Blades and business

Tech Guide How do you juggle the competing demands for more computing power and data storage capacity with the need to keep power costs to a minimum? Blade servers may be the answer.

A guide to server efficiency

Tech Guide The cost of powering and cooling server hardware is fast becoming a critical issue for IT managers, while the demand for ever more computing muscle in the datacentre continues to grow. What can be done? We examine some of the options.

Inside Intel's Santa Rosa platform

Tech Guide Improvements to the processor, chipset and wireless components of Intel's latest mobile platform should result in a new generation of faster notebooks with longer battery life. Business systems will also get Intel's Active Management Technology (AMT) for the first time, while Turbo Memory should reduce the frequency of hard disk accesses, saving power and boosting performance.

Data retention strategies for SMEs

Tech Guide Backup and archiving may not head the IT agendas of many small businesses, but for reasons of business continuity and regulatory compliance, the prudent SME will be formulating a data retention strategy. We examine the options.

CPU roadmap: 2007 and beyond

Tech Guide Want to know Intel and AMD's release plans for this year and next? We have the roadmap details.

Windows Vista is in sync with your files

Tech Guide Need to synchronise files and folders with local mobile devices or remote servers? Our guide explains how Windows Vista users go about it.

Inside Office 2007's files

Tech Guide For the first time in a decade, Microsoft will introduce new file types for its Office software. Here's what you need to know to use the new files in older Office versions and how older Office files will work in the new Office 2007.

A quick guide to Windows Vista's new file system

Tech Guide Windows Vista challenges how we think about files and file storage, allowing users to tag, organise and search content in new ways.

A quick guide to Windows Vista Business Edition

Tech Guide Only the Ultimate Edition will include every feature possible within Windows Vista. The Business Edition includes only those features that Microsoft thinks small businesses need and want, such as Windows Meeting Space, Windows Sharing Wizard, and Windows Fax and Scan.

Windows Vista and the coming criminal diaspora

Tech Guide Windows Vista will be attacked by cyber-criminals in 2007 — but so will other operating systems and specific applications.

Why 802.11n is a hard act to swallow

Tech Guide Current wireless data transmission techniques are coming up against fundamental physical limits. We explain why, and show how the upcoming 802.11n Wi-Fi standard fits into the overall picture.

Benchmarks: the unofficial eight-core Mac Pro

Tech Guide Unless you normally work on high-end workstations, perform massively multitasking workloads or just want the bragging rights, eight cores is definitely overkill -- at least for now.

Internet Explorer's shrinking numbers

Tech Guide There's more than just features to consider when choosing an Internet browser. Unfortunately, on the eve of releasing Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft still hasn't worked that out.

Think before you type

Tech Guide We seamlessly shift from private mode to public then back again several times during our normal day, and we never really think about it. The same should be true with our computer lives, but it isn't.

A half-century of hard drives

Tech Guide The hard disk drive, invented by IBM 50 years ago, underpins modern computing and will continue to do so for a while yet. But how did today's data storage technology evolve, and what does the future hold?