You can deploy monitoring software, diagnostic software, and a Halon fire suppression system, as well as access multiple grids for power and Internet access, but nothing can save you from the most dire threat facing IT pros today: end-users.
Everywhere you look, technology is advancing. Unfortunately for IT, no one has come up with an algorithm to fail-safe systems from stupidity.
Ever since it arrived, the iPhone has been criticized for not meeting key enterprise needs. The iPhone 2.0 OS, released in summer 2008, added several key business functions, such as Exchange integration, but nowhere near the capabilities that many enterprise need to meet security and compliance requirements. The new iPhone 3.0 OS, to be released on June 17 as a free update to iPhone users and a $10 update to iPod Touch users, moves the iPhone a bit closer to enterprise requirements.
For IT, Apple has added on-device encryption for data (backups are encrypted as well), plus a remote wipe-and-kill feature for Exchange 2007 users. Non-Exchange users can get remote wpe-and-kill if they subcribe to Apple's consumer-oriented MobileMe service. In either case, the wiped information and settings can be restored if you find the missing iPhone.
The past 30 years of InfoWorld's existence have seen a series of future shocks, from the ascent of the personal computer to horrifying strains of malware to the sizzling sex appeal of the iPhone. In honor of InfoWorld's 30th anniversary, we've decided to take a playful look ahead at the future shocks that could occur in the next 10 years (30 years seemed a little too sci-fi).
An all-points bulletin went out to InfoWorld contributors, the replies to which we culled into 10 future shocks -- ranging from radical changes in IT's responsibility to "1984"-ish scenarios where privacy is a quaint notion. No doubt you've considered many of these possibilities yourself. Even more likely, you have just as many interesting scenarios to bring to the party, and we urge you to share them in the comments section of this article. Dream big -- given the drama of the past 30 years, the next 10 are anyone's guess.
When Microsoft stopped selling new licenses to Windows XP on June 30, it gave users and PC makers a "downgrade" loophole so that those who wanted XP could still get it, even though they still had to buy a Vista license.
According to data from the exo.performance.network, 35 percent of Vista-equipped PCs have been downgraded to Windows XP. "That's way out of proportion for even the dramatically unpopular Windows Vista," says Randall C. Kennedy, an InfoWorld contributing editor, whose company Devil Mountain Software developed the Windows Sentinel tool and analyzes the exo.performance.network data. (More than 3,000 PCs are monitored worldwide using the tool, in both the free InfoWorld Windows Sentinel version and in the more extensive version provided to Devil Mountain clients.)
Today, we bid adieu to Windows XP. Despite an outpouring of demand -- including more than 210,000 people who signed InfoWorld's "Save XP" petition, Microsoft held firm and yesterday discontinued sales of XP in most cases.
Sure, any copies of XP in use will continue to run, so the venerable operating system isn't leaving us entirely. And enterprises, small businesses, and some consumers will still be able to install XP as a "downgrade" to Windows Vista Business or Ultimate. And until Feb. 1, 2009, system builders will be able to install XP on "white box" PCs they assemble, which also ironically includes Apple Macs that are bundled with Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion by resellers such as MacMall and CDW. Finally, low-cost, low-power desktops and laptops such as the Asus Eee PC can ship with Windows XP until 2010.
But it is the end of an era nonetheless.
[ Can your PC run Windows 7 when it ships in early 2010? Find out with the InfoWorld Windows Sentinel tool's new Windows 7 compatibility checker. ]
In response to XP's passing, several InfoWorld editors and contributors shared their memories of XP. We encourage you to add your own remembrance in our comments section.
After all the rather buggy versions of Windows since the very first edition (that was 3.0, I believe), Windows XP was a pleasant surprise. "Microsoft finally got it right," was my thinking. Well almost.
Windows XP has been much more stable than previous versions, but Microsoft failed to address one major issue in it as well as in Vista: the capability to install a new version of the OS without having to reinstall all applications.
For me this is a major issue that affects home users as well as business users because it makes a simple OS change a major endeavor if/when an update in place is not possible. That missing capability puts Windows at a striking disadvantage against other OSes, such as Linux where a new OS can almost always play nice with existing applications.
I realize that because of the Windows architecture, decoupling applications from the OS is a significant change, which seems to me a good reason to start moving in that direction.
Another of my pet peeves with Windows XP (and Vista): Try using a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+V) to paste text in a command Window, and all you'll get is ^V on the command line. How many software engineers does it take to write that code? I don't know the answer, but must be a large number because that inconsistency with the regular window behavior has been there since the Paleolithic Windows version.
These are just two examples of the issues Microsoft could have fixed or begun fixing in Vista but didn't. It's clear that the Redmond developers' agenda is in conflict with what I and many other users would like to see.
Yet, it's not a biggie for me if Microsoft prefers its own agenda. There are other OSes, after all; Mac OS X and Ubuntu are mighty attractive.
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