Sometimes you wind up taking over a machine for which the root password has been lost. Here are a couple of solutions.

Reboot (hard reboot by pulling the power cable if rebooting requires the root password), and hit. Click here for the rest of the information.

It is Xens big week. On Monday, Citrix kicked off Synergy 2009 an event where virtualization, networking and application delivery meet. The conference is taking place in Las Vegas, and has no shortage of cloud and virtualization coverage.

Citrix also used this opportunity to unveil two new products for its Xen family: Citrix Dazzle and Citrix Receiver as well as a new version of XenServer, 5.5.

Both products are free to anyone using Citrix Delivery Center products like XenApp and XenDesktop, Wes Wasson, chief marketing officer, said at a press event opening the conference.

While the products themselves offer a host of new capabilities, even more interesting than the products themselves is the positioning and path Citrix is taking. Click here for the rest of the article.

When consultant McKinsey Co recently warned that cloud computing would cost you money rather help you than save it, IBM took the unusual step of responding.

IBM was not the company singled out in the report - it was Amazons fluffy Web Services. But IBM is working with Amazon to make its software available through the Elastic Compute Cloud.

IBM was clearly rattled. McKinsey is influential among the kinds of thinkers IBM likes to impress, and cloud is the latest take on what IBM does best - data center systems and big, complicated software. Click here for the rest of the article.

Motherboard and whitebox server maker Super Micro Computer has launched a rack-mounted server that’s based on Intel’s Atom processor.

This doesn’t mean that low-powered Atom and similar processors - like VIA Technologies’ Nano and C7 chips - are suddenly going to take over the data centers of the world. But as some vendors have argued - Microsoft being one and Rackable Systems being another - sometimes the most energy efficient thing to do is to use small servers with a modest amount of computing power and storage to match up against fairly modest workloads. Click here for the rest of the article.

This simple little rackmount lockbox can mount on any relay rack or server rack for quick access to the little things techs need on site. Box is 9 inches deep with a locking hinged door for security. Take a look at it by clicking here. I think you will like it! Helpful hint from Rackmount Ranger.

Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM are among nine companies IDC has recognized as meeting its Green Recycling and Asset Disposal for the Enterprise—or, G.R.A.D.E—certification. GE Capital, Redemtech, Intechra, Converge, Insight Enterprises and TechTurn complete the list.

The research company recognized that thousands of companies were involved in various aspects of the collection, treatment and marketing of retired IT assets, but that the young ITAD (IT asset disposal) industry needed a set of standards—particularly as enterprises, looking for third parties to help them phase out old hardware, face government regulations, fear of data breaches and environmental concerns. Click here for the rest of the article.

Hitachi Data Systems today announced the release of three new software products to provide enhanced monitoring of business applications, virtualized servers and the storage they use.

Hitachi said the products address a new market for the storage systems and software provider: a holistic view of everything that an enterprise uses to connect to its storage systems. The products will also work with competing vendors’ systems. Click here for the rest of the article.

McKinsey, the doyen of strategy consultants, published a report on cloud computing last week featuring a disguised real-world case study. While the report doesn’t explicitly state the fact, it seems that the paper is a summary of the results of a strategy project with a financial services firm, which apparently engaged McKinsey to assess whether it would make sense to move all of its systems to Amazon Web Services. Click here for the rest of the article.

The recent IT Roadmap conference in Chicago began with Jim and two other analysts on stage being asked questions by John Gallant. Given the current economic conditions, the question and answer session focused on cost savings. One of the questions posed to Jim was, “Should IT organizations be looking to implement virtualization as a means of saving money?” Jim’s answer was yes, but only if they realize the impact that virtualization has on the WAN, on management, and on application delivery. Click here for the rest of the article.

Brocade has extended an OEM relationship with IBM to include its recently acquired Foundry switches in a deal that appears to be in retaliation for Cisco’s recent entry into the blade server market.

IBM will rebrand and sell Brocade’s Foundry switches through its global sales force and authorized business partners. The switches include: Click here for the rest of the article.