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Focuses on the changing trends on using to public key infrastructure (PKI) software for information technology companies. Transition towards an in-house approach; Reasons why outsourcing never became popular in the information technology market. INSET: WANTED: OFF-THE-SHELF APPS WITH DIGITAL CERTS.

Explains that outsourcing public key infrastructure (PKI) software is a viable option for many companies. Market size and potential of PKI software; Advantages of outsourcing PKI software; Analysis of the effects of outsourcing PKI software.

Provides information on intrusion-detection services of security companies. How an intrusion-detection tool works; Focus of IBM Global Services; Main difference between managing one's own intrusion detection and hiring an outsourcing company; Cost of Pilot Network Services' virtual private network service. INSET: Providers Offer A Variety Of..., by Kelly Jackson Higgins.

Reports that the emergence of real-estate Web sites is removing inefficiencies and giving customers more control. Features of the Multiple Listing System database; Impact of the Internet on the process of buying and selling a home; Features of HomeAdvisor Technologies, a Microsoft Network home-buying site; Several real-estate companies that are using the Transaction Management Network software from Synteleos. INSET: Online Lenders Make Shopping For The Lowest Rate Easier.

Reports on the proliferation of Internet security products in the United States. Firewalls as the first line of defense against hackers; Firewall products as mostly server-based solutions; Monitoring of incoming and outgoing traffic from Internet applications; Router firewall approach; Encryption and authentication functions; Likely evolution of firewalls into more airtight security platforms.

Discusses the Internet Protocol-address-management tools with the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) of different computer industry. DHCP-based address-management tools; Questions on the scalability and security of DHCP tools; Features and capabilities of the DHCP tools; DuPont Company's case studies on IP addresses; Results of Mack Trucks Incorporated's testing of DHCP on Quadritek's IP-address-management software.

Explores when to use the Layer 3 routing function of a gigabit local area network (LAN) switch. Skepticism about Layer 3 switching; Organizations that have started using Layer 3 switches; Comparison with traditional routers; Features that network managers look for in a Layer 3 switch; Downside of Layer 3; Proper implementation. INSETS: Techtips.;Layer 3 fans: You'd better shop around..

Focuses on the trend among American corporations toward using the World Wide Web for core back-end financial and accounting applications. Potential benefits of running business transactions over Web servers; Union Pacific's implementation of middleware; Outdoor sports outfitter REI's decision to run its entire catalog and online store operations on Web technology. INSET: Why restart? Software reuse eases Web transactions at Cigna..

This article presents information on data encryption. Encrypted archiving may not be a regular practice today, but regulatory and legal pressures are forcing many companies to rethink how they archive E-mail, file, and database data. Encryption is one way to meet regulatory compliance and minimize liability risks. Some organizations under the regulatory microscope, such as financial and health-care firms and federal agencies, already are grappling with how to strike a balance between securing their archives and making them readily available for audits, legal discovery or just in-house access. The key to building a secure but accessible archive is policy. That means defining enterprise policies for encrypting E-mail messages and other data, as well as for user access and data retention.

Details the different strategies of information technology managers in the United States in stopping computer hackers. Popularity of behavior-blocking software; Configuration of antivirus software; Deployment of the traditional antivirus technology.

Features Internet Protocol 6.0 computer network protocol. Specifications; Capabilities; Deployment. INSET: 6BONE BULKS UP.

Focuses on an increase in the number of companies that are patenting their Internet applications. Major issue for information technology (IT) departments; Goal of attracting IT talent and venture capital; Britannica.com's plan to protect its database-search technology; Increase in Internet and software-related patent filings. INSET: COMPANIES BATTLE OVER PATENT CLAIMS.

Focuses on the move of trade associations to create their own electronic exchanges. Electronic marketplace created by the National Association of Manufacturers; Plans of the American Bankers Association to offer digital certificates. INSET: ASPs Aim E-Commerce Services At Trade Associations.

Focuses on the integration of intrusion detection features into computer network management tools and services. ePatrol Managed Intrusion Detection service from Internet Security Systems; Depository Trust Co.'s use of IBM Global Services to handle intrusion detection at the entry points of its network; Pilot Network Services' intrusion detection capabilities. INSET: SERVICE FIRMS RAMP UP.

Focuses on emergence of extranet service provider (ESP). List of companies entering into the ESP market; Impact of extranets on Internet service providers, application service providers and software vendors; Plans of Philip Services Corp. to launch an extranet for waste management business using the Aventail.net service. INSET: ANX evolves to ESP model..

Reports on advances in the area of secure electronic messaging over the Internet. Percentage of electronic messages sent over the Internet that are encrypted; Virus scanning; Password authentication; Filtering; Digital watermarks. INSETS: Secure Messaging;PKI Is Still Far From The Corporate Mainstream.

Features Greenwich, Connecticut-based Tenneco Inc. 1997 revenue; Number of employees; Locations; Main products; Company history; Backbone infrastructure. INSET: Tenneci's network stays cool under pressure..

Discusses a group of quality-of-service protocols from the Internet Engineering Task Force. Assessment on the protocols, Differentiated Services (Diff-Serv), Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) and Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP); Information on the concept of quality-of-service standards for Internet protocols; Comments from some industry executives.

Claims that digital subscriber line (DSL) technology will speed network access. Capabilities of DSL; How users can consolidate their data and voice lines using DSL; Service providers that sell DSL services; Different flavors of DSL designed for different applications; Factor in the speed of DSL deployment; Advantages of DSL over integrated services digital network (ISDN).

Features the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) computer network protocol. Features; Industry support for the standards; Impact on the market. INSET: Liberation for directories, by K.J.H..

Focuses on the Internet Engineering Task Force's (IETF) efforts to establish protocols and standards for the Internet as of November 3, 1997. Background on the IETF; IETF members' efforts to resist efforts of computer industry's giants to turn the organization into a marketing group; Problems faced by the IETF. INSET: IETF meets commercial pressures head on..

Focuses on the Secure Electronic Transactions (SET) protocol, which encrypts and authenticates credit card information over the Internet. Benefits offered by the protocol; Names of companies supporting the network; Frustration of software vendors due to the absence of protocols securing core business on the Internet; Distinctive features of SET. INSET: Secure products are more than set..

The article reports on how Foster's Wine Estates Americas in Napa, California, installed an e-mail management system from Mimosa Systems that handles archiving, data discovery and data recovery for the company's Microsoft Exchange 2003 Server mail architecture. The Mimosa Systems' NearPoint installation was essential because the company was facing increasing regulatory and legal pressures to be able to access electronic mail comprehensively and rapidly. Moreover, e-mail is the primary vehicle for much of the winemaker's sales and marketing.

The article discusses the strategic approval of system application by Patton Harris Rust & Associates Inc. in Virginia. This strategy will allow the firm to take the unsafe application offline before the attack of the Windows MetaFile (WMF) of Microsoft takes place. After Microsoft Corp. announced a patch for the vulnerability of WMF, the company re-listed the Dynamic Link Libraries as an approved application. In these days, the whitelisting is a spin to the old-school security method that spells out on which applications specific users and user groups can run.

This article reports that the 2006 Winter Olympic Games IT security team is preparing to launch an enhanced network alarm-monitoring strategy when the games begin in February 2006 in Torino, Italy. The team has defined a way to filter network event alarms using more detailed and specific parameters. The new strategy will allow the team to focus its security efforts on actual threats at the Winter Games. During its first experience of the 2004 Summer Olympics IT team in Athens, Greece, the team concluded that the real threat was within the network, not outside. The perceived attackers were mostly authorized users unplugging the Olympics workstations and replacing them with their own laptops. The team's main concern is filtering through these benign threats to focus on attackers attempting to sabotage competition results and other sensitive information. Streamlining and improving alarm quality will help the IT security team more efficiently deploy its manpower at the Games. The 2006 Winter Games network consists of virtual LANs, wireless LANs and Cisco switches and routers. INSET: The Hard Sell: AN OLYMPAIN EFFORT TO WEIGH RISK AND COST..

This article focuses on the use of technology in the El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, California. The hospital has not only built a new $300 million complex, but it has also established a separate disaster-recovery site as well. The 400-bed nonprofit hospital may not be the largest, but it could be one of the most leading-edge facilities of its kind. El Camino was the first hospital in the world to automate order entry for its physicians, and the hospital today uses tablet PCs, Bluetooth wireless technology for transmitting patients' vital signs, digital imaging for radiology and electronic charting to let physicians study test results and sign records from home. El Camino's main goal is to reach 99.999 percent uptime for its IT operations. Earthquakes are a major concern. El Camino sits just three miles from the massive San Andreas fault and even closer to the McArthur fault line. The new hospital building is designed to meet California's aggressive earthquake-preparedness law, which requires all newly erected health-care facilities to be seismically tolerant. INSETS: The Hard Sell;Bud James;Lessons Learned.

The article focuses on Guitar Center Inc., the $1.5 billion retailer of guitars, amplifiers, percussion instruments and other music equipment, which is running two parallel, interconnected WANs for now, with an eye on phasing out the frame relay WAN altogether. The company last year beefed up the frame relay network with compression and quality of service to ensure the point-of-sale and inventory applications got priority, which was cheaper than expanding capacity. To avoid disturbing the busiest retail seasons for Guitar Center stores-its current 41st anniversary celebration and the upcoming holiday rush-the company is phasing in the VPN pilot slowly. Guitar Center decided to forgo the free QoS features in its Cisco routers because they made QoS too complicated and difficult to manage. Guitar Center currently has 160 Packeteer PacketShaper appliances, mostly 1550s and 2500s, in its stores, and the 9500 series at the data center. The PacketShapers offer Web-based QoS provisioning that is much simpler than Cisco's router-based QoS, and they also compress the traffic. INSETS: The Hard Sell.;Lessons Learned..

This article presents information on Calpine Corp. Many enterprises prefer to keep their logs lean and simple, to make analysis easier. But Calpine has a different philosophy. One need to log heavily, so one has all the data when there's a security event said Sean Curry, infrastructure engineering manager for the $8 billion power producer and supplier. In fact, logging all the activity of its network devices, servers and workstations is the centerpiece of security strategy at Calpine, which supplies electricity and natural gas and sells excess power to other suppliers. The power company uses the Network Intelligence Engine HA Series appliance to gather log data from its firewalls, IDSs, networking hardware and, most recently, its Unix and Windows servers and workstations. Calpine can't afford an attack on the control applications that run its 21 natural gas-fired and geothermal power plants around the United States, Canada and Great Britain, nor to its Structure Group Market energy-management system, which handles its energy transactions with trading partners. Two new projects will add to the load. Calpine plans to install Cisco Security Agent IDS clients to its desktops next year for another layer of security. INSETS: The Hard Sell;Lessons Learned.

The article reports that as soon as concrete company Tindall Corp. began testing Web conferencing over its WAN, the helpdesk lines lit up. ERP users were calling to complain that their application had slowed to a crawl. Tindall's IT group had been rotating a 3-D CAD drawing over the WiredRed e/pop Web conferencing application to simulate how engineers collaborate on a design. To accommodate the new Web conferencing solution and ensure that it wouldn't disrupt critical applications, Steve Flacy, IT director at Tindall, and his team had to redesign the company's WAN. Previously, each site used its frame relay connection to Tindall's Spartanburg headquarters to share the company's sole T1 Internet pipe. In addition to e/pop, Tindall bought DSL connections for each of its three branch offices last September, as well as new Cisco PIX firewalls, Websense monitoring and security software, and server hardware. The new architecture not only improves performance, it also helps Tindall secure outgoing Internet traffic and usage.

This article reports that FSW, a Connecticut-based health-care and social services nonprofit, experienced the risks of open-source software firsthand when a typo in the configuration of its open-source portal caused a three-month delay in the deployment of its new client-demographics database. Open-source software offers benefits for cash-strapped organizations, but it also carries risks. FSW was on its own, except for some assistance from the firm LifeRay and its consultants through online support forums. FSW didn't have the staff to do the troubleshooting, either. As a result, the project was delayed for nearly 12 weeks, forcing FSW social workers and other users to continue the painstaking process of manually plucking data from a variety of applications and databases, and then asking the nonprofit's two-person IT staff to run reports for state regulators and potential donors. Joseph Foran, director of IT for the nonprofit, says that integrating the database with the portal wasn't as simple as it seemed. FSW's homegrown database, now available on the portal, includes data from just about every aspect of the organization's operations. INSET: The Hard Sell: THE BUSINESS CASE FOR OPEN SOURCE.

The article informs about the chemical company, Quaker Chemical Corp. in relation to enterprise resource planning (ERP) data. In most large companies, employees go to their enterprise resource planning systems when they need to pull information. But at Quaker Chemical, the reverse is true. A data warehouse now pushes ERP data out to some users. Quaker Chemical is configuring its SAS data-warehouse tools to push specialized data-mart information to its salespeople and field technicians, enabling them to receive data faster and more efficiently. In a nutshell, the company is using the tools to extract custom data from its single-instance PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne ERP application and fold it into spreadsheets for mobile users. Because of such system, sales representatives no longer remotely log into an ERP application and send a query to view open orders. The information is pushed directly to their laptop computers in spreadsheet format on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. INSETS: The Hard Sell.;15 MINUTES.;Lessons Learned..

This paper looks at the steps taken by BrokerageAmerica to move its data center to a state-of-the-art, secure collocation site after a 2004 electrical fire gutted its data center and knocked the brokerage offline for six hours. The core of BrokerageAmerica's redundancy and backup strategy was relocating the data center to a 9-by-24-foot cage at Internap, as well as setting up redundant lines between Internap and the firm's Boston, Massachusetts, San Francisco, California and Red Bank, New Jersey offices. Simon Janason, information technology (IT) manager of BrokerageAmerica, remotely manages and maintains BrokerageAmerica's servers and networking devices at the Internap site from the firm's headquarters in Manhattan, New York City. The next step for BrokerageAmerica will be to enable the remote offices in Boston, San Francisco and Red Bank to run independently in the event of a future disaster. If the firm's network or the Internap site goes down, the remote sites can access trading and back-office applications from a backup data center. The Red Bank backup site requires BrokerageAmerica to buy mirrored servers, Cisco switches and routers, desktop machines and point-to-point circuits, according to Janason. INSETS: The Hard Sell;Lessons Learned.

This article presents the case of Cookson Electronics, which decided not to deploy a computer and server-management platform and instead subscribed to TriActive's Configuration Management Suite service. The company started its subscription after consolidating its global information technology (IT) operations. With the application service provider (ASP) service, Cookson Electronics enjoys automated tracking of its computer assets, faster problem resolution and reduced dispatch calls and travel for its IT staff. The service has also cut the division's IT downtime by 25 percent. The TriActive MicroAgent is lightweight client code on Cookson's client and server machines. It takes up about 400 kilobytes of memory on Windows-run machines, which makes it easier to run on older manufacturing systems, typically Pentium/PII platforms with limited RAM. According to Paul DeLuca, director of global infrastructure, the only real security risk in an ASP hosting configuration-management applications is an attacker pilfering Internet Protocol addresses through the host site. INSET: The Hard Sell.

This article reports on the installation of 14 Peribit SR-50 and SR-20 Sequence Reducer wireless area network (WAN) optimization devices at the most bandwidth-challenged sites of Seminis. These appliances prioritize traffic to ensure that the sites get enough bandwidth for Seminis' Citrix ICA proprietary applications and Windows SAP enterprise resource planning applications. With the Peribit appliance's quality of service (QoS) technology, the Seminis IT department is no longer bombarded with user complaints. WAN optimization technology is nothing new, but the pressure on IT to control WAN costs has made the cheaper compression and QoS methods increasingly popular among all kinds of organizations. International Data Corp. projects that the WAN optimization management market will grow from $236 million to $427 million by 2008. Seminis runs Peribit's PeriScope Central Management Software to configure and monitor compression and QoS. But not all of Seminis' sites can get WAN compression and QoS. The Budapest and Tapioszele, Hungary, sites, for example, are connected over a serial link. Tapioszele accesses the WAN through a Nortel advanced remote node (ARN) router in Budapest, where there is also a Peribit Sequence Reducer. Because Tapioszele traffic goes straight to the ARN router via the serial link and does not touch the Peribit box, it does not get compressed, nor are the applications prioritized with QoS. INSET: The Hard Sell.

This article deals with the reconstruction of the virtual private network (VPN) of Quad/Graphics in 2004. Quad/Graphics' move toward secure sockets layer (SSL) has been gradual. So far, about 80 percent of the company's suppliers and a small number of its media clients have switched over to SSL VPN access. Using Juniper Networks' NetScreen Secure Access 3020 VPN appliances, Quad/Graphics' suppliers gain SSL based access to applications over the VPN, rather than tunneling a client through as a network node. This approach is safer for Quad's customers, which are accustomed to using file transfer protocol (FTP). The plans is to place all new customers on the VPN and migrate existing customers next year. In the interim, Quad/Graphics' print customers have a choice: They can access page proofs via a conventional FTP session or the more secure way, using FTP through the SSL VPN. Quad's suppliers, which include providers of its printing presses, stitching and binding systems, use the SSL VPN to access their own applications. One supplier, for instance, accesses its maintenance apps directly through the SSL VPN, running a Windows server-based system that is part of Quad/Graphics' printing process. INSETS: BUILDING A BUSINESS CASE FROM THE BOTTOM UP;Damian Drewek.

This article focuses on the free wireless Internet access being offered by Pittsburgh International Airport in Pennsylvania as of June 24, 2004. The 802.11b wireless access network service promises to draw more passengers to the airport. Pittsburgh International Airport chose free wireless, in the hope of bringing in more connecting travelers. A traveler with an 802.11b card just powers up his or her own laptop computer, which then goes to a default setting that picks up the wireless signal. With the wireless access service in place, the airport is turning its focus to internal wireless local area network applications. Pittsburgh International Airport is also running a wireless pilot with the Transportation Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The new internal wireless applications will require one feature the free wireless access does not and that is authentication. Travelers are limited to Internet access via DHCP, hypertext transfer protocol and hypertext transfer protocol-S protocols. Like any conventional enterprise, Pittsburgh International Airport uses its existing local area network as well as security tools to dole out user privileges. The airport runs Enterasys' NetSight Atlas Policy Manager tool, which sets these user privileges. INSETS: The Hard Sell;Tony Gialloreto.

This article offers background on Cisco Media Network, a division at Cisco Systems. Cisco's video network has saved the company more than $1 million on ISO-compliance training by using video-on-demand instead of in-person sessions. Running video atop its Internet protocol (IP) framework, the company produces about 400 video-on-demand presentations and 50 live broadcasts each month. Cisco Media Network is both the name of the service and the organization that provides video to the company. Users can take advantage of the company's homegrown and third-party commercial video tools to produce their own videos. Although streaming video has become a popular medium for informing the company's employees, partners and customers worldwide, the Media Network group is still unrecognized at Cisco. The division is still part of the human resources organization, not IT. In 2004, the organization's latest project: integrating videoconferencing with its IP-based video-streaming applications using H.264 video compression. Cisco runs 2,000 videoconference sessions per month, most of which require the company to plug the feed from a videoconferencing unit into an encoding server, or to stream the videoconference using H.263, an older video-compression scheme that provides video at low-bandwidth speeds. INSETS: The Hard Sell;Michael Mitchell.

Provides information on the integrated voice and data virtual private network (VPN) created by GST Corp. Opinion of Donald Meewes, senior vice president and CIO of GST, regarding voice over Internet protocol; Termination of the company's project on the creation of fully meshed voice architecture; Equipment used by GST in voice traffic delivery. INSETS: The Hard Sell;[15 MINUTES] Donald Meewes.

Describes the way in which MediaNews Group Interactive took a load off its Web application servers with a Web accelerator appliance from Redline that translates incoming vanity URL to the long-winded URL its content-management application uses. Disadvantages of URL translation troubles; Features of the Web accelerator appliance. INSETS: The Hard Sell;Skip Marsh.

Reports on the development of an archival system by Southern Co. to limit e-mail storage on messaging servers and shared drives. Statement issued by Gail Commer, manager of enterprise storage at Southern; Information on Southern's Trouble Call Management System application; Development of in-house storage-reporting tools. INSET: The Hard Sell.

Provides information on the improvements done to the infrastructure of the Web site of the Major League Baseball. Types of content and graphics featured in the Web site; Purpose of the plan to add a disaster-recovery architecture to the Web site; Objectives of merging the Web and dedicate application servers. INSET: The Hard Sell.

Discusses the authentication of the wireless local area networks (LAN) at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Features of the wireless LAN of the university; Importance of the authentication of the wireless LAN for the improvement of network security; Impact of the decline in the information technology industry on the university. INSET: The Hard Sell.

Focuses on the Informix database incorporated in the Interactive Forecast Preparation System (IFPS) used by the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) in monitoring the weather condition. Linux superserver architecture considered by the NWS for the database; Overview of the Advanced Communications Network Model simulation tool of the NWS; Illustration of the database. INSET: The Hard Sell.

Describes MasterCard International's data warehouse technology. Factors that influence data mining systems; Information on Business Objects' Analytics software; Overview of business transactions that MasterCard provide to clients. INSETS: The Hard Sell;[15 MINUTES] Sam Alkhalaf.

Focuses on the efficacy of the wireless security system selected by Secure Parking Systems for the employee parking lots at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. Features of the security system; Significance of video in the security system; Benefits of the security system. INSETS: The Hard Sell;Ed Danberry.

Discusses Web hosting tools used by AT&T Enhanced Network Services (ENS). Use of Empirix's OneSight tool at the core of the monitoring system; Integration of niche monitoring and management tools with OneSight for a more unified view of customers' Web hosting systems; Data-replication feature from Empirix that will make all configuration changes in real time between the company's primary and secondary monitoring servers. INSETS: The Hard Sell;15 MINUTES.

Focuses on the efforts of the Union Pacific Railroad Co. to build a new generation of intranet and customer applications based on Web technology. Installation of open-source Apache Unix Web servers from Apache Corp.; Effect of the company's switch to open Web technology on its software developers; Details of the firm's Web strategy; Downside of Apache. INSETS: GETTING THE WHOLE TEAM ON BOARD;Tom Lantry.

Reports on Cisco Systems Inc.'s deployment of voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems at Lexent Inc. Cost of installation of VoIP; Configuration of VoIP with encryption; Use of a router-to-firewall approach to deployment; Traffic-shaping features; Unity Unified Messaging application. INSETS: SAVING MONEY WITH A PRIVATE VPN;Charles Arduini.

Focuses on e-gatematrix's online supply-chain services for the airline industry. Product and service features; Internet portal of the company; E-gatematrix's work with Delta Air Lines.