Recent Blog Posts

Recently returned from the sunny climes of the Algarve at this year’s round up of IT reprobates at Netevents (congrats, as ever, to the Netevents team for a) organising the event and b) surviving ...

IT - a job for life? Possibly... just finished a meeting with an old IT mate, Mike Silvey of Moogsoft, and we were talking about how all the recent networking reinvention bollox has basically ...

An in-depth look at the latest trends and technologies in enterprise networking.

This week I have to host a panel debate on "stress testing cloud applications and infrastructure" at Netevents in Rome (I know - it's tough, but someone's got to do it...). One of the areas to ...

NetMan/Security vendor, and now part of the Thoma Bravo empire (watch out China!) SolarWinds, AKA SW, has sent us a timely reminder that this leap year has resulted in Feb having an extra Monday - ...

Having recently finished some testing with Cirba on its SDI (Software Defined Infrastructure) approach to compute and storage resource management and app deployment, it's been interesting to be ...

Much of the talk on this blog recently has involved the world of acquisitions. And so it goes on. A recent meeting with Phil and Jim from the UK and US arms of Netscout respectively focused ...

The IT world has gone acquisition bonkers. Dell is paying as much for EMC as any football club would do to secure the combined services of Messi and Ronaldo. Well almost... Meantime, a couple of ...

I remember writing a column for a long since deceased IT publication, where I was discussing the rebirth of the mainframe as a network server, I remember it, not simply for the content, but more ...

I recently had the "pleasure" of visiting Milton Keynes; the railway station was packed with what were surely tourists - some mistake here? Admittedly, all looking in a hurry to get back to ...

So, we went from hardware to software, and then software to virtual, the idea being not only that everything is more efficient, but also easier to scale and manage. Kind of VLANs part two? Or more ...

Been doing a few catch-ups with old vendor friends recently; one was Brocade - and more of this next month - which has a REAL SDN/NFV story - and another was NetScout; networking monitoring!!!! ...

So - HP has just announced it is acquiring Aruba Networks; basically the 2nd-3rd stab at buying a wireless solution after Colubris and effectively inheriting additional WLAN tech with the 3Com ...

Within the general misty definition of "Cloud", sometimes something pokes through the veil of ether-precipitation that says "I'm new and I make sense". And typically, it's not a variation on that ...

I was at a Gartner event in Barcelona last week, where Computer Associates were playing host.Not only was there the amusement of the excellent and straight-talking EMEA CTO Bjarne Rasmussen ...

Been researching an article for CW's very own Cliff Saran while, by chance, also speaking with a number of IT investors - the research being on networking innovations; oh and, by another chance, ...

"Cloud" and "WLAN" or "WiFi" are not, to date, IT terms that are typically seen in tandem, but Tallac Systems, a new venture for a number of ex HP er, yes - let's say it - veterans (I reckon I can ...

IT and networking reinvents itself partially or wholly every few years, and here we are again now - distributed, virtualised, cloud (private and public) based, hybrid networks... So where does this ...

Interesting how some elements of IT seem to be around forever without being cracked. I remember working with a couple of UK start-ups in the 90s on network, server and application capacity planning ...

Just finished some testing at test equipment partner Spirent's offices in glamorous Crawley with client Voipex - some fab results on VoIP optimization so watch this space for the forthcoming report ...

Network management is the proverbial bus syndrome - nothing shows up forever and then there's a whole queue of them - in this case interesting technologies, but here's the really interesting one ...

IT doesn't so much go round in circles as overlapping rings - think the Olympic sign. That's to say, it does repeat itself but with additions and a slightly changed working environment each ...

So - there's been all this talk about Big Data and how it's replaced classic transactional processing in many application instances.This much is true - what hasn't been discussed much, however, is ...

So here we are, already several weeks into 2013 and is there anything new to report on the networking front?Not really - currently the same stories as we've been hearing for the past year or two - ...

Thus it has always been so - HP networking, AKA ProCurve in the "old days", has been a success in spite of its "parent" company and, today, amidst the doom and gloom financial results the company ...

Some of you may have seen earlier blogs, and even the Broadband-Testing report, on our recently acquired US client Talari Networks, whose technology basically lets you combine multiple broadband ...

Following on from last week's OD of SDN at Netevents, we have some proper, physical (ironically) SDN presence in the launch of an SDN controller from HP. This complete the story I covered this ...

Such was the count at the end of Day 1 of Netevents Portugal. Thirteen "paradigm's" and two "paradigm shifts". Surprisingly there were no "out of the boxes" and only one "granularity" reference. It ...

Bem Vindo from the Algarve, at the latest Netevents symposium.One of my favourite topics in networking (and IT in general) is how often we revisit old "recipes". In the same way that prawn cocktail ...

Just a quickie update to all you vendors with mega technology out there re: the Tech Trailblazer awards wot I blogged about earlier this summer.Entry levels have proved (as did Top Gear) that you ...

One of the problems we've faced in trying to maximise throughput in the past has not been at the network - say WAN - level, but what happens once you get that (big) data off the network and try to ...

Just wanted to give everyone with a good tech idea up their bit of T-shirt that covers the upper arm - given that it is summer -) a heads up about a new IT ideas competition called Tech ...

In this guest blog post Computer Weekly blogger Adrian Bridgwater tries out a new 1 Gbps broadband service.In light of the government's push to extend "superfast" broadband to every part of the UK ...

It's been a busy old Spring so far - I'm still trying to get my head around the recession - IT is going bonkers, spending like the world is about to end (does somebody know something we don't?), ...

Back from Interop and my 'beloved' Vegas from which I escaped just in time before being air-con'd to death as my ongoing cough continues to remind me. Is it possible to sue "air"? I don't know - ...

I don't think I can remember a time - and this is saying something - when there were SO many hyper buzz-phrases in IT circulation as there are currently. Every cloud variant, Big Data, SDN...So ...

Live from the home of tack - i.e. Vegas, the Blackpool of the desert but without the classiness...or piers - is the latest bombardment of SDN, er, ness, care of Interop 2012. Starting with a direct ...

Wore my journalist hat yesterday to attend an HP update event on its ESSN division (don't worry about what the initials stand for, but N is for Networking...).While not the key focus of yesterday's ...

In conversation with Axel Pawlik, MD of RIPE NCC (which is obviously better than an unripe version). The RIPE NCC is an independent, not-for-profit membership organisation that supports the ...

It's a question we should all ask. For the average IT user or network manager it's a significant point to actually consider. For a managed services company such as SAS Group, based down in an ...

"M" might stand for Murder in the London theatre world, but the ultimate "M" word in IT has to be "Migration". Apply this word to the challenge that is moving from IPv4 to IPv6 and you can probably ...

I've recently been in conversation with a number of network product vendors - from Cisco to Infoblox - users and test equipment vendors, with respect to what must be the ultimate in "let's sweep it ...

I just moved apartments in Andorra and asked them if I could keep my current 100MbpsFTTH account (actually tops out at 83Mbps), related phone number etc - and the answer was "yes, of course" (with ...

Having recently got back from several weeks travelling around Europe, including a fair chunk in the UK, me and my 3G data dongles have been keeping close company, as the very WLAN products that ...

I know that we IT lot live on a different planet to the rest of the world (or so we are often told), but I'm really trying to find the real recession out there at the mo'.Take airlines for example. ...

Why is it that software companies assume everyone on the network is an IT person? Just look at the vast majority of network management software, or even general enterprise business software and ...

OK - so who remembers Project Manager Workbench, PMW for hose who were there at the time (or even Microsoft Project, the project management software for the under 5's)?Who remembers printing out ...

Much as I like to hope that my contributions to the analysis of IT products and tech are well observed and on the mark, it's nevertheless reassuring when those observations are supported further ...

This week I was at an HP press event (dusting off the journo hat) getting an update about many of the areas I've been involved in testing with recently with the company, notably the Converged ...

As ever (it seems) been doing a lot of travelling, hence a lack of blogs - is this because we can't contact the Ether-world when travelling?Well - obviously not, but then it's still not as ...

It's a difficult one, isn't it......choosing between speaking to a (hopefully) fully-functioning human person who might be located anywhere in the world and whose accent might be a tad challenging, ...

I mentioned recently that I'd been working with the App-DNA guys from Londinium on discovering just how its' AppTitude product can make our Broadband-Testing website IE8 compatible (and a host of ...

Been doing some more work with an old client of mine in ye olde Citee of Londinium - App-DNA. These guys attempt to make the impossible possible - i.e. analysing applications for compatibility ...

Was chatting with a client yesterday about IT spending and I was making the point that it is happening but IT departments are keen to make every penny spent (metaphorically and otherwise) as ...

Prior to leaving Andorra on yet more travels (timing!) 10 days ago, had a very interesting ex-pats discussion in El Moli in Andorra over the difference between the snow in Andorra and the UK. We ...

London to Brussels to Andorra in under 30ms - not bad eh?Even the Bugatti Veyron can't achieve that (though with permanent four-wheel drive you'd think it would be ideal for British winter ...

Quickie from Andorra - keeping you abreast of the chicken acquisitions in this part of el mondo.So what's this got to do with IT? Simply, that, whereas there was once a manual over-ride option, ...

2010 (that's pronounced "two-thousand and ten" by the way - saying "twenty-ten" is as bad as the French saying "four twenties, ten" for 90) might have been a good year for acquisitions and mergers ...

There's been plenty of talk in the IT press recently about the issue of SaaS pricing models and its ability to really deliver profitable services. Our testing of virtual data centres - see ...

So Novell finally gets acquired!And by Attachmate - who saw that one coming? Novell turned down recent offers by a New York hedge fund but seems to have given in on this occasion, to the tune of ...

... as the actress said to the IT-aware bishop.So, just back from more travels in the UK which - given that we were scheduled to fly out of Toulouse during the French "greve nationale" - went every ...

There are those vendors - typically start-ups - that have some really interesting, nay almost-truly exciting technology. And there are those that have worthy but (verging on) dull. Avaya would ...

Hello from yet another Netevents - my bi-annual vendor/analyst/press jolly, sorry - symposium, that I am attending as a judge of the awards of the same name (as well as a CW blogger, a tester, ...

Anyone who read my previous installment of the soap opera that is and was FedEx's inexplicable failure to deliver a parcel of HP goodies (one of which is for me to test) should be pleased to ...

This summer's been interesting.It's supposed to be holiday time, but the IT world is mega-active at the moment. Consequently I've been out to Utah with a client there, Paris and now... er, Crawley ...

Had the opportunity this week to catch up with an old IT mate, Nigel Moulton - recently of D-Link, anciently of 3Com with several stops in between - now installed at Avaya,Avaya, that is, who spent ...

Over the past couple of years, at Broadband-Testing we've carried out a number of power consumption tests, primarily focusing on switches of the Ethernet variety.While we found that there are ...

So we're coming up to holiday time - funnily enought, the idea for me of getting on a flight to a hot destination...doesn't really work for someone whose life should be co-sponsored by Ryanair and ...

One of the issues I'm all too aware of as someone who often gets involved at the "plumbing" level of networking is that it's the applications sitting on folks' PCs (or MACs) that are the key to IT ...

Just been swapping notes with my mates at the heart of the enterprise software revolution that is Thingamy.For those of you who still think of terms of ERP meaning "Enterprise Resource Process" or ...

First we had the Top Gear boys powering cars on cow poo.Now we have HP looking to do the very same thing for Data Centres: http://www.hpl.hp.com/news/2010/apr-jun/HP_ASME_PAPER.pdfThought I'd enter ...

A report last week said that 10% of Windows users are already Windows 7 users. Is that already more than Vista achieved (allowing for all those Vista users who reverted to XP)? Anyone who has ...

Just back in Andorra from over two weeks constant travel, mainly in UK and surviving on 3G Dongles. Given the somewhat outrageous charges Vodafone and 3.co.uk levy upon one, once outside of the UK ...

I was saddened to hear about the death of fellow IT scribe and long-time acquaintance Guy Kewney last week. Guy and I go back 20+ years - when I came out of the world of IT networking and went into ...

Hola from the land of melting snow and enlightened fibre.Had a problem with my termination equipment (no, I don't mean death devices, I keep away from superbikes and stick to my old Scooby) that ...

IT is often accused, and rightly so, of being too "dry".Some - well most - of the industry just begs to have to proverbial taken out of it. So it's good to see my storage mates Isilon - and ...

In IT it's all too easy to get carried away with smart tech and the attack of the mobiles and other stuff that encourages us to forget about the basics of looking after networks and storage - ...

So - MWC 2010 is currently on in Barcelona, but I was actually down there last week at Netevents - www.netevents.org - speaking on a couple of Cloud Computing panels.The Cloud then - hype or ...

Answer: when it's a power supply.Just released the latest test report for HP on its ProCurve 2520 Ethernet switch - http://www.broadband-testing.co.uk/ReportList.aspx - and the point of interest ...

Travelling Cross Country (in the train sense too) today twixt West of Yorkshire and Abingdon for a meeting; as ever lots to do, report adds/changes, presentations, emails to send and receive. So, ...

It's the middle of January now and, since snow and tragic earthquakes do not qualify as mainstream networking news, I've been patiently waiting for some news to appear in the networking world so ...

Back from yet more travels.Escaped the UK just as the snow started to fall. Got back to Andorra to a sparking sunny day... it didn't last - heavy snow fell during the night and hasn't stopped much ...

Networking products and services typically have three stages in life - technology, commodity and freebie. Then a slow, lingering death.In the case of the firewall, the "personal" edition has been - ...

So it looks like the end of another era - that of 3Com - with the announcement that HP is buying what was once THE shining light of Ethernet(working) for $2.7bn. Even if the company that the French ...

Following David Haye's Goliath-conquering exploits at the weekend it would be no surprise to see Mike Tyson attempt to come out of retirement once again, seeing a heavyweight champion whose head he ...

Was chatting with Rik Ferguson of Trend Micro about the, er, no pun intended, trends of malware and other threats earlier this week.Rik highlighted the seemingly exponential growth in ...

No, we're not talking bizarre, middle-of-nowhere horsey meetings here but wireless broadband.

Cloud Computing - all marketing guff or reality? And, if it is the latter, then is it really the future?

For anyone else who travels as much as I seem to at the moment, you have my deepest sympathies.Finally back "home" after over six weeks on the road, almost entirely in England. Well, at least I did ...

Terry Pratchett created rat on a stick for his Discworld novels, but my mates at jetNEXUS have gone one better with a load-balancer on a stick... ...in the sense of a USB stick, or CD if you ...

So.Yet more extensive travelling and lack of Internet (I can't rate McDonald's free WiFi very highly based on recent experience - like going back to 2.4kbps dial-up - but now I am with, not one, ...

It's a very interesting scenario when you work for yourself and summer arrives.People go on holiday. Which is very annoying when:a) You're trying to finalise dates for the next series of test ...

I know, it's been an age, and I have been very remiss. So how have things been going for me and my super fast connection?

So it looks like the Enterprise networking division of Nortel is going to Avaya after all.Shame, 'cos I really liked the idea of it being bought out and Bay Networks being reinvented - from an ...

Broadband speeds and broadband testing - get an SLA

From the man who roams the length and breadth of Europe - well certain parts of Andorra, France and the UK - searching for networking products with instant ROI...The latest is from a UK start-up ...

Just when I thought the days of everyone trekking off to Spain or France (I know - I'm the local there) in July had vanished, so the networking industry goes eerily quiet.Lucky then, that I've just ...

While I enjoy a fantastic - and fantastically useful - relationship with my two key test equipment partners Ixia and Spirent (the latter, for example, providing a $2m testbed for our soon to be ...

Apologies to any readers for the extended absence - lots of travelling, little in the way of Internet access other than WiFi hotspots that won't let you pay, neighbours of friends with annoyingly ...

So the government's Digital Britain roadmap goes into operation today.Given that there are 245 pages of the report wot launches it, I have focused on one obvious element, which is how much public ...