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Systems Administrators at Texaco's refineries faced a nasty problem: Oracle databases were ballooning in size, causing users problems as they reached table- and index-size limits, while runaway processes dragged down […]

In the government offices of Santa Clara County, Calif., client-server systems grow like weeds along the freeway. The county, home to a good chunk of Silicon Valley, spends an estimated […]

Virtual local area networks (VLANs) decrease management costs associated with moves, adds and changes and improve the performance of client-server applications. However, the latter benefit has also been attributed to LAN switching. The need for either the VLAN method or the switching method can be assessed through application fingerprinting audit, with RMON probes used in collecting the fingerprint data. Although VLANs are useful in both the change management and client-server performance, users are advised to use application fingerprinting to guide their decision making., VLANs are the rage--at least if you're a vendor. Here's one approach to deciding if they really medet your needs. The first industry conference devoted entirely to Virtual LANs (VLANs) [...]

Erik Goldoff, a computer specialist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, once nearly lost track of $1.5 million worth of client-server equipment. Randall Kessenich, the local […]

Client-server networks have helped corporations streamline their operations integrating information technology with business operations. However, many companies have become too dependent on such networks and thus suffer major financial losses or operational problems when network disasters occur. Network administrators should establish efficient disaster plans that focus on prevention though redundancy and recovery., The goals of streamlining operations and enhancing competitiveness have driven corporate decisions during the past few years, and information technology (IT) has been used to achieve these objectives. In some [...]

Desktop management is the most costly and difficult aspect of client/server architecture management. Two major strategies may be used in managing desktops. Under the 'fat client' approach, the full operating system is put onto the desktop. This enables the desktop to run all or most of the processing for an application while servers are responsible for managing access to shared data and peripherals. The 'thin client' approach, on the other hand, puts only minimal processing capability on the desktop. All application software resides on servers, where it is easier to control and test., No pain, no gain. Let's shape up those desktop clients Of all the problems involved with managing today's client-server environments, desktop management is the most costly and difficult. Each desktop [...]

The susceptibility of present client-server environments to serious bottleneck problems underscores the need for hierarchical architectures that will improve the scalability of client-server systems. This type of architecture uses localized superagents for processing and filtering management information. The superagents also reduce the amount of network traffic between the manager and the managed elements., Cracking the scalability conundrum with hierarchical and client-server approaches It's been five years since the first generation of open management platforms (OMPs) and management software entered the market. While they've [...]

Curtis C. Hare is president and CEO of Answer Computer Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif. Answer develops and markets software applications designed to improve performance of internal help desks. The adoption […]

Neighborhood VAR brewed a custom solution focused on processing orders, mission-critical accounting David Dallis, president of Dallis Brothers Inc., knew he was under the gun. The legacy-system-based, mission-critical software applications […]

A strong majority of companies that have consolidated their server environment have seen a positive rate of return on their investment, according to data from Computer Economics Inc. Some 69 […]

The client/server model of the World Wide Web has caught on like wildfire because it is open, easy to use, straightforward to implement and yet very powerful as an information-distribution […]

Once again, it's time for unsuspecting IS leaders to take a good idea, overdo it, and end up delivering shoddy service. Today's example: recentralization of corporate computing services. After years […]

It's usually a good idea to learn from the experiences of others, particularly if it helps you avoid costly mistakes. But in information systems circles, accepted wisdom about introducing a […]

Distributed transactions or replication? Beware of the tradeoffs. Your company has decided to move from mainframe to client-server. In the new scheme, data will be distributed to database servers at […]

Curtis C. Hare is president and CEO of Answer Computer Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif. Answer develops and markets software applications designed to improve performance of internal help desks. Companies that […]