Bang for the Buck: Midrange i5 Servers Versus the Competition
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

In the prior two installments in this Bang for the Buck series of articles, I looked at how various i5 520 machines stacked up against similarly powered and configured Windows, Linux, and Unix servers. The first article looked at the i5 520 Value and Express Editions and their competition, and the second article did comparisons to the i5 520 Standard and Enterprise Editions. This week, I examine the relative performance and value that the i5 550 delivers compared to rival boxes. READ MORE >

Does the Size of Your IT Supplier Really Matter?
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Numbers matter to people. There are symbolic floors and ceilings, expressed as numbers, that delineate what most of us consider the proper bounds to reality or significant milestones. Think of Dow 10,000, or the turn of the millennium, or a 25th wedding anniversary, or breaking the 10-second barrier for the 100-meter dash, or pushing through the sound barrier. Moreover, disasters magnify with increasing numbers by more than you might think possible--if you weren't human, that is. We rank the events and the things in our lives by numbers, and in many cases, the changing numbers change our behavior. Even if it is not always logical. READ MORE >

ERP Software: Its Effect on Performance and Productivity, Part 2
by Jerome Peloquin

This is the second of three-part article series on the use of technology to improve and enhance human performance in the workplace. These articles specifically address computer software as typified by the large scale ERP applications of the last thirty years, and chronicles the development of technology in support of performance and productivity. This installment covers first generation of ERP systems and their underlying technologies. READ MORE >

The X Factor: Database Appliances Come Around Again
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

The great thing about a general purpose operating system like a variant of Unix, Windows, or Linux is that it is designed to support a lot of different applications and many different means to access those applications. The original computers from decades ago were primitive and also relatively secure and easy to manage by modern standards. The price/performance improvements in increasingly complex operating systems have not come even close to offsetting the annoyance and cost of patching and securing them. Even a free operating system carries a very large people cost. READ MORE >