IT Expert Voice

How can you keep your corporate programmers on target? Try these suggestions from well-known PHP developer Luke Welling. READ MORE

Test end-to-end service assurance from your transport network to your applications.

For IT decision-makers supporting their mobile workforce, understanding the benefits and complexities of the technologies used by their chosen service providers or mobile carriers can make all the difference in delivering a robust mobile implementation at reasonable cost to the enterprise. READ MORE

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

Want your new Windows 7 applications to take advantage of the new operating system? Here’s how to add functionality to the Windows 7 Task Bar, using the Windows 7 API Code Pack, .NET, and very little effort.

When I first started with .NET programming back in its version 1.0 days, I noticed how shielded we Windows programmers were from the good old Win32 API. On the one hand, that was a great thing; no longer did developers have to fuss with enormous calls to CreateWindowEx and the related RegisterClass function. While functions like these and the message handler functions were the lifeblood of our applications, with .NET our programming became substantially easier.

But on the other hand, at times our hands were tied. Despite the size of the .NET framework, there were some API features that the .NET creators seemed to skip. As .NET moved forward and included WPF features, Windows Vista come along, and now Windows 7, both of which had lots of features that were absent in .NET.

The way around this was to call directly into the Win32 API. That’s certainly possible in both C# and VB.NET. But it’s not fun, not by any means. A better way, however, is a .NET library that encapsulates the missing features. And that’s exactly what Microsoft did with the Windows API Code Pack for Microsoft .NET Framework. READ MORE

No longer an optional extra, but a built-in part of Windows 7, PowerShell 2 enables administrators to manage the computers in the enterprise from both the command line and from scripts.

No matter how we try to get away from the command line, for many administrative and maintenance jobs for both individual PCs and for an office full of Windows 7 computers, when push comes to shove you can’t beat individual shell commands or reusable batch or script files. That’s why I was very happy to see Microsoft’s new PowerShell 2 baked into Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

The single most important change in PowerShell 2 is that it is not just for individual computers, retro-fitted for administering multiple PCs. No, this version of PowerShell was designed from the beginning to manage networked PCs. In short, PowerShell is just as much for network administrators as it is for system administrators or PC technicians. READ MORE

The lesson in the frustrating Pull Me-Push You approach of multiple teams working on SQL Server virtualization is that old mindsets and turf protections can kill any project. Beyond that key realization lays a number of real technical issues to solve. Here’s what to look out for and what to ignore.

Cloud buzz aside, virtualization chatter still dominates in IT circles. The primary discussion is two-toned: “Why should we bother?” and “How would we do it?” Among the first of the follow-up questions is “How well will our Microsoft SQL Server databases work with virtualization?” It’s a legitimate, straightforward question that, unfortunately, is often met with an onslaught of contradictory answers.

Varying technical opinions are common among database administrators (DBAs) and software developers. However, in this case the variation in responses is usually determined by the answerers’ perspectives rather than by actual database server performance metrics.

Take DBAs, for example. “DBAs don’t want to change their server environments,” says Brent Ozar, a Microsoft SQL Server expert with Quest Software, and a Microsoft Certified Master for SQL Server 2008. “They’re probably unhappy with their server performance today on physical hardware, and in their minds, things can only get worse.” READ MORE

Any company aiming to upgrade its operating systems first has to get control over its application library. Here’s what you need to know about the process of identifying the company’s applications – not to mention upgrading them to support the new OS – before you undergo one of those painful “learning experiences.”

It’s going to happen, sooner or later. Your boss will turn a baleful eye at the development and IT staff and say, “I’m sure all our software will run under the new OS. Won’t it?” You’ll be tempted to gulp and stammer out a half-hearted answer that confirms the executive’s preconceptions about IT (oh dear) and leaves them with an opportunity to later wail, “What do you mean, ‘We can’t run payroll’?!” We can’t have that, can we?!

There’s three steps in the process of application migration: information discovery, research and rationalization, and the actual application migration or upgrades. (I leave the how-to on the last item to another discussion, though I like to think that Windows 7 Development Gotchas is a start in that direction.) In this article, I provide you with some guidelines about how to approach the problems of “What do we have, and what are we going to do about it?” courtesy of a conversation I had a few weeks ago with Jefferson Raley, Manager of End User Computing at Dell’s ProConsult (and a presenter in the first IT Expert Voice webinar [free download, registration required]). READ MORE

Need to move older business software off its outdated platform and into a modern environment? Bruce Johnson shows you the steps in writing a Microsoft Azure web application. READ MORE