IPv6 backward-compatibility

Network World has an article this week about the challenges adopting Ipv6, specifically the lack of backward compatibility. The article does a good job describing the challenges in IPv6 deployments around how to migrate without impacting services and the problems presented because some devices have long life cycles and may never be IPv6 capable.

LUG 2009

For those attending the Lustre Users Group 2009, I will be presenting on Best Practices for the Sun Storage Cluster. A full agenda is at http://blogs.sun.com/HPC/resource/agenda.pdf

More information on the LUG can be found at http://www.regonline.com/LUG09

What a business system should look like

One ongoing debate within the desktop support community is what makes for a successful desktop platform within an enterprise? From my perspective, there are several key features a desktop must have to make it a viable platform within a company environment:

1. Integrated capability for centralized password management, virus definitions, and security policies.
2. Centralized capability to deploy software and monitor license usage
3. System that is priced correctly to replace about every 2.5-3 years. This ensures staff have fast machines with up to date software to complete their roles.
4. Simplicity of security auditing to ensure that IT staff know where data is, when and that it is secure
5. Abundance of tools from third parties to manage the platform remotely to minimize support costs
   

Why do I rattle off this list? There was a very good article in CIO recently that hits on the topic and covers the common discussion topics well.

Ethernet Improvements

I wanted to call attention to a couple interesting projects in the ethernet space. They both have the goal of lowering the overhead that is commonly associated with using ethernet within an HPC environment.

Open-MX
GAMMA

There is a very good write up at http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7253, giving a little more background on each.