Category Archives: Strom Archive

30 years of Web Informants

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Break out the candles because this month I will celebrate Web Informant turning 30. What began as an email newsletter back in 1995 and eventually morphed into a blog is still going strong. Ten years ago I wrote this post about my first 20 years of Informants, and included a link to remembering some of the more notable interviews that I conducted from back in that era. 

So let’s catch up on my last decade. Three years ago, I interviewed several IT managers whom I have kept in touch with in this series, and another notable 2024 interview with Janey Brummett who spent three decades working in the IT department for the Catholic Health Association. Back in 2019, the term digital nomad was just coming into style, just before the worldwide lockdown that made travel difficult. That post has held up well, and I still follow some of the folks — who are now just called content creators — that I originally wrote about, such as Jessica Carroll recently.

During this past decade, I spent a great deal of time being a corporate blogger, including the following stints at major security vendors. Amazingly some of my content is still online from both Avast, from 2020-2022 and  Kaspersky, from 2019-2021. Sadly, some of it has been erased from these sites:

  • RSA, from 2018-2020
  • HPE, from 2017-2019
  • iBoss, from 2016-2018
  • IBM, from 2015-2019, with an excellent site called SecurityIntelligence.com 

You can find a few selected pieces that I have resurrected on my blog if you want to take a deeper historical look.

Looking over this list, there is a lot that I am proud of and that much of this content has held up well. Speaking of corporate blogging, back in 2006 I wrote a piece for Computerworld about best practices for corporate bloggers, and revisited that topic in 2015. Both of those pieces have held up well too.

In addition to this work, over the past decade I have written for various editorial pubs that I either created (such as Inside.com’s email newsletter on security topics) or continue to contribute to, such as CSOonline, NetworkWorld (and other IDG/Foundry pubs) and for SiliconAngle in 2023.

I wrote a few pieces over the years about the lessons that I learned first-hand from web publishing, including this piece for Baseline magazine in 2008 (a Ziff print pub that I contributed to for many years) and more recent advice on this topic that I posted in 2014 on my own blog.

One story that I am particularly proud of was for the Internet Protocol Journal, a pub that I have written numerous stories. This one was about the genesis of the Interop Shownet and its history and role in the development of the internet. I describe my personal involvement with the show when I launched Network Computing magazine back in 1990, and interviewed some of the show’s early participants in creating and maintaining the show’s innovative network. Alas, last year saw the passing of Interop’s guiding light Dan Lynch, who was a giant among us all. 

I will leave you with some words about the current AI context. I have been writing, thinking, and using AI now for some time and see that in particular, cybersecurity stands at a crossroads with agentic AI, LLMs and chatbots. Never have we had such a powerful tool that can create reams of code in a blink of an eye, find and defuse threats, and be used so decisively and defensively. This has proved to be a huge force multiplier and productivity boon for security pros. But while these technologies are powerful, they aren’t dependable, and that is the conundrum. They can quickly spin stories that are fictional narratives, create code that has subtle flaws and ultimately do more harm than good by boosting phishing lures and building new forms of malware. This is the dark side that can undo these gifts. And that is the challenge at hand. 

Thanks for all your attention, comments, brickbats and kudos over the years. 

Dice (Strom archive)

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I began writing articles for their business intelligence SlashBI site in June 2012. Dice once owned Slashdot.

Here are links to my articles that can be found on Dice Insights.

Dice Security Talent Community

From 2012-2014, I was the editor of this sub-site for Dice.com, the job listings site. (It has since been taken down.) Dice enhanced its content with a series of topic-oriented discussions and resources that would benefit its job-seekers. I curated the security content and included recommended resources, added my voice to the discussions forums, and wrote and posted short news articles.

Tom’s Hardware (Strom archive)

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I ran the editorial operations of Tom’s Hardware during all of 2005. It is a huge collection of Web sites that covers ten different local language versions and has editors testing products in four different countries. While there I helped launch five new sites specializing in mobile products, gaming, news, and digital entertainment. You can read my thoughts on the 20th anniversary article here.

I now contribute the occasional freelance article to the site TomsITPro.com, here are links to my recently published work:

Here are some links to older stuff that you might be interested in:

Internet.com (Strom archive)

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Once upon a time I flipped a domain, selling to what has become Internet.com’s various related sites, now owned by QuinStreet, back in the go-go early 1990s. For many years, I wrote for their various Web properties such as eSecurity Planet, Datamation, and CIOupdate. Here are links to some of my articles:

  • Virtualization update, virtual firewalls and hybrid clouds (Datamation, 5/11)
  • 12 Greatest Tech innovations of all time (Datamation, 4/11)
  • What to look for with Hybrid clouds (Datamation, 12/10)
  • Virtualization update, new desktops and software (Datamation, 11/10)
  • Best Smartphones for Exchange (Datamation, 8/10)
  • Virtualization update (Datamation, 6/10)
  • 8 Whole disk encryption options (eSecurityPlanet, 5/10)
  • Managing your Windows 7 migration (CIOUpdate, 5/10)
  • New networking features in Windows Server 2008 R2 (eSecurityPlanet, 4/10)
  • How to choose a DLP provider (eSecurityPlanet, 4/10)
  • Top Five Essential iPhone Apps for IT folks (CIOUpdate, 4/10)
  • Five questions to answer before moving to VOIP (CIOUpdate, 3/10)
  • Three steps towards high availability virtual machines (Datamation, 3/10)
  • Which data deduplication solution is right for you? (CIOupdate, 3/10)
  • Online Backup Buying Guide (eSecurity Planet, 3/10)
  • Virtual Machines: Running Virtual XP in Windows 7 (Datamation, 2/10)
  • Using Alternative DNS Providers (eSecurityPlanet, 2/10)
  • Are Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Starter Kits Worth the Effort?(CIOUpdate, 2/10)
  • Protecting your laptop from theft (eSecurityPlanet, 1/10)
  • Virtual Servers Update (Datamation, 12/09)
  • Five Steps to Making Virtual Desktops a Reality (CIOupdate, 11/09)
  • 17 notably bad products from great companies (ITManagement, 9/09)
  • Enterprise collaboration products (CIOUpdate, 7/09)
  • Proudly We Fail: 25 Dead Tech Products (Datamation, 7/09)
  • New developments and issues with server virtualization (Datamation, 4/09)
  • Taking control with real-time business process monitoring (CIOUpdate, 2/09)
  • Why you need to outsource your test lab (CIOupdate, 1/09)
  • IT Manager’s Legal Guide: Data Handling and Security (Datamation, 9/08)
  • The olympics video explosion (CIOupdate, 8/08)
  • Pros and Cons of laptops with solid-state drives (ITManagement, 7/08)
  • Server Virtualization Update (Datamation, 4/08)
  • Five questions to ask your MSP (CIOupdate, 8/07)
  • Network Discovery tools (CIOupdate, 5/07)
  • Ten questions to ask before buying an UTM product (Datamation, 4/07)
  • Four ways of remote access (CIOupdate, 4/07)
  • Comparing the leading server virtualization products (Datamation, 2/07)
  • The many myths of endpoint security (Datamation, 12/06)
  • Payment systems for eCommerce (Internet Journal, 1/99)

Baseline Magazine (Strom archive)

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I was the Technology Editor for Ziff’s Baseline Magazine from 2008-2011 and wrote both columns as well as the TechKnow feature section in each month’s print edition. Alas, almost all of this work has been removed from their website.

Here are the links to my TechKnow feature stories that appeared in the print edition in 2008-2011:

I also wrote a series of more personal columns in 2008:

  • Dec 1: Point of Sale system integration issues
  • Nov 1: My own networking horror stories
  • Oct 1: My favorite peripherals of all time
  • Sept 1: Online backup strategies
  • June 24: Why Endpoint Security is Still Tough
  • June 16: Lessons learned from visiting Google
  • June 9: Five lessons learned from Web publishing
  • June 2: Beware of network printer hacks
  • May 27: Collaboration is still tough
  • May 20: How to manage telecommuters
  • May 13: 4GB: The next RAM barrier
  • May 6: How Open is the International Internet?
  • Apr 29: Management by fooling around
  • Apr 23: Buying XP shouldn’t be this hard
  • Apr 14: Failure Is An Option
  • Apr 7: Handling on-call telecom needs
  • Apr 2: The power of pi
  • Mar 24: A new kind of data center testing facility
  • Mar 17: How to remodel your data center
  • Mar 10: The benefits of applications streaming
  • Feb 27, Midwestern Innovation is Alive and Well
  • Feb 20, The Pros and Cons of Wireless Site Surveys
  • Feb 13, Making International Cell Calls on the Cheap
  • Feb 6, Ten steps towards wireless security
  • Jan 23, Lessons learned from viral video experts
  • Jan 16, Time for a browser audit
  • Jan 9, Lessons learned from the fax machine
  • Jan 2, A more open Microsoft

eWeek/PC Week/Informa archive

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I got my start in computer journalism back in 1986 when eWeek was called PC Week — I was part of the original launch team on its Connectivity section. Here is a short memorial to those early days. Here is my first bylined article for them on mainframe communications. And here is a description of how PC Week was my first breakout job. 

Here are articles from 1989 when we ran the first tests of different network topologies.

Here is a note about some of the people who I worked with when I was there and what they have accomplished since then.

Back then, PC Week was one of the flagship publications of Ziff Davis. Now it is part of Informa. Another stalwart was PC Magazine, I occasionally write stories for them. And Informa now owns the former CMP/UBM pubs.

During 2016, I wrote these stories for WindowsITpro, which is now called ITPro Today.

Here are links to eWeek Labs stories:

In 2006-8, I wrote a monthly column for eWeek’s Strategic Partner demographic about new technologies that the channel should keep an eye on. This content has been removed from the site.

  • May 2008: Time to talk about tablets
  • April 2008: Online backup for the channel
  • March 2008: Server repurposing comes to the channel
  • February 2008: Virtual processors
  • January 2008: Real-time presence-aware applications
  • December 2007: Virtual applications streaming
  • November 2007: The resurrection of JavaScript
  • September 2007: Towards better network applications intelligence
  • August 2007: Five Microsoft technologies to watch for the channel
  • July 20, 2007: How to sell IPTV
  • July 12, 2007: Microsoft extends its Lending Reach
  • July 11, 2007: SharePoint as your enterprise search app?
  • July 11, 2007: Microsoft partner dashboard announcement
  • June 25, 2007:Unified communications is the new frontier
  • June 6, 2007: Changes to the Linksys channel program
  • May 2007: Time is ripe for VARs to sell encryption
  • April 2007: Where’s the Remote? (Web-based remote control)
  • March 2007: Finding gold by using network discovery tools
  • February 2007: Prepackaged Linux SMB servers
  • December 2006: Selling managed SMB firewalls
  • November 2006: IM Profits for VARs
  • October 2006: The Asterisk VoIP ecosystem
  • September 2006: Selling online storage/backup
  • August 2006: Virtualization for VARs
  • July 2006:Getting a lock on endpoints for the channel.
  • June 2006: RFID the next old thing.
  • May 2006: VARs, Pay Attention to SaaS

In addition to these columns, I also contributed to an online community called ITLink. This also has been removed from the site.

During 2007-8, I interviewed various industry luminaries about channel and technology issues called the “Channel Chat” podcasts.

  • Mike Brunner, Wyse Technologies, Thin is in
  • Chander Kant, Zmanda, Open source data backups
  • Rich Bader, Easystreet Online Services, Building the Green Data Center
  • David Goodman, IT manager, Third-world IT support
  • Robert Packer, Presidio Networks, the challenges for selling to SMB customers
  • Gregg Kalman, Meru Networks,Enterprise Wireless Channels
  • David O’Berry, So. Carolina IT manager, on his predictions for 2008
  • Jake Player, TechTurn, making money from recycled PCs
  • Mike Adams,Lighthouse Computer Services, Picking the best storage vendor partners
  • Mark Damphouse, Trinet Systems, Selling converged VOIP solutions
  • Rob McKernan, APC, Power and cooling for the channel
  • Michael Baum, Splunk, Data navigation by the numbers
  • Wade Wyant, ITS, Selling Altiris managed desktop solutions
  • Bob Longo, Clearpointe, Data-less data center
  • Lane Smith, Do It Smarter, Selling managed services
  • Bernard Larouche, Symantec, Endpoint protection channel opportunities
  • Brian Gladstein, Bit9, Locking down your endpoints
  • TM Ravi, Mimosa Systems, Discovering email all over again
  • Neal Creighton, Ratepoint, Where your reputation preceeds you
  • Rich Bader, Easystreet, Managed data center services
  • John Powell, Virtela, Long distance carrier services
  • Mikki Sandorfi, Sepaton, Data protection and backup
  • Eran Farajan, Asigra, Managed backup services
  • Marc Osofsky, Optaros, Open Source meets SaaS
  • Vivek Khullar, DiVitas, The new breed of wireless VAR
  • Jason Crea, Sitecore, The evolution of software plus services
  • Chris Schwartzbauer, Shavlik Technologies, Four degrees of security VARs
  • Ari Tammam, Promisec, “The importance of regular security audits”
  • Deepak Thadani, Sysintegrators, “What VARs should know about firewalls”
  • Steve Harvey, Digium, “How to become a VOIP VAR”
  • John DiLullo, SonicWall, “Creating a Profitable Managed Services Offering”
  • Karen Hartsell, PGP Corp., “Pretty Good Partner”
  • Mark Eppley, “MobileMania”
  • David Goodman, “When VARs don’t add value”
  • Ann Revel-Pechar, “Can Resellers make online communities work?”

CMP/UBM/Informa/Techtarget (Strom archive)

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I have a long history with CMP Media, then called United Business Media, now Informa — having worked at four full-time editorial positions. In 2013-2014, I wrote for one of their blogs called Solution Providers for Retail, how the channel can help retail businesses with their technology needs. Sadly, the blog has been since retired.

Earlier, I wrote a few pieces for a blog of Dr. Dobbs called Develop in the Cloud, mostly on app dev topics; and others for Internet Evolution. Those posts are gone to the sands of time too.

A few years ago I wrote a series of freelance pieces for InformationWeek.com. Most of these are also gone.

  • Top disruptive techs for 2008 (1/3/08)
  • Top tips for securing your laptop (11/24/07)
  • Five networking pet peeves (7/9/07)
  • How to get started with Web 2.0 (6/4/07)
  • Six decisions to deploy endpoint security (4/24/07)
  • Microsoft Still Trying to Get Open Source (4/4/07)
  • The growing need for personal firewalls (3/24/07)
  • How To Protect Your Precious PC Data: From Physical Security To Encryption (2/10/07)
  • Five disruptive techs to watch in 2007 (1/2/07)
  • Group chat evolving into E-Mail 2.0 (12/7/06)
  • Web 2.0 makeover strategies (11/28/06)

My first position with CMP was the founding editor-in-chief to launch Network Computing magazine back in the summer of 1990 — good times. (Here is a guest column that I wrote in 2000 on the magazine’s 10th anniversary.) My most recent article was Freddie Mac cashes in on Web services (9/18/06), a case study on the financial services firm.

In the fall of 2004, I worked for the Electronics Group and help launch a series of Web sites aimed at electronics designers under the DesignLine.com label, and hired its first staff of site producers. Finally, I started doing freelance work for VAR Business in 2000, and worked full-time as their Technology Editor during 2002-2004. Here is a page of the highlights from that era. (Some of these links are outdated.)

In 2025, Informa merged with Techtarget. I have written for TechTarget’s various online and print properties almost since they first began operations in 2000.  A lot of my old content has been removed. Here you can quickly find everything that I have written for their various properties.

2018 articles

I wrote a series of sponsored white papers on ransomware that were posted in May.

2015 articles

  • Virtualization security tools defend across clouds (Search Security, 12/15)
  • Emerging security threats you are up against now (SearchSecurity, 10/15)
  • Managing hybrid cloud security (SearchSecurity, 9/15)  (3 articles)
  • Multifactor authentication: A buyer’s guide to MFA products (SearchSecurity, 5/15)
  • Six questions to ask your BYOD supplier (SearchSecurity 5/15)
  • The moving target defense and polymorphic security (SearchSecurity 5/15)
  • The new network edge (SearchSecurity, 5/15) and video slideshow
  • The evolution of security tokens (SearchSecurity, 3/15)
  • A closer look at ‘good enough’ security (SearchSecurity, 3/15)
  • Making single sign-on simple and secure (SearchSecurity, 3/15)

2014 articles

  • The fundamentals of MFA: Multifactor authentication in the enterprise (SearchSecurity, 10/14- 12/14)
  • Things to watch when buying UTM products (SearchSecurity, 6/14)
  • Cyberthreat intelligence is getting crowded (InfoSec Mag, 6/14)
  • Protecting mission critical data using disaster recovery (webinar for Modern Infrastructure University, 5/14, click DR, VMs heading, and then the title of the talk)
  • Figuring Out FIDO (articles and webinar, SearchSecurity and InfoSec Mag, 5/14)
  • The Changing Face of Advanced Malware Detection (SearchSecurity, 1/14)

2013 articles

  • UTM Screencast review (SearchSecurity, 12/13)
  • Enterprise password managers (SearchSecurity, 11/13)
  • Next-generation Firewalls Play by New Rules (article, webcast, supplemental article, 9/13)
  • The Hyperscale Data Center (Modern Infrastructure, 7/13)
  • Affordable disaster recovery in the cloud (Bitpipe, 5/13) (webinar)
  • Status report on 40 GB Ethernet (Modern Infrastructure, 1/13)

2012 articles

  • The promise of software defined networking (Modern Infrastructure, 11/12)

2011 articles

  • Preparing for a hybrid cloud move (SearchCloudComputing, 5/17/11)
  • Summer reading list for geeks (SearchEnterpriseDesktop, 6/25/11)
  • Shopping around for cloud computing services (SearchCloudComputing, 5/10/11)
  • Basics of Social Media in the Enterprise (SearchEnterpriseDesktop , 4/7/11)
  • How Cloud Computing Kills Clusters (SearchCloudComputing, 4/19/11)
  • Securing VMs in the Cloud (SearchCloudComputing, 4/4/11)
  • Does Microsoft Kinect have a role in the enterprise? (SearchEnterpriseDesktop, 1/26/11)
  • Virsto One for capacity management (SearchServerVirtualization, 1/11/11)
  • Connecting to remote servers in the cloud (SearchCloudComputing, 1/13/11)
  • Virtual machine management with Virsto One (SearchServerVirtualization, 1/11/11)
  • Virtual machine security: A look at HyTrust Appliance (SearchVMware, 1/11/11)

2010 articles

  • Top 10 best/worst desktop developments for SearchEnterpriseDesktop (12/10)
  • Twitter-like tools for behind the corporate firewall for SearchEnterpriseDesktop) (11/10)
  • New virtualization tools from Hytrust and Virsto for SearchServerVirtualiztion)
  • Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite update (10/10) for SearchSystemsChannel
  • Windows Intune review for SearchVirtualDesktop (10/10)
  • P2V Migration tools for SearchVirtualDesktop (9/10)
  • Blocking USB access for SearchEnterpriseDesktop.com (9/10)
  • Running IEv6 on a Windows 7 desktop for SearchVirtualDesktop.com (8/10)
  • Controlling Facebook apps across the enterprise for SearchEnterpriseDesktop.com (8/10)
  • Cloud AV products reviewed for SearchVirtualDesktop.com (6/10)
  • Seven considerations when evaluating GRC tools (7/10) for SearchFinancialSecurity.com
  • Understanding Windows 7 migration tools (5/10) for SearchEnterpriseDesktop.com
  • Sysinternals Process Monitor and Process Explorer (6/10) for SearchEnterprise Desktop.com

2007-9 articles

Earlier stories include 10 tips to protect your company in a down economy (2/09) which ran in Information Security magazine. (registration required). There is also a related webcast that was done in March that can be found here.

Here is a story on how to hire the best engineering talent for your Managed Service Provider that ran on SearchSecurityChannel.com. (9/07)

Product comparative reviews on SSL VPNs and UTM security appliances

I reviewed seven Unified Threat Management appliances for the June 2007 issue of Information Security magazine. (Here is the separate review of Secure Computing’s Sidewinder UTM box published in July 2007).

  • I also wrote a tip for SearchSecurity.com about what is involved in setting up unified threat management products from CheckPoint, Sonicwall, and Fortinet here.
  • I did this animated voice-over screencast that shows how to setup the Sonicwall UTM 5060 box.
  • And I also wrote a short piece on how the channel can sell UTM products and services for SearchSecurityChannel.com here.

My biggest effort in the fall of 2006 was a review of five SSL VPNs for Information Security magazine, including the first comparison to include Cisco’s ASA 5540 product. The other products include Aventail’s ST EX-2500, F5 Networks’ FirePass 4100, Juniper Networks’ Secure Access (SA) 6000 SP and Check Point Software Technologies’ Connectra NGX R61. Juniper comes out on top.

Endpoint Security
In early November 2006, I wrote a story for SearchNetworking about questions you can ask your endpoint vendor about health assessment technologies. I also wrote a tip for SearchSecurity.com on how to configure the F5 Firepass and Juniper SSL VPNs for handling endpoint health assessment that ran in January 2007.

Information Security magazine articles on the topic include:

  • NAC Tales (Sep 2008), case studies of four different businesses and how they did NAC
  • Tip on how to deploy Windows Server 2008 using NAP (Sep 2008)
  • The Sting (Nov 2007), looking into honeyclients
  • Log Wild (Oct 2007), about log management strategies, and a companion story illustrating log filtering using the NetIQ products on SearchSecurity.com
  • Which Way? (April 2006) and Who’s There (below, registration required).
  • Who’s there, (Jan 2007) more on figuring out the right endpoint security product
  • Fraud Busters, (Jan 2007) about the vendors that help implement better multi-factor authentication systems.

Webcasts and podcasts and speeches

I do a fair number of live seminars on a variety of topics. One is a webcast called Network Access Control: Lessons Learned From the Front Lines in September 2008.

I also did the webcast “The Wide World of NAC and Endpoint Security” in January 2007.

I was part of a three-city seminar series that TechTarget put on in September 2006 on endpoint security and advanced identity management.

And a webcast on logging and audit tools and techniques that came out in October 2007.