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Weekly Recap: Can a Clown-Nosed Wand Move the Needle for PS3? (13:47 minutes)
Posted: March 12, 2010
In this episode: Sony reveals more about its bulbous-nosed Move controller for the PlayStation 3; Apple pipes Valve's Steam gaming platform into Mac computers; HP draws a big, red circle around the fact that its tablet does Flash; EFF unearths Apple's secret boilerplate with iPhone devs and calls it unfair; Newegg.com apologizes to customers after a supplier sticks hunks of dumb metal where Intel chips ought to be; software the goes with an Energizer Battery product leaves malware on users' PCs; electronics powerhouses play cheerleaders in push for 3-D TV.

The Strange Dance of SOA and SaaS (31:00 minutes)
Posted: March 10, 2010
Service-oriented architecture's hype machine is winding down; meanwhile cloud computing's is going strong. Is this a case of one having given way to the other? How is the emergence of SOA and the cloud happening in different places inside of enterprises? Shouldn’t one hand get to quickly know what the other is up to -- and perhaps even work together?

Listen to audio reports of top tech news stories, enjoy insightful commentaries and learn about new products. Download ECT News podcasts and listen to them on your MP3 player, or use your favorite media software to listen to them on your computer -- no separate device required.

Thin Is In: The Enterprise Virtualization Inflection Point (29:23 minutes)
Posted: March 7, 2010
Why should everyone in your wired-to-the-gills enterprise need a separate, full-scale computer when the same desktop experience can be had through a server-based thin client with a virtualized desktop? The use of thin clients can mean lower costs, lower energy usage, better management, higher security and greater versatility for the workers using them.

The Linux Desktop Will Have Its Day: Q&A With Canonical Founder Mark Shuttleworth (27:20 minutes)
Posted: March 5, 2010
"It used to be a kiss of death to present yourself as a genuine alternative to Windows," said Canonical Founder Mark Shuttleworth on opening new users' eyes to desktop Linux distros. "But the success of the Web and the success of Apple have really made the PC companies think that it is possible to offer something that is perceived to be valuable even if it is not Windows."

Smart Grids for Smarter Data Centers (31:34 minutes)
Posted: March 3, 2010
Computer hardware gets more powerful every day, and with greater power comes a greater appetite for electricity. That's greatly increased the amount of energy needed in the data center, yet many data centers today weren't designed for modern consumption requirements. Smarter, more comprehensive energy planning tools and processes are being directed at this problem.

Weekly Recap: Microsoft vs. the Zombie Hordes (15:10 minutes)
Posted: Feb. 26, 2010
In this episode: Microsoft vanquishes an army of zombies; the European Commission hears complaints about Google's search results; an Italian court convicts Google execs over an offensive online video they didn't produce or post; new rules for credit card issuers go into effect; FCC identifies categories of digital have-nots; Wal-Mart buys online video streamer Vudu; UN warns of growing e-waste pains in developing nations; Bloom Energy unveils refrigerator-sized power plant.

Making IT Security Less Artsy and More Scientific (23:05 minutes)
Posted: Feb. 24, 2010
A good metrics program can give IT security professionals a different way to talk to senior management about the progress that you're making against the business and security objectives. Rather than talking about security like it's some dark art form, make it a data-driven science.

Bringing Storage Virtualization Out of the Shadows (33:16 minutes)
Posted: Feb. 21, 2010
It's quite common for a company to become tripped up on its way to adopting virtualization technologies. Nearly any problem in this regard boils down to a combination of people issues, process issues and technology issues. Let's take an in-depth look at some of the challenges of successfully adopting a large-scale virtualization solution.

Weekly Recap: The Blazing Backlash Against Buzz (14:46 minutes)
Posted: Feb. 19, 2010
In this episode: Microsoft and Yahoo seal the deal on search advertising; Google Buzz backlash gains momentum; Microsoft reboots its mobile operating system; 24 mobile companies partner for easer app development; Verizon and Skype put VoIP on mobiles; painful numbers emerge from video game industry's rough January; wonks weep for the state of U.S. cybersecurity.

Bringing Storage Virtualization Out of the Shadows (23:05 minutes)
Posted: Feb. 17, 2010
When the word "virtualization" comes up, it's usually in the context of server virtualization. But it's not the only variety of that technology worth a look. Storage virtualization has some strong benefits of its own. Lots of businesses use as little as one-fifth of their storage capacity. Storage virtualization has the potential to bring about big increases in existing storage asset utilization.

Web Data Services in the Real World (40:17 minutes)
Posted: Feb. 14, 2010
Hook up service-oriented architecture to information flowing from Web-based sources and you have Web data services. Naturally, the possible uses for such systems are virtually endless. Let's take a closer look at how Germany's Deutsche Borse Group's Web data service handles a never-ending flow of financial data, with big bucks constantly on the line.

Weekly Recap: Google's New Social Scene-Stealer (15:32 minutes)
Posted: Feb. 12, 2010
In this episode: Google debuts Buzz, its new social networking extension to Gmail; the Department of Justice frowns on Google's book settlement; Google fancies itself an ISP; another publisher reaches for more e-book price control; Opera wants into the iPhone App Store; Google gives Nexus One buyers a break; China pulls the plug on an online den for hackers.

Internet Governance in a World of Cyberwarcraft (46:58 minutes)
Posted: Feb. 11, 2010
Google's ongoing fight with the government of China brings dozens of issues to the table, not the least of which are human rights, censorship and trade and fairness issues. Another factor impacting the discussion is the role of security and Internet governance in general. The repercussions on cloud computing and enterprise security may be profound and long-term.

Which IT Skills Are Pulling Big Bucks? (49:13 minutes)
Posted: Feb. 7, 2010
Outsourcing, of course, has made a big impact on the IT job market over the last few years, only it's sometimes called "managed services." Companies are still very nervous about hiring full-time talent. Security, however, is a tremendous place to be in IT right now. Companies wants skills in forensics, biometrics, data leakage prevention, intrusion detection and compliance.

Weekly Recap: The E-Book Empire Strikes (14:20 minutes)
Posted: Feb. 5, 2010
In this episode: Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair tells Congress Internet security is creaky; Sen. Dick Durbin asks tech companies about China policies; Amazon faces off with Macmillan; iPad looks to shake up the e-book sector; Cupertino sends out iMac screen fix; Twitter investigates account break-ins; AOL posts first earnings since Time Warner split; study suggests that cellphone bans are ineffective.

The Great Mainframe Shakeout (28:46 minutes)
Posted: Jan. 31, 2010
Context applications are the plain-vanilla enterprise apps that are there for commodity productivity reasons, not for core innovation, customization or differentiation. IT budget planners are looking at ways to unshackle these context apps from expensive legacy systems like mainframes and instead run them on much lower-cost types of infrastructure.

How Smart Can Analytics Get? (51:12 minutes)
Posted: Jan. 24, 2010
According to Forrester, the average company's data warehouse today is somewhere between one and 10 terabytes in size. So what happens to analytics over the next decade, as the norm moves toward the petabyte range? How will this hunger for precise analysis, combined with a flood of raw new data, set the stage for powerful, advanced analytics outcomes?

Weekly Recap: Google and the Freedom Business (14:34 minutes)
Posted: Jan. 22, 2010
In this episode: Google wins praise from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for challenging China's government; flaw that hackers used in Google attack traced to IE6; France and Germany warn against Microsoft's browser until patch comes; Android phone launches scuttled in China; iPhone rumored to take shine to Bing; Bing opts to dump data sooner; gaming industry caps bad year with good month; Amazon brings the app store idea to Kindle e-readers.

FOSS Feats and Follies: Q&A With Red Hat's Paul Frields (26:44 minutes)
Posted: Jan. 22, 2010
Last month, more than 200 Fedora Project developers and contributors gathered in Toronto for FUDCon, the Fedora Users and Developers Conference. Paul Frields, Red Hat's Fedora Project Leader, talks about FUDCon, what lies ahead for the next generation of FOSS, and how to address some of the lingering problems of Linux communities.

The Elasticity of the Cloud (21:38 minutes)
Posted: Jan. 17, 2010
When working in newer cloud-computing environments, traditional capacity planning no longer cuts it. Old-fashioned capacity planning focuses on the peak usage of the application. The dynamics of the cloud add another dimension. One must factor in not only a peak usage case, but also moderate and low-level usage cases -- in other words, elasticity planning.

Weekly Recap: Google to China: Tear Down This Wall (14:54 minutes)
Posted: Jan. 15, 2010
In this episode: Google and China go to battle over Internet censorship; the new Nexus One smartphone starts getting some static; Palm gives its webOS phones a bump; Forrester sees brighter days ahead for IT; Facebook's Zuckerberg thinks privacy is so 2009; McAfee spots Facebook as it tries to pump up its security muscles; Roxxxy brings a new level of personality to the fake plastic girlfriend scene.

Data Center Migration: Easy as Changing the Engine Mid-Flight (39:07 minutes)
Posted: Jan. 10, 2010
Congratulations, you've completed your new data center. The hard part now will be to move all your existing data into the new place without a massive service interruption. It's about as easy as changing the engine on a plane in the middle of a flight. With sufficient advanced planning, however, it can be done.

Weekly Recap: Nexus One: You Can Look, You Can Buy, but You Can't Touch (10:55 minutes)
Posted: Jan. 8, 2010
In this episode: Microsoft shows off tablets and shares some Natal news at CES; box office receipts outpace DVD movie sales for the first time in years; Google launches the Nexus One, as well as a new way of selling smartphones; Apple gets into mobile advertising; Chrome edges out Safari in browser market share; scientists say cellphone radiation does something very interesting to mice predisposed to developing Alzheimer's-like symptoms.

CIOs, Get Ready to Defend Your Spend (25:02 minutes)
Posted: Jan. 3, 2010
With a new year comes a new IT budget, and while 2010 hopefully won't be as lean as 2009, CIOs will still need to fight for what they can spend. Make sure that every person you have, every piece of equipment you have, every decision you are making, is in the context of something that is supporting an immediate business need or a key element of business operation.