Contributor Robert Hertzberg talks with Ted Farrell, chief architect for tools and middleware at Oracle, about the business value of implementing a service-oriented architecture.

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I've been involved with multiple projects to assess the use of VPN (virtual private network) technologies over wireless networks. The most recent is pulling content together for a Webcast I'll be doing on December 5 for Cingular Wireless titled "Optimal Use of VPNs Over Cellular Networks." (See http://developer.cingular.com/ for details.) The good news is that an increasing number of effective options result in improved performance, reliability and control. The bad news is that all the options and tradeoffs are complicated.

Energy costs to power and cool the data center are a top concern for IT these days, but what about all those laptops and desktops in your organization? Does their power consumption matter?

Join Curt Franklin in this Radware sponsored Security Podcast. This week's podcast includes security news, a security feature: CSI Trendspotting (part one of a two part series), and a security product review: Reflex Disknet Pro. | Click to listen

NWC contributor Robert Hertzberg talks with Marja Koopmans, the Director of Partner Strategy for Microsoft Office Live talks about the company's ambitious new entry in the area of web hosting and software as a service. | Click to listen

Andrew Conry Murray interviews Blue Lane's President & CEO Jeff Palmer. Palmer explains the company's appliances, which sit inline on the network and emulate security patches on real-time traffic to protect servers until the patch is installed. | Click to listen

Is it too early in the NAC space to starting talking about revolution or evolution? Maybe. But there are some interesting changes going on. The whole of NAC has really been centered around assessing an endpoint's health and making an access decision like granting access or enforcing quarantine. That's all well and good, but really, your protecting the network from an infected or malicious host. It's not really access control.

Symbian executives at the Symbian Smartphone Show in London last month spoke about the increasing role of smartphones, even suggesting that with the advances in smartphones, people may wonder soon why they need PCs at all. They pointed out that in developing countries where wireless penetration is far outpacing wireline penetration, a phone is a more logical connectivity appliance than a PC. The execs noted that in India the PC market is growing at 5 million units a year, while mobile phones are growing at that rate each month.