ANN ARBOR - After four years and hundreds of miles of fiber-optic cable, Merit Network engineers lit the fiber-optic cable between Mount Pleasant and Big Rapids on December 12, 2009, to complete the "Blue-Line" portion of the Merit backbone network. Merit Network, America's longest-running research and education network is thrilled to have achieved this important
ANN ARBOR - Cloud computing technology made a lot of progress in 2009 but it wasn't without its problems. Reliability and security issues surfaced as the young service struggled with the widespread media coverage and rapid growth. Reflecting on the year that was dominated by the IT buzz word, cloud computing, Online Tech CEO Yan
SOUTHFIELD - In a newly released Cleantech Point-of-View, Airfoil Public Relations urges the automotive industry to adopt the flexible, fast-to-market strategies of the technology industry and points out that tech developers have much to learn from best manufacturing practices developed by auto companies. "It's time for the automotive and technology industries to embrace partnerships, share
SAN DIEGO - Arkeia Software, which makes fast, easy-to-use and affordable network backup solutions, has announced the availability of a no-cost virtual appliance designed to back up virtual machines. The new Arkeia Virtual Appliance Free Use Edition bundles software to implement a robust backup solution that enables enterprises with VMware to extend improvements in hardware
BOSTON - Concerns about the security of cloud computing environments top the list of reasons for firms not being interested in the pay-per-use hosting model of virtual servers, according to the latest Enterprise And SMB Hardware Survey, North America And Europe, Q3 2009, by Forrester Research. Forty-nine percent of survey respondents from enterprises and 51
WASHINGTON DC - In order to communicate messages to workers in a complex business environment, a majority of companies plan to increase their use of social media in the coming year, according to a survey by Watson Wyatt, a leading global consulting firm. Almost two-thirds (65 percent) of companies plan to increase their use of
STAMFORD, Conn. - The energy, space and technology problems currently facing data center managers are set to worsen in 2010, according to analyst firm Gartner, Data center and IT managers need to find pragmatic ways in which to deal with them. "Energy costs are the fastest-rising cost element in the data center portfolio, and yet
NEW YORK - Staffing levels in IT will remain the same in 2010 as they are now according to a recent survey conducted by Hay Group, the global management consulting firm. Sixty-nine percent of CIOs said their staffing levels will be unchanged in 2010, indicating a 'bottoming out' of staff reductions in IT. "Combined with
BIRMINGHAM - At first glance the idea of a US Smart Grid is appealing: Update the power grid so that it is more dynamic, granular, and controllable. In practical terms it means replacing the meters on every house, apartment, restaurant, gym, plant, and business in the country with digital meters that provide a control point
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Small Business Administration on Wednesday issued the following statement by SBA Administrator Karen Mills on a proposal by President Barack Obama to raise the maximum loan size for SBA-backed loans to small business. �??America�??s 29 million small businesses have been hard hit in this recession. Nine months ago, President Obama sent