Podcast Archive: April - June 2010

Why Bother With Cloud Computing? (41:35 minutes)
Posted: June 26, 2010
As IT sea-changes go, the phenomenon of cloud computing is still in its relatively early days. As such, it's still very difficult to discern the exact returns a business can expect to get out of a cloud-related investment or experiment. It's time to dig deeper into the top reasons and paybacks for adopting cloud computing solutions sooner rather than later.

A Big, Fat Enterprise Data Backup Plan (23:31 minutes)
Posted: June 19, 2010
Chances are your company's data waistline is growing by the day. As enterprises aim to store more and more information about everything they do, the question of efficient and effective data backup becomes an increasingly important one. Let's take a look at how mega-vendor HP backs up and protects the petabytes of data in its own enterprise.

Weekly Recap: Another Year, Another iPhone Imbroglio (12:37 minutes)
Posted: June 18, 2010
In this episode: AT&T's and Apple's systems buckle under the weight of an iPhone 4 pre-order onslaught; Microsoft shows Kinect, Nintendo unveils 3DS and Sony pushes 3-D gaming at E3; Microsoft gets miffed at a Google security researcher over a four-day vulnerability warning; AOL takes a rumored $840 million loss on Bebo; San Francisco board opts to make cellphone retailers come clean on radiation levels.

Juggling Risk in the Cloud Security Circus (45:26 minutes)
Posted: June 12, 2010
For reasons just and unjust alike, cloud computing has developed a reputation that makes some IT pros cringe when they think about security. What's the difference between perception and reality in this field? It comes down to determining acceptable and comfortable risk. In the cloud, you can't hide behind the usual firewalls and encryption systems; what matters is the application itself.

Weekly Recap: Thickening iPad Plot Piques FBI's Curiosity (12:38 minutes)
Posted: June 11, 2010
In this episode: A group of security researchers nabs a list of thousands of iPad users' email addresses, attracting FBI attention; Apple shows off a brand-new iPhone at the Worldwide Developers Conference; an iPad app raises the ire of The New York Times; Google shocks and awes by putting scenic photographs on its start page; it also pours Caffeine all over its search engine for more up-to-date results; Adobe is left red-faced by a Flash flaw, which has now been fixed.

Time for Some Client-Side Disruption (59:23 minutes)
Posted: June 5, 2010
The kind of virtualization that's become popular on the server is taken to its full potential on edge devices -- Web browsers, PC-like smartphones, etc. Although a lot of today's clients are more tied to a one-size-fits-all approach, new types of dynamic and task-specific clients are just beginning to emerge. What will they look like when fully blossomed?

Weekly Recap: AT&T's New Ultra-Slim Data Diet (11:58 minutes)
Posted: June 4, 2010
In this episode: AT&T shuffles up wireless data plans and promises iPhone tethering this summer; Asus puts a tablet tag team into the ring; the FCC wants to put broadband speed-monitoring devices in the homes of 10,000 volunteers; HP plans to eliminate 9,000 jobs and create 6,000 new ones, but little is revealed about who or where; Facebook breaks out in a rash of "likes" courtesy of clickjackers; Google reportedly wants to close the door on Windows.

App Modernization and the Cost of Doing Nothing (36:48 minutes)
Posted: May 29, 2010
Often the new equipment added to an enterprise network is chosen simply for its ability to solve the problem of the moment, with little to no consideration of how wise a choice it is long-term. A truly thorough data-center transformation must involve rethinking the network as well. The networking infrastructure becomes a key point between the infrastructure devices in the data center itself.

Weekly Recap: The Pushing, Pulling, Dragging and Shoving Over Facebook Privacy (14:39 minutes)
Posted: May 28, 2010
In this episode: Facebook addresses users' concerns about privacy with yet another interface makeover, but some privacy advocates still see major problems with how it handles personal data; Twitter gives third-party ads the boot; Wal-Mart stocks $97 iPhone 3GSes; the U.S. DoJ reportedly mulls a probe into iTunes over alleged bullying tactics; Apple's market cap edges out Microsoft's; concern grows over suicides at a major Chinese gadget manufacturer.

Resource Utilization Alchemy: Turning an Art Into a Science (32:38 minutes)
Posted: May 22, 2010
The recession made it a whole lot harder for IT vendors to nail the kind of big sales they'd come to count on every few years from customers whose equipment had grown obsolete. On the buyers' side of the fence, economic conditions made the ups and downs of IT spending downright nauseating, so they've turned to SaaS. This calls for greater focus on the implementation and integration of solutions.

Weekly Recap: Google Street View's Wandering WiFi Eye (10:27 minutes)
Posted: May 21, 2010
In this episode: Google admits devices in its Street View cars snooped and recorded WiFi data; Microsoft re-heats Hotmail with new features; producers of "The Hurt Locker" plan massive lawsuit campaign against illegal file-sharers; Apple says the next-gen iPhone leak hurt its sales; Google gives up on Web-only Nexus One sales approach.

The Interface Is the Analytics (44:03 minutes)
Posted: May 15, 2010
SaaS applications and rich Internet technologies can open doors to new interface capabilities. They can also make possible greater integration and governance on the back ends of business apps. The result: More actionable data gets to the people who can best use it, and they get to use it on their terms.

Weekly Recap: Will Verizon's Gooblet Be a Droiblet or a Chroblet? (13:11 minutes)
Posted: May 14, 2010
In this episode: Verizon reveals it's working on a new tablet project with Google; Microsoft opens a new edition of Office; Android outscores iPhone sales for the first time; Valve steams up the Mac platform; Obama warns against gorging on informational junk food; RIAA puts the big squeeze on LimeWire.

A Perfect Storm of Costly - and Deadly - Business Glitches (32:45 minutes)
Posted: May 8, 2010
The confluence of three trends -- a loss of intellectual capital, mergers and consolidations, and the sheer ubiquity of the technological complexity curve -- puts new urgency on the need for improved IT governance. The consequences for inaction are magnified as time goes on. When things go wrong, they go very wrong, and money, businesses' reputations and even lives may be lost.

Weekly Recap: The FCC's High-Speed Squeeze Play (13:58 minutes)
Posted: May 7, 2010
In this episode: FCC makes a move to assert regulatory control over broadband through reclassification; Consumer Reports says we're all oversharers when it comes to social networks; iPad proves itself with brisk sales; two PC tablet hopefuls bow out of the race; Chrome makes gains in the browser wars, Adobe bites back at Apple; feds mull putting Cupertino under the antitrust microscope.

Weekly Recap: When the Gadget Cops Come Knocking (11:55 minutes)
Posted: April 30, 2010
In this episode: Gizmodo starts seeing the legal fallout from its revelation of an unreleased iPhone prototype; U.S. senators rage against the Facebook machine; HP welcomes Palm with open arms and open wallet; Microsoft warns users that old software is a security risk (hint-hint); RIM shows off new phones and gives a sneak-peek at its upcoming OS refresh; Supreme Court agrees hear arguments regarding California's restrictions on violent video games.

Dealing With the Cloud's Dearth of SLAs (35:36 minutes)
Posted: April 25, 2010
Where's the reality amid the mixed perceptions and vision around cloud-based data? Surveying the variety of cloud computing providers out there, it appears that the cloud's strong suit does not lie in SLAs, terms of service agreements, or similar guarantees. What should those evaluating cloud services know about data and security solutions.

Weekly Recap: Facebook's Bid to Spread You Across the Web in Graphic Detail (18:48 minutes)
Posted: April 23, 2010
In this episode: Facebook unveils Open Graph to the cheers of developers and the boos of privacy advocates; a new, unreleased Apple iPhone gets lost and found; news of Dell's upcoming mobiles leaks to the media; Garmin gives smartphones another shot; McAfee feeds its customers a definition update that borks XP machines; government privacy commissioners burn Google; Google burns back by showing how often governments request user info; Viacom puts out more dirty lawsuit laundry; Lower Merion School District webcam spying case gets seedier by the minute.

It's the Size of Your Data That Counts - and How You Use It (36:42 minutes)
Posted: April 18, 2010
Enterprise information management means looking across the entire business and being able to see every bit of information along the way. However, Information management can be a harsh mistress. It's hard to automate and it's hard to scale, and that in turn makes it difficult to know the best possible way to invest in improving information management.

Weekly Recap: Twitter's New Flight Plan (16:32 minutes)
Posted: April 16, 2010
In this episode: Twitter comes up with a plan for making money; Google makes its own plan for searching tweets; Apple fixes up MacBooks with new chips; iPhone developers rage against the machine; Microsoft shows a phone of average intelligence; a new report blasts conditions in a Chinese factory that supplies Microsoft; Palm reaches out for help; the FCC marches on with broadband despite Comcast decision.

Server Load Balancing: Not Just for the Big Guys Anymore (10:50 minutes)
Posted: April 14, 2010
Application delivery controllers and server load balancers are devices that optimize Web and application infrastructure. These appliances can help reduce data center costs and optimize operations. While large enterprises often use purpose-built hardware-based load balancers, smaller organizations may be able to reap most or all of the same benefits by using virtual load balancers.

The Cloud's Win/Lose Proposition (47:21 minutes)
Posted: April 11, 2010
The world of IT is getting cloudier by the day, but what's most hazy is how this move into various forms of subscription models is going to change what you pay for IT. Conventional thinking usually supposes that cloud-based models will be cheaper, but that may not always be the case, at least at the outset. Is cheap IT really the goal of cloud computing?