Power Systems i: The Windows Conundrum
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

We all live with Windows, and I don't mean the ones in our walls that let us see outside. By capitalizing the word, and not the Word (which should mean Logos, not a word processor, but that is a different story. . . . ), you all knew I meant Microsoft Windows, a desktop and server operating system, and not the glass panes. Windows is a fact of life in data centers of the 2010s when it was but a dream of Microsoft's in the 1990s. But running Windows applications does not necessarily mean having to put up with Windows itself, and the sooner IBM's Power Systems i people realize this, the better off the i business is going to be. READ MORE >

Maintenance Contract Reduction a Good Resolution for 2010
by Dan Burger

Are the handcuffs on your IT budget cutting off your circulation? When the bulk of your expenditures are tied up in maintenance-related costs and day-to-day operations, and one more 'do more with less' speech from the boss makes you punch a hole in the wall, you need a fresh idea with a workable, realistic opportunity for success. Renegotiating your hardware maintenance and software subscription contracts could be your new money tree. How this works can take several paths. READ MORE >

CCSS Offers Flexible Pricing for Service Providers
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

In tough economic times, like those we have lived through for nearly two years now, companies look to outsourcing and other managed services as a way of maintaining and improving their IT operations while cutting costs at the same time. While this is great for IT shops and their companies' chief financial officer, monitoring and managing complex i setups takes the right tools, and it can be expensive to acquire them under perpetual licenses. Not any longer, at least for the service providers who choose Power Systems i monitoring tools from CCSS. READ MORE >

Mad Dog 21/21: If Trees Were Free, Would the Press Be?
by Hesh Wiener

Cities that once had several newspapers now have just one, if any. Even the strongest of those remaining seem to be in grave danger. Their plight was a key theme of The Press a 1961 collection of A. J. Liebling's essays from the New Yorker. Liebling's love of newspapers was recalled by his widow, Jean Stafford, in 1975 as she introduced a third edition of the classic. Stafford is long gone, too, but Liebling's 'wayward concubine' is still with us amid its lingering death. For the press, the future, if any, depends on American Internet policy. READ MORE >