It has been reported that 6% of all PCs will suffer an episode of data loss in any given year*. On viewing these statistics it becomes clear that combating data loss should be a high priority for any business in today’s computer-reliant society.

There are several ways to tackle data loss, including disaster recovery plans, using reliable and tested technology and backing up information.

Clustering is when a group of two or more computers (sometimes called nodes) work together as one single system in order to provide high availability of services for users. When a failure occurs on one server in a cluster, resources are redirected and workload is redistributed to another networked server.

Clustering several servers makes both Linux web and database solutions many times more robust. The process is mostly undertaken by organisations that have mission-critical websites/applications and businesses that are very serious about their internet presence.

The Open Source MySQL database, which is now maintained by Sun Microsystems after Sun's acquisition, benefits from a performance boost and easier management following the update to version 5.1.

Many enterprises still rely heavily on mainframes, which makes it all the more difficult to get your hands on one and install Linux on it. The Hercules emulator gives you a full-fledged alternative.

Market researchers Gartner have just revealed that the world wide server market grew by 7.4 percent in 2007, leading to a 4 percent rise in turnover.

The attraction of a Linux software platform as a base for offering hosting services is obvious to anyone familiar with Linux. As open source software Linux applications offer the considerable benefits of quality, versatility, choice and always being up to date.

But with so many different Linux platforms to choose between, finding the right application for your needs is a potential minefield that must be successfully negotiated. Having carefully evaluated its own needs, UKFast selected Fedora Core as its Linux platform of choice. But why opt for Fedora?

A new version of the VirtualBox virtualization software has just been released: the major update 1.6.0 supports Solaris and Mac OS X as host systems.

Open Source software is likely to dominate the Software as a Service (SaaS) segment for reasons of economy and community building says market researcher Gartner: Open Source is cheap, and communities keep it popular.