Dell XPS 13: Gray with MacBook Air envy

Lately I've been changing things up a bit. For several months I used a little Lenovo ThinkPad X220 running Windows 7 and had a great experience -- it felt rock solid and responsive, with fantastic battery life. Then I switched to a MacBook Pro, and now that I've gotten used to it, I actually find it more or less a wash between the two (sorry, Apple fanboys).

By Eric Knorr | 04 May, 2012 20:12

Tags: software, operating systems, mobile technology, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft, Lenovo, dell, Computer Hardware, Apple

2011: When cloud computing shook the data center

If I had to sum up in one word the most exciting thing that happened to cloud computing in 2011, I'd have to say it's OpenStack. This open source project, launched by Rackspace and NASA in late 2010, is assembling a private cloud "operating system" for the data center that promises vast increases in operational efficiency. The momentum behind it is phenomenal; at last count, 144 companies back the project, including Cisco, Citrix, Dell, HP, and Intel.

By Eric Knorr | 27 December, 2011 22:09

Tags: Amazon Web Services, cloud computing, Configuration / maintenance, Data Center, dell, google apps, hardware systems, hybrid cloud, IaaS, Intel, internet, Microsoft, Microsoft Office 365, NASA, OpenStack, paas, private cloud, rackspace, SaaS, salesforce.com, Software as a service, verizon

What you need to know about the year of the cloud

2010 saw Microsoft make a big grab for the cloud, while big business got serious about building clouds of its own

By Eric Knorr | 31 December, 2010 14:05

Tags: cloud computing, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, oracle, private clouds, public cloud, sap, VMware

What desktop virtualisation really means

Desktop virtualisation harks back to the good old mainframe days of centralised computing while upholding the fine desktop tradition of user empowerment. Each user retains his or her own instance of desktop operating system and applications, but that stack runs in a virtual machine on a server -- which users can access through a low-cost thin client similar to an old-fashioned terminal.

By Eric Knorr | 28 May, 2010 20:22

Tags: virtualisation

10 steps to SOA

SOA is an idea, not a technology.

By Eric Knorr | 02 February, 2010 08:22

Tags: soa

The computer hardware hall of fame

There's a special place reserved for the stalwart hardware that many of us have depended on day after day, year after year. Or at least, we believe there should be a special place.

Microsoft's cloud forms

At the Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston, Microsoft made its biggest foray yet into cloud computing with pricing and partnership arrangements for Microsoft Online Services, a family that includes Online versions of Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communications, Office Live Meeting, and Dynamics CRM.

IBM tackles IT energy efficiency in a Big Green way

Project Big Green is IBM's sprawling initiative to increase the energy efficiency of IT. In May 2007, Big Blue announced that it would redirect no less than US$1 billion per year to Big Green, which applies both to solutions IBM offers to customers and to the company's own internal IT operations.