ITEC

It shouldn't be a surprise that, in our increasingly mobile world, our work is finding its way onto our phones alongside our consumer content. As I wrote in this week's Editor's Corner, "Mobile Really Does Change Everything," there is a new cloud-based data connection. We expect to find our content wherever we are, regardless of the device.

Read More >>

As we outsource more and more to cloud services, those of us in IT will be reduced to pleading on the phone just like our users

Here's yet another reason cloud computing is not a new idea: For users, corporate computing has always been a cloud. Users have applications they rely on to do their jobs; they load data to crunch on; they interact digitally with coworkers, clients, and partners -- and all of it comes from this amorphous blob known as IT. Without this stuff, most of them would have nothing to do.

Read More >>

Open office layouts are all the rage these days. But is that how IT folks work best?

Consider the modern office layout: Open floor plan, lots of common space flooded with natural light, clusters of "pods" with low partitions (or none), all designed to encourage teamwork, boost productivity and -- management hopes -- improve the bottom line.

That type of office layout looks great on the company's Web site, and most likely the creative team loves it, but does IT? After all, many high-tech employees prefer to work in solitude, or at least in an environment quiet enough to foster intense concentration for significant chunks of time. Are these trendy open office layouts torture to the techie brain?

Read More >>

Securing Mobile Devices & Preventing Malware Are Paramount To Protecting The Enterprise

Key Points

• Mobile devices will come to the forefront of security, as more people use them to manage business contacts and information.
• The FISMA 2.0 regulations that pertain to how federal agencies manage security are likely to influence changes to the private sector.
• Malware and viruses will continue to be big threats to SMEs, especially as malware breaks through virtualization technologies.

Security is always a fast-moving area for trends, and the coming year should be no exception. From mobile device lockdowns to social media concerns, 2011 is likely to be rife with security challenges and opportunities. Here’s a look at what SMEs might see.

Read More >>

Follow these 7 tips to protect your IT assets -- and essential company data -- from a service provider breakup gone bad

Sure, hooking up with a new IT service provider is all cigars and handshakes at first. Promises are made and stars glimmer in your eyes as you sign the contract. The future looks bright.

Then things start to go south. Carefully negotiated deadlines are ignored. Expensive custom apps you paid dearly to be developed suddenly don't work, and your cloud vendor comes down with a case of the vapors. The thrill is gone and it ain't coming back.

Before you make a clean break and start fresh with someone new, consider this cautionary tale of a small biotech firm in the Rocky Mountains that decided to dump its IT consultant. When the consultant got wind he was about to be canned, he installed a script that automatically blind-copied him on all emails to and from the company's top executives. He quickly discovered that the firm's lead scientist was having an affair. On the day the consultant was to be fired, he zipped up 500 racy emails and, using another executive's account, forwarded them to the scientist's wife.

Read More >>

It's time to start thinking about how you can emerge as a change leader in your enterprise. Your ability to offer several ways to deliver on enterprise transformation goals could boost not only your own career, but also the livelihoods of your team members.

CIOs are positioned to play an integral role in corporate strategies as enterprises develop plans to emerge from the Great Recession. The key is knowing how to accomplish transformational change that fulfills the strategy of your CEO and fellow C-suite executives while keeping the business running. It's time to start thinking about how you can emerge as a change leader in your enterprise. Your ability to offer several ways to deliver on enterprise transformation goals could boost not only your own career, but also the livelihoods of your team members. Market research firm Gartner recently the CIO Advisory: Top 10 Questions You Need to Ask When You Are in the Midst of a Strategic Change.

Read More >>

Large vendors have been ramping up the rhetoric surrounding the virtue of end-to-end systems, but analysts at Gartner argue that multi-vendor networks not only reduce costs but simplify operations, writes NetworkWorld's Jim Duffy. 

Gartner makes its case in a report that takes particular issue with Cisco's (NASDAQ: CSCO) single vendor network claims. "[A]fter interviewing various organizations that have introduced a second vendor into their Cisco infrastructures, it is clear that in most cases today there is no financial, operational or functional basis for this argument," write analysts Mark Fabbi and Debra Curtis. "The reality is that a single-vendor Cisco network isn't necessarily less complex, easier to manage or more reliable than a network with multiple vendors when implemented with best practices."

Read More >>

Virtualization & The Cloud Will Continue To Reshape The Storage Landscape

Key Points

• Experts anticipate a rise in storage virtualization as data centers focus increasingly on TCO, rather than capital expenses.
• The coming year will breathe new life into information lifecycle management as companies look to reduce their budgets through changes to storage and archiving.
• Cloud storage will continue its rise in popularity, as will hybrid clouds and private clouds that help enterprises to ease their transition to the cloud as a whole.

Thanks to innovations in virtualization and the cloud, the IT storage landscape has morphed wildly over the past few years. Organizations now have the power and flexibility to store data to suit not only their budgets and equipment, but also the mobility of their employees and customers. These technologies and others made great headway over the past year and should continue to transform technology in 2011, according to experts.

Read More >>

Mobility, Money & Moves Monopolize The Headlines In An Exciting Year

Even as clouds continue to hover over the country as the remnants of a bitter economy refuse to leave, 2010 left enterprise IT in surprisingly good shape, thanks in part to a strong push by the mobility segment to boost communication and computing flexibility in businesses of every size. But although 2010 will undoubtedly serve as a landmark for mobile evolution, rumblings spawned by the down economy continued to keep IT organizations on their toes to the very end of the calendar year.

Key Points

• The Apple iPad signaled the tablet computer’s arrival as not only an enterprise staple, but also as a sign that workers will increasingly demand anywhere, anytime access.
• Enterprise IT spending saw modest increases in 2010 but remained significantly lower than what analysts had predicted at the end of 2009.
• Facebook’s plans for a $450 million data center raised eyebrows among IT observers who see other companies shrinking their own data centers.

Read More >>

Many times management of the IT lifecycle can be overlooked, leading to a large quantity of workstations and servers requiring replacement.  Unfortunately, it's common that all of these systems need to be replaced at the same time, causing an undue strain on the IT budget and many times causing organizations to cut corners.

Read More >>