26-07-2004 • VOLUME 7 • NUMBER 29 • £2.60
WWW.ITWEEK.CO.UK
20 CLIENT Issues of
Windows Longhorn
29 NETWORK How to make
the move to voice over IP
32 MANAGEMENT Protecting
data and monitoring emails
CONTENTS
ENTERPRISEWEEK
Easier tools for storage control 13
Business process management 13
Server platform options increase 14
INTERNETWEEK
Security kit guards web services 17
Why port 25 needs more policing 18
Will P2P traffic clog the network? 18
CLIENTWEEK
Handheld sales boom in Europe 19
Virus hits Windows CE devices 19
Symbian smartphones advance 20
NETWORKWEEK
T-Mobile starts 3G data services 23
Monitor protects wireless LANs 23
Netgear CEO on Gigabit Ethernet 26
MANAGEMENTWEEK
EC reviews data protection rules 31
Steps for better IT outsourcing 32
PDA firms
shuffle hand
Dell is shipping a Bluetooth
keyboard and a GPS satellite
navigation add-on for its
X30 wireless PDA for
$99 (£54) and $249
(£135) in the US.
Release dates for the Dell adds
UK have not yet been GPS option
announced. HP is also
today expected to launch iPaq Pocket
PC devices with new capabilities.
Mobile security, p4 PDA growth, p19
Xeon shows 64bit edge
Roger Howorth
I
T Week Labs tests of Intel’s new 64bit
Xeon processors, originally codenamed
Nocona, show that the new products easily
outperform Intel’s Itanium 64bit chips.
Tests of the new Xeon EM64T, which
offers 32bit and 64bit modes, also found
some software ran 32 percent faster when
upgraded to a 64bit version.
Our results show Intel’s 64bit Itanium
chip compares poorly with other x86-compatible chips, as predicted by IT Week when
Itanium 2 launched in July 2002. We also tested the 1.8GHz AMD Opteron 244 chip when
it launched last year, and conclude the current top-of-the-range Opteron would almost
certainly outperform the Xeon 3.6GHz.
Itanium was originally intended as Intel’s
sole 64bit offering, but sales have been low.
Subsequently, Intel issued its new 32bit
Xeons with 64bit extensions to counter com-
64BIT CHIPS TAKE SPEED TEST
*Xeon 64bit mode
Opteron 244 1.8GHz
*Xeon 32bit mode
Itanium 2 1GHz
* Xeon EM64T 3.6GHz
22 secs
26 secs
29 secs
61 secs
Source: IT Week Labs
Linux drifts from Sun orbit
Martin Veitch
wo and a half years after its chief
executive donned the suit of Linux’s
penguin mascot on an exhibition
stage, Sun seems to have fallen out of love
with the open-source operating system.
Last week the firm detailed plans to
focus attention largely on its own Solaris
operating system for server lines, on a range
of hardware platforms including Sparc,
AMD Opteron, x86 and, potentially, Itanium and Power chips.
Although Sun continues to offer Red
Hat and Suse Linux on systems, the firm
said it is convinced Solaris can undercut
Linux on price and outpace it on performance. Linux’s virtues as the lowest-cost
operating system that can be distributed by
multiple vendors have gone, it argued.
“Because the cost of switching [operating systems] is so high, what has happened
in the enterprise is that Linux has become
about one company,” argued Sun president
Jonathan Schwartz.
“The market has tipped to Red Hat and
we plan on competing very aggressively. We
T
are agnostic with respect to what the customer wants to buy, but we are not when it
comes to what we want to sell.”
Confirmation of the renewed focus on
Solaris might be welcomed by Sun loyalists
but could hurt the firm’s prospects among
companies seeking to deploy Linux with the
backing of an enterprise-hardened organisation. This could apply especially in Europe where Novell’s Suse subsidiary competes more effectively against Red Hat than is
the case in North America.
Recent IT Week research shows Linux is
used in 56 percent of UK firms with over
1,000 staff, one percent more than Solaris.
SUN BLOWS HOT AND COLD ON LINUX
Jan 2000
No Linux plans
Jan 02
Delays Solaris 9 x86
Feb 02
Plans own Linux
Mar 03
Partners on Linux
Jul 04
Focusing on Solaris
Clive Longbottom of analyst firm Quocirca said Sun had a dilemma. “Sun’s problem is that it is a one-horse show,” he said.
“To bring in Linux and give it the same
focus as IBM and HP have is saying that
Solaris does not have a long-term future.”
He said Sun was also keen to support its
relatively expensive UltraSparc servers, as
sales were slower than expected.
A move to make Solaris available on a
wider range of hardware could be more
welcome, however. As virtualisation software helps firms partition servers, the ability to run more than one operating system
could become increasingly attractive.
Sun last week announced that it had
made a return to profitability and showed
its first year of revenue growth since 2001,
after making a $795m profit on revenues of
$3.1bn. However, analysts were quick to
note that the profit would have been a loss
were it not for Microsoft paying close to
$2bn to end long-running legal conflicts.
Sun warms to Itanium processors, p8
Leader, p10 Server platforms, p14
How far will Sun open Solaris? p14
Sun services chief on IT outsourcing, p32
petition from AMD’s similar Opteron chips.
Though Intel said some firms looking to
replace Risc chip systems have been attracted to the Itanium, many server vendors and
other firms working with Windows or Linux
on commodity hardware have balked at the
Itanium’s relatively high price and slow performance. IT Week’s tests confirm Intel’s
hybrid 32bit/64bit Nocona processors are
likely to offer better price/performance than
Itanium – which should encourage more
firms to advance their 64bit server strategies.
Some industry watchers say that Itanium has been squeezed into a high-end
niche because its only advantages are now
in reliability, availability and serviceability.
Itanium, p8 Laptops, p8 Centrino, p19
Details: www.itweek.co.uk/news/1156835
IT trips up
governance
Poorly-designed IT systems are the
main barrier to companies establishing
internal controls required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, according to research
by accountancy firm Ernst & Young.
Under Section 404 of the accounting rules, which affect the European
arms of companies listed in the US,
firms must report on the effectiveness
of their internal controls. However, 40
percent of companies said their IT systems impeded compliance.
Ernst & Young said firms often fail
to grasp how their systems control
processes and financial transactions. It
said they should design systems to
ensure the accuracy of reports, and
map financial statements to processes
along the review chain.
“Firms should engage with key
stakeholders early, particularly with
external auditors, before embarking
on a project,” said Paul Kennard, a lead
partner at Ernst & Young in the UK.
www.tinyurl.com/6olqj
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