Charles King

The IBM mainframe endures as both a concept and commercial system for several factors, but chief among them is the architecture’s inherent flexibility. That has allowed IBM to craft new offerings that offer the modern’s mainframe’s essential availability, scalability, performance and security features. It also includes support for open technologies in often highly variable packages. […]

Data storage stands at an odd crossroads today. From a technological perspective, storage vendors continue to deliver the goods in terms of solutions becoming increasingly speedy, capacious, and flexible. That is vital since modern businesses are creating and managing information in volumes that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. At the same time, […]

Mobility innovations have inspired devices, including notebooks, tablets and smartphones for more than a decade. However, while easy portability and long battery life were once-all/end-all must-haves, modern organizations and users need something more when it comes to supporting secure use cases, modern communications, remote management and reliable performance. Flexibility now defines the leading edge of […]

Creating a full portfolio of enterprise-ready servers does not happen overnight. Even when a substantial acquisition of products and intellectual property (IP) is involved, as occurred when Lenovo bought IBM’s System x (x86-based) solutions in 2014, it takes considerable time to successfully absorb, optimize and promote those offerings. Plus, businesses and business computing are constantly […]

In enterprise IT, it is difficult to find a larger or more pervasive subject than the continuing rise of cloud computing. Most of those narratives focus on the prevalence of hybrid cloud as the solution that many, if not most, businesses prefer. But what about companies that want to consider, instead, shifting most or all […]

Like many IT industry sales executives, Wilfredo Sotolongo has a deep and practical understanding of computing and related technologies. After earning B.S. (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University) and M.S. (Georgia Institute of Technology) degrees in aeronautical and mechanical engineering, Sotolongo began his professional career at IBM as a robotics product developer in 1985, then joined the company’s […]

Industry-standard server vendors’ product announcements often focus as much on the components that strategic partners provide as they do on new solutions. That is a natural approach since off-the-shelf components play vital roles in new system features and capabilities. So, it is sensible for vendors to spotlight their partners’ latest/greatest technologies. That was certainly the […]

Tech industry analysts regularly extol the potential value and benefits of hybrid cloud. After all, what’s not to like? But what is often ignored or glossed over in those commentaries are the potential problems that accompany those efforts and associated application modernization. This is especially true when it comes to business-critical applications that enterprises are […]

The prestige that technologies enjoy among global businesses and consumers tends to obscure the mundane efforts and processes required to bring products to market. That is especially true for mass-produced hardware, including PCs and smartphones, whose success depends on watchful vendors overseeing massive, extraordinarily complex manufacturing processes. Effective planning, scheduling and performance are vital to […]

Personal computers (PCs) for business are more than a class of devices. They are a continuum. Comparing the cumbersome Wintel desktops that defined PCs in the 1980s and 1990s to modern commercial clients would be akin to setting a pterodactyl and hummingbird side by side. However, just as business PCs have evolved rapidly and radically […]

Vendor discussions of cloud and hybrid cloud computing typically follow a “go where you know” trajectory. That is, server and silicon vendors pitch new and different cloud-focused hardware functions while software and services players focus on new applications and tools that make life easier for cloud-bound code writers, developers and data center staff. However, when […]

The trickle-down effect of enterprise IT is as old as business technology. Vendors have long aimed new innovations at enterprises whose deep pockets and desire for competitive advantage will lead them to pay a premium for shiny new products. Over time and with the help of constant technological evolution, yesterday’s leading-edge solutions are reconfigured and […]