Infrastructure

Cisco Systems Inc. and IBM Corp. on Thursday announced several integrated products to aid in the on-demand trend within data centres, an announcement that one customer is already taking advantage of.

Adtran Inc. is expanding its assault on low-end network gear for businesses, joining 3Com Corp., Enterasys Networks Inc. and others hoping to relieve Cisco Systems Inc. of some of its cost-conscious small- and midsize business customers.

Companies can save money on server load balancers (SLBs) if they know a thing or two about their software infrastructure before making the purchase, according to a report from Forrester Research Inc.

Bob Young is no stranger to open source. In fact, he has one of the most recognizable names in the industry, alongside movement gurus such as Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman and Jon "maddog" Hall. After all, Young co-founded Red Hat Inc., arguably the most successful Linux vendor in the world.

Nothing hurts the ears of a user like the droning buzz of a Unix workstation. With that in mind, Hewlett-Packard Co. on Tuesday announced its newest unit, the c8000, which has been designed to run quietly, among other improvements.

IBM Corp. on Wednesday will announce plans to begin offering new virtualization software and partitioning technology with its servers that will allow them to run as many as 10 versions of an operating system on a single processor.

Hewlett-Packard Co.'s bc1000 blade PCs, first announced last year, are now available in North America for customers looking to manage their employees' desktop PCs from a central location, HP said Monday.

Yahoo Inc. is updating its Messenger program with new avatars, emoticons, and other features for fun, but it is also providing ways to conceal the frivolities and keep instant messages more businesslike when desired.