John Fontana

Senior Editor, Infrastructure

 

jfontana@nww.com (303) 377-9057 Fax: (303) 377-9059

Network World 1200 Madison Street #676 Denver, CO 80206

Recent articles by Fontana

Microsoft layoff rumors continue their swirl
Jan. 05, 2009
The on-again, off-again rumors of layoffs at Microsoft appear to be off again after CNBC reported that the company would not have layoffs ahead of its January earnings report.

Google productivity tools still looking to impress corporate users
Dec. 18, 2008
While Google is often cited as having a golden touch, the company's productivity application suite is still a mere bronze competitor to Microsoft's Office and collaboration tools despite upgrades over the past year that ...

Microsoft's 2009 to-do list: Deliver services, get virtualized, storm the Googleplex - ...
Dec. 12, 2008
Here's a look at five key issues and a handful of honorable mentions that will be in the Microsoft spotlight over the next 12 months.

Microsoft snaps up identity expert
Dec. 10, 2008
Noted identity innovator Dick Hardt has agreed to join Microsoft to help the company shape its identity platform.

Microsoft issues slew of critical security patches
Dec. 09, 2008
Microsoft Tuesday released its final eight patches of 2008, which address 28 vulnerabilities including a critical flaw in the new search component in Vista and Windows Server 2008.

Microsoft ships BizTalk beta, RFID Mobile add-on
Dec. 08, 2008
Microsoft Monday released the first public beta of the BizTalk Server 2009 and made available RFID mobile features for the current version of the software.

Microsoft taps ex-Yahoo VP to run online services group
Dec. 04, 2008
Microsoft on Thursday appointed Qi Lu, who was executive vice president in Yahoo's search and advertising technology group, as the president of its Online Services Group.

Microsoft trying to blow the roof off data-center design
Dec. 04, 2008
Microsoft has seen the future of the data center, and oddly enough it's missing a roof.

Microsoft, EMC partner on data-loss prevention
Dec. 04, 2008
Microsoft Thursday said it plans to integrate RSA data-loss prevention (DLP) technology into its products to enable security managers to monitor sensitive data and block unauthorized use. RSA is EMC's security division.

Dimdim takes beta tag off conferencing service
Dec. 03, 2008
Conferencing and collaboration startup Dimdim on Wednesday finally slipped the beta tag off its Web 2.0 service, unveiled new scalable synchronization features and released the source code.

Microsoft tools build bridge between OpenXML, other formats
Dec. 03, 2008
Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled a free plug-in for Firefox to translate Open XML documents, an update to its document translator and a toolkit for Java developers that was built under the umbrella of its Document ...

SP2 beta for Windows Server 2008, Vista available
Dec. 02, 2008
Microsoft Tuesday gave its MSDN and TechNet subscribers access to the beta of Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 and will make the software available to the general public in two days.

Microsoft warns of malware exploiting known vulnerability
Nov. 26, 2008
Microsoft is warning users of a rise in attacks on a vulnerability in Windows that could trigger a worm infestation on networks, and the company is encouraging companies to apply an emergency patch released in October.

Microsoft, Novell toast anniversary with tools, support coupons
Nov. 19, 2008
Marking the two-year anniversary of their partnership, Microsoft and Novell said Wednesday they were releasing tools to help users manage and support SUSE Linux.

Microsoft Silverlight loses Major League Baseball to Adobe Flash
Nov. 19, 2008
Microsoft will no longer play under the bright lights of Major League Baseball, which has decided to throw out the vendor's Silverlight browser add-on in favor of Adobe's Flash.

Windows HPC hits top 10 among supercomputers
Nov. 18, 2008
Microsoft on Tuesday hit another high-performance computing milestone by placing its server for the first time in the top 10 on the list of the Top 500 super computers as judged by Top500.org.

Lotus chief defines imminent battle plan
Nov. 17, 2008
Integration of traditional on-premises Notes-based collaboration, new unified communications tools, Symphony productivity applications, content management, Web-based services and the potential to mash it all together ...

Novell bolsters GroupWise 8
Nov. 17, 2008
Novell Monday shipped GroupWise 8, adding interface and administrative upgrades to its messaging and calendaring platform.

Exchange, SharePoint hosted services go live
Nov. 17, 2008
Microsoft on Monday will release the first of several of its hosted business-productivity services.

Google, Microsoft take voice, social networking shots at one another
Nov. 14, 2008
Google and Microsoft this week traded counter-punches over voice and social networking tools as the two continue to battle each other over emerging technologies.

Microsoft/Nortel committed to marriage but future is cloudy
Nov. 13, 2008
Nortel's rocking financial situation and announced layoffs this week of 1,300 people likely won't have much short-term impact on the company's four-year unified communications alliance with Microsoft, including before ...

Microsoft patch closes 7-year-old OS hole, expert says
Nov. 12, 2008
A former Microsoft employee who's now CTO for a patch management firm says an update issued by Microsoft on Tuesday closes a vulnerability that has been exploited for almost seven years and that he first identified ...

Microsoft kicks off next era of small business software
Nov. 12, 2008
Microsoft Wednesday released an updated bundle of infrastructure servers for small business and its first-ever offering tailored to midsized businesses, and said the two would evolve alongside the company's software- ...

Novell lays out Red Hat attack plan
Nov. 11, 2008
Novell Tuesday took aim at rival and Linux market leader Red Hat with a migration service designed to help move Linux users onto Novell's Suse enterprise servers.

Microsoft touts virtualization, Windows 7 integration with Windows Server upgrade - Network ...
Nov. 07, 2008
Microsoft next week will distribute a pre-beta of Windows Server 2008 R2 to a select group of testers and highlighted the software's virtualization capabilities, integration with Windows 7 and other features.