By separating critical components from one another, each computer resource can be upgraded on its own cadence without being coupled to the others.

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What frustrates computer-security experts is that the features that make the Internet such an invaluable resource -- its openness and interconnectedness -- also make it easier for hackers to do harm.

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Once the IT infrastructure is virtualized, firms have the foundation of a shared IT infrastructure of pooled computer, network, and storage resources to delivery capacity on demand and meet fluctuations in resource requirements.

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"PLM has been perceived as a big, expensive technology akin to an ERP-scale effort, " she says, referring to enterprise resource planning, another alphabet-soup software that tries to unite a company's operations on one computer system.

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