Looking Back and Moving Forward

cover story emotional column his perspective on 9/11 security disaster recovery

Welcome Aboard

Fresh from InfoWorld, Michael Vizard has joined CRN as its editor in chief. In an early morning meeting with the CRN staff Monday, he introduced himself and talked about his publishing priorities. I'm happy to report he's got CRN's online development right up there, along with more to come from our neighbors in the CRN Test Center. Michael's first column went online last week, and he'll soon be joining the crew on our ChannelWeb Columnists page as well.

Microsoft .Net Moves

Microsoft pushed hard on the .Net front this week. Paula Rooney and Barbara Darrow preview the new .Net tools, servers, and services the company will be rolling out this fall. Microsoft is also easing some .Net server licensing restrictions; updating their .Net Passport service; and showing off the "most powerful Windows server" ever built. (Don't laugh, Unix folks. It's a 64-bit, 32-way beast.)

Don't Mess With Cisco

There's an old Rodney Dangerfield joke that goes, "My wife cut me down to sex twice a month--but I can't complain. I know two guys she cut off completely." Cisco partners may feel the same way. The networking giant is cracking down on partners selling products they're not authorized to offer; but that's better treatment than Dell is getting--Cisco is deauthorizing them completely.

Vote Early, Vote Often

More definitive than a Florida election, polls have opened in CRN's Top 25 Executives reader's poll. Results will be announced early in November. Vote now!

Best of The Week

Sun is continuing its efforts to broaden its customer base. Next week the company will unveil the Linux-based Sun One Desktop, along with additional security upgrades.

Apple, of course, is pushing it's own desktop Unix. Beginning in January, the company will no longer offer a dual-boot option on new Macintoshes. Most Mac System 9 apps run just fine in OS X, but some hardware incompatibilities, (like those with my password-protected Zip disks!) and other gotchas have kept many users running System 9, even with OS X pre-installed on their Macs. But now that Jaguar (OS X 10.2) is out, Apple aims to change that one way or another.

Chips so fast, they're early: Intel moves up the release data of their next generation Xeon processors.

Don't buy more. Save more. It may seem like an odd message from solution providers to customers, but VARBusiness' Rich Cirillo talks to several leading solution providers that have adopted that new pitch in today's bleak IT spending environment. It works.