August 31, 2010
Paying the Cloud Computing Tab
As we move toward this whole notion of paying for IT as a service, one of the things that most IT organizations are overlooking is exactly how the billing process will be handled. Many IT service pro... More >
IT and the Lost Data Analytics Opportunity
For all the potential that data analytics can offer, one of the biggest challenges facing most IT organizations is getting business users to understand these tools' real value. In fact, a new survey ... More >
August 30, 2010
CA Technologies Buys into Cloud Authentication
If CA Technologies has its way, hardware-based authentication technologies soon will be heading for extinction. CA Technologies today acquired Arcot Systems, a provider of a software-only approach ... More >
Turning the Key to Private Cloud Computing
In building private cloud computing platforms, most IT organizations lack the ability to effectively use the infrastructure at hand. That’s why, if they can afford it, many IT organizations are think... More >
August 27, 2010
Log Management Comes to the Cloud
Managing logs is essentially the digital equivalent of taking of the trash. Nobody wants to do it, but if it doesn’t get done all kinds of stinky things can happen. Now as part of moving applications... More >
The Virtualization Paradox
IT organizations can save money on hardware by deploying virtual machine software. But managing virtual machine software can be complex. And a shortage of IT professionals skilled in virtualization... More >
August 26, 2010
CSC Pushes Cisco Cloud Agenda
CSC today announced an extended alliance with Cisco and EMC under which the IT services firm will be touting the Cisco Unified Computing System and VBlocks as the ideal “purpose-built” platform for... More >
The Need for Speed with Big Data
With the advent of data management frameworks such as Hadoop, there’s has been a general recognition that SQL databases will not be able to serve all out data needs going forward. Data sets approac... More >
August 25, 2010
Do Not As IT Does
Somewhere along the line, most companies have the impression that when it comes to security and compliance, the IT organizations should be setting an example for the rest of the company. That’s why ... More >
The Coming War over the Help Desk
There’s a war coming for control over the help desk in large corporate environments. At most of them, there are two groups of IT professional providing help-desk service. The first is the traditional... More >
August 24, 2010
With Morally Challenged Employees Like These ...
IT folks tend to assume that most company employees are not morally challenged. However, SailPoint, a provider of data governance tools, recently commissioned Harris Interactive to poll 1.548 worker... More >
Making the Leap to Private Cloud Computing
Given all the complexities associated with managing a cloud computing environment, many internal IT organizations will need a little extra help. The core issue is that most IT organizations don’t app... More >
August 23, 2010
No Process Equals No Security
When it comes to security, there’s a natural tendency to think in terms of technology. But in reality, a lack of security has more to do with the absence of processes to ensure that we have security ... More >
Acquiring Marketing Intelligence
Although some cynics would argue there is no such thing as intelligence when it comes to marketing, the folks at myDIALS would beg to differ. MyDIALS today launched myDIALS Performance Module for Ma... More >
August 20, 2010
Putting an End to Digital Dumpster Diving
Looking for a particular file or a set of files related to a particular topic, such as in e-discovery, is one of the most time-consuming and thankless tasks in IT. Users tend to think everything is a... More >
Rolling Your Own Social Network
There has been a fundamental shift away from e-mail in favor of social networks where people can more readily communicate with groups of their peers. While this trend advances collaboration, it creat... More >
August 19, 2010
The Trouble with IT Isn't Really IT
The trouble with IT has very little to do with information technology and everything to do with the process chaos that's rampant in business. According to Doug Mow, senior vice president of marketing... More >
SAP Bares Sybase Plan
SAP and its Sybase business unit promised today that customers will see the first fruits of this acquisition within the next nine months. The centerpiece of that effort will be the integration of t... More >
August 18, 2010
At What Price Cloud Computing?
No matter which public cloud computing service you use, there are a lot of ongoing fees related to processor usage and network bandwidth. For a relatively stable application workload, those fees ove... More >
August 17, 2010
How Desktop Virtualization Will Upend PC Vendors in the Enterprise
The whole movement toward end users buying their own devices for use in the enterprise so far is still pretty nascent. But desktop virtualization will not only make it standard practice, it will di... More >
A New Era in Mobile Device Management
As carriers such as AT&T move to eliminate unlimited data plans, suddenly it becomes more important to be able to control data consumption. Everyone has heard the horror story about the executi... More >
August 16, 2010
How Forums and Social Networks Poison Search Results
There’s an increasingly insidious approach to driving up the rankings of search results of Web pages poisoned by malware. According to Chris Larsen, a security expert with Blue Coat Systems, s... More >
IBM Launches Social Network for Data Governance
When it comes to data governance, the IT department sometimes comes across as the lone digital voice in the wind . IBM wants to change that with the launch of what the company is describing as the ... More >
August 13, 2010
IBM Acquisition Heralds Age of Marketing as a Science
IBM today announced that it is spending $480 million to acquire Unica , a company that specializes in providing software that manages marketing campaigns. According to Craig Hayman, IBM general mana... More >
Stormy Weather in the Age of Cloud Computing
It’s that time of year again when the predictions concerning the number of potential hurricanes and tropical storms start to circulate again. This year the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra... More >
August 12, 2010
Inside the Cloud Computing Platform Wars
Traditional hosting providers are getting a lot more serious about competing for every cloud computing dollar. This week, for example, Rackspace announced the general availability of its cloud comput... More >
A Brand New Day for Adobe
Without little fanfare, Adobe Systems has signaled a strategic shift in direction with the acquisition of Day Software, a company based in Switzerland that makes a Web content-management system. &n... More >
August 11, 2010
Making Hadoop Accessible via Open Source BI
While the interest in Hadoop and other approaches to managing “Big Data” is growing rapidly, one of the challenges facing IT organizations is how to make the information stored in these systems a... More >
Accelerating 'Supplier Darwinism' via the Cloud
Just about any collaboration application that spans multiple companies is more than likely a good candidate for the cloud. So it's not surprising that supply chain management software is moving int... More >
August 10, 2010
Enterprise App Stores Open in the Cloud
One of the more compelling visions of how cloud computing will evolve will be the emergence of a raft of self-service applications that users will access through a corporate portal. The enterprise eq... More >
How Cloud Computing Will Transform Accounting
General ledger applications specifically and accounting in general are as staid as it gets when it comes to enterprise computing. But as cloud computing evolves, it’s also transforming accounting. In... More >
August 9, 2010
Using the Cloud to Simplify E-mail Storage
Just about every IT organization is wrestling to some degree with e-mail storage. Because e-mail has become so central to business communications, just about everything in the e-mail system has to be... More >
Heading Off Mobile Computing Chaos
Though the economy has helped IT organizations keep a lid on the explosion of mobile computing platforms to a degree, it’s only a matter of time before the number of devices they need to support will... More >
August 6, 2010
How Much Will HP Hurt Without Hurd?
Regardless of the circumstances of the departure of Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd , there is no doubt that HP is a better company in the wake of his five-year tenure. There’s no question that HP was... More >
Salespeople Are Marching Apple iPads into the Enterprise
The Apple iPad is finding its way into the enterprise thanks largely to salespeople who want to leverage the device’s larger screen to make presentations and access enterprise applications on the roa... More >
HP Trains a Spotlight on Security Laggards
Vendors that fail to fix security issues that have been identified by the TippingPoint security unit of HP within six months are about to get a whole lot less comfortable. HP says that as part of its... More >
August 5, 2010
Identity Management Shifts Toward the Cloud
As cloud computing evolves, access control is already becoming a major issue. In fact, when you ask IT organizations what their major issue is with cloud computing, some form of security is always a... More >
Changing the Psychology of IT in the Era of the Cloud
Most therapists will tell you that unless the patient is committed to change, no amount of therapy is going to make any substantial difference in their lives. Right now, IT organizations are confront... More >
August 4, 2010
How IT Can Drive Productivity
One of the biggest problems with applications is that each of them is so isolated. Of course, we’re so used to dealing with this issue that most of us don’t think about it. But because every applicat... More >
The Trouble with Backup and Recovery
When it comes to backup and recovery, the issue isn’t the amount of data that needs to be managed but rather a general lack of policies and procedures to deal with it. In fact, the main culprit, acco... More >
August 3, 2010
Coping with the Coming Analytics Shortage
When it comes to analytics the limiting factor is not the software, but rather the shortage of skilled people required to make sense of the data . As is often the case when demand for a parti... More >
Thinking About a Data Analytics Revolution
One of the things that has limited statistical analysis specifically and business intelligence in general has been the cost of the software. In the last couple of years, however, academic institution... More >
August 2, 2010
Making the Case for Lean Integration
One of the biggest challenges that any IT organization is going to face is that the weight of the middleware architecture being used to manage the integration of the data eventually kills the perform... More >
Simplifying Business Transaction Management
IT organizations have traditionally been taught to manage things in the context of silos such as storage, databases or specific applications. So when the business asks the IT organization to manage t... More >
