Archives


The Cost of Webifying Legacy Applications

DePaul University authors provide access to their complete study.

Wireless Insecurity

Take one look at the tangle of cables connecting the computer to its monitor, peripherals and printers, and it’s not hard to imagine how someone thought "wireless." Sample the wireless 802.11b network (a.k.a. Wi-Fi and AirPort) in a café after crawling around on your hands and knees underneath your desk trying to find a live Ethernet port.

Application Integration: Mix & Match

ETL emerges as a compelling alternative to traditional EAI tools.

Road Rage on the Internet

The Internet is broken. Successful businesses require predictable systems and reliable performance. Unfortunately, the Internet provides neither.

Vendors Lurch Toward Web Services

How and when will Web services impact mainstream host integration efforts? Are CICS applications ready to be re-cast as Web services?

Stop and Go Migration

Migrating to Windows 2000 Active Directory was taking the Cincinnati State Technical and Community College much longer than expected. A migration tool from Quest Software Inc. made all the difference.



HP's Muddled Storage Vision

A lot of confusion persists in the user community about the meaning of the Compaq-HP merger and what impact it will have on its existing investments in storage technology.

Application Development

Tight economic conditions have made companies, determined to maximize their existing technology investments, cautious about investing in new technology from less-proven players, yet eager to implement new services to meet rapidly changing business requirements.

Replication Acceleration

Hydrite Chemical needed to reduce ERP data replication for its sales force. Stampede Technologies' TurboGold 4.2 helped the IT staff reduce bandwidth costs, shorten replication time and improve data accuracy.

Mainframes and Markets

Mainframe sales, like every other economic indicator we've all been watching, will depend on the economy. Where do you see the mainframe market heading?

An Offer You Can't Refuse

The quasi-monopolistic licensing practices of some software vendors have angered enterprise managers. But there's hope on the horizon and strategies you can use to fight back today.

Fund Your Project with Financial Measures

If you're in the enviable position of having your project funded, congratulations. The rest of us must learn to use IRR, PV, NPV and the time value of money to our advantage.

Unix Tops Skills Index

For the second consecutive year, Unix reigns supreme in the Techies.com Tech Skills Demand Index.

Top 100 Power Picks (continued)

A look at top influencers, forces, technologies and products in large enterprise computing.

Supply Chain Management

As we navigate choppy political and economic waters, companies are being forced to grapple with a new type of challenge: disruption of supply.

Getting IT Out of the Loop

Office Depot needed to massage sales data for employee bonuses, with minimal IT involvement.

Hiring and Firing Prove Hardest Duties

Laying off part (or all) of the IT staff is the toughest job an IT manager will face in his or her career. That’s what 403 enterprise systems professionals told us in our “ES Power 100” reader survey.

And the Winner is ... the Best (and Worst) in Storage

In keeping with the theme of this issue of Enterprise Systems, I proudly present my selections for the best (and worst) storage products of 2001-2002.

Avoid these 5 Host Integration Mistakes

In many respects, the past decade could be called the "Big-Box" era—when big-box stores and big-box cars came to dominate our landscape. The computer industry went the other way—to very small boxes.

Top 100 Power Picks

A look at top influencers, forces, technologies and products in large enterprise computing.

Securing Web Services

Web services—one of the latest waves in business and technology—is closer to reality now that we almost have an agreed-upon security framework: Security Assertions Markup Language (SAML). It may soon be possible for companies to use Web services securely.

In Good Company

Facing security challenges? Staff shortages? Worried about replacing retiring mainframe programmers and analysts? You're not the only one. When we asked readers in our annual survey for this issue to name the top challenge your IT organization faces in the next 12 months, those were some of the responses we heard over and over.

Shell Game

Computer forensics involves knowing where to look for data when a criminal attempts to destroy evidence. Find out how and where to seek data that can lead to catching a criminal.

Time Value of Money

To be an effective IT manager, you must take the time value of your precious budget dollars into account. This is especially important in large systems computing, where project time is measured in months and years, not days and weeks, and costs can run into the millions. Time value of money can become an important strategic factor in planning and presenting project proposals.

Training a Key Benefit

Employer-paid training is extremely important for attracting top-notch technology professionals, according to a Techies.com survey.

Big-Company Intelligence

For large enterprises that want better business intelligence without the high cost and management headaches of an in-house solution, hosted business intelligence might be the answer.

Planning Skills

A recent <a href="http://www.esj.com/news/article.asp?EditorialsID=179" target="_blank">news item</a> predicting a mainframe skills shortage that we ran in our twice-weekly Enterprise Strategies e-mail newsletter generated a strong response from readers.

Portals Pay Off

After all the hype from application server vendors in 2001, portals have finally landed firmly on solid, enterprise ground.

Portals

Although the portal market dates back to just 1997, it’s already matured to the point where few independent portal software vendors remain. Large infrastructure, content management and packaged applications vendors—even Microsoft—are fighting over this market.

Wireless Looms Large

The more wireless matures, the more promise it offers. But corporate wireless adoption is facing a classic chicken-and-egg quandary.

Mainframe Shops Eye Web Services

Web services are still in the infant-to-toddler stages. But ultimately, just about any mainframe or host-centric application will be fair game for the technologies.

Choosing the Portal View

Managing its own internal portal project, Perficient Inc. came away with a deep understanding of the ins—and outs—of portals.

Wanted: A Host That Serves Reliability

Despite high-profile blowouts, managed service providers succeed at selling their high-availability message to large enterprises.

SAN Vendors Cooperate? Ha!

Ever wonder what would happen if a truly open, standards-based, highly manageable and intelligent Storage Area Network (SAN) appeared in the market? While the idea is a wishful dream for enterprise managers, it's a nightmare for storage vendors.

Defending the Faith

A hardened operating systems brings security to the Bahá‘í International Community's Web site.

Storage Needs

With constantly evolving standards and virtually every company's explosive growth in the size of its data, storage is more than a thorn, actually—it's a big nasty thicket of thorns.

Wanted: Invisible Security

Technology workers think employers don't do enough to ensure their personal safety (and that of their property) but will strongly resist any security measures that might infringe on their personal life.