New and Improved

Product Spotlight Hardware
Mobile Thin Clients
Wyse Technology used VMworld Europe 2008 to unveil two new mobile thin clients: the Wyse X90L and X90Le. Both devices ship with Windows XP Embedded, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n/ wireless, Bluetooth 2.0 support, 15.4” TFT screens, and smart card reader with Citrix Password Manager security software. Solid state memory is used for storage, and the lack of moving parts helps reduce power consumption. According to Wyse, these new thin clients will ship with several virtualization-friendly features. “Customers have told us that it makes no sense to access a virtualized PC in the datacenter with another PC on the desktop. They want a secure device that delivers a rich experience, and they want to enable users to take that experience with them from their office, to the conference room, even moving off campus to their home or other locations,” said Jeff McNaught, chief marketing officer for Wyse Technology, in a statement announcing the new products. “We went well beyond the idea of stripping down a notebook PC, to deliver a thoughtful, future-proofed combination of performance, peripheral support, and connectivity, offering Wi-Fi b, g and even n and Bluetooth 2.0.” For more information, contact Wyse at 408-473-1200 or visit www.wyse.com.

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Network Management
Monitor Network Availability and Performance
Network Instruments has announced the availability of Link Analyst 5.1, the latest version of their network infrastructure management and performance monitoring application. According to Network Instruments, this latest release uses SNMP and WMI data to identify network performance issues by monitoring the availability of attached network devices. It also can be used to keep tabs on network performance by departments, groups and by business processes. LinkAnalyst 5 enables the monitoring of WAN, LAN, wireless, Fibre Channel, gigabit and 10 GbE networks. Link Analyst 5 is available now, and pricing begins at $2,495. For more information, contact Network Instruments at 952-358-3800 or visit www.networkinstruments.com.

Infrastructure Security
Certificate Management
ChosenSecurity Inc.has announced TrustCenter Enterprise ID QuickStart (TC EID QuickStart), a new on-demand certificate management service for small and mid-sized businesses. TC EID QuickStart gives SMBs the ability to add security features such as digital signatures and encrypted email to their IT environments. The service also provides management features that allow IT pros to create, edit, suspend, and delete user and device security profiles. Pricing for TC EID QuickStart begins at $20 per user, per year. For more information, contact Chosen Security at 866- 468-2180 or visit www.chosensecurity.com.

Virtualization
VM Security
Security for virtualized environments is becoming increasingly important, so VMware has introduced VMware VMsafe, a new virtualization security product. According to VMware, this new product “protects applications running in virtual machines in ways previously not possible in physical environments.” In a news release announcing the product, VMware explained that VMsafe works with the VMware hypervisor to increase security against threats from malware, keyloggers, viruses, and other malicious software. A VMsafe API will allow vendors to develop security products that integrate with VMsafe; VMware announced that is working with Check Point, McAfee, and Symantec on new security solutions that support VMsafe technology. For more information, contact VMware at 877-486-9273 or visit www.vmware.com.

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Network Management
Manage Network Inventory
Developer Geert Moernaut has announced the release of Lansweeper 3.0, the latest version of his popular freeware network asset detection utility. IT pros can use Lansweeper 3.0 to make comprehensive inventories of the hardware and software located on their network infrastructure. The application is server-based, and doesn’t require any clients to be installed on any workstations in your network. Network scanning is performed using registry, file shares, and WMI information. More than 75 reporting templates are included, and data can be exported to Microsoft Excel for further analysis. For more information, contact Geert at geert@ moernaut.com or visit www.lansweeper.com.

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Hardware
Data Center Infrastructure
Brocade has unveiled the Brocade DCX Backbone, the first in a series of new data center networking products. This new product includes support for up to 896 ports of 8 Gbit/sec Fibre Channel, and also includes reduced power consumption features. According to Brocade, this new range of products relies on adaptive network services to dynamically distribute resources between servers (both physical and virtual) and networked storage. Pricing for the Brocade DCX Backbone begins at $180,000. For more information, contact Brocade at 408-333-8000 or visit www.brocade.com.

Email Security
SPAM Protection
Preventing email spam is the focus of Abaca Technology’s Email Protection Gateway. According to Abaca, the appliance relies on patent-pending technology—dubbed ReceiverNet—that the vendor claims has a 99 percent spam prevention rate. ReceiverNet evaluates email based on the idea that legitimate users receive less spam, and that email accounts that receive lots of spam tend to send more spam. RecieverNet then rates incoming messages accordingly, and also blocks most malware, viruses, and phishing attacks. For more information, contact Abaca Technology Corporation at 408-571-6400 or visit www.abaca.com.

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