Jennifer Mears

 

 

jlmears@gmail.com

Recent articles by Mears

Sun back in black
Aug. 07, 2007
Last month, I talked about Sun's efforts to reinvent itself and turn things around. It seems like the company is indeed regaining its momentum.

VMware releases VMmark to measure applications performance in virtualized environments - ...
Aug. 02, 2007
We've talked a lot about virtualization in this newsletter. There is no denying that those organizations not yet plotting their virtualization strategy likely will be left at a disadvantage. I wrote a newsletter a few ...

IBM iSeries gets a Power6 boost
Jul. 31, 2007
Earlier this month, IBM announced an overhaul of its System i division that resulted in the blending of System i sales with System p sales in two distinct units: the Business Systems Unit, focused on small and midsize ...

Owen Bird law firm flies from VMware, Part 2
Jul. 26, 2007
What follows is the conclusion of my talk with Stephen Bakerman, IT manager at Owen Bird, a law firm in Vancouver, British Columbia. In this newsletter, Bakerman talks in more specifics about Virtual Iron and why the ...

Owen Bird law firm flies from VMware, Part 1
Jul. 24, 2007
This summer, I've been talking with some organizations that have decided to reach out beyond VMware as they deploy virtualization in their data centers. Probably not surprisingly, the journey into x86 server ...

IBM opens up AIX 6
Jul. 19, 2007
In May, IBM took the wraps off of its Power6 processor, rolling out systems based on the chip that Big Blue claimed was more powerful and less power hungry than any Power processor before. The chip offers better energy ...

VMware gets a boost from Intel
Jul. 17, 2007
VMware is likely feeling at least a little bit more competitive pressure this year, now that companies are getting more familiar with x86 server virtualization and with VMware's competitors. Check out some of the ...

Sun continues to reinvent itself
Jul. 12, 2007
Sun is becoming very interesting to watch. The company that was still struggling just a year ago seems to be making strides again. Chalk one up to Sun for saying that it will open source the clustering software for its ...

Are you ready for virtualization?
Jul. 10, 2007
Late last month, AMD said that, yes, it would indeed start shipping its long-awaited quad-core Barcelona Opteron processors in August. Times definitely are good for server buyers, with Intel saying that it, too, would ...

Data centers going green
Jul. 05, 2007
My former colleague Deni Connor, who also was the previous author of this newsletter, and I wrote quite a bit about power and energy concerns in data centers during my time at Network World. Read one of our more recent ...

Intel, AMD chips power most of the world's fastest supercomputers
Jul. 03, 2007
The Top500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers http://www.top500.org/lists/2007/06 was released June 23 and the list reflects how high performance computing is changing. Once reserved for the most complex of ...

How National Association of Home Builders moved beyond VMware, Part 2
Jun. 28, 2007
What follows is the continuation of the edited transcript of my talk with John Yanekian, director of network services at the National Association of Home Builders in Washington, D.C. The NAHB has been running SWsoft in ...

How National Association of Home Builders moved beyond VMware, Part 1
Jun. 26, 2007
A few weeks ago, I began a series that puts the spotlight on enterprise users who are virtualizing x86 servers, but with technology other than VMware. There is no denying that VMware remains the dominant force in the ...

Emerson helps customers get a handle on power and cooling
Jun. 21, 2007
Power and cooling continue to be big issues as systems become smaller and more powerful, so I'd guess that most data center managers are looking for easy, effective ways to keep tabs on power demands and cooling needs.

Burning question: Blades or rack?
Jun. 19, 2007
Blade servers are no longer on the bleeding edge, but there continues to be a lot of debate about when and where the slimmed-down servers make sense. It seems they're starting to make sense in a lot more situations. ...

Is Apple core to your data center?
Jun. 14, 2007
I'm curious: how many of you readers run Apple hardware in your organizations? During the time I was covering servers for Network World I wrote a handful of stories about Apple and no matter what I wrote about, one ...

Sun hopes to shine with blades
Jun. 12, 2007
Blade server sales may be a small percentage of overall server revenue today, but the market for the compact, module systems is set to take off. So it's not surprising to see Sun trying to jumpstart its blade business ...

Xen: Moving beyond VMware, Part 2
Jun. 07, 2007
What follows is the continuation of my talk with Jim Klein, director of information services and technology for the Saugus Union School District in California. In this newsletter, we focus more on how the district has ...

Xen: Moving beyond VMware, Part 1
Jun. 05, 2007
With x86 server virtualization maturing and competitors to VMware becoming stronger, I figured it was time to talk with some real-world users of server-slicing technology beyond VMware.

AMD, Intel bunk together in OSS server
May. 31, 2007
I first spoke with Open Source Systems last year when the company was called Open Source Storage. It has since changed its name to better reflect its focus on servers, as well as storage hardware. But its basic ...

IBM raises bar in Unix market
May. 29, 2007
While Unix may not be growing as fast as other segments of the market, it accounts for nearly a third of all server shipments. In its latest Quarterly Server Tracker, IDC says that Unix revenue grew just 0.5% in the ...

Mailbag: The multi-core dilemma
May. 24, 2007
Today, more reader input, this time on my newsletter regarding multi-core systems. Several readers wrote to tell me that, yes, the move to multi-core platforms obviously is inevitable, but there remain several wrinkles. ...

Mailbag: Readers dissect Dell
May. 22, 2007
I got quite a few responses to the newsletter I wrote earlier this month talking about the goings-on at Dell. Not surprisingly, a lot of the reaction was pretty negative regarding Dell and its services and support – an ...

HP offers helping hand with blades
May. 17, 2007
While sales of blade servers continue to rise, there remains debate over the efficiency of these slim systems in various data center settings. I think it's safe to say that if you're going to deploy more than just a ...

Father of telecommuting Jack Nilles says security, managing remote workers remain big ..
May. 15, 2007
Father of telecommuting Jack Nilles says security, managing remote workers remain big hurdles.