Francis Chu

Any system exposed to the Internet is subject to attack at any time. Most IT managers employ firewalls and intrusion detection systems to guard the e-business infrastructure, but e-mail servers often go unprotected. Like other Internet-facing systems, e-mail servers can be exposed to spam, viruses and even hacker attacks. Anti-virus software and proxy add-ons for […]

As shown by eWeek Labs tests of web server load balancers from Radware Inc. and Zeus Technology Inc., Antara.nets FlameThrower II can be a formidable testing tool, capable of generating thousands of HTTP connections to stress the device under fire to the limit. A single FlameThrower chassis is capable of emulating more than 2 million […]

Server load balancers have become a critical infrastructure component for ensuring optimal performance of large Internet or intranet sites. Raw performance numbers are a useful comparison metric, but load balancing and management features and the ability of a system to integrate with different Web infrastructure components should play a more important role when choosing the […]

I recently downloaded the beta edition of WinZip 8.1 and discovered that it has some nice improvements over Version 8.0 that will make archiving files much easier in Windows operating systems. WinZip 8.1 is better integrated with Windows Explorer than is Version 8.0, and you can select several zip files and extract them into folders […]

Is there a hard drive for mobile users that can hold plenty of data but isnt the size of a miniature metal brick? Amazingly, Toshibas latest 1.8-inch Type 2 PC Card (Model K5002MPL) can hold as much as 5GB of data yet is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and thin […]

Finisar Corp.s SAN QOS protocol analyzer package provides a comprehensive system for monitoring Fibre Channel protocols in storage area networks, quickly diagnosing problematic links with data provided by an FC protocol analyzer to help minimize maintenance costs and downtime. Organizations that have or are planning a SAN deployment should consider this hardware/software combination, which was […]

When asked how to build a high-performance, reliable Web infrastructure, most IT managers will probably say something like this: Place redundant firewalls and multiple server load balancers, caching devices and SSL accelerators in front of your Web site, application and database servers, and connect all the pieces with switches and routers. This is, of course, […]

PERIPHERALS The data centers air conditioning may still cut to the bone, but American Power Conversions rack-mounted flat-panel monitor and keyboard drawer gives system administrators a slender console that provides comfortable access to rack-mounted server systems—albeit at a hefty price. APCs super-slim monitor and keyboard drawer is only 1U (1.75 inches) high, and it has […]

The MegaRam 2000, imperial Technology Inc.s latest solid-state disk storage accelerator, provides exceptional performance and strong fault-tolerance features in a compact form factor to boost database and I/O-intensive applications in enterprise environments. The MegaRam 2000 SSD (solid-state disk) device is attached to a host server using SCSI or Fibre Channel connections and can be treated […]

IBMs latest midrange enterprise Unix server, the pSeries 660 Model 6H1, offers plenty of processing power and high availability features to tackle e-business applications in todays Web hosting, ERP and CRM environments. As a member of IBMs extensive lineup of Unix eServers, the p660 provides an upgrade path from the companys older RS/6000 Unix servers. […]

At Networld+Interop earlier this month—where the shiny cars in the Mercedes-Benz booth lured attendees away from real technology and attracted far more attention than they should have—I met with a couple of vendors who do their darnedest to bring your Web site and its supporting infrastructure to its knees. With the network stress-testing hardware I […]

Dell Computer Corp.s latest two-way general-purpose server, the PowerEdge 2550, packs a pair of Intel Corp.s fastest Pentium III CPUs and robust performance in a rack-optimized form factor, making it a fine choice to handle front-end Web and application services in data centers and e-business environments. The PowerEdge 2550 replaces the companys two-way PowerEdge 2450, […]