Evaluate

Evaluate

Weigh the pros and cons of technologies, products and projects you are considering.

• Tools and techniques for tracking changes to software requirements

  In this tip, requirements expert Sue Burk explains different techniques and tools that can be used to track changes to the requirement itself as well as changes to the attributes of the requirement. Continue Reading

• Server refresh options: When to rent a server vs. when to buy

  Companies looking to replace old hardware must consider long-term goals and evaluate financing options when deciding whether to buy or rent a server. Continue Reading

• What you need to know about SMB SANs

  Marc Staimer discusses what to look for in an SMB SANs this Q&A and recent developments in SMB SAN technology. Continue Reading

• VMware storage options and Storage vMotion: A guide

  VMware storage options include VMFS, thin provisioning, NFS and block-level storage. Virtualization storage features such as VMware Storage vMotion also help protect VM data. Continue Reading

• Application security: Protecting application availability, data confidentiality and integrity

  Network security and application security are both important in keeping your applications safe from hackers. In this tip, security engineer John Overbaugh focuses on application security, which is needed to protect the confidentiality, availability ... Continue Reading

• Managing change requests to your application

  In this tip, we look at end user requests, and the process to prioritize the requests for IT, so they know where to focus their work efforts.Continue Reading

• Using DCIM tools to monitor data center power

  Although DCIM tools include many capabilities for monitoring data center power and facilitating data center management, you should know their associated costs before implementing projects.Continue Reading

• A closer look at the Ntdsutil command-line tools for Active Directory

  Dig into the slew of Ntdsutil commands in Windows Server 2008 and R2 that provide admins with improved Active Directory management.Continue Reading

• Application development for mobile phones: Testing across different devices

  New mobile phone models enter the market all the time, and it seems daunting to perform application testing on the various devices available. Expert Karen Johnson carefully examines the factors developers must consider and offers strategies on how ...Continue Reading

• Data storage trends 2011: Predictions of hot data storage technologies

  Explore this expert FAQ as three analysts weight in and tell us what they think are the hottest data storage technologies and data storage trends for 2011.Continue Reading

• Data archiving techniques: Choosing the best archive media

  Read this tip about data archiving techniques and to discover what's the best archive media for your organization: tape, disk, optical or the cloud.Continue Reading

• Hyper-V Dynamic Memory vs. VMware memory overcommit

  Memory allocation can be a guessing game in virtualized environments. Hyper-V Dynamic Memory and VMware memory overcommit tackle the problem in different ways.Continue Reading

• Networking vendors aim to improve server virtualization security

  Server virtualization security is no longer guaranteed by creating physical security zones for different classes of virtual machines on host servers. Networking and network security vendors are introducing virtual security products that apply ...Continue Reading

• Ten cool iPhone apps for Windows admins

  Are you an admin on the go? Check out some of the best iPhone apps available for Windows server and network management.Continue Reading

• How RAID storage systems protect your application data

  RAID storage systems improve application performance and data availability. Learn about RAID levels and choosing the right RAID technology.Continue Reading

• Implementing an electronic records retention system

  Learn the components of an electronic records retention system and best practices for implementing an electronic data discovery policy. Don't risk e-discovery request errors.Continue Reading

• As the WORM turns: The pros and cons of WORM disk vs. tape

  Learn about how WORM disk is still an important option for data retention, and about the pros and cons of using WORM disk vs. tape.Continue Reading

• The impact of HTML5 on Web applications

  HTML, the HyperText Markup Language, is an essential part of the Internet experience. HTML5 is one part of what WHATWG sees as essential to the future of Web applications.Continue Reading

• VMware vSphere's built-in performance monitoring tools

  VMware vSphere features several free performance monitoring tools that can help assess the health of your virtual machines and fix resource bottlenecks.Continue Reading

• Selecting benchmarking tools for specific needs

  Narrowing down the best benchmarking tool requires testing and a careful evaluation of needs, including system compatibility, level of technical depth and scalability.Continue Reading

• Buying your first backup tape library: What you need to know

  In this tip, find out what you need to know when buying your first tape library, including when to consider a library, the cost of libraries and which format best fits your needs.Continue Reading

• Improve application performance with multithreaded applications

  Multi-core CPUs fuel a server's operating system performance and virtualization technologies. Can multithreaded applications and multi-core CPUs fuel application performance as well?Continue Reading

• Architecting application failover in your data center

  Attempting application failover by re-coding your apps may not be the right choice for every data center, as several factors, including virtualization and coding languages, affect which method you should use. This tip offers advice for finding the ...Continue Reading

• Best practices for reusing data backup tapes

  W. Curtis Preston answers common questions about reusing backup tapes in this Q&A.Continue Reading

• Virtual tape libraries vs. disk-to-disk backup in small business storage environments

  SMBs have several disk backup options to choose from. Which is more popular, VTLs or disk-to-disk backup?Continue Reading

• Choosing a data archiving strategy: Disk archiving vs. tape archiving

  Data archiving is vital for most companies, but which is best for you, archiving to disk, tape or both?Continue Reading

• Six tours for exploratory testing the business district of your application

  Exploratory testing is sometimes thought to be "directionless testing", but James Whitaker's new book suggests that exploratory testing, is more structured than it is credited for. Exploratory testing is filled with numerous tours or testing ...Continue Reading

• LTO tape technology continues to evolve with LTO 5

  W. Curtis Preston, TechTarget executive editor and independent backup expert, outlines how LTO tape differs from other tape media, discusses the various generations of LTO tape, and the pros and cons of LTO in this Q&A.Continue Reading

• Why use POST vs. GET to keep applications secure

  Although POST and GET HTTP requests essentially perform the same command on a Web server, a security expert says there are inherent dangers in using one over the other. Learn why one type of processing request provides more security for your Web ...Continue Reading

• Nine ways to evaluate automated software testing tools

  Evaluate automated software testing tools more thoroughly with these tips for analyzing cost, support, total cost of ownership, usability and more. This tip suggests questions to ask about each attribute of a tool and a vendor's support for it.Continue Reading

• Director switch comparison: Brocade DCX Backbone versus Cisco Systems MDS 9500

  Are you looking for director switch for your SAN? We compare the Brocade DCX Backbone and Cisco Systems MDS 9500 offerings in terms of latency, throughput and FCoE support.Continue Reading

• Upgrading to VMware vSphere: Five pros and five cons

  Increased performance, scalability and new features top the list as to why you should upgrade to vSphere, but proven product stability, third-party product and hardware compatibility are reasons you may want to stay with VMware Infrastructure 3 for ...Continue Reading

• Archiving storage vs. data backup storage: The dos and don'ts of using backups and data archives

  Learn the differences between data backup software and data archiving tools and the dos and don'ts associated with each in this FAQ with Curtis Preston.Continue Reading

• Understanding cloud computing pricing

  Someday, cloud computing providers may simplify pricing models. But until that day, when determining total pricing for a cloud computing service, consider the services offered by the provider and how each pricing structure is worded.Continue Reading

• Virtualization benefits are worth the extra cost over physical servers alone

  Physical servers alone may cost two and a half times less, but the benefits gained by purchasing virtualization software such as VMware are more than worth it, argues the author of Virtualization Viewpoints.Continue Reading

• Five requirements for deploying an application in a public cloud

  Thinking about deploying an application in a public cloud? Investigate these five requirements to ensure success.Continue Reading

• Fibre Channel switch options for SMBs

  Recently, the Fibre Channel industry has become more attractive and affordable for SMBs. This article explores FC switch considerations and products for SMBs.Continue Reading

• How to choose the right uninterruptible power supply for your data center

  This tip discusses how to choose the right-sized uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for your data center. It also explains common mistakes in UPS sizing and why UPS power ratings can be so confusing.Continue Reading

• Running a Web service on Google App Engine

  Google's App Engine for building Web applications in the cloud is beginning to support Java servlet-based Web services. It's still under development, but you can experiment using Eclipse support or command-line utilities in the SDK.Continue Reading

• Linux tools

  Learn about different tools, tips, programs and resources from every genre of Linux tools, and learn how to deploy and configure the tools that suite your needs.Continue Reading

• How to install and configure MRTG, an essential sys admin tool

  Multi Router Traffic Grapher (MRTG) is an essential tool that allows systems administrators to monitor and graph network traffic and more. In this tutorial, an expert explains how to install and configure MRTG on Solaris 10.Continue Reading

• Identifying applications for public and private clouds

  Before leaping head first into cloud services, figure which applications are best suited to a public versus private cloud. This article will help you define target apps for the cloud.Continue Reading

• Capacity planning tools tutorial for Linux and Unix

  Effective capacity planning is a proactive way of ensuring that your data center servers will not prematurely run out of space or horsepower. Learn the tools available to help you, both native to Linux and Unix platforms including Solaris, Red Hat, ...Continue Reading

• Quest Authentication Services

  Quest Authentication Services allows organizations to extend Active Directory (AD) to Unix, Linux and Mac platforms and enterprise applications. It enables the unification of identities and directories for simplified identity and access management.Continue Reading

• Web application security testing checklist

  Testing your Web application security is something that needs be taken seriously. The best way to be successful is to prepare in advance and know what to look for. Here's an essential elements checklist to help you get the most out of your Web ...Continue Reading

• Creating a SharePoint site map using out-of-the-box features

  Giving SharePoint site owners the power to manage their own part of the SharePoint site map frees up administrators to manage more critical areas of the SharePoint environment.Continue Reading

• How to solve abend code 4038

  A user faces the abnormal ending abend code 4038 in the process of migrating from VS COBOL runtimes to LE.Continue Reading

• Use DFHLS2WS to expose CICS applications as a Web service

  DFHLS2WS is one of the Web services assistants that allows traditional CICS applications to provide or consume Web services without significant changes and without getting into the details of SOAP or XML coding.Continue Reading

• Storage options for virtual machines: Raw device mappings, VMFS

  Virtual Machine File System is VMware's preferred storage option for virtual machines, but raw device mapping provides similar performance and can be a better choice depending on the specific storage configuration.Continue Reading

• For an SMB, what are the advantages and disadvantages of an in-house email archiving system vs. a ho

  There are a lot of pros and cons for both at all business sizes. But SMBs tend to be more price and administration sensitive. In other words, if you are a company that has an annual IT budget from $10,000 to $100,000, you simply can not go out and ...Continue Reading

• Host bus adapter (HBA) architecture explained

  HBAs are integral pieces of a SAN environment -- they connect the server to the SAN -- but few storage administrators know how to configure them.Continue Reading

• Requirements gathering for payroll application

  Engineering requirements for a payroll or similar application demands careful consideration. Expert Rob Apmann explains how to approach this complicated task.Continue Reading

• Free load and performance testing tools

  What is a good choice for a free load testing tool? Expert Dan Cornell offers his advice and explains how to get started with your testing tool.Continue Reading

• How to get process information with Windows PowerShell

  In this column, Christa Anderson explains how to use Windows PowerShell's get-process cmdlet to retrieve information about the processes on your computer and how to kill the unnecessary ones.Continue Reading

• How to choose the correct RAID level

  This tip offers nine things to consider when deciding which RAID level is right for your organization's needs.Continue Reading

• What to look for in a Web application security testing tool

  If you do a lot of Web application security scanning, any testing tool you use must have these features, says security expert Kevin Beaver. They will save you lots of time and effort and will increase the number of valid vulnerabilities found.Continue Reading

• Distributed File System feature prioritizes target servers in Active Directory

  DFS target prioritization is a helpful feature that has slipped under the radar for some IT admins. Directory services expert Gary Olsen breaks down how to use (and not use) this tool to its full effectiveness.Continue Reading

• Filtering output from Windows PowerShell

  With PowerShell, it's pretty simple to browse Windows Management Instrumentation classes without cheating by filtering the content -- all it takes is a new cmdlet and working with variables.Continue Reading

• An overview of Microsoft Outlook email security features

  In the following tip from "8 tips in 8 minutes: A Microsoft Outlook email security tutorial," you'll gain an in-depth overview of Microsoft Outlook's email security features including security zone changes, the Outlook security update, S/MIME ...Continue Reading

• Memory leaks: Determine an application's CPU consumption

  The same symptoms for a memory leak can be caused by a poorly written application that consumes an excessive amount of CPU time. Here's how to determine how much CPU time an individual application is using.Continue Reading

• I don't want a Web application security product; I want a solution

  The number of Web application security products available is enough to make your head spin. A better option is a total solution that handles all of your Web application security needs, says application security expert Anurag Agarwal.Continue Reading

• application firewall

  An application firewall is an enhanced firewall that limits access by applications to the operating system (OS) of a computer... (Continued)Continue Reading

• Wi-Fi vulnerability assessment checklist

  Vulnerability assessments can help you find and fix WLAN weaknesses before attackers take advantage of them. But where do you start? What should you look for? Have you covered all the bases? This checklist will help to answer these questions.Continue Reading

• I need a very basic VPN solution to connect two offices to allow two servers to talk to one another.

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• Most popular viruses and hacking tools

  Here are 2004's most popular hacker tools, viruses, remote tools, adware, spyware, Trojans and worms.Continue Reading

• What are the top five companies that are providing enterprise level WLAN products and solutions?

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• Modern Stack

  covers the latest cloud-native application design trends and the evolving platforms on which they run. We provide IT operations professionals and software development teams with the information they need to build and support new business ...Continue Reading