Paul Rubens

Recession, credit crunch, challenging economic environment: Call it what you will, it’s bound to have a profound effect on the IT business during the next 12 months. One of the most notable victims is likely to be Microsoft’s Vista. The OS finds itself in an unfortunate position, squeezed by the slowdown on one side and […]

It started sensibly enough with the launch of Microsoft’s Windows Server 2008 in February. The new OS was generally well received, even if no one actually seemed to be implementing it. Server 2008 introduced several important new features, like the Server Core installation option — the key feature of which was that it got rid […]

The use of smartphone-based applications in the enterprise could explode in the coming years, creating a number of headaches for data center staff. That’s because these applications and their data need managing and backing up from the data center, and phone-related security, network hygiene and compliance issues must also be addressed. “Once you have smartphones […]

Windows Server 2008 and Vista systems use Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) to make it hard write to shellcode that can successfully exploit buffer overflow errors in applications. You could say ASLR is a built-in technology in these operating systems that provides some protection against certain types of malicious software and security threats right out […]

The collapse in value of Sun’s shares during the past 12 months is so comprehensive that it makes some bank shares look like shrewd investments in comparison. The company’s share price has been heading progressively South for the past year, from $21.55 to as low as $2.60 — a staggering fall of more than 86 […]

UNIX is being attacked by Linux from the top and bottom ends of the market. The signs are that it is losing the battle on both fronts. A couple of weeks back I wrote that Linux is becoming increasingly capable of doing the less-demanding tasks that UNIX has historically been asked to do, so there […]

When it comes to hypocrisy, Microsoft really takes the cake. About seven years ago, Bill Gates announced in a Trustworthy Computing memo emphasizing the importance of availability, security, privacy and trustworthiness in the software Microsoft develops. Here’s what he said about the last of these: “Trustworthiness is a much broader concept than security, and winning […]

It’s no surprise that the idea of green data centers has exploded into the IT world’s consciousness over the last two or three years. Densely packed servers and their cooling systems gobble up vast amounts of electricity, racking up big energy bills, harming organizations’ green credentials and often nudging up against the limits of the […]

Microsoft’s Windows Server 2008 has been out for just nine months, but the company is already preparing customers for the next releases of its desktop and server OSes. Taking a look at what it plans to offer reveals much about Redmond’s thinking right now. Take the naming of its newly unveiled products, for example. You’d […]

Poor old Apple. Every time it arrives at a party it seems like the caterers are packing away the empty champagne crates, and the cool young things are moving on to the next hot place to strut their funky stuff. Apple has yet to make an entrance at the enterprise server operating system party. For […]