Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp
Today, Cisco announced two new 802.11n wireless router lines that aim to make home wireless networking easier and more accessible.
The Valet ($100) is intended for the wireless networking neophyte; instead of configuring a few dozen settings through a complicated Web-based interface, you can use the Cisco Connect software on the included Easy Setup Key USB flash drive to get a secure wireless network with Internet access up within five minutes. Once your network is up, simply plug the Easy Setup Key in each additional PC to configure them to use the Wi-Fi network--no control panels or complicated passwords necessary.
Alternately, the Valet Plus ($150) gets you the same functionality as the Valet, plus 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports (instead of the Valet's 10/100 Ethernet ports) and an extra antenna for better wireless coverage. The Valet product line also includes the Valet Connector ($70), a USB Wi-Fi dongle for older PCs that don't have Wi-Fi networking capability already.
The included Cisco Connect software also provides a few extra features besides basic network setup; you can set time- and content-based access limitations to prevent children and teenagers from accessing mature content, enable extra Safe Browsing security features to warn you about potential malware and viruses, and more.
More advanced users, however, will likely opt for the four new Linksys E-Series routers--all of which include the Cisco Connect software to simplify the setup process, though advanced network features are still accessible via the usual Web-based GUI configurator. The entry-level Linksys E1000 ($80) doesn't have any extras besides four 10/100 Ethernet ports for wired networking, but the E2000 ($120) upgrades those to Gigabit Ethernet and includes dual-band functionality, so you can use the 2.4GHz or 5GHz spectrum depending on which one has less interference in your area.
At the high end is the E3000 ($180), which includes a USB port for sharing external storage over your network and a UPnP media server for streaming media to your Xbox 360, PS3, or other compatible device.
The new Linksys lineup also includes the E2100L ($120), a wireless router that includes the USB port and UPnP features of the E3000 but only has 10/100 Ethernet (meaning slower wired transfers). Unlike the other new Linksys models, the E2100L is advertised as "utilizing the Linux Operating System for flexibility to customize the network".
While it's not yet clear how Linux is implemented in the E2100L, Linksys routers have long been popular with homebrew router firmware developers, so it's likely that the E2100L will cater to a do-it-yourself crowd.
Finally, there's a new Linksys-branded USB adapter for PCs which don't have 802.11n functionality--the Linksys AE1000 High Performance USB Adapter ($70) includes dual-band support as well as a USB extension cable to make it easier to move the antenna to a spot with a strong signal without having to move the whole laptop.
Both the new Valet and Linksys routers are available immediately.
For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/
2010年5月31日星期一
Adobe considers more frequent patch schedule
Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp
Adobe Systems is considering patching its applications more frequently after moving to a quarterly patching schedule for its Acrobat and Reader programs last year.
Brad Arkin, director for product security and privacy, was asked during a Microsoft security event in Redmond, Washington, earlier this week whether Adobe was considering a monthly rather than quarterly patch cycle. Adobe now patches Reader and Acrobat every three months on the same day Microsoft issues its monthly patches, on the second Tuesday of the month. Patches for other Adobe applications are issued on an as-needed basis.
"As for the patch cycle, this is something we are carefully evaluating in trying to provide the best possible solution for our customers," Adobe said in a statement. "We are taking all factors into consideration, including the cost of patch deployment in managed environments."
In June 2009, Adobe announced an aggressive program to beef up the security of its applications after hackers increasingly focused on finding vulnerabilities in its products.
Hackers used vulnerabilities in Acrobat and Reader to craft exploits that would give them remote control over a person's PC if they opened a PDF, which is one of the most widely used document formats. By crafting clever e-mails that appear to come from an acquaintance, hackers sought to trick users with unpatched applications or ones with existing vulnerabilities into opening the rigged files.
Adobe also said last year that it would undertake a comprehensive review of the legacy code in the applications, harden the code in applications, perform human code reviews and use "fuzzers," or tools that try to inject code into an application to see if it accepts data it shouldn't.
For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/
Adobe Systems is considering patching its applications more frequently after moving to a quarterly patching schedule for its Acrobat and Reader programs last year.
Brad Arkin, director for product security and privacy, was asked during a Microsoft security event in Redmond, Washington, earlier this week whether Adobe was considering a monthly rather than quarterly patch cycle. Adobe now patches Reader and Acrobat every three months on the same day Microsoft issues its monthly patches, on the second Tuesday of the month. Patches for other Adobe applications are issued on an as-needed basis.
"As for the patch cycle, this is something we are carefully evaluating in trying to provide the best possible solution for our customers," Adobe said in a statement. "We are taking all factors into consideration, including the cost of patch deployment in managed environments."
In June 2009, Adobe announced an aggressive program to beef up the security of its applications after hackers increasingly focused on finding vulnerabilities in its products.
Hackers used vulnerabilities in Acrobat and Reader to craft exploits that would give them remote control over a person's PC if they opened a PDF, which is one of the most widely used document formats. By crafting clever e-mails that appear to come from an acquaintance, hackers sought to trick users with unpatched applications or ones with existing vulnerabilities into opening the rigged files.
Adobe also said last year that it would undertake a comprehensive review of the legacy code in the applications, harden the code in applications, perform human code reviews and use "fuzzers," or tools that try to inject code into an application to see if it accepts data it shouldn't.
For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/
VMware vSphere 4 best practices: A review of what's new for storage administrators
Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp
vSphere 4 is VMware's latest bare-metal hypervisor that is the successor to Virtual Infrastructure 3 (VI3) and includes more than 140 new features. vSphere competes with several other hypervisors including Microsoft's Hyper-V, Citrix's XenServer and Oracle's Oracle VM. This review of vSphere looks at some of the features in vSphere that are most important to data storage managers as well as best practices for vSphere.
vSphere 4 and different storage types
Data storage is critical to virtualization, and vSphere supports several different data storage types including local storage using SCSI, SAS or SATA drives; network-based storage using iSCSI or NFS; and more expensive Fibre Channel (FC) data storage. To take advantage of many of vSphere's advanced features like VMotion and high-availability (HA), you should use a shared storage device. Fortunately iSCSI and NFS are both supported and provide affordable solutions that perform well enough as alternatives to Fibre Channel for all but the most intensive disk I/O workloads. vSphere has a software iSCSI initiator and NFS client built right into it so connecting to iSCSI or NFS storage targets is simple to set up. Also, vSphere supports using hardware iSCSI initiators with TCP/IP offload engines to reduce the CPU overhead on the host.
In addition, vSphere uses a special high-performance cluster file system called Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) that allows concurrent access by multiple host servers. VMFS volumes take away the backend storage complexities from the virtual machines (VMs) by presenting a single unified storage volume to them. One of vSphere's best storage features is thin provisioning, which makes more efficient use of disk space by growing a virtual disk and blocks are written to it instead of allocating it all at once when it is created. This allows you to overcommit your storage and take advantage of the often un-used disk space inside a guest VM's operating system. Some additional storage-related features of vSphere include the following:
• Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) support
• Jumbo frame support for iSCSI and NFS
• Ability to hot extend virtual disks
• Ability to grow VMFS volumes
• Storage paravirtualization
• VMDirectPath for VM direct I/O access
• vStorage APIs
vSphere 4 and networking
The vSwitch is the heat of a virtual nework, and vSphere has several options you can use based on your requirements. The simple standard vSwitch is easy to use, and provides fault tolerance and load-balancing across NICs. For larger environments that have many hosts and vSwitches, the vNetwork Distributed Switch lets you create global vSwitches to configure multiple hosts instead of configuring each host sepearately. vSphere can also support third-party vSwitches. Cisco's Nexus 1000v is the first virtual switch with vSphere support. This allows for tighter integration between the physical and virtual networks. All vSwitches in vSphere support advanced features such as VLAN tagging, NIC teaming and layer two security policies. Some additional network-related features of vSphere include:
• Support for IPv6 networks
• Support for private VLANs
• Support for Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP)
• Support for network VMotion
vSphere 4 and high-availability
Virtualization is all about putting all your eggs in one basket, so maintaining high-availability is critical. If a single host fails, then all the VMs running on it will also fail, but vSphere includes features that can minimize or eliminate the amount of time that VMs are down due to a host failure. vSphere's high-availability feature allows VMs on shared storage to quickly be re-started on other hosts in the event that a host fails, minimizing downtime for the VMs. The fault tolerance (FT) feature takes this a step further and offers continuous availability by keeping a secondary VM on another host that is continuously updated in real-time using a Lockstep technique. This completely protects a virtual machine against a host hardware failure and results in zero downtime and data loss for the VM. While these features protect against unschuled hardware failures, there are also features that make planned maintenance easier. VMotion allows a running VM to move from one host to another on the same storage volume and Storage VMotion allows a running VM to move from one storage volume to another on the same host. These features let you perform maintenance on host hardware or storage devices without downtime.
vSphere 4 management
vSphere 4 also has tools for managing the virtual environment. The vSphere Client is a Windows application that serves as the primary management tool for vSphere. There is also a web user interface for managing virtual machines on ESX hosts (not ESXi) and command line management tools such as the vSphere CLI (vCLI) and the VMware Management Assistant (vMA). vCenter Server provides centralized management of hosts using the vSphere Client, and has features such as alarms, performance reporting, automation, and templates. Features such as high-availability, distributed resource scheduler (DRS) and VMotion require a vCenter Server. Multiple vCenter Servers can run in linked mode to provide centralized management of multiple virtual environments.
Ease of use
The vSphere hypervisor comes in two editions, ESX and ESXi. ESX has a larger footprint (1.7 GB) and a more complex Service Console that runs a full Linux OS. ESXi has a simpler management console, and smaller footprint (70 MB). As a result, ESXi can be installed in a few minutes and with almost no interaction. VMware also has a free service called VMware GO that helps users who are new to virtualization get up and running quickly. VMware's free Converter product and vCenter Server's Guide Consolidation feature also simplify virtualization by converting a physical server into virtual machines.
Security
vSphere is a controlled and secure environment, and the hypervisor has never been compromised. vSphere's security is due in part to a set of security APIs called VMsafe that allows third-party applications to have tight integration for providing even better security controls. vSphere also includes a product called vShield Zones that provides a virtual firewall and IDS that can be used to provide better protection for virtual machines.
Data backup and data protection
vSphere has several data backup and recovery features that come with it. For example, virtual machine snapshots can be used to roll back to a previous virtual machine state. This feature is useful when patching guests or installing applications, so you can easily recover from any problems that may result. vSphere also includes a product called VMware Data Recovery (VDR) that can perform backups of virtual machines to any disk storage device using inline deduplication and compression. In addition, the vSphere APIs for data protection allow third-party backup applications to have tight integration for backing up and replicating virtual machines.
Scalability
vSphere hosts and virtual machines scale well enough to allow almost any application or workload to be virtualized. With support for 1 TB of physical memory and 64 logical CPUs, vSphere hosts can support up to 256 running VMs per host. Plus, virtual machines can be assigned up to eight vCPUs and 255 GB of RAM to support even the most demanding applications. Using advanced memory techniques like transparent page sharing (TPS) and memory overcommitment, vSphere can allow more virtual machines to run with less physical resources.
Cost savings
Virtualization can help save money on power and cooling, but vSphere takes it even further with advanced features like Distributed Power Management (DPM) and Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS). DPM allows hosts to be automatically powered down and virtual machines migrated to other hosts during periods of low activity. When the resource demands increase, hosts are powered back on and VMs move back onto the hosts. DVFS allows host CPUs to dynamically change power states (p-states) when resource demands are low to reduce a host's energy consumption. CPU frequency and voltages are lowered and raised based on demand from virtual machines. When these two features are combined, it can help save money, especially in environments with regular extended periods of inactivity.
Extensibility
vSphere has many APIs and SDKs that developers can use to write applications for vSphere. There are also scripting languages available such as Javascript, Perl and PowerShell to automate tasks and help manage the virtual environment. This allows for many free tools and scripts to be developed that can be used in place of more expensive add-on software.
For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/
vSphere 4 is VMware's latest bare-metal hypervisor that is the successor to Virtual Infrastructure 3 (VI3) and includes more than 140 new features. vSphere competes with several other hypervisors including Microsoft's Hyper-V, Citrix's XenServer and Oracle's Oracle VM. This review of vSphere looks at some of the features in vSphere that are most important to data storage managers as well as best practices for vSphere.
vSphere 4 and different storage types
Data storage is critical to virtualization, and vSphere supports several different data storage types including local storage using SCSI, SAS or SATA drives; network-based storage using iSCSI or NFS; and more expensive Fibre Channel (FC) data storage. To take advantage of many of vSphere's advanced features like VMotion and high-availability (HA), you should use a shared storage device. Fortunately iSCSI and NFS are both supported and provide affordable solutions that perform well enough as alternatives to Fibre Channel for all but the most intensive disk I/O workloads. vSphere has a software iSCSI initiator and NFS client built right into it so connecting to iSCSI or NFS storage targets is simple to set up. Also, vSphere supports using hardware iSCSI initiators with TCP/IP offload engines to reduce the CPU overhead on the host.
In addition, vSphere uses a special high-performance cluster file system called Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) that allows concurrent access by multiple host servers. VMFS volumes take away the backend storage complexities from the virtual machines (VMs) by presenting a single unified storage volume to them. One of vSphere's best storage features is thin provisioning, which makes more efficient use of disk space by growing a virtual disk and blocks are written to it instead of allocating it all at once when it is created. This allows you to overcommit your storage and take advantage of the often un-used disk space inside a guest VM's operating system. Some additional storage-related features of vSphere include the following:
• Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) support
• Jumbo frame support for iSCSI and NFS
• Ability to hot extend virtual disks
• Ability to grow VMFS volumes
• Storage paravirtualization
• VMDirectPath for VM direct I/O access
• vStorage APIs
vSphere 4 and networking
The vSwitch is the heat of a virtual nework, and vSphere has several options you can use based on your requirements. The simple standard vSwitch is easy to use, and provides fault tolerance and load-balancing across NICs. For larger environments that have many hosts and vSwitches, the vNetwork Distributed Switch lets you create global vSwitches to configure multiple hosts instead of configuring each host sepearately. vSphere can also support third-party vSwitches. Cisco's Nexus 1000v is the first virtual switch with vSphere support. This allows for tighter integration between the physical and virtual networks. All vSwitches in vSphere support advanced features such as VLAN tagging, NIC teaming and layer two security policies. Some additional network-related features of vSphere include:
• Support for IPv6 networks
• Support for private VLANs
• Support for Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP)
• Support for network VMotion
vSphere 4 and high-availability
Virtualization is all about putting all your eggs in one basket, so maintaining high-availability is critical. If a single host fails, then all the VMs running on it will also fail, but vSphere includes features that can minimize or eliminate the amount of time that VMs are down due to a host failure. vSphere's high-availability feature allows VMs on shared storage to quickly be re-started on other hosts in the event that a host fails, minimizing downtime for the VMs. The fault tolerance (FT) feature takes this a step further and offers continuous availability by keeping a secondary VM on another host that is continuously updated in real-time using a Lockstep technique. This completely protects a virtual machine against a host hardware failure and results in zero downtime and data loss for the VM. While these features protect against unschuled hardware failures, there are also features that make planned maintenance easier. VMotion allows a running VM to move from one host to another on the same storage volume and Storage VMotion allows a running VM to move from one storage volume to another on the same host. These features let you perform maintenance on host hardware or storage devices without downtime.
vSphere 4 management
vSphere 4 also has tools for managing the virtual environment. The vSphere Client is a Windows application that serves as the primary management tool for vSphere. There is also a web user interface for managing virtual machines on ESX hosts (not ESXi) and command line management tools such as the vSphere CLI (vCLI) and the VMware Management Assistant (vMA). vCenter Server provides centralized management of hosts using the vSphere Client, and has features such as alarms, performance reporting, automation, and templates. Features such as high-availability, distributed resource scheduler (DRS) and VMotion require a vCenter Server. Multiple vCenter Servers can run in linked mode to provide centralized management of multiple virtual environments.
Ease of use
The vSphere hypervisor comes in two editions, ESX and ESXi. ESX has a larger footprint (1.7 GB) and a more complex Service Console that runs a full Linux OS. ESXi has a simpler management console, and smaller footprint (70 MB). As a result, ESXi can be installed in a few minutes and with almost no interaction. VMware also has a free service called VMware GO that helps users who are new to virtualization get up and running quickly. VMware's free Converter product and vCenter Server's Guide Consolidation feature also simplify virtualization by converting a physical server into virtual machines.
Security
vSphere is a controlled and secure environment, and the hypervisor has never been compromised. vSphere's security is due in part to a set of security APIs called VMsafe that allows third-party applications to have tight integration for providing even better security controls. vSphere also includes a product called vShield Zones that provides a virtual firewall and IDS that can be used to provide better protection for virtual machines.
Data backup and data protection
vSphere has several data backup and recovery features that come with it. For example, virtual machine snapshots can be used to roll back to a previous virtual machine state. This feature is useful when patching guests or installing applications, so you can easily recover from any problems that may result. vSphere also includes a product called VMware Data Recovery (VDR) that can perform backups of virtual machines to any disk storage device using inline deduplication and compression. In addition, the vSphere APIs for data protection allow third-party backup applications to have tight integration for backing up and replicating virtual machines.
Scalability
vSphere hosts and virtual machines scale well enough to allow almost any application or workload to be virtualized. With support for 1 TB of physical memory and 64 logical CPUs, vSphere hosts can support up to 256 running VMs per host. Plus, virtual machines can be assigned up to eight vCPUs and 255 GB of RAM to support even the most demanding applications. Using advanced memory techniques like transparent page sharing (TPS) and memory overcommitment, vSphere can allow more virtual machines to run with less physical resources.
Cost savings
Virtualization can help save money on power and cooling, but vSphere takes it even further with advanced features like Distributed Power Management (DPM) and Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS). DPM allows hosts to be automatically powered down and virtual machines migrated to other hosts during periods of low activity. When the resource demands increase, hosts are powered back on and VMs move back onto the hosts. DVFS allows host CPUs to dynamically change power states (p-states) when resource demands are low to reduce a host's energy consumption. CPU frequency and voltages are lowered and raised based on demand from virtual machines. When these two features are combined, it can help save money, especially in environments with regular extended periods of inactivity.
Extensibility
vSphere has many APIs and SDKs that developers can use to write applications for vSphere. There are also scripting languages available such as Javascript, Perl and PowerShell to automate tasks and help manage the virtual environment. This allows for many free tools and scripts to be developed that can be used in place of more expensive add-on software.
For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/
SUSE Linux users nervous as Novell explores options
Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp
Novell reportedly put itself on the market last week, leaving SUSE Linux Enterprise users unsure about the fate of that open source operating system and other Novell products.
If the report in The Wall Street Journal is true, the bidding kicks off two months after Waltham, Mass-based Novell's board turned down Elliott Partners $2 billion buyout offer. At that time, Novell said the price was inadequate, and it would explore other options, including stock buy-backs, cash dividends and more alliances.
A Novell spokesman provided no comment.
In the mean time, Novell last week released SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Service Pack 1.
Still, the questions around the vendor's prospects have SUSE Linux users wondering what will become of the products they built their infrastructure on.
David O'Berry, a consultant and CIO for South Carolina Department of Probation, became a Master Novell Certified Engineer in the 1990s and has watched the company struggle since then.
"Novell is getting very close to irrelevance," O'Berry said. "It's no longer the battleship it once was, and the company seems to be very confused right now. I'm frustrated at their lack of ability to execute on roadmaps and plans for the future."
O'Berry runs about 50 SUSE Linux servers said he was relieved when Novell turned down Elliot's offer, but worries about the integrity of other potential buyers.
"When you have a consortium of private investors or private equity firms looking at a technology company, you know they plan to tear it apart and suck the cash out. They don't care about the technology itself," O'Berry said. "I never thought I'd hear myself say this -- because I don't think the company that provides the needle should also provide the drugs - but someone like Microsoft or IBM needs to step in and take over."
Microsoft would be a logical suitor, he said, because the company already collaborates with Novell and SUSE Linux interoperates with Microsoft management offerings.
But other IT pros have given up on SUSE; O'Berry said he is one of the few he knows still using it in the field.
David Reynolds, IT manager with the Rhode Island Blood Center in Providence, uses Linux but hasn't used SUSE Linux since 2003 and he also worked with Novell's flagship Netware network operating system.
"[SUSE Linux is] a dying OS I'm afraid," Reynolds said. But, as a Linux fan, he wants someone to rescue Novell. "If someone can find value in Palm, there's hope for anyone I guess." (In late April, Hewlett Packard announced plans to buy Palm, the handheld device pioneer, for $1.2 billion.)
But, since Novell's legacy business has fallen on hard times , the SUSE business unit is its focus, so users shouldn't be nervous about losing it, said John Locke, President of the Seattle-based open source IT services firm Freelock Computing.
"While I really don't think SUSE is at risk, the other Linux desktop software projects might be," Locke said.
Novell is the steward of many Linux desktop applications, including Evolution, a Linux equivalent to Outlook; F-Spot, a photo manager; Tomboy, a sticky note application; Banshee, a music player/manager; and Mono, an open source implementation of the .NET platform.
It also offers the collaboration product GroupWise, which competes with Microsoft Exchange.
"Novell has done some tremendously important work in making desktop Linux as good as or better than Windows and Mac, as well as doing a lot to promote interoperability," Locke said. "I would hope whoever purchases Novell sees the importance of continuing to support these projects -- the entire Linux community benefits from this work, and it's largely paid for by the success of SUSE."
For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/
Novell reportedly put itself on the market last week, leaving SUSE Linux Enterprise users unsure about the fate of that open source operating system and other Novell products.
If the report in The Wall Street Journal is true, the bidding kicks off two months after Waltham, Mass-based Novell's board turned down Elliott Partners $2 billion buyout offer. At that time, Novell said the price was inadequate, and it would explore other options, including stock buy-backs, cash dividends and more alliances.
A Novell spokesman provided no comment.
In the mean time, Novell last week released SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Service Pack 1.
Still, the questions around the vendor's prospects have SUSE Linux users wondering what will become of the products they built their infrastructure on.
David O'Berry, a consultant and CIO for South Carolina Department of Probation, became a Master Novell Certified Engineer in the 1990s and has watched the company struggle since then.
"Novell is getting very close to irrelevance," O'Berry said. "It's no longer the battleship it once was, and the company seems to be very confused right now. I'm frustrated at their lack of ability to execute on roadmaps and plans for the future."
O'Berry runs about 50 SUSE Linux servers said he was relieved when Novell turned down Elliot's offer, but worries about the integrity of other potential buyers.
"When you have a consortium of private investors or private equity firms looking at a technology company, you know they plan to tear it apart and suck the cash out. They don't care about the technology itself," O'Berry said. "I never thought I'd hear myself say this -- because I don't think the company that provides the needle should also provide the drugs - but someone like Microsoft or IBM needs to step in and take over."
Microsoft would be a logical suitor, he said, because the company already collaborates with Novell and SUSE Linux interoperates with Microsoft management offerings.
But other IT pros have given up on SUSE; O'Berry said he is one of the few he knows still using it in the field.
David Reynolds, IT manager with the Rhode Island Blood Center in Providence, uses Linux but hasn't used SUSE Linux since 2003 and he also worked with Novell's flagship Netware network operating system.
"[SUSE Linux is] a dying OS I'm afraid," Reynolds said. But, as a Linux fan, he wants someone to rescue Novell. "If someone can find value in Palm, there's hope for anyone I guess." (In late April, Hewlett Packard announced plans to buy Palm, the handheld device pioneer, for $1.2 billion.)
But, since Novell's legacy business has fallen on hard times , the SUSE business unit is its focus, so users shouldn't be nervous about losing it, said John Locke, President of the Seattle-based open source IT services firm Freelock Computing.
"While I really don't think SUSE is at risk, the other Linux desktop software projects might be," Locke said.
Novell is the steward of many Linux desktop applications, including Evolution, a Linux equivalent to Outlook; F-Spot, a photo manager; Tomboy, a sticky note application; Banshee, a music player/manager; and Mono, an open source implementation of the .NET platform.
It also offers the collaboration product GroupWise, which competes with Microsoft Exchange.
"Novell has done some tremendously important work in making desktop Linux as good as or better than Windows and Mac, as well as doing a lot to promote interoperability," Locke said. "I would hope whoever purchases Novell sees the importance of continuing to support these projects -- the entire Linux community benefits from this work, and it's largely paid for by the success of SUSE."
For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/
The evolution of IT certification: broadened skill sets for converged infrastructures
Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp
The other day I had an opportunity to talk to Brian Beneda, the director of strategy and business development for the HP Certified Professional Program. Beneda shared his insight on the quiet evolution taking place within the HP certification program. Anyone who is responsible for hiring, managing or developing IT professionals should like HP's approach to broadening a person's technical skill set and knowledge.
To understand what HP is doing with its training and certification program, we need a little context about what is happening in general in the IT industry. Whether you call it "convergence," "service-oriented architecture," or simply the "collapsing" of the data center, there's a trend toward companies purchasing a much more integrated core set of servers, storage and networking solutions. This allows companies to move away from spending time and money on integrating separate silos of technologies and toward a flexible IT environment that is more responsive to business needs.
As CIOs contemplate this converged IT platform, they also have to look at the way their departments are organized today. Over the past decade or two, people have been put in silos to support specific technologies. For example, you have the server guys, the storage guys, the networking guys, the systems management guys, and so on. These people tend to have deep technical skills pertaining to their specific technologies, but only surface-level knowledge of the other technologies. CIOs need to rethink the way the organization is structured -- and the people are trained and skilled -- in order to create much more activity across the technology domains.
"As we talk to CIOs and the guys that are operating their data centers, they are very excited about the Converged Infrastructure from HP and what it can do, but they are starting to realize they've got a skills gap," Beneda says. "Typically there are three or four people in a large company that have the skills and knowledge to look across the data center today and are able to architect solutions or think about the evolution of their IT at a company level. They need some kind of training program and certification that is going to help them get deeper around how they can evolve their data center to take advantage of some of these new technologies."
The skills and knowledge that are required to operate in that integrated world are quite different from the typical product- or technology-specific training and certification programs available in the marketplace today, according to Beneda. "If the platform is moving toward merging networking, storage and servers, then the server guy needs to have a way to have some skills in the networking and storage space. These skills need to be much deeper than what they've had in the past because they are going to be integrated into that converged data center environment. The same is true with networking and storage guys. They need to broaden what they know. And from a systems management perspective, a person needs to be able to look at everything through a single pane of glass." In other words, companies need to have people with skills that are much more "integrated" to go along with the integrated technologies.
HP is evolving its training and certifications to enable both of those paths -- for the high-level architect who is looking across the data center, as well as for the individual who is deep in a technology domain (like storage) who needs to broaden his skill set into other technology areas.
HP is in the process of creating a high level certification for this data center/Converged Infrastructure architect. This will be a flagship certification in the IT industry, and the person who attains it will be very valuable to any organization because he will have the proven knowledge and skills to architect an enterprise IT platform that can adapt to rapidly changing business needs.
For the technology specialist, Beneda says that a "well-kept secret" is that HP already has cross-domain content in its training and certifications. "If you get a server certification from HP today, there's already embedded content pertaining to storage, networking and management. Our storage certifications require some server, operating system and networking knowledge to be able to enable storage networking technology. HP has actually done a pretty good job up to this point to make sure people have good solution skills. We have some opportunities to broaden this in the context of where the market is going and to enable the value of the people who hold those skills," Beneda says.
He adds that this isn't an enterprise-only play; many of the same market dynamics exist in the small-midsize business (SMB) space as well. "Think about how a small company gets IT support," Beneda says. "There's typically one guy who is the techie. He sets up the infrastructure and supports the PCs. This is the primary kind of resource that an SMB has. In addition, some functions might be outsourced to a local systems integrator. The individuals who are in-house as well as the people who provide outside service and support need an integrated skill set across the technology domains, and perhaps even more so because they deal with everything from printers to applications to VoIP. You need individuals with much broader skill sets across the entire domain in the SMB space."
Beneda says it is HP's intent to create skill sets, at enterprise and SMB levels, for people who operate consistently in a converged IT environment.
One of the first outward signs we'll see from HP will be more interaction with and within the HP Certified Professional community. "We want to be much more collaborative with our community," Beneda says. "Some of the best times that we have are when we get a group of ASEs in our product lab and generate some interaction between our product engineers and the people who are actually out in the field, working with these products every day -- designing solutions, integrating products, supporting them. Our product engineers love to get feedback from the people who are out there doing the job today."
"These forums have been extremely successful for us," Beneda adds. "HP Certified Professionals are able to impact product roadmaps, and there's a lot they can learn from the product engineers. It's a great dialogue. We've done a lot of these sessions in the past; our intention will be to do a lot more, and not only around an event or by bringing people in to our facilities, but also online. We've already started to do some of that and we want to broaden these efforts."
Another key area that HP will be targeting is students, specifically people in college who are pursuing an IT career. According to Beneda, "We're working on some partnerships right now in the academic space which will help students come into the job market with much more applicable skills, given where the industry is going [with convergence]."
Beneda invites everyone with a vested interest in HP certified skills to get involved in the evolution of the HP Certified Professional Program. "When HP creates new certifications, we invite CPs and partners from around the world who perform this job for a living to help us define the skills and knowledge required for certification. It's a great way for technical people to contribute to the direction of the certification program because they actually help us define the content that goes into the training and the tests. If they have an interest in that, they should send an e-mail with a resume and some background information on the kinds of work they do and the kinds of engagements they've had to their regional program office and express an interest in specific certification. Right now we're looking for input on the Converged Infrastructure certifications."
For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/
The other day I had an opportunity to talk to Brian Beneda, the director of strategy and business development for the HP Certified Professional Program. Beneda shared his insight on the quiet evolution taking place within the HP certification program. Anyone who is responsible for hiring, managing or developing IT professionals should like HP's approach to broadening a person's technical skill set and knowledge.
To understand what HP is doing with its training and certification program, we need a little context about what is happening in general in the IT industry. Whether you call it "convergence," "service-oriented architecture," or simply the "collapsing" of the data center, there's a trend toward companies purchasing a much more integrated core set of servers, storage and networking solutions. This allows companies to move away from spending time and money on integrating separate silos of technologies and toward a flexible IT environment that is more responsive to business needs.
As CIOs contemplate this converged IT platform, they also have to look at the way their departments are organized today. Over the past decade or two, people have been put in silos to support specific technologies. For example, you have the server guys, the storage guys, the networking guys, the systems management guys, and so on. These people tend to have deep technical skills pertaining to their specific technologies, but only surface-level knowledge of the other technologies. CIOs need to rethink the way the organization is structured -- and the people are trained and skilled -- in order to create much more activity across the technology domains.
"As we talk to CIOs and the guys that are operating their data centers, they are very excited about the Converged Infrastructure from HP and what it can do, but they are starting to realize they've got a skills gap," Beneda says. "Typically there are three or four people in a large company that have the skills and knowledge to look across the data center today and are able to architect solutions or think about the evolution of their IT at a company level. They need some kind of training program and certification that is going to help them get deeper around how they can evolve their data center to take advantage of some of these new technologies."
The skills and knowledge that are required to operate in that integrated world are quite different from the typical product- or technology-specific training and certification programs available in the marketplace today, according to Beneda. "If the platform is moving toward merging networking, storage and servers, then the server guy needs to have a way to have some skills in the networking and storage space. These skills need to be much deeper than what they've had in the past because they are going to be integrated into that converged data center environment. The same is true with networking and storage guys. They need to broaden what they know. And from a systems management perspective, a person needs to be able to look at everything through a single pane of glass." In other words, companies need to have people with skills that are much more "integrated" to go along with the integrated technologies.
HP is evolving its training and certifications to enable both of those paths -- for the high-level architect who is looking across the data center, as well as for the individual who is deep in a technology domain (like storage) who needs to broaden his skill set into other technology areas.
HP is in the process of creating a high level certification for this data center/Converged Infrastructure architect. This will be a flagship certification in the IT industry, and the person who attains it will be very valuable to any organization because he will have the proven knowledge and skills to architect an enterprise IT platform that can adapt to rapidly changing business needs.
For the technology specialist, Beneda says that a "well-kept secret" is that HP already has cross-domain content in its training and certifications. "If you get a server certification from HP today, there's already embedded content pertaining to storage, networking and management. Our storage certifications require some server, operating system and networking knowledge to be able to enable storage networking technology. HP has actually done a pretty good job up to this point to make sure people have good solution skills. We have some opportunities to broaden this in the context of where the market is going and to enable the value of the people who hold those skills," Beneda says.
He adds that this isn't an enterprise-only play; many of the same market dynamics exist in the small-midsize business (SMB) space as well. "Think about how a small company gets IT support," Beneda says. "There's typically one guy who is the techie. He sets up the infrastructure and supports the PCs. This is the primary kind of resource that an SMB has. In addition, some functions might be outsourced to a local systems integrator. The individuals who are in-house as well as the people who provide outside service and support need an integrated skill set across the technology domains, and perhaps even more so because they deal with everything from printers to applications to VoIP. You need individuals with much broader skill sets across the entire domain in the SMB space."
Beneda says it is HP's intent to create skill sets, at enterprise and SMB levels, for people who operate consistently in a converged IT environment.
One of the first outward signs we'll see from HP will be more interaction with and within the HP Certified Professional community. "We want to be much more collaborative with our community," Beneda says. "Some of the best times that we have are when we get a group of ASEs in our product lab and generate some interaction between our product engineers and the people who are actually out in the field, working with these products every day -- designing solutions, integrating products, supporting them. Our product engineers love to get feedback from the people who are out there doing the job today."
"These forums have been extremely successful for us," Beneda adds. "HP Certified Professionals are able to impact product roadmaps, and there's a lot they can learn from the product engineers. It's a great dialogue. We've done a lot of these sessions in the past; our intention will be to do a lot more, and not only around an event or by bringing people in to our facilities, but also online. We've already started to do some of that and we want to broaden these efforts."
Another key area that HP will be targeting is students, specifically people in college who are pursuing an IT career. According to Beneda, "We're working on some partnerships right now in the academic space which will help students come into the job market with much more applicable skills, given where the industry is going [with convergence]."
Beneda invites everyone with a vested interest in HP certified skills to get involved in the evolution of the HP Certified Professional Program. "When HP creates new certifications, we invite CPs and partners from around the world who perform this job for a living to help us define the skills and knowledge required for certification. It's a great way for technical people to contribute to the direction of the certification program because they actually help us define the content that goes into the training and the tests. If they have an interest in that, they should send an e-mail with a resume and some background information on the kinds of work they do and the kinds of engagements they've had to their regional program office and express an interest in specific certification. Right now we're looking for input on the Converged Infrastructure certifications."
For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/
2010年5月28日星期五
Microsoft warns on Windows 7 upgrade tool
Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp
Parallels, known for using virtualization to solve consumer problems, thought it had a surefire new use for its technology.
Why not use the same approach it used to put Windows on a Mac to help ease the move from XP to Windows 7. The solution was elegant, helping users both make the move and even run older programs that weren't compatible with the new version of Windows. At first, the signs from Microsoft were encouraging; the company even invited Parallells to a Windows 7 momentum event in Paris to publicly talk about the program, Parallels Desktop Upgrade to Windows 7.
There was only one problem: the way the product works runs afoul of Microsoft's license rules, at least for most users. That's because the $50 software puts the user's old Windows XP system into a virtual machine, running alongside Windows 7, a concurrent use not allowed under most Windows licenses.
CNET raised the issue with both Microsoft and Parallels after learning about the product last month. Parallels said it is up to users to make sure they are in compliance with Redmond's terms. Microsoft, meanwhile, said it was talking with Parallels, but declined to publicly call out the company. Until now.
"Microsoft does not endorse moving the user's desktop from a physically loaded OS into a VM as a consumer solution, because the vast majority (more than 90 percent) of consumers do not license Windows under a license that would allow them to transfer Windows into a virtual machine, move Windows to a different machine, or run a secondary virtual machine that is not running XP Mode on the same machine," Microsoft's general manager, Gavriella Schuster, said in a statement to CNET. "Without these license rights, most consumers will not be properly licensing Windows when using the virtualization features of Parallels' product."
Schuster pointed out that enterprise customers with a Software Assurance contract covering Windows could properly use the software. Users who buy a full retail boxed copy of Windows (or possibly of both Windows XP and Windows 7), as opposed to the an upgrade version might also be properly licensed for the Parallels software.
For its part, Parallels continues to say it is up to users to make sure they are properly licensing Windows in conjunction with the upgrade tool.
"We require customers to verify they have the proper license," a Parallels representative said on Tuesday.
Microsoft suggested it is looking for a little more than that.
"Microsoft is working with Parallels to ensure that the Windows licensing requirements are made clear to customers in their product," Schuster said.
Despite the legal issues, Parallels' upgrade tool would appear to address an important need.
Although Windows 7 has proven popular, upgrading can be a hassle, requiring users to back up their data and programs, reinstall software, and then figure out what to do with programs that aren't compatible with the newer Windows.
A Parallels representative said on Tuesday that the product remains available for sale.
"It's out there," the representative said. "We're very excited about the product."
For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/
Parallels, known for using virtualization to solve consumer problems, thought it had a surefire new use for its technology.
Why not use the same approach it used to put Windows on a Mac to help ease the move from XP to Windows 7. The solution was elegant, helping users both make the move and even run older programs that weren't compatible with the new version of Windows. At first, the signs from Microsoft were encouraging; the company even invited Parallells to a Windows 7 momentum event in Paris to publicly talk about the program, Parallels Desktop Upgrade to Windows 7.
There was only one problem: the way the product works runs afoul of Microsoft's license rules, at least for most users. That's because the $50 software puts the user's old Windows XP system into a virtual machine, running alongside Windows 7, a concurrent use not allowed under most Windows licenses.
CNET raised the issue with both Microsoft and Parallels after learning about the product last month. Parallels said it is up to users to make sure they are in compliance with Redmond's terms. Microsoft, meanwhile, said it was talking with Parallels, but declined to publicly call out the company. Until now.
"Microsoft does not endorse moving the user's desktop from a physically loaded OS into a VM as a consumer solution, because the vast majority (more than 90 percent) of consumers do not license Windows under a license that would allow them to transfer Windows into a virtual machine, move Windows to a different machine, or run a secondary virtual machine that is not running XP Mode on the same machine," Microsoft's general manager, Gavriella Schuster, said in a statement to CNET. "Without these license rights, most consumers will not be properly licensing Windows when using the virtualization features of Parallels' product."
Schuster pointed out that enterprise customers with a Software Assurance contract covering Windows could properly use the software. Users who buy a full retail boxed copy of Windows (or possibly of both Windows XP and Windows 7), as opposed to the an upgrade version might also be properly licensed for the Parallels software.
For its part, Parallels continues to say it is up to users to make sure they are properly licensing Windows in conjunction with the upgrade tool.
"We require customers to verify they have the proper license," a Parallels representative said on Tuesday.
Microsoft suggested it is looking for a little more than that.
"Microsoft is working with Parallels to ensure that the Windows licensing requirements are made clear to customers in their product," Schuster said.
Despite the legal issues, Parallels' upgrade tool would appear to address an important need.
Although Windows 7 has proven popular, upgrading can be a hassle, requiring users to back up their data and programs, reinstall software, and then figure out what to do with programs that aren't compatible with the newer Windows.
A Parallels representative said on Tuesday that the product remains available for sale.
"It's out there," the representative said. "We're very excited about the product."
For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/
Adobe patches 'critical' holes in Photoshop CS4
Here’s the resources: http://www.test104.com/en/misc/all.asp
Photoshop users like to expand what the software can do by downloading new brushes, gradients, and color swatches, but the ability to make those additions also turns out to have been a potential avenue for attack.
Adobe Systems on Wednesday released a Photoshop 11.0.2 security update to its earlier CS4 version of Photoshop for both Windows and Mac OS X versions to close off that avenue.
"Critical vulnerabilities have been identified in Photoshop CS4 11.0.1 and earlier for Windows and Macintosh that could allow an attacker who successfully exploits these vulnerabilities to take control of the affected system. A malicious .ASL, .ABR, or .GRD file must be opened in Photoshop CS4 by the user for an attacker to be able to exploit these vulnerabilities," Adobe said in an advisory. ASL, ABR, and GRD files refer to swatches, brushes, and gradients, respectively.
The newly released Photoshop CS5 is not vulnerable, Adobe added.
For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/
Photoshop users like to expand what the software can do by downloading new brushes, gradients, and color swatches, but the ability to make those additions also turns out to have been a potential avenue for attack.
Adobe Systems on Wednesday released a Photoshop 11.0.2 security update to its earlier CS4 version of Photoshop for both Windows and Mac OS X versions to close off that avenue.
"Critical vulnerabilities have been identified in Photoshop CS4 11.0.1 and earlier for Windows and Macintosh that could allow an attacker who successfully exploits these vulnerabilities to take control of the affected system. A malicious .ASL, .ABR, or .GRD file must be opened in Photoshop CS4 by the user for an attacker to be able to exploit these vulnerabilities," Adobe said in an advisory. ASL, ABR, and GRD files refer to swatches, brushes, and gradients, respectively.
The newly released Photoshop CS5 is not vulnerable, Adobe added.
For more news, please access http://www.test104.com/en/tech/
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