InformationWeek Wolfe's Den Weblog

Encryption Is Cloud Computing Security Savior

Alexander Wolfe — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:36:41 -0500

I'm beginning to think that fears about cloud security are overblown. The reason: an intellectual framework is already in place for protecting data, applications, and connections. It's called encryption. What's evolving now, and isn't anywhere near fully baked, is a set of agreed-upon implementations and best practices. Today's post talks about some relevant and interesting work from Trend Micro and from IBM.

Cloud Security In Focus Amid Data Theft Fears

Alexander Wolfe — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:23:48 -0500

Yeah, I know, this is another one of those "everything changes" moments where we're prodded into frenzied activity--as opposed to effective action--because an emerging technology has surged ahead of our ability to properly manage it. I'm talking about cloud computing, and the attendant fears not just of data theft, but of breaches of SaaS computing resources themselves. Fortunately, there are a bunch of below-the-radar efforts attempting to address these worries.

Admiral Warns Cybersecurity Threat Looms For U.S.

Alexander Wolfe — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:33:34 -0500

This week's 60 Minutes broadcast should make everyone afraid, very afraid, of the real, looming specter of cyberwarfare attacks. As I recently blogged, government agencies are already going full-bore to come up with guidelines to protect federal networks. So when an Admiral goes on national television to say hackers have the ability to take down our power grid, he's doing it to deliver a warning.

Facebook Security Crisis Could Derail Social Nets

Alexander Wolfe — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:32:06 -0500

There's a security problem on the horizon, which could derail the progress of social networking has made in breaking down the barriers between business and personal Internet usage. (Whether that's a good thing or not is a separate argument.) I'm speaking of the rising tide of fake Facebook messages, phishing threats, and malware.

Cisco: It's All About Bandwidth, Stupid!

Alexander Wolfe — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:38:31 -0500

Analysts who've lately focused on a Cisco's decade-long buying binge will surely weigh in on the networking powerhouse's Monday announcement that it plans to acquire Hong Kong set-top-box maker DVN. Yet most of these financial musings, which focus on Cisco's stock price, are missing the point. It's all about bandwidth, stupid.

Linux AWOL From Desktop Upgrades

Alexander Wolfe — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:19:34 -0500

It hit me the other day that something's missing amid the Windows 7 launch hoopla. Last time around--indeed, during every prior upgrade cycle--we've witnessed the fanboys pop up like Whack-A-Mole survivors to hector us about the big mistake we're about to make and to proffer the open-source operating system as the better option. This time, nada. Why?

Should Your Enterprise Network Be An Internet Hot Spot?

Alexander Wolfe — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:18:28 -0500

Thursday's Windows 7 consumer launch finds me wondering about a seemingly radical idea suggested by a chief technology officer. Namely, enterprises should open up their networks, effectively turning them, as far as users are concerned, into Internet hot spots. The emergence of both cloud computing and Windows 7 could push this forward, though one will be able to argue that this is simply conventional networks in hot-spot clothing.

Big Brother Looking To Control Your Smart Grid?

Alexander Wolfe — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:02:33 -0500

Is Big Brother about to muck about with your toaster? That's that latest concern--out of left field though it may be--which is being raised about Smart Grids, the technological push du jour to update our creaking electricity transmission infrastructure with efficiency inducing digital controls. Or, as I call it, the utility is the network.

SocialCalc Could Help Wikis Grow Up

Alexander Wolfe — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:02:38 -0500

Have you been wiki-ized? I don't know if that's a word, but if you work at a tech company, you know exactly what I'm talking. Mostly it's been Clearspace which has provided the platform that's doubled your e-mail load, even as it has genuinely helped us all grope towards greater levels of collaboration. But there are other innovators in the wiki space, notably Socialtext, which has just advanced the cause of group-wise spreadsheets. In the process, they could push wikis towards better real-world usability.

Windows 7 Virtual Event Post-Game: Serious Tech Time

Alexander Wolfe — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:22:25 -0500

The big takeaway that surfaced at the successful Windows 7 Virtual Event we held on Wednesday is that many CIOs and admins are moving beyond the big-picture question of "should we upgrade or not" and are now focused on technical point issues, mostly related to performance and compatibility. (For those who couldn't attend, we'll have a replay archive posted within 48 hours, and I'll put up the link.)

Join Our Windows 7 Wednesday Virtual Event: Path To Enterprise Adoption

Alexander Wolfe — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:28:56 -0500

In getting ready for Wednesday's 10 am eastern Windows 7 Virtual Event, hosted by the InformationWeek Business Technology Network (i.e., us, and you can register here), I've been trying to get a feel for just how rapidly enterprises will adopt the new operating system.

Microsoft DRM Patent Could Revive Peer-to-Peer Music Nets

Alexander Wolfe — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:42:51 -0500

Here's an odd twist that might give new life to the dying horse of music digital-right management. Microsoft has just been awarded a U.S. patent for a distributed DRM system -- it works over peer-to-peer networks -- which uses encrypted public and private keys as the licensing mechanism. This is significant because, while centralized music stores like Apple's iTunes have forsaken DRM, the Microsoft patent would enable peer-to-peer networks to reemerge as viable, albeit protected, content sources.

MDOP Smoothes Path For Windows 7 Deployment

Alexander Wolfe — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:07:01 -0500

Microsoft is firing on all marketing guns as it moves to create an adoption groundswell for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. For enterprise users, another key piece of the ecosystem is about to fall into place. That would be the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) 2009 R2, a multi-tentacled toolkit containing virtualization technologies and a bunch of management tools.

Cryptographic Keys Focus Of Next-Gen Net Security

Alexander Wolfe — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 08:36:02 -0500

Against the backdrop of rising malware threats and organized cybercriminal rings, a national cybersecurity initiative is taking shape which will bring a "locked down" mentality to the way we authenticate users, apps, and anyone or anything that touches a network. I'm talking about the Cryptographic Key Management (CKM) project that is being run out of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Computer Security Division.

IBM, Dell, HP Top Tight Server Market

Alexander Wolfe — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:45:34 -0500

While server technology is proceeding apace -- see my column, "AMD, Intel Remake Servers From Processor Up" (here) -- shipments themselves are being challenged by the overall economic environment. That picture is apparent in the latest worldwide server market report from Gartner, with results from the second quarter of 2009. One bright spot is that blades sagged less than any other segment.

Wolfe's Den Vlog: SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Brings BI To Masses

Alexander Wolfe — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 11:02:59 -0500

I caught up with SAP recently during their customer tour to roll out their hot new, intuitive Business Intelligence product, and shot a short video demo. SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is billed as a venture into real-time BI. What that means is it enables non-power-users -- as in, sales and marketing folks looking for quick data runs -- to extract useful information via simple, Google-like queries.

Trend Micro Rips Lid Off Estonian Cybercrime Hub

Alexander Wolfe — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:00:37 -0500

An important Trend Micro paper, spotlighting a cybercriminal hub operating out of Estonia, has surfaced on Slashdot. The racket here is that a seemingly legitimate Internet Service Provider is in reality the headquarters for a rogue network, which extends into Europe and the United States. The breadth of the deception outlined in the paper is scary; doubly so because cybercrime is emerging as the single biggest security threat of the next decade.

Paging AIM: Why Does Software Always Get Worse?

Alexander Wolfe — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:50:49 -0500

Two unpleasant bouts with updated software have led me to formulate Wolfe's First Law of Programming: An upgraded, enhanced, or otherwise supposedly improved software release will always perform more poorly than the rev which it replaces. My two cases in point are AIM 6.9.15.1 -- you gotta love their configuration control -- and Time Warner Cable's latest electronic programming guide.

HP CEO Mark Hurd On R&D: 'Show Me The Money'

Alexander Wolfe — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:24:43 -0500

I wanted to share with you an insider comment I received in response to my Wednesday column, Recession Or Bust, R&D Spend HP Must. According to my correspondent, Hewlett Packard CEO Mark Hurd is a "show me the money" kind of guy. Which is not a criticism -- it simply means that company's research engineers have to earn their stripes every day.

AMD Revs Quad Core With Phenom II X4 965

Alexander Wolfe — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:55:42 -0500

The quad-core processor battle between Intel and AMD remains the most exciting arena in PC technology, where consumers can get the latest stuff at what amounts to cut-rate prices. The newest entry is AMD's Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition. The 3.4-GHz quad-core chip, which modders are already overclocking to 3.9-GHz, goes for $245.

Cybersecurity Guidelines Point Way To Network Protection

Alexander Wolfe — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 09:40:30 -0500

Recent criticism of NIST's cybersecurity guidelines for federal agencies raises the logical question: If government networks are at risk, how do I ensure that my operation is protected? One place to start is US-CERT's IT Security Essential Body of Knowledge.

Microsoft Word Ban Spotlights Software Patent Insanity

Alexander Wolfe — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:43:56 -0500

I'm in the unenviable position of defending Microsoft, but dive into the United States Patent and Trademark Office's database, and see if you don't agree with me that last week's court decision banning Microsoft from selling Word is nuts. The i4i patent Microsoft supposedly infringes seems loosely applicable to Word at best, and obvious enough software-wise to make you wonder why there are software patents at all. Plus, Microsoft holds some seemingly applicable XML patents of its own.

Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) Gets Boost From Windows 7

Alexander Wolfe — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:24:31 -0500

Interest in Microsoft's Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format is heating up as Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 move out into the marketplace. So here's some VHD news you can use in the form of pointers to two free online user guides.

Ready For Windows 7 RTM

Alexander Wolfe — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:27:20 -0500

The way I read it, Windows 7 is launching not with a bang, but a whimper. Which is a good thing. Unlike Vista, whose January 2007 debut was accompanied by Microsoft protests that it really, truly was great (even if the WDM display drivers clearly weren't), Windows 7 simply works. Anyone who has test-driven the beta gets that. Now that I'm about to install the final, release-to-manufacturing version, it's time for a quick OS recap. Click ahead for a video and some MS PowerPoints.

First Photo Of Microsoft Retail Store Surfaces

Alexander Wolfe — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:57:27 -0500

Here's the first image of one of Microsoft's planned retail stores, as tweeted by the corporate communications team at Redmond. Actually, it's a shot of the drywall in front of the store, which is presumably still under construction.