The software is the latest in a recent push by vendors to simplify the increasingly complex IT infrastructure at many companies’ branch offices with a do-it-all piece of hardware.

Citrix (NSDQ: CTXS) and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) are joining forces with the co-developed Citrix Branch Repeater, an all-in-one device for delivering applications to branch offices, the companies announced Tuesday.

The Branch Repeater is just the latest in a recent push by vendors to try to simplify the increasingly complex IT infrastructure at many companies’ branch offices with a do-it-all piece of hardware. Read more…

VirtualLogix™, Inc., the Real-Time Virtualization™ company, today introduced VLX vHA, the industry’s first solution that enables high-availability (HA) assurances for communications equipment utilizing virtualization. Tightly integrated with its award-winning, real-time virtualization solution for network equipment, VLX for Network Infrastructure, VLX vHA increases system availability without the cost and scalability restrictions of traditional solutions. VLX vHA also meets the needs of high-end systems with demanding availability requirements that want to overcome the design challenges presented by new multicore processor-based systems.

Traditional high-availability solutions require significant time and high costs to implement, which has limited their adoption in certain networking applications such as security appliances, traffic switches, and storage and WiFi equipment. VLX vHA enables organizations to leverage virtualization to build higher availability products, get them to market faster while lowering their overall bill of materials cost. Read more…

Strix Systems announced the deployment of Strix Integrated Wireless Video System for the Boston Marathon event held April 21st, 2008. Strix Access/One Outdoor Wireless System (OWS) provided the foundation for the rapid temporary deployment of multiple Integrated Wireless Video Surveillance Systems (IWVS) that delivered high quality Milestone video surveillance to a number of state and local public safety agencies.

The Boston Marathon is the world’s oldest, most prestigious and widely viewed sporting event in the U.S. The 26 mile course runs through Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, and Brookline, to the center of the city of Boston. This year the event attracted over 20,000 registered runners and more than one million spectators. Read more…

Interop poll gives new feature the thumbs-up.

Microsoft’s network access control client in Vista and now in Windows X has a lot of IT executives excited, according to an informal poll of about 250 attendees of an Interop Las Vegas NAC seminar who are actively considering deploying the access technology.

About a third of them say they would use the NAC support in the Microsoft client software rather than pay more and deal with deploying and maintaining a client with more features that they have to pay extra for. Microsoft calls its NAC technology Network Access Protection (NAP) Read more…

Evolve Technologies (www.evolvetech.com), a company that specializes in information technology (IT) solutions for small businesses, and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, today announced a partnership with Cymphonix. Cymphonix is the first company to successfully provide small and medium sized organizations the ability to monitor both Internet browsing and application activity to control network resource usage.

This partnership enables Evolve Technologies customers to benefit from a secure Web tool that easily identifies, controls and monitors Internet activity for small and medium sized businesses. The Cymphonix Network Composer, a secure Web gateway line of products, ensures that adequate resources are available to run essential applications and to browse company approved Web sites. Read more…

SkyRecon Systems has announced support for Windows Server 2008 and the native NAP platform that is built into Microsoft’s new operating system Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista™, and Windows® XP Service Pack 3.

SkyRecon’s StormShield solution protects businesses from the real threats of data leakage, data theft, system misuse, unauthorised access, and zero-day attacks.

SkyRecon’s flagship product StormShield offers integrated system and data protection layers in a single lightweight agent and single management console. Using only a few megabytes of memory footprint, StormShield’s behavioral-based endpoint protection solution features integrated device control, data encryption, application control, host-based intrusion prevention (HIPS), system firewall, wireless security, and Network Access Control (NAC) - a fraction of the size compared to other similar products in the market. Its agent provides zero-day protection without the need for signature or rule updates. Read more…

HP’s ProCurve Networking has integrated with Microsoft’s Network Access Protection (NAP) to protect networks and provide customised access policies across both wired and wireless environments.

“The solution is an open, secure, standards-based interoperability that integrates ProCurve’s trusted infrastructure, policy management system and Micro-soft’s NAP technology,” Nick Hancock, EMEA product manager, ProCurve Networking, said.

Microsoft NAP is a policy enforcement technology built into the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 operating systems. It allows customers to better protect network assets from unhealthy computers by enforcing compliance with network health policies. Read more…

As the use of Wi-Fi by businesses becomes more pervasive, IT departments must rethink their wireless security strategy to combat threats, a panel said Tuesday at the Interop conference in Las Vegas.

As the use of Wi-Fi by businesses becomes more pervasive, IT departments must rethink their security strategy, a panel said Tuesday at the Interop conference in Las Vegas.

“Wireless is a different medium and presents different challenges that we faced with wired,” said David King, chairman and chief executive officer of AirTight Networks, makers of wireless intrusion prevention systems. “All the borders and boundaries that used to exist at the physical level are gone. The perimeter has to be redefined.” Read more…

Cameras and wireless network function as police force multiplier and provide evidence-grade video to aid in criminal prosecution

Dallas police arrested a man accused of mugging an 18-year-old ROTC cadet who had collapsed in a seizure outside the downtown Greyhound bus station last week. The crime was captured on the city’s wireless video surveillance system, which enabled the swift arrest. This is one of many crimes that have been caught on camera since the wireless network was installed in downtown Dallas and the Jubilee Park neighborhood last year, as it provides police with the capability to monitor activity in real time.

The Dallas City Council and the local police department implemented a wireless video surveillance system consisting of 32 Firetide mesh nodes and 40 Sony cameras placed at major intersections in downtown Dallas. The cameras connect to Firetide wireless mesh nodes that operate on secure frequencies unavailable for public use. The nodes form a resilient wireless mesh network – without which it would have been too difficult and cost-prohibitive to install the cameras where they are needed. Read more…

As InfoWorld’s Tom Yager writes in today’s Ahead of the Curve, “While it makes IT break out in hives, professional users need … secure shared data and remote desktop access without the hassle of VPN.”

Apple’s $99 per year .Mac service (http://www.mac.com) “has the makings of an interesting solution to the desktops-as-servers conundrum.” But the iDisk client, set up as a virtual volume, “shows both its age and its consumer-targeted nature. …Without changes to iDisk, .Mac falls short of requirements for commercial use.”

Where Apple’s .Mac comes close, Microsoft Live Mesh hopes to take it all the way. “What Live Mesh does is very simple: It keeps folders and RSS feeds synchronized across all of the PCs in your custom-defined “mesh” so that no matter which of your PCs you’re facing, folders and feeds published via Live Mesh are all kept in sync and made available both online and off. Read more…