Henry Baltazar

Considering all the hype given to disaster recovery and business continuity since 9/11, it would be logical to assume that all companies either have a business continuity strategy in place or are at least planning for future implementations. Unfortunately, that assumption is far from the truth, according to a recent report from Gartner. Less than […]

Web site testing, even for companies with abundant resources, has been something of a dark art because it is far easier and less expensive to test the components of networks and infrastructures than it is to test entire sites. However, as cracks and crashes get more complex and online customers demand better service, Web site […]

With the release of several iSCSI-based products and the backing of several standards groups, iSCSI in the last few weeks has attained “viable technology” status. Now is the time for early implementers to take a close look at the innards of this powerful protocol. Last month, eWeek Labs audited a class on iSCSI architecture and […]

For the most part, todays SANs have been limited to campus-size environments—a direct result of Fibre Channel technologys 10-km limitations. That may soon change. Fibre Channel over WAN, the process of extending storage area networks over WAN links via Fibre Channel, promises to enable organizations to mirror data or run backups from a distant location. […]

Last month, Sun and IBM each opened a showcase customer center in the San Francisco Bay area. Although the centers were built by different companies, they share the same goal: attracting and servicing clients. Suns iForce Solution Center, at its Menlo Park campus, has a series of interesting displays showing Suns software and hardware being […]

Now more than ever, thanks to the pallid economy, vendors need to make the purchasing process as easy and cost-efficient as possible to win new accounts and keep established ones. Several of the heavy hitters have figured out that large customer centers need to be more than just flashy showrooms where they can brag about […]

Apple Computer Inc.s Xserve blends the power and flexibility of Unix with the usability of the Mac OS X 10.2 operating system in an attractive 1U (1.75-inch) rackable server. The Xserve definitely stands out in the crowd of rack-mountable dense server offerings. Its blend of functionality, usability and cost (when you factor in the lack […]

Say the words “Web services,” and the three things that will come to most developers minds are UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration), electronic business XML and SOAP. Not many people would include LDAP, yet the directory protocol might provide the key to building a solid Web services infrastructure. LDAPs primary strengths—maturity, reliability, scalability and […]

RouteScience Technologies Inc.s PathControl optimizes traffic for multi-homed networks by using real-time performance statistics to improve routing decisions. The PathControl device concentrates solely on egress routing (sending traffic to customers/users). In no way does it affect or improve the routing of inbound traffic, and there is no need for a device like this at sites […]

Over the last few months, I have seen EMC, Hitachi Data Systems and other large storage vendors expanding the functionality of their behemoth systems. The big guys are throwing everything from iSCSI to NAS capabilities into their boxes as they try to stay relevant and expand market share. The big question that needs to be […]