With the advent of standardized 802.11n Wi-Fi, it’s easier than ever to expand your business network wirelessly, but that may not always be a smart idea.

I’m sitting outside an office building in Portland, Oregon. The building has at least half a dozen businesses with about 40 Wi-Fi access points (AP). In the hour I’ve been sitting here, I’ve broken into 28 of these corporate networks.

While I certainly know more about networking than most people do, I’ve no special expertise. I’m no hacker. I’m just making use of a good network packet analyzer, Wireshark (formerly known as Ethereal) and several common-as-dirt, dead simple to use cracking tools.

The simple truth is that, given a few days and publicly available programs, any wireless network can be broken. Sadly, as I just rediscovered today, most Wi-Fi networks don’t require that much trouble. Heck, it barely requires any effort at all. READ MORE

Making the switch from hosting your servers and applications to letting a Managed Service Provider do it for you can reduce costs and improve productivity. But a mismatch with the wrong MSP can be a disaster. Here are questions you need answered before you tie the contractual knot.

MSPs are becoming more popular. Using an MSP can help an enterprise maintain existing service levels with a reduced IT staff, or provide a less-costly means of increasing services than hiring new staff. Since many of them have expertise in Internet applications, they can quickly bring them online. Also, increased regulatory complexity requires offsite storage, which can be provided by MSPs. READ MORE

When Emerson Network Power consolidated dozens of data centers around the globe into a facility at its campus just north of St. Louis, the most interesting feature wasn’t even inside the building.

As part of its consolidation, Emerson, which makes a wide array of power conditioning and management systems, built a new 35,000 sq. ft. data center in St. Louis last year. The building sports a rooftop 100 kV (DC) solar array that occupies about a quarter of its surface area. The array provides about 15% of the power requirements for the equipment inside and is just one of several technologies that are used to show how green a new data center can be. READ MORE

One great benefit of using Linux, Apache, and other open source software is that you can modify the code to make it perfect for your business. But open source licensing restricts how you distribute the modifications.  Here’s what a CIO needs to know about open source licenses.

Most open source software licenses have two provisions in common:

No limits on personal use, unmodified redistribution, or internal re-use. You can use the software as-is on your own, redistribute it, or modify it from source for your own use. This makes most every open source application immediately useful as an in-house productivity booster: you don’t pay anything to use it, no matter how many seats you deploy it on. And as long as you restrict the software to in-house use, you can modify it freely and keep the modifications confidential. READ MORE

Server virtualization saves money and power, but that doesn’t mean you should virtualize everything. Some resources should be left alone.

“Because we can” is a lousy reason to virtualize a server.

Yet in a surprising number of cases that’s what the argument for virtualizing a particular server boils down to. The company has a virtualization initiative under way and that server is just sitting there, so . . .

While the advantages of server virtualization are undeniable, that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to virtualize every application and every server in the data center. In fact, in some cases, using virtualization is asking for trouble. A “virtualize everything” policy can cause many problems, including degraded performance, support headaches, increased licensing fees, and sudden lack of support from software vendors.

One of the tricks in a successful server virtualization program is to know what you don’t want to virtualize – and why not. READ MORE

Windows 7 upgrades. Downsizing. Standardizing platforms for mergers and acquisitions. System refreshes.

These are just a few of the situations that create the need to dispose of old computer hardware, or IT asset disposition, a term Forrester Research defines as “processes to redeploy, remarket, donate, recycle, or dispose of IT assets in compliance with data security, environmental, and industry regulations” which you and I might call, “Getting rid of our old computers.”

This area of IT asset management can no longer be an afterthought or a “waste-management” issue. Cost-savings imperatives, and security and environmental accountability have pushed IT asset disposition to the forefront.

That’s a good thing. Caring for your corporation’s IT equipment in the proper way is an opportunity for IT to generate savings and to protect the company’s brand reputation both in terms of privacy and green reputation. READ MORE

You may have avoided moving your network to IPv6 for years, but you won’t be able to put it off much longer. Here’s why you need to plan for a transition.

Every few years there’s another panic about everyone running out of IP addresses. The terror that the Internet would simply run out of room is finally coming true. It’s not so much that computers are consuming the IP addresses; it’s all those smartphones, iPads, and other devices that require Internet access.

The Number Resource Organization (NRO), the organization that oversees the allocation of all Internet number resources, announced in January 2010 that less than 10% of available IPv4 addresses remain unallocated.

“It is vital that the Internet community take considered and determined action to ensure the global adoption of IPv6,” Axel Pawlik, chairman of the NRO, said in a statement. “The limited IPv4 addresses will not allow us enough resources to achieve the ambitions we all hold for global Internet access.”

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After several years of trying, graphics processing units (GPUs) are beginning to win over the major server vendors. Dell and IBM are the first tier-one server vendors to adopt GPUs as server processors for high-performance computing (HPC). Here’s a manager’s view of the hardware change and what it might mean to your data center. (Hint: faster servers.)

GPUs are normally used in desktop PCs, where they serve as high-speed graphics accelerators, primarily for games. But it’s slowly dawning on both server makers and end-users that GPUs make great math co-processors for more tasks than just gaming.

In May, IBM announced plans to offer a pair of Tesla M2050 GPUs in its iDataPlex dx360 M3 scale-out servers. Dell followed with an early June announcement that its PowerEdge M610x blade servers would come with a pair of Tesla GPUs. The M610x, equipped with an Intel Xeon 5500 or 5600, can generate up to 400 gigaflops of performance. READ MORE

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The official word from Microsoft is you can’t upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7; you need a clean install. But in fact you can upgrade, including moving your data, applications, and settings. Here are some tips to help.

With Microsoft having abandoned Windows XP SP2, late-adopting companies still using XP are being pushed to make the upgrade to Windows 7. Windows XP is a dying breed.  It’s time to upgrade. Microsoft says only Windows Vista systems are eligible to upgrade, while Windows XP users need to make a clean install of the new operating system:

You can’t directly upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7, says Microsoft.

Thankfully, you can avoid the need to wipe the disk of each PC and clean-install Windows 7 manually.  Some tricks are more effective than others. Let’s look at some of these upgrade options, the DO’s and DON’Ts, and pick the slickest (and cheapest) and method.
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