InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology

The benefits of desktop virtualization have always been something of a mirage: They tend to look better at a distance than up close. But the cloud is making virtual desktop deployments much more affordable, just as mobile devices heighten the need to deliver Windows apps to a new generation of post-PC clients.

If OpenStack sounds appealing but the prospect of downloading, installing and customizing a suite of open source packages is anything but, Piston Cloud is an attractive alternative. Its unique setup process can enable enterprise IT teams to build a private cloud in an afternoon, with commodity gear. Here's the lowdown.

Reliability, security, and per formance are top of mind for storage pros, and we’re willing to get creative.

Data center storage shows all the signs of a maturing discipline: IT professionals are more concerned about data reliability, security and performance vs. just keeping up with capacity demands. Although centralization has been the mantra for several years, distributed, scale-out systems are challenging the hegemony of big storage iron. And with solid state reaching new levels of affordability, it's rapidly displacing mechanical disk for many Tier 1 applications. In short, it's an interesting time to be in the storage business.

Data center storage shows all the signs of a maturing discipline: IT professionals are more concerned about data reliability, security and performance vs. just keeping up with capacity demands. Although centralization has been the mantra for several years, distributed, scale-out systems are challenging the hegemony of big storage iron. And with solid state reaching new levels of affordability, it's rapidly displacing mechanical disk for many Tier 1 applications. In short, it's an interesting time to be in the storage business.

IT teams are rethinking their storage and data architectures. Here’s how to gather the right information to guide decisions.

Private clouds are more than a trendy buzzword. They represent Virtualization 2.0, ushering in a new wave of software designed to turn a rack of commodity servers into an adaptive, scalable platform that further blurs the link between applications and the runtime operating system. For IT organizations willing to dispense with traditional application hosting models, a plethora of pure cloud software options beckons.

Kaspersky Lab and Sophos top our IT evaluations of nine antivirus/anti-malware vendors. Upstart Malwarebytes scores a 4.3 out of 5 for malware removal, the highest score in that category. Symantec and McAfee are the most widely used vendors, but 46% of respondents are considering replacing or adding a vendor. Lucky for them, choices abound in this market.

Storage and networking are ground zero for the next enterprise data center upgrade wave. This time, architecture designs will be based on virtualization and private clouds, not discrete servers and local disks. Translation: Plenty of IT teams are in the market for SANs. Here’s how to make vendors work for your business.

We profile five contenders for your business. Key differentiators for enterprise IT: the ability to connect to corporate VPNs, native device security and authentication, and amenability to centralized management. We also touch on Intel's master plan to challenge purveyors of smartphone silicon. Clearly, 2012 will see Android OEMs up their games and the Wintel combo reunite to finally take a serious stab at the tablet market. How will you manage the onslaught?