Why is this relevant? While watching 15-ton cousins of today's rhinos saunter around, I started thinking that we take too many things that exist today for granted. We don't look to the past often enough to see just how different things used to be. Take this month's cover story, "Keep Out!". Senior technology editor Mike Fratto tested host intrusion prevention products to see which vendor does the best job of keeping vile stuff out of your critical business servers. A lot less than a few million years ago organizations used TFTP servers sitting on the Internet to move business data around, without a concern about data integrity or virus checking. Luckily, those "prehistoric" days are gone and the technology exists to prevent your business data from becoming extinct.

We also look to the near future with contributing editor Peter Rysavy's article on next-generation cellular services, "Wireless Nirvana". Peter analyzes the available and emerging services that take advantage of new wireless technologies GPRS and CMDA2000 1XRTT. Before you dive into acronym hell, keep in mind that these cellular technologies will allow an entirely new set of business applications and services to run on portable devices. And since the end users within your organizations are getting inundated with marketing materials from all the big wireless providers, you can bet on users showing up at your door, asking for a new cellular phone to be fully integrated into your corporate infrastructure. Get prepared to say "Ya, no problem," whether you like it or not.

This issue also contains our third installment of our On Location series covering Life Time Fitness. David Joachim, editor/business technology, fills us in on the most recent goings-on in the Minnesota tundra. Things might be getting cold up north, but the Life Time folks are working up a sweat by pumping application code out at a dizzying rate. Problem was, it was taking too much time to push the new code through QA, and a bottleneck was starting to form. Enter Mercury Interactive's WinRunner to help automate the code-test process and speed the delivery of new application functionality.

And to round out our coverage, we have a workshop by technology editor Mike DeMaria that deals with the tricks of the videoconferencing trade. It's one thing to get all the pieces working so pictures start flowing between sites. It's another to make the pictures look good. Learn some tips on how to turn your pictures into more than "talking heads."

Emperor's New Look

Now that a few issues of our recently redesigned magazine have arrived on your desks, it's time for me to throw my kudos to the production staff. So I say congratulations to editor of operations Amy Lipton, art director David Yamada and all the behind-the-scenes production people that "gussied up" our tremendous publication. Everyone involved worked tirelessly to meet an "overly optimistic" deadline, and the final product is awesome. Our editorial goal for this redesign was to make it possible for you to easily glean the data that means the most to your business. The new look helps keep it exciting. Again, my heartfelt congratulations to the people that helped these pages come to life.