills New IT Grads" are Lacking. There are jobs waiting but a college degree isn't the ticket pass go and start collecting a pay check.

Oracle Solaris 11 Launch Web Replay

2011-11-11T17:00:00+01:00

Viewers can watch Oracle President Mark Hurd and Executive Vice President, Systems, Oracle, introduce Oracle Solaris 11 to the IT world in this replay of the original event on November 9, 2011. In their remarks, Hurd and Fowler describe Oracle Solaris 11 as the industry's best UNIX operating system with unique features, including advanced file system technologies, advanced security, and built-in virtualization in every dimension. They explain further that Oracle Solaris 11 has been engineered, tested, and supported to get the most of SPARC and x86 systems.

LibreOffice 3.4.4 Available for Download

2011-11-10T17:00:00+01:00

LibreOffice 3.4.4, an improved version of the award-winning free office suite for Windows, Mac and Linux, is available for download, according to The Document Foundation. With the release of a native language version in Scottish Gaelic, the number of such versions is now 105. LibreOffice has recently won InfoWorld's BOSSIE Award 2011 as Best of Open Source Software, and the Open World Forum Experiment Award of Most-Popular Software. LibreOffice 3.4.4 is available for immediate download. Extensions for LibreOffice are also available.

Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.1.6

2011-11-10T17:00:00+01:00

There are a number of items either fixed or added in Oracle's maintenance release of VirtualBox 4.1.6. These are detailed in the changelog.

Oracle Named to Leaders Quadrant in Gartner's 2011 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Application Servers

2011-11-10T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle has been named in the Leaders Quadrant of Gartner's 2011 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Application Servers for both its vision within a particular market segment and for the completeness of vision and ability to execute on that vision. In Oracle's case, its Cloud Application Foundation and Oracle WebLogic Server figure prominently as the reason behind the nomination. Oracle describes its Oracle WebLogic Server as " ... optimized to run as a high performance, mission critical, elastic cloud infrastructure on Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud, the world�s first and only engineered system for cloud computing, tested and tuned by Oracle to provide the best foundation for Java applications ...."

Best Practices for Maintaining and Upgrading Oracle Solaris

2011-11-10T17:00:00+01:00

In the course of a 43-slide presentation, Rob Hulme, Senior Director, Solaris and Network Domain, and Chris Gerhard, Chief Technologist. Solaris and Network Domain, tell viewers just about all they might ever might need to know about "Best Practices for Maintaining and Upgrading Oracle Solaris." In the simplest possible language, the presenters summarize their message about the three best practices thus:

Getting the most out of My Oracle Support
Upgrading Solaris
How and where to get help

Pretty much as suggested above: all you might ever need to know.

Best Practices for Mission-Critical Computing on SPARC Servers

2011-11-10T17:00:00+01:00

Gary Combs and Eve Kleinknecht, both principal product managers at Oracle, presented at Oracle Open World on "Best Practices for Mission-Critical Computing on SPARC Servers." Now the 50-slide set from their presentation is available for download and viewing. The presentation concludes that the best High Availability solution for Oracle Solaris (itself the number one enterprise OS) is Oracle Solaris Cluster for its ability to deliver higher service levels for mission critical applications; its ability to provide protection for consolidated, virtualized workloads; and its ability to perform disaster recovery in an elastic, flexible environment.

Evolution not Revolution

2011-11-10T17:00:00+01:00

"As we gain experience with the cloud, expect to see centralized trust systems, amazingly large databases, and more ..."

The cloud is not going away and any revolution in utilizing the cloud wll not be materialize. What we will see is an evolution around these "5 Key Trends in Cloud Computing's Future"; while the final product will morph over time, these are a good roadmap as to what's going to occur.

Best Practices for Supporting Sun Server and Storage Systems

2011-11-10T17:00:00+01:00

The 44-slide presentation on "Best Practices for Supporting Sun Server and Storage Systems" by Ray Cappola, Director, Oracle Proactive Systems Support, and Wayne Seltzer, Principal Product Manager, Oracle Proactive Support Center, which they presented at Oracle OpenWorld 2011, is now available as a download. The presenters recommend three best practices as the outset, which are:

Install and use Oracle Auto Service Request
Take advantage of My Oracle Support Automated Diagnosis
Access Oracle Sun System Analysis Reports for your Oracle Solaris server

Home free at this point? Not quite but well on the way to faster problem resolution and simplified support operations. The presenters then delve into the details on each of the recommended best practices listed above.

Building a Virtual Computing Platform for Fusion Energy Research

2011-11-10T17:00:00+01:00

One of the more abstruse presentations at Oracle OpenWorld 2011 was that of Tim Frazier, Associate Project Manager, National Ignition Facillity (NIF), whose topic was, "Building a Virtualized Computing Platform or Fusion Energy Research." Frazier stresses the central role of virtualization in the IT infrastructure of the NIF, mentioning the role that Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control 11g plays in that scenario. In the course of that discussion, Frazier points out that it was surprising to learn that memory rather than CPU or network bandwidth was the critical scarce resource.

Case Study: High-Performance Cloud Datastore Using Oracle Solaris 11 and Oracle Solaris ZFS

2011-11-10T17:00:00+01:00

The 47 slides in "Case Study: High Performance Datastore Using Oracle ZFS and Oracle Solaris 11," presented at Oracle OpenWorld 2011 follows this agenda:

What is Oracle ZFS
Who is Viewbiquity? A provider of the Viewbiquity Cloud Interface (VCI)
How does ZFS make Viewbiquity successful?
Next steps

The presentation was delivered by Scott Dickson, Tom Shafron, and Nick Musco.

Oracle Releases Oracle Identity Analytics 11g

2011-11-09T17:00:00+01:00

With release of the latest version of its Oracle Identity Analytics (OIA), a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g and the Oracle Identity Management 11g product family, Oracle has made it possible for its customers to gain simplified access review certification with business-centric views and actionable dashboards, powered by rich identity analytics, all of which helps to reduce errors in the certification process and increase user productivity by up to 80 percent.

View 20110 Oracle OpenWorld Sessions

2011-11-09T17:00:00+01:00

From a single URL, viewers can watch the entire lineup of keynote addresses delivered at Oracle OpenWorld 2011. Among the speakers and their topics:

Oracle OpenWorld Opening Keynote: Larry Ellison, CEO, Oracle
Cloud + Big Data = Massive Change + Massive Opportunity: Joseph M. Tucci, Chairman, President, and CEO, EMC
Extreme Innovation: Mark Hurd, President, Oracle: Thomas Kurian, Executive Vice President, Product Development, Oracle
Dell Keynote: Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO, Dell Inc.
Engineered Systems: John Fowler, Executive Vice President, Systems, Oracle
Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Launch: Richard Sarwal, SVP, Oracle
Empowering Customers Through Datacenter Transformation. Together We Innovate: John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco
Oracle Applications: Complete Solutions, Complete Choice: Steve Miranda, Senior Vice President, Applications Development, Oracle
Accelerating Growth: New Paradigms: S. D. Shibulal, CEO and Managing Director, Infosys
Oracle Cloud Computing: Larry Ellison, CEO, Oracle
Shimp and Zavery - Highlights - OpenWorld 10-6-11

These videos are available to all.

Oracle Solaris 11, the First Fully Virtualized Cloud OS

2011-11-09T17:00:00+01:00

With the unveiling of Solaris 11, the first fully virtualized OS, customers are enabled to run their most demanding enterprise applications in private, hybrid, or public clouds. Oracle Solaris 11 is engineered for Oracle VM sever virtualization on both x86 and SPARC based systems. What is more, Oracle Solaris Zones virtualization scales up to hundreds of zones per physical node at a 15x lower overhead than VMware. With Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center, now included in systems support, customers can enjoy comprehensive management across the entire infrastructure.

Plan Before You Leap

2011-11-08T17:00:00+01:00

"Cloud Technology Partners execs share advice on avoiding common traps as you move from legacy enterprise infrastructure to the private cloud ..."

One Step At A Time

2011-11-08T17:00:00+01:00

Sometimes You Have to Eat Crow

2011-11-08T17:00:00+01:00

"Every new technology brings with it the capacity to screw things up in an entirely new way. With social media, it's now become possible to turn what was once a verbal gaffe behind closed doors into a public peccadillo. ..."

Social media has good and bad points; the problem is that the bad can be horrendous. Here are some guidelines for "Social Media Disaster Recovery: A First Responders Guide" that will come in handy when the unintended occurs (and it will).

Keeping The Best

2011-11-07T17:00:00+01:00

"Today's tech boom is the 21st Century version of the California gold rush. But today's gold is a treasure of a different sort - people ..."

People very rarely leave a position for money; they leave because they get no respect; no challenging work; no courtesy; no consideration and lack of leadership. Knowing "How to Protect Your Employees" means they won't be looking over the fence to see if the grass is greener because y0u're proactively taking care of the grass on your side.

The Way to Failure

2011-11-07T17:00:00+01:00

"Many companies are having great success with cloud computing, and it's clear that the market continues to grow by leaps and bounds. However, with any new technology plays, there are those projects that do quick face-plants. These paths to failure are also emerging -- and highly avoidable ..."

Sometimes when a new technology comes along every one wants to be part of the project and work on something new. Then things turn sour. If you ignore these "3 Surefire Ways To Screw Up Cloud Computing", you could be hung out to dry; out of time, money and resources.

Keeping Tabs on Admin Accounts

2011-11-07T17:00:00+01:00

"Whether you're a company trying to comply with Payment Card Industry (PCI) requirements, an energy utility looking to get a handle on standards set forth by the North American Electrical Reliability Corporation (NERC), or the typical enterprise, separation of privileges and privileged account management can be a daunting task ..."

When an outsider hacks into your system that's bad news; but when a trusted employee does something wrong the hurt cuts to the core. Learning "How to Manage Privileged Accounts" goes a long way in discovering nefarious activities before they get out of hand.

Employee Firing Errors

2011-11-07T17:00:00+01:00

No doubt that tiring an employee is tough; even when deserved. Here are "6 More Mistakes Managers Make When Firing Employees"; watch out for these in this litigious era.

Who's Watching Your Six

2011-11-07T17:00:00+01:00

"You don't have to commit a major scandal for your coworkers to lose faith in you. Sometimes it's a bunch of little things that add up. ..."

Trust is like a rubber band that has been broken; no matter what you do to retie the ends; the break persists. Many times the broken trust is not based on one major breach but little ones that add up over time. Here are "Seven Reasons Your Coworkers Don't Trust You"]; maybe the time has come to take a hard look in the mirror.

SSDs Offer Speed and Power Advantages

2011-11-07T17:00:00+01:00

"A good rule of thumb when budgeting for SSDs is that each will cost about 10 times as much as a hard disk drive of the same capacity...."

Oracle Global IT Upgrades to Sun Storage Products

2011-11-07T17:00:00+01:00

By way of their slide presentation from Oracle OpenWorld 2011, now available as a download, Cheri Williams, Craig Yappert, and Gowthaman Ranganathan provide an update on Oracle IT Upgrades to Sun Storage Products. The presentation is in three parts:

Overview: Oracle IT and Storage Strategy (reasons for migrating to ZFS Storage Appliance and outline of storage strategy)
Storage Configurations and Performance (specifics of Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance)
Oracle IT Use Cases (includes an overview of ZFS Storage in Product Development)

The presentation then summarizes lessons learned from the migration to ZFS Storage Appliance.

The [System] Developer's Edge: 322 page pdf

2011-11-07T17:00:00+01:00

"The System Developer's Edge: Selected Blog Posts and Articles" is available now as a pdf, reports Darryl Gove. The pdf differs from the earlier book in only two significant ways, Gove writes, the first being an absence of cover art and the second being a change in the title to include the word "system," indicating a focus on the hardware end of the stack. Some of the links in the pdf are no longer current, Gove cautions, just as a number of the products discussed may have been rebranded or come to end of life under Oracle.

Java Spotlight Episode 54: Stuart Marks on the Coinification of JDK7

2011-11-07T17:00:00+01:00

Stuart W. Marks, Principal Member of Technical Staff in Oracle's Java Platform Group, is the guest on Episode 54 of the Java Spotlight Podcast, where the discussion involves the coinification of JDK 7. Marks is currently working on enhancing the core libraries of the JDK and has previously worked on JavaFX and Java ME at Sun. Host Roger Brinkley notes that Marks has over 20 years of software platform product development experience in the areas of window systems, interactive graphics, and mobile and embedded systems. Once again, Dalibor Topic, Java Free and Open Source Software Ambassador, sits on the Java All Star Developer Panel.

Beefing Up Xeon Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability: Slide Set

2011-11-07T17:00:00+01:00

"Beefing Up Xeon RAS with Solaris," a presentation by Ashok Raj originally given at Oracle OpenWorld 2011, is available as a slide set that covers the following aspects of the talk:

Intel Processor Advances
Platform RAS Components (Oracle Solaris FMA)
Xeon Machine Check Architecture Improvements
Future Enhancements

Raj contends that Oracle Solaris has been optimized for Intel Xeon-based systems in terms of scalability, enhanced power management, and mission critical reliability.

Corporate or Personal BYOD

2011-11-07T17:00:00+01:00

"If an employee walked into work one day clutching his shiny new iPhone, iPad, Android or other mobile smartphone or tablet, wanting to use it for official corporate business, would you say yes? ..."

Keeping smartphones out of the corporate environment is a loosing battle but that hasn't quelled the discussion on "Corporate-Owned vs. Employee-Owned Devices". Sticking your head in the sand won't make the question disappear, so decide how to make the best use of these devices and protect the company at the same time.

A Whimsical Look at Software

2011-11-07T17:00:00+01:00

"Who knew that geeks can be wordsmiths, or that software can inspire examples of rhetorical excellence? ..."

A Whimsical Look at Software: Those of us that have been around the block a few time look at software the way we look at our dysfunctional family members; driving us crazy most of the time. Here are "10 Deep Thoughts About Software" that should remind us from whence we all came.

The (Mobile) Sky is Falling

2011-11-07T17:00:00+01:00

Oracle Enterprise Manager Enables Cerner Health Care to Cut Capital Expenditures by $9.5 Million

2011-11-07T17:00:00+01:00

Cerner, a global health care company with over 9,000 facilities worldwide, has implemented Oracle Enterprise Manager in its aim to eliminate error, variance and waste for its affiliated health care providers and customers while also generating additional revenue. The new cloud-based services supported by Oracle Enterprise Manager have enabled Cerner to reduce capital investments by $9.5 million. The simplified management environment of Oracle Enterprise Manager allows Cerner staffers to operate from a single management console, enabling preventive actions that have reduced database incidents by 50 percent and allowed 17 percent of problems to be identified without DBA intervention.

UNIX - Dead or alive?

2011-11-07T17:00:00+01:00

How does one describe UNIX, that Grande Dame of OSes: faded, perhaps, but vital nonetheless? Those are not Richard Fichera's words but they appear to be his sentiments in his article for Forrester, "UNIX -- Dead or Alive? and framing the title in terms of a wanted poster suggests his very thesis, that UNIX is still much in demand and likely to remain so. He contends that UNIX on proprietary RISC architectures is in for the long haul and predicts vendors, including Oracle, IBM and HP, will offer continued improvements in hardware and software.

Funding Preparation

2011-11-07T17:00:00+01:00

"Security may be a hot-button issue for business executives, but in an environment of ongoing economic uncertainty, support for security initiatives isn't always easy to come by ..."

Getting a major project funded is not easy task given today's environment. These "9 Secrets of Getting Stuff Done in a Big Company" will come in hand regardless of the size of the company, the size of the project and the audience.

Give Your Career A Boost

2011-11-07T17:00:00+01:00

"Too many projects, too little time: That's the sad lament of many IT professionals who must constantly balance the needs of the enterprise against the desires of business users -- all while keeping a close eye on the newest technologies coming at them from every direction."

Nothing gets upper management's attention like solving a true business problem. Become the go to person with these "5 Hot Tech Projects to Boost You IT Career"; no one ever said success was going to be easy; but then no one ever said success was impossible.

Legacy App Quandary

2011-11-07T17:00:00+01:00

"Legacy applications are one of the most difficult issues to face within IT. A rip-and-replace approach is expensive and thus difficult to justify; plus, it tends to interrupt operations. Meanwhile, the aging software lingers in accounting's ledgers, overstays its welcome in sales and causes poor network performance throughout the organization ..."

Moving from one platform, language or OS to another often entails a thorough study of the applications. Here are three examples of "Legacy Application Fixer-Uppers", the thought process the perils and the outlooks for each.