Army signs on for bandwidth boost
Months after the Defense Information Systems Agency wired 86 military installations with a $900 million, high-speed, high-capacity fiber network, the Army has taken a major step toward extending the last-mile connectivity reach of the Global Information Grid-Bandwidth Expansion program.
How to chill out
It isn't sexy, but IT managers will tell you that keeping a data center properly cooled is an ongoing challenge. An average rack of servers once consumed roughly five kilowatts per hour. Today it's not unusual for a rack of servers to consume seven, 15 or up to 30 kWh in ultradense, blade-filled racks. That's expensive'and hot.
HUD's team effort
In its Vision 2010 document released in February, the Housing and Urban Development Department laid out its modernization strategy around its core lines of business. To get there in about four years, the department will rely on portfolio and project management'the basic tenets of any large system modernization effort.
When data centers lose their cool
Lately, the weather inside data centers has grown unmanageably hot, forcing IT managers to reconsider plans they'd taken for granted. And data center modernization'the unglamorous second cousin to today's business systems modernization'has become essential.
Agencies chip away at BSMs
GAO has for years critiqued the efforts of federal agencies to modernize their business processes and the IT that drives them. A report released earlier this year highlighted a continuing lack of discipline on processes including requirements management, testing, data conversion, system interfaces, and risk and project management.
Agencies are enlisted to help lobby Congress for more support of e-gov
As the Office of Management and Budget steps up efforts to lobby Congress on the benefits of E-government, officials want agencies to do their share, too. In the latest President's Management Agenda scorecard, nine agencies slipped in the E-government portion, and OMB officials are putting agencies on notice that they must do a better job of promoting their case on Capitol Hill.
OMB to spell out financial LOB process
If competition is the foundation of the Office of Management and Budget's Financial Management Line of Business Consolidation initiative, the administration's migration planning guidance will be the blueprint agencies need to really understand how to assemble it.
OPM finally gets rolling on a new retirement system
It has been a long time coming, but the Office of Personnel Management seems to be on track to revolutionize how the government tracks, maintains and processes retirement information for its employees.
Energy contract stirs conflict
Problems with large government IT contracts grab headlines every day, but small awards can be just as much trouble. Just ask the Energy Department. A recent award, to a software supplier whose offer was priced substantially higher than two competitors and rated lower on technical merits, is one example.
Defrag while you don't wait
Recently, an older client PC on the GCN Lab test network was running extremely slow. The problem, it turned out, was that we'd forgotten to install our usual disk defragmentation software when we'd added the system to the network'several years ago. What a mess. But it gave us an opportunity to test Diskeeper 10.0.<br><b><font color="CC0000">|GCN Lab</font> Reviewer's Choice|</b>
Military interoperability test begins
Cisco Systems is providing the core network infrastructure for the exercise, which started today in Lager Aulenbach, Germany.
GCN Lab Review: Acer TravelMate 4020WLMi
The TravelMate 4020WLMi is an adequate laptop, provided you don't push it too hard. Unfortunately, we designed our testing procedures to do just that. As a result, the TravelMate did not perform as well as other systems.
GCN Lab Review: Lenovo ThinkPad T60 2523-D2U
The ThinkPad T60 is a finely tuned machine'and the best evidence in this review that raw performance comes down to more than just gigahertz. Despite one of the slowest CPU clocks in the review (1.66-GHz) and just 512 MB of RAM (as opposed to 1GB), it managed to post the best performance marks of our roundup.
GCN Lab Review: Toshiba Tecra A7-S712
Toshiba's Tecra A7-S712 comes with decent features at an affordable price, but we weren't floored by this notebook. Its S-Video, FireWire and extra PC Card slot give users a fair set of options. There's also a fingerprint reader and requisite WiFi adapter. But on performance, the system doesn't stand out.
GCN Lab Review: HP Compaq nc6320
The HP Compaq nc6320 has a lot to offer in its roughly 6-pound package. With EvDO cellular and 802.11 wireless radios, Bluetooth, seven-in-one media card reader, S-Video, FireWire, extra PC-Card slot, etc., it packs more interfaces and ports than any other notebook in the review.<br><b><font color="CC0000">|GCN Lab</font> Reviewer's Choice|</b>
GCN Lab Review: Sony Vaio VGN-SZ180PC
Why on earth does the Vaio VGN-SZ180PC cost $2,499? Aside from the fact that Vaios, like ThinkPads, always cost more money, the VGN-SZ180PC, among other features, also has two graphics controllers.
GCN Lab Review: Gateway M465-E
If only gas stations were like Gateway. The company seemingly discounts energy throughout its notebook line. The M465-E's $1,674 price tag is fairly reasonable for this caliber of mainstream notebook. <br><b><font color="CC0000">|GCN Lab</font> Reviewer's Choice|</b>
GCN Lab Review: Dell Latitude D620
Despite sporting high-performance components including a 2-GHz processor and Nvidia Quadro video controller, Dell's Latitude D620 proved an average performer in the GCN Lab. Its benchmark score of 7,414 was solidly middle-of-the-pack.
Quick to the core(s)
Could it be that, finally, one of the biggest CPU claims of recent years has actually proved to be true? With dual-core notebook PCs, it appears that Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. might be right: Clock speed matters little'if at all.
Batten down the hatches
At the Merchant Marine Academy, better access control protects a wide-ranging network of seafaring mobile users.
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