Microsoft Corp.'s Exchange Server has certainly woven its way into the corporate landscape. Many companies have now deployed tens or hundreds of Exchange Servers worldwide. But whether you have tens, hundreds, or only one Exchange Server, you need to protect your investment -- not so much your investment in the platform but your investment in all of the corporate data that the mail server now holds. You never know if disaster will strike, and if you haven't planned for every contingency, it probably will. Instead of leaving the integrity of your Exchange Server 5.5 to fate, you should create a DR (disaster recovery) plan.
For many Windows NT shops, upgrading to Windows 2000 Server is not a question of "if", it's a question of "when". Even if yours is not a Windows NT shop, the odds are good that a Windows 2000 Server will sneak its way into your network to support an application or service.
With so many management tools flooding the market, separating the standout tools from the ordinary ones is getting more difficult. Identifying a niche makes this easier, and NetIQ continues to lead the Windows NT niche with its AppManager Suite 3.0, which manages NT-based environments. From network services to server-based applications, AppManager 3.0 is a tough contender for managing large NT shops.
E-mail is definitely a miracle of modern communication. But as with any technology, unleashing its power often has a set of drawbacks.
Network software forms the technological backbone of an organisation. From expanding the role of servers to supporting clustered computing technologies to simply revolutionising the way in which you back up data, network software plays a critical part in the enterprise. InfoWorld Test Centre analysts decided on a solid Product of the Year winner in this category: Novell's ZENworks.
When many people think of directory services, they still think of the NOS-embedded directories such as Banyan's StreetTalk, Novell Directory Services, or a telco-based directory.
I believe Mark Twain said, "Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it." Sometimes I feel that talking about operating systems is about the same. Just two short years ago it seemed like all was said and done in the world of operating systems. For many, the OS battle seemed like a question of whether IBM's OS/2 would smite Microsoft's Windows 95 with pure technology alone. Well, we all know the outcome of that one. Despite the fact that IBM can blame itself for giving up on OS/2, this certainly hasn't stopped many IT professionals in their search for an alternative to Windows.
Novell's release of NDS for NT 2.0 remains one of the best tools for reining in mixed NetWare 4.x and Windows NT networks and performing NT domain consolidation. By redirecting the Windows NT domains to Novell Directory Services (NDS) instead of Microsoft's Security Accounts Manager, administrators can now perform most NT user account administration from Novell's NWAdmin tool, and thus manage two separate systems from a single, cohesive enterprise directory service.
Network management will always be a necessary evil in the modern enterprise. The more you add to your network, the more you will rely on network management tools to help you keep a finger on the pulse of your mission-critical systems.
Although ZENworks 1.1 is chiefly a maintenance release of Novell's directory-enabled desktop-management platform, the product also boasts notable improvements that make it easier to use and lend administrators better capabilities for managing the transition to the new millennium.
If you can't build it, buy it. That's a tenet we've all followed for a long time in this industry. So if you have Lotus Domino and you find yourself agonising over building a few custom applications, consider buying Changepoint's involv Intranet 3.0 instead.