Bloggers

The Cloud: Tailor-made for Unstructured Data?

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:04:46 GMT

Arthur Cole writes "...structured data from databases and other applications is growing as well, but it is the relentless growth of emails, tweets, texts and the like that keeps CIOs up at night. According to IDC, more than 80 percent of enterprise data is unstructured, and it's increasing at a rate of about 60 percent a year. And to make matters worse, less than 5 percent is accessed on a regular basis. The cloud, then, is the proverbial knight in shining armor as it..." more

Smart Managers are Prepared for Cross-Cultural Collaboration

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:30:24 GMT

HBR writes "[by Amy Gallo]...In today's globalized world, it is essential to know how to collaborate with people from different cultures. While this used to be the case primarily for country managers and those taking on overseas assignments, it now applies to all managers. But exactly how does one learn to become a better global collaborator? What the Experts Say..." more

Business Continuity Management Moves to the Cloud

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:18:35 GMT

Business Finance writes "[by Eric Krell]...This cloud-storage offering has made my working life so much more secure – in a highly convenient way –that this cloud tool has become a daily business process tool for me – rather than a monthly risk-management measure...when I see cloud positioned as a business continuity management (BCM) and disaster recovery tool, I have two responses: A) “Well, of course;” and B) “Can companies that use a cloud approach in a BCM program apply the approach to improving other business processes..." more

CIO at H&R Block Shifts from PCs to Virtualized Thin Clients

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:12:45 GMT

CIO writes "[by Kim S Nash]...“Typical of any mature company, the competitive landscape is tough. You’re continually looking at ways to optimize,” says Rich Agar, CIO at H&R Block. By cutting costs, the company can lower its prices and compete more effectively, he says. The company has spent $15 million to $20 million a year on PCs with a lifecycle of three to four years...Two years into the project, which is expected to last four to five years, Agar says he wishes he could move faster. He has deployed 10,000..." more

Successful Project Management Strategies

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:10:44 GMT

CIO writes "[by Rick Swanborg]...Behind every winning CIO 100 project, there’s a successful management strategy. This year’s winners offer a few techniques that should be in every IT executive’s bag of tricks. Here are five worth noting..." more

Ready for Growth, Firms Think Hard About Filling Capability Gaps

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:38:15 GMT

Rita McGrath writes "...After years of taking a back seat to survival skills, growth is back on the agenda in a big way. All the responding companies reported that growth is either explicitly or implicitly part of their strategies, a big shift from large organizations' attitudes in the downturn. Most reported that growth is even more important for them now than it was before the downturn, and that their companies are willing to take some risks to make it happen. So, they're looking to get..." more

Why IT Outsourcing Deals Aren't What They Used To Be

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:30:37 GMT

CIO writes "[by Stephanie Overby]...IT outsourcing deals are getting smaller, particularly in the U.S., as companies are loath to invest the big bucks required for large contracts, according to research by outsourcing consultancy TPI. But that's not the only reason..." more

Procter and Gamble Minimizes Management Meddling

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:03:44 GMT

HBR writes "[by Michael Schrage]...the view from the top is that while technology may generate a demand for more leadership throughout the company, it doesn't require more executives. But the insight that technology should drive downsizing at the top deserves special emphasis... P&G is so concerned about micomanagerial meddling that it's delayering from top to bottom. It sees micromanagement as..." more

The Insider Threat - What Can Organizations Do?

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 17:51:08 GMT

Security_Bloggers_Network writes "[by Rob Rachwald]...They use their access privileges to rightfully create copies of the information as they process it for their daily tasks. Upon leaving the organization, many individuals do not care to remove copies of sensitive information, and in some cases even develop a sense of personal ownership towards it. What should organizations do to prevent this data getting out of control? [1] Enforce strict access controls over critical data. This access control should be..." more

Lawyers in the Cloud Look at Reasonable Care of Data

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:42:16 GMT

Michael Overly writes "...The question, of course, is “what constitutes reasonable care?” For example, if a cloud provider has a good record of security and has a great SAS 70 Type II audit report, but specifically disclaims any liability for security breaches and offers only minimal confidentiality protection, is this good enough to satisfy the “reasonable care” requirement? No one knows. What is clear is that..." more

CIOs Encourage Business to Prioritize the IT Organization's Work

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:39:45 GMT

Michael Krigsman writes "...IT continues to struggle for relationship and relevance among senior business leaders, which undermines CIOs’ ability to create successful IT programs and initiatives...This study demonstrates that IT does understand fundamental drivers of project success and failure; however..." more

Life Science Computing Experiences Pain of Storage Growth

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:36:15 GMT

John Halamka writes "...Jacob Farmer, the CTO of Cambridge Computer and an industry recognized expert on storage, recently shared with me his draft whitepaper which highlights the life sciences as experiencing the pain of storage growth more than any other industry. Here's his very thoughtful observation..." more

Cloud Infrastructure Addresses Critical Green IT Elements

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:33:59 GMT

GreenBiz writes "[by Christopher Mines]...Cloud computing has arrived, big time. Forrester estimates that worldwide spending on public cloud computing services will grow from $25.5 billion in 2011 to $160 billion in 2020, a 22 percent annual growth rate. Businesses are increasingly substituting cloud-based for internal resources to capture benefits like..." more

Eight Steps for Addressing the IT Management Crisis

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:30:33 GMT

Dan Woods writes "...How can CIOs handle that explosion of new capabilities in almost every dimension of the computing environment? Even though we are just at the beginning of a new business-focused, user-controlled era of IT, there are some principles that will characterize what IT is going to become...I propose the following eight steps for creating the awareness and flexibility that will help over come the crisis in IT Management..." more

Enterprises Need a Governance Strategy on Social Media Created Content

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 23:49:21 GMT

Business Finance writes "[by Alan Radding...According to leading research Gartner: by the end of 2013, half of all companies will have been asked to produce material from social media websites for e-discovery.” That means enterprises need an information risk management governance strategy that specifically includes content created on social media. The Symantec poll revealed that social media is pervasive within..." more

Read and Recommended: Brook's Newest Book

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 17:17:11 GMT

HBR writes "[by Tony Schwartz]...I've read Brooks' op-ed columns...for years, but it was only with this book that I understood what sets him apart from his journalistic colleagues. It's his unwavering willingness to grapple with issues rather than simply pontificate about them; to embrace nuance, ambiguity and paradox rather than choosing up sides; and to be forever open to learning and to being changed by what he learns.What Brooks lays...is a path to a more meaningful life — one that balances action with introspection, confidence with restraint..." more

How to Set Green Goals by Learning from Industry Leaders

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 17:08:08 GMT

GreenBiz writes "[by Leslie Guevarra]...What's the difference between a good green goal and a great one? Are more goals better than a few -- or are they simply more? And how do your company's goals stack up against others in your industry?...In addition to presenting findings in short narratives and charts, the reports list the environmental sustainability goals for each company studied. "You can read at a glance the maturity of a company based on the types of goals..." more

CIOs Balance Change and Control over the Computing Environment

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:59:14 GMT

Dan Woods writes "...In every dimension, CIOs are facing an increased pace of change at the same time they are losing control over the computing environment...The first way that IT is spinning out of control falls under the umbrella of the consumerization of IT. End-users and departments are choosing their own devices, selecting and using Software as a Service applications and other cloud resources, and generally doing end-arounds to bypass the IT function whenever they feel like it. The IT monopoly has ended but..." more

CIOs are Up Against Convergent Data as well as 'Big Data'

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:49:37 GMT

Center for CIO Leadership writes "[by Olga Botero]...There has been a lot of talk and discussions lately about big data, huge amounts of data coming out of social media and we all have been asked if we have figured it out as CIOs. But what about convergent data? Data that comes in the form of text, voice, video and photos? Until now, most of us have seen different types of data, independently...How can we do the analytics to systematically analyze convergent data as inter-related sources..." more

Peeling Apart the New FDA Mobile Medical Applications NPRM

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 22:10:35 GMT

John Halamka writes "...Many people may not realize that a simple computer system of any type that runs software used to analyze clinical data to advise a healthcare professional can, in certain circumstances, be a regulated medical device. So an app that doesn’t run any hardware other that the mobile platform itself can be regulated...large group of individuals involved in the mobile health space will be congregating at..." more

The Biggest IT Security Mistakes in the Era of Virtualization and Mobile

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 22:06:28 GMT

CIO writes "[by Ellen Messsmer]...to get the job done in the era of virtualization, smartphones and cloud computing, you've got to avoid technical and political mistakes. In particular, here are five security mistakes to avoid..." more

The Cost of Restoring and Rebooting Authentic Prosperity

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 21:57:29 GMT

Umair Haque writes "...the point is that the "debt" we owe...is bigger than we think...Astute readers will note that while the gross public debt of the US is near 100% of GDP, the total debt — composed of bank, business, and household debt, roughly — clocks in north of 300% of GDP. Rather than just adding up the debt of..." more

How Can a Company Manage Carbon Regulations and Continue to Grow?

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 21:39:31 GMT

GreenBiz writes "[by Mark C Coleman]...Some states and leading companies have taken preemptive steps on these issues, yet others find themselves...Corporations can establish growth strategies that yield business results and social and environmental benefits using the following core business strategies and tools:..." more

Five Tips for Coping with Business Uncertainty and Finding Opportunity

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:34:03 GMT

Rosabeth Moss Kanter writes "...Waiting for decisions that provide a direction, any direction, can be paralyzing. Motivating people to try something new, or to get on with innovation, is tough when the rules of the game are up in the air. Uncertainty is one of the primary reasons that people resist change..that doesn't mean all the action must stop. Here are five tips for managing under uncertainty..." more

Harnessing Mobility to Transform Business

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:25:26 GMT

Peter Hind writes "...The Freeform study asked CIOs to identify where they thought security needed to be enhanced in mobility. Top of the list was a call for better security to be built in to the devices. This includes features such as stronger access control and data encryption capabilities....perhaps the biggest issue about security is...having to handle both a personal and business device is likely to lead to a fragmentation of data between the various pieces of equipment making it harder to locate vital information. As such, they argue..." more

Corporate Social Responsibility Increases Access to Finance

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:07:32 GMT

HBS Working Knowledge writes "[by Beiting Cheng, Ioannis Ioannou, George Serafeim]...Corporate social responsibility may benefit society, but does it benefit the corporation? Indeed it does, according to a new study that shows how CSR can make it easier for firms to secure financing for new projects. Research was conducted by George Serafeim and Beiting Cheng of Harvard Business School and Ioannis Ioannou of the London Business School. Key concepts include..." more

IT Outsourcing: How Offshoring Can Kill Innovation

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:57:06 GMT

CIO writes "[by Stephanie Overby]...Harvard Business School professors David Pisano and Willy Shih argue that overzealous offshore outsourcing can cripple a company's ability to innovate. Pisano and Shih discuss what CIOs can learn from the manufacturing sector about how 'not' to approach offshore outsourcing..." more

Report Finds Mergers & Acquisitions Risks are Higher in Boom Times

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:55:35 GMT

Business Finance writes "[by Eric Krell]...KPMG study finds that deals completed during the recession were more likely to create value than deals that take place during economic boom years. This suggests that CFOs, CEOs and other top decision-makers are sharper when evaluating M&A opportunities during down economies...The report highlights several areas in need of improvement along with some neat ah-has, including the following:..." more

Big Data Requires a Big, New Architecture

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:30:34 GMT

Dan Woods writes "...IT will need to construct a new way of capturing, organizing and analyzing data, because big data stands no chance of being useful if people attempt to process it using the traditional mechanisms of business intelligence, such as a data warehouses and traditional data-analysis techniques...Today, we’re going to speculate a bit about what that new architecture might look like, based on a variety of ideas that have come to us in the research we’ve been..." more

Aerospace Supply Chains are now Stressed

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:47:36 GMT

Bob Ferrari writes "...Total upstream and downstream supply chain visibility is essential in an environment that has coordinated or synchronized scheduling. That includes visibility among all suppliers to OEM production schedules and early warning...More emphasis will be required in response management and business intelligence capabilities...The Japan earthquake and tsunami was our wake-up call to the reality that any single-sourced component, compound or material can affect the entire..." more

Networking: The New Data Center Boss

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:48:03 GMT

Arthur Cole writes "...The changes taking place in the data center are starting to affect the strategic thinking in boardrooms across the enterprise vendor community. In short, servers and, to a lesser extent, storage are out and networking is in. This is part of the fundamental shift in data handling that virtualization and the cloud have wrought. In an age where processing and storage capacity are..." more

Map Models the Sheer Scale of U.S Economy

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:35:02 GMT

The Atlantic Cities writes "...The above map highlights some of the U.S.’s largest metropolitan areas, comparing their Gross Metropolitan Products to the nearest Gross Domestic Product equivalents of countries. If nothing else, it provides an insight into the sheer scale of the U.S. economy, even when it is in crisis...37 of the world’s 100 largest economies are U.S. metros. Here are the key takeaways:..." more

SMB Companies Pressured to deal with Identity Management Issues

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:42:18 GMT

Mike Vizard writes "...it seems like small-to-medium businesses are being confronted by yet another regulation. While generally well intended, these regulations tend to put a lot of stress on the internal IT department in terms of compliance. What IT organizations need is a relatively simple way of coming into compliance with a broad swath of regulations all at one time...IT organizations need to quickly come into compliance in way that doesn’t require them to..." more

Outsourcing Slumps in the Second Quarter

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 17:39:17 GMT

CIO writes "[by John Ribeiro]...Outsourcing declined worldwide by 18 percent to US$16.4 billion in the second quarter because of weak demand in the Americas and an overall drop in the number of large contracts awarded...there is no indication that the Americas will return to the "glory days" of outsourcing...In contrast, growth in EMEA and Asia-Pacific will..." more

Some Social Media is Toxic to Productivity

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 17:35:07 GMT

Bob Warfield writes "...some forms of Social Media are toxic for productivity, and some are not. Let’s try listing a few in each category and see if we can discern any patterns:...Forums with a productive purpose or focus are far more likely to be an aid to productivity than say a Twitter stream. Why? Because the forum is like the meeting that’s gotten started. It has moved from random chit chat to..." more

Businesses More Concerned with Reputation than Data Breach Fines

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 19:32:28 GMT

Tony Bradley writes "...survey states explains that seven in ten respondents cite the need to "protect the brand" as the primary drive for tighter information security and data protection measures. "Only 26 percent said avoiding fines resulting from non-compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) were the key motivator."..." more

Beware the Cloud Programmer

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:43:52 GMT

Lori MacVittie writes "...The core functions that deliver applications are still the same...but the interfaces and increasingly the interconnects are rapidly evolving. They’re becoming more complicated...Most server admins and network operators do not have the development-oriented skills necessary to integrate systems in a way that promotes the loosely coupled, service-oriented collaboration necessary to fully liberate a data center and shift the operational management burden from people to technology...Conversely, the developers..." more

Don't Confuse Extroversion with Innovation

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:32:42 GMT

HBR writes "[by Polly LaBarre]..."Most people make innovation a contact sport," says Lavoie. "Which automatically leaves out the introverts. In our old company when you had a good idea you had to go up in front of what we called the 'murder board.'"...gives nascent ideas room to breathe and takes them out of "the managerial disapproval loop." He says, "the best thing for an idea is air and the more air you give it and the more people that breathe that idea, the better..." more

Study on Cloud Computing - IT Solution for the 21st Century

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:16:08 GMT

GreenBiz writes "...This report shows that business use of cloud computing can play an important role in an organization's sustainability and IT strategies: improving business process efficiency and flexibility whilst decreasing the emissions of IT operations. This study used detailed case study evidence from 11 global firms and assessed the financial benefits and potential carbon reductions..." more

The Key to Virtualization's Ability to Deliver Savings

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:03:03 GMT

Business Finance writes "[by Alan Radding]...A recent survey...on the state of IT automation, suggests that virtualization is not delivering the benefits managers were led to expect. The survey of 460 decision-makers from midsize and large enterprises found more than 60% are disappointed in virtualization’s ability to deliver savings. But the survey also pointed to the solution..." more

Enterprise Risk Management is Evolving into a Valued Business Practice

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:09:11 GMT

Business Finance writes "[by John A Wheeler]...More companies are beginning to realize the value of Enterprise Risk Management (“ERM”) as a discipline that can propel a business forward rather than hold it back....As more board members and senior executives become acquainted with the usefulness of a well-designed ERM program, the discipline will become a “must have” for companies looking to compete in the new economy..." more

Governance is Key to Aligning Priorities and Resources

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:44:28 GMT

John Halamka writes "As healthcare CIO's plan for FY12, they all have the triple threat of Meaningful Use, 5010, and ICD-10. On top of that, they'll be asked to lead innovative efforts supporting healthcare reform/patient centered medical homes/accountable care organizations. In times of great change, governance is absolutely key to align priorities and resources. Here are the projects that have been discussed in my leadership and governance committees..." more

Competitive and Market Pressures Uncover Business Problems, Trust and Values

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 20:23:19 GMT

Irving Wladawsky-Berger writes "...Solid financials are necessary but not sufficient. In order to do well in good times and survive the bad times that it will inevitably encounter, a company also needs the trust and respect of the communities in which it operates, - what is increasingly being referred to as reputation...To keep a company ethical and clean is the responsibility of top management..." more

Meet the Challenge of Consumerization by Managing Applications Instead of Clients

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 20:16:46 GMT

Lori MacVittie writes "...most of our policies focus on controlling access from users, devices and locations instead of controlling access to application and data resources. The difference may appear subtle on the surface, but when applied to operational implementation and long-term management, such a change in perspective proves to be the proverbial magic wand that..." more

To Monetize Social Media, Humanize It

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:57:58 GMT

HBR writes "[by Amy Jo Martin]...The executives' skepticism seems to be rooted in the remarkably persistent idea that social media somehow is not worth their time...their position is not only foolish, but also irresponsible...companies can monetize social media, but they have to stop thinking about it as a way to market products and start thinking about it as a way to communicate and build a brand...You start by avoiding these three common misconceptions..." more

Know How to Cooperate with Competitiors: Stay on an Honorable Course

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:45:46 GMT

Rosabeth Moss Kanter writes "...the best investment anyone can make at any career stage is to behave honorably and make friends. Graciousness, even in victory, goes a long way to make people want to help rather than trash when problems emerge. Integrity in all dealings means taking the interests of other parties taken into account...rather than short-term greed or sensationalism. Anything for a deal or anything for an advantage is just as bad as..." more

Outgoing Federal CIO Parting Thoughts on Fed IT

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:21:18 GMT

CIO writes "[by Patrick Thibodeau]...Kundra said the reason the federal system "defied logic" is partly due to how funding is allocated. There isn't a single committee in Congress devoted to technology, a committee "that's thinking about these issues horizontally," he said. The funding is appropriated bureau by bureau, said Kundra. The government today has 12,000 major systems. Kundra said he has urged consolidation, and cited..." more

How Desktop Virtualization Can Help IT Manage Consumer Devices

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:02:52 GMT

CIO writes "[by Kevin Fogarty]...Desktop virtualization holds great promise for helping IT departments address the consumerization of IT, but some implementations can be expensive. Here IT analysts discuss the pros and cons of different desktop virtualization implementations geared toward supporting the myriad consumer devices employees use...." more

Columbia Bus School Research Suggests Charisma is Sometimes an Illusion

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:00:42 GMT

EurekAlert writes "[by Sona Rai]...Research reveals dynamics behind magical thinking and charismatic leadership[.] Study depicts how charisma can emerge from the psychology of followers...Prof. Morris, who leads Columbia Business School's Program on Social Intelligence, elaborated on a point elucidated by this area of research, "Winning in business and political endeavors comes not only from performing well, but also from managing the interpretations that others make of your performance." ...ch theatrics can also be dangerous..." more

Supply Chain Delays Permeate a Company's Progress

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 22:05:48 GMT

Bob Ferrari writes "...Boeing acknowledged that it was halting final assembly of 787’s at the factory in Everett Washington for about a month, to address termed supply chain issues...Boeing faces tough supply chain challenges regarding the 787. The program is over three years late in deliveries, and the operation of a second final assembly facility to help catch-up on production remains..." more

Laying the Groundwork for Cloud Migrations

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:05:59 GMT

Arthur Cole writes "...In theory, the cloud should provide a more robust, flexible environment than traditional enterprise infrastructure, and that should make data migration a little easier. That may come true at some point, but for the moment, cloud migration is likely to be just as complicated. The basic process hasn't changed — only the configuration of..." more

Mobile Changing the Way Enterprises Buy Technology

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 19:56:35 GMT

CIO writes "[by Stephen Lawson]...Mobile devices and applications are streaming into enterprises, changing the way IT departments buy technology and relate to other employees...As rank-and-file employees introduce new hardware and software and want corporate support for it, with potential productivity benefits for the company, their relationship with the technology specialists changes...IT departments are more willing to work with users and give them what they want..." more

Effective Agile Performance Metric called "Shortening the Tail"

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:54:10 GMT

Jim Highsmith writes "...Shortening the tail is a simple, powerful metric for measuring progress towards agility. The goal of agile teams is to produce shippable software every iteration, but most are far from this goal—especially if they have large, old legacy code bases. Think of everything a company might have to do to reduce a tail from six to three months to one month to a day...Each of these items would contribute in some way, large or small, to reducing the tail by days or weeks. For large products the tail might never be zero, but it could be..." more

How Social Media Is Changing Customer Service

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:39:55 GMT

Michael Vizard writes "The degree to which companies need to be proactive about customer service on social networks will vary depending on how much they rely on selling products to a consumer versus a business...In the future, it may be difficult to distinguish between legitimate issues and people just trying to jerk the company’s social media chain, or worse yet people who are part of an orchestrated campaign to tarnish the company..." more

Reflections from a CIO on the "Circles" Concept

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:37:31 GMT

John Halamka writes "...The "Circles" concept is a good one - I can place any contact into a group of interest - in my case that's Family, Friends, Federal work, State work, Harvard work, and Healthcare Work. I can follow "Streams" of postings in each of these circles, making it much easier for me to catch up on communications by focusing on topics or clusters of people. The "Sparks" feature..." more

Information vs Conversation Overload

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:33:03 GMT

Tom Foremski writes "...as more people start to deal with these issues there will be an even greater understanding of the immensity of this problem and each of us will develop their own ways of dealing with the stress of conversation overload. But not everybody is able to cut themselves a break. Some will..." more

How a CIO Positioned Himself for High Productivity and Innovation

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:40:45 GMT

John Halamka writes "...A guiding coalition of leaders serving as champions for the project and providing ideal leadership characteristics...A dedicated implementation team and appropriate funding - How many times have you been asked to do more with less?...timeframe that makes it possible to do the project with enough attention to detail that the result is high quality, well communicated, and innovative - every project needs to link time, scope and resources..." more

How a Presenter Survives a Direct Negative Attack

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:34:55 GMT

HBR writes "[by Jerry Weissman]...[At] The annual shareholder meeting of Yahoo! Inc. last month...two issues provide larger lessons for how any presenter should handle tough questions...presenters can admit to negative facts — so as to be transparent — but then, after a brief, very brief, admission, they must immediately follow it with an upbeat counterpunch" more

Recap Microsoft World Partner Conf: Windows Server, Private Clouds

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:23:56 GMT

Ars Technica writes "[by Peter Bright]...At Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft's event for the legion of ISVs, IHVs, and "solution providers" that use, build on, implement and resell Microsoft technology, Microsoft talked about the next version of Windows Server for the first time. Just as with its client counterpart, the operating system is still under wraps, and Redmond isn't showing the whole thing off just yet, but one thing it was willing to talk about is virtualization. Since its introduction in Windows Server 2008..." more

Google+ and the Unsettled World of Social Media

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:21:12 GMT

Andrew McAfee writes "...The one thing I can state definitively at this point is that the toolkit of Web 2.0 technologies is not yet anywhere near complete — we’ve not yet seen all the important innovations...Anyone think that G+ is the final form of social networking tools? Me, neither. Very smart technologists are still learning what works and why. They’re motivated not only by their inherent desire to build cool stuff, but by very large user bases and potential markets. We consumers are going to be..." more

Every Job is a Leadership Position

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 14:53:34 GMT

Susan Mazza writes "...developing the mindset and capability of being a leader as broad and deep as possible is fundamental to transforming our organizations and transcending the problems of today. Leadership development is no longer just about preparing the chosen few in leadership positions to be better leaders. It is about developing anyone interested in making the biggest possible difference they can make so they can..." more

A CIOs Experience with a Demand for Infinite Free Service

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:30:41 GMT

John Halamka writes "...As CIOs we have significant responsibility but limited authority. We're accountable for stability, reliability, and security but cannot always control all the variables. Here's an example of random events coming together to create a problem, which is now well on its way to resolution. However, there are many lessons learned that I'd like to share with you..." more

The Soft Things that Make Mergers Hard

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:26:30 GMT

HBR writes "[by Greta Roberts]...Consider the following guidelines to preempt speed-related collaboration issues and merger integration: 1. Accept that speed preferences and requirements do exist, at company, team, and individual levels. 2. Realize that individual executives will differ in their speed profiles as well...During a merger, culture is too important to be left as a soft or vague concept. This concept of speed is only one of many specific, measurable aspects of culture that constitute a specific company, team or individual. With a better understanding of..." more

Are Scorecards and Metrics Killing Employee Engagement?

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:09:26 GMT

HBR writes "[by Adrian C Ott]...managing by the numbers is easier than managing people...Unassailable rules and metrics shifts accountability away from management and down the chain to the front-line employee. Rules allow managers a surefire way to dodge their responsibility and protect their career. The blame for poor employee action should be placed on the managers who set rigid metrics, and..." more

1000 Days of Support Left on Windows XP

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:34:37 GMT

CIO writes "[by Gregg Keizer]..."Bottom line, PCs running Windows XP will be vulnerable to security threats"..."Furthermore, many third-party software providers are not planning to extend support for their applications running on Windows XP, which translates to even more complexity, security risks, and ultimately, added management costs for your IT department..." more

How Do You Know a Great Person When You See One?

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:55:45 GMT

Bill Taylor writes "...companies that have their pick of the best talent in their field — have learned to make their selections based on character as much as credentials...who you are as a person counts for as much as what you know at any point in time, and you capacity to work in a great team...No company that I know of is better at testing for character than Southwest Airlines, which just published a fantastic special report on the ideas and practices that have allowed it to thrive for 40 years..." more

Crunching the Numbers on Desktop Virtualization

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:59:24 GMT

Arthur Cole writes "...Like the economy, desktop virtualization continues to walk a razor's edge between phenomenal success and abject failure...Despite the ongoing hype surrounding desktop virtualization, it remains a tough call for many enterprises. Promises of lower costs and rising benefits are generally based on lab results and showcase deployments, which means they may or may not materialize in your bricks-and-mortar enterprise. But the fact is..." more

White Paper on Top Threats to Cloud Computing

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:37:03 GMT

Security_Bloggers_Network writes "[by Luther Martin]...I just came across the Cloud Security Alliance's Top Threats to Cloud Computing white paper. Here's their list of the top threats:..."data loss or leakage" is the most critical of the threats that CSA has identified. That's based on the apparent widespread..." more

The Application Deployment Process is Broken

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:02:26 GMT

Lori MacVittie writes "...This is by no means an exhaustive list and it is already lengthy. There are many, many moving parts that need to be configured – and tested – before “deployment” of the application can be considered complete. These are concerns for which developers have little visibility and little input. One might claim they have very little interest in such aspects of the deployment as infrastructure services are often outside their realm of not only expertise but experience – and control. Yet many of these services require..." more

States that Disallow Non-Competes Attract Inventors

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:54:48 GMT

HBS Working Knowledge writes "[by Carmen Nobel]...a yet-to-be-published paper that investigates whether states that allow non-compete agreements are driving high-tech talent away—creating a so-called brain drain of smart inventors. In "Regional Disadvantage? Non-Compete Agreements and Brain Drain," the researchers show that non-competes indeed factor into an inventor's decision to emigrate, within the United States, to states that disallow non-competes. "It's clear that inventors are leaving states that enforce..." more

Valuable Innovation Lesson on Creatively Harnessing Collective Intelligence

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:26:51 GMT

HBR writes "[by Michael Schrage]...It offers a sobering reality check for anyone who believes that great people, great skills, great wealth, a great brand, and a great opportunity invariably lead to great innovation, They don't. Not even for Google. There's a valuable lesson here...One of the world's most innovative companies didn't just fail to innovate as a business, it dramatically underachieved even as a technical innovator in one of the world's biggest, most dynamic, and most important industries. What happened?" more

How Shareholder Activism Moved the Needle on Sustainability in 2011

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:16:31 GMT

GreenBiz writes "[by Leslie Guevarra]...according to reports on the 2011 proxy season...record number of shareholder resolutions calling for companies to be more responsible in handling corporate sustainability challenges were filed...The strength of this year's proxy season shows unwavering investor concern about how companies are managing the environmental risks of fossil fuel sourcing and the ongoing shift to a clean, low-carbon global economy..." more

Drowning in Social Data? Better Find a Statistician

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:08:07 GMT

Center for CIO Leadership writes "[by Ari Lightman]...we decided to focus on key issues involving data driven decision-making, success metrics and resource needs. We began with...the challenge this new data source presents and how CIOs can leverage it for insight across the organization. We also spent some time on the demands put on the CIO and staff to incorporate social data into existing processes from business intelligence to customer segmentation. One of the takeaways was...Will we see the development of a competency center across the enterprise focusing on social data?..." more

Conflicting Opinions on How IT Hiring Fared During the Recession

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:01:19 GMT

CIO writes "[by Fred O'Connor]...With no definitive measure of how IT hiring fared during the recession, job experts hold conflicting opinions about the residual effects on that sector. Hiring experts offer anecdotes about some IT professionals who lost senior-level positions and took more junior-level jobs instead or of others who left the field entirely...IT workers looking to return to a senior position, spending up to a year in a junior role is not "catastrophic" but..." more

Ballmer, Branson Headline Microsoft's Partner Conference

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:56:32 GMT

CIO writes "[by Jon Brodkin]...Ballmer will deliver a keynote address Monday morning in front of 15,000 attendees at the Staples Center...and on Tuesday Microsoft will trot out several of its highest-ranking executives...the long list of speakers includes executives from just about every product group as well as partner-focused divisions such as OEM sales, developer groups, hosting, telcos, ISVs and..." more

Sales-Marketing get Overhauled by Revenue Performance Management (RPM)

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:53:11 GMT

Business Finance writes "[by Eric Krell]...Sales and marketing executives and outside experts are very excited these days about a new concept called revenue performance management (RPM). RPM is sort of the business performance management equivalent for the sales and marketing functions. Until recently, a more fitting description of the relationship between these two functions would have been sales vs. marketing...RPM seeks to increase visibility and accountability by essentially making marketing and sales a more collaborative, continuous process. It strives to achieve..." more

Solid State Technology is not a Cure-All

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 22:24:42 GMT

Arthur Cole writes "...many CIOs are paying the premium for high-throughput storage hoping it will produce tangible benefits to overall data environments. The problem is that supporting technologies, primarily Flash controllers and optimization technologies, often fail to extend solid state's benefits to the wider world. Storage providers are hoping to overcome this obstacle with..." more

Future Computers Could Use 1 Million Times Less Energy

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 17:35:24 GMT

Alternative Energy writes "[by Yale Enviornment 360]...Emerging computer technology that would use magnetic microprocessors instead of silicon-based chips has the potential to consume 1 million times less energy per operation than existing computers, according to an analysis by University of California, Berkeley researchers. Unlike existing microprocessor technology, which relies on electric currents that generate enormous amounts of wasted heat, the new technology, currently under development, would..." more

Beware: Your Buyer Seeks the Truth and will find it!

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:52:23 GMT

Peter Giblett writes "...Every company will face challenges about their marketing approach from time to time what is key here is...Your buyer seeks the truth about your product or your business and using modern Internet tools they will find it, or at least a version they deem as true. We now live in a era where customers making false claims can be as damaging to a product as the advertisers doing it. It is up to the business to manage its online image and address that challenge..." more

Don't Plan, Speculate

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:44:30 GMT

Jim Highsmith writes "...One thing people are learning is that you can’t plan uncertainty away. Plans are good for things we know, or things that we may have some control over. However uncertainty—and its close cousin’s ambiguity and velocity—defy planning...Words make a difference; they convey a nuance about how to conduct ourselves. So I’ll make another pitch for elevating Speculating, and demoting Planning..." more

Chief Compliance Officers (CCO) Rely on CIOs 90% of the Time

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:21:18 GMT

Chris Curran writes "...CCOs say that they rely on the support of IT up to 90% of the time...with such high levels of IT involvement in compliance, might it also make sense for CIOs and CCOs to explore more formal, routine ways of sharing resources than simply “making due” from project to project?...Companies that want to stay out of the headlines, and out of court, really can’t afford to wait any longer to take this challenge seriously..." more

Why the Time is Now for Continuous Integration in App Development

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:14:44 GMT

CIO writes "[by Paul Krill]...officials and experts in the software industry see continuous integration becoming a more vital component in software development shops in the current business environment...Continuous integration, like IDEs before it, thus tries to shift the effort from developers to software, to reduce overall costs...Although there are some commercial tools staking a claim in continuous integration, such as..." more

Study Offers Warning and Advice to CIOs

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:11:23 GMT

CIO writes "[by Patrick Thibodeau]...A recent survey by Gartner and two financial management organizations found that CFOs have "authorized" 26% of IT investments, an increase of as much as 15% from the prior year...The survey also showed that 42% of IT organizations report to the CFO, and 33% to the CEO. The study offers a clear warning and advice to CIOs, says John Van Decker, an analyst at Gartner..." more

The Disadvantages of a Private Instance of SaaS

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:15:02 GMT

Phil Wainewright writes "...For customers to insist on a private SaaS instance dedicated just for their own use is exactly the same as going to deposit your money in a bank but insisting the bank never lends it out to anyone else...Customers who stipulate their own private instances of a SaaS or cloud application don’t understand the SaaS model. I fear that providers who give into it..." more

Forget Hyper-Scale Think Hyper-Local Scale

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:05:52 GMT

Lori MacVittie writes "...Hyper-localized scalability architectures can leverage a variety of infrastructure scalability patterns, but the fact that they are dependent upon infrastructure and its ability to perform application layer routing and switching is paramount to success. Today’s demanding business and operational requirements cannot be met with the simple scalability strategies of yesterday. Not only are legacy strategies based on infinite resources and budgets..." more

Why Some Business People Have All the Luck

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 16:30:57 GMT

Anthony Tjan writes "...Luck, alongside Heart, Smarts, and Guts — turns out to be a critical factor in entrepreneurial DNA and successful business-building....We have found in our research that people who self-describe themselves as lucky in their entrepreneurial profile with us tend to be luckier because they have the right attitude. Their secret towards a lucky attitude — whether consciously or unconsciously- stems from three traits:..." more

By 2015 CIO's will be the Engine of Business Growth

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:56:09 GMT

Center for CIO Leadership writes "[byDavid Tobias]..I challenge and encourage CIO’s in other industries to look to the future for revenue growth and business expansion in their own environment and map their course accordingly...In 2015, the CIO will begin to notice that he is contributing most of the revenue to the enterprise. Two phenomenons will happen:..." more

The Changing Face of IT Infrastructure

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:56:43 GMT

Arthur Cole writes "The cloud is rightly described as another abstraction on top of an already abstracted, virtualized data environment. And yet those abstractions are resulting in significant consequences to the real IT world that are only beginning to be understood...With that much at stake, it's no wonder top server and processor designers are already shifting their development roadmaps to the cloud...These changes will also have an effect farther down the supply chain..." more

Three Reasons Everything Goes Better with Partners

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:14:08 GMT

Rosabeth Moss Kanter writes "...The lesson is clear for everyone, whether you're an entrepreneur, activist, or a manager in a giant company: Having the best partners is not a result of success; it is vital to success...But always follow the first rule of coalition building: Partners and allies must be valued, honored, appreciated, applauded, and above all, they must..." more

For Business 'Social' Listening is Only One Slice of a Bigger Pie

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 17:59:49 GMT

HBR writes "[by David Armano]...We are entering an age of social business: a purposeful, planned, orchestrated, and integrated way of doing business in a social context which may feel personal to the outside world but combine complexities internally within organizations that will need navigating. ..The shift to come is moving from a focus on external media consumption to the internalization...Organizations that integrate social into how they do business will embrace social as a layer that's woven into..." more

Physical Considerations for the Virtual-Cloud Era

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:33:14 GMT

Arthur Cole writes "Virtualization may seem like old hat now that attention is shifting toward the cloud, but the fact is that the virtual layer is and will remain an integral component...it seems that many enterprises are getting a better handle on what virtualization can and cannot do...The biggest disappointments tend to come in scalability and..." more

Searching for Professional Significance

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 19:19:29 GMT

HBR writes "[By Thomas J DeLong]...We have a vicious cycle operating in many organizations. Senior leaders blame the young MBAs for being naive and entitled...These younger employees, however, form this attitude only because they are in desperate need of someone who...lets them know they make a difference. They don't need positive feedback when it isn't deserved. What they need are managers and leaders who are aware that..." more

The Analytics Bubble

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 19:01:34 GMT

Mike Gammage writes "...analytics 'is not for the weak of heart' and 'does not guarantee improved business outcomes'. Which, as value propositions go, is under-whelming, to say the least. It's just one of the things that end-to-end process management - properly executed - already delivers...But my hunch is that the analytics bubble will burst early on. Because there's really no point to a metric unless it helps identify where a process isn't working. Process and metrics are like bread and butter, left and..." more

Potential Solutions to Help Mitigate Agile Feature Bloat

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 18:58:32 GMT

Jim Highsmith writes "... in most organizations, software development efficiencies are subjected to infinite analysis while customer demand effectiveness isn’t mentioned at all. We neither measure nor calculate feature value in the beginning nor do we measure whether or not value was actually captured as the customer or product manager had predicted...Here’s a starter list of ideas about potential solutions:..." more

The Basics in Conducting a Network Security Audit

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 18:55:33 GMT

Security_Bloggers_Network writes "[by Daniel Tabone]...A network security audit comes into play here as it will allow you to assess the number and type of security holes and vulnerabilities that exist on your business network...The first network security audit that you run will fill focus on cataloguing your network’s assets and locations including:..." more

Smart Grid Data Management Provides New Industry Challenges

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 17:36:14 GMT

Alternative Energy writes "[by Dick DeBlasio]...Data security will be an ongoing, evolving challenge in the Smart Grid, as utilities will have to adopt a posture to constantly address new threats to the availability, confidentiality and integrity of their highly sensitive information assets. Another major concern will be data reliability. With power infrastructure under the automated control of communications and Information Technology (IT) infrastructure, the reliability of the data..." more

Power Management Hits Enterprise Mainstream

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:08:49 GMT

Arthur Cole writes "...power management is now seen as an integral component of full data center infrastructure management (DCIM) platforms...Virtual infrastructure can have an effect on power consumption as well, and not all of it positive. To that end, Microsoft and Duke University have teamed up to develop a new monitoring technology that tracks the energy draw of individual VMs and then distributes power based on application..." more

Comprehensive Report on Who's Buying Renewable Energy

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:26:05 GMT

Alternative Energy writes "[by Marc Gunther]...Here are 10 companies that are putting real dollars behind their sustainability rhetoric: Kohl’s, Whole Foods Market, TD Bank, Swiss Re, Nordea Bank, Adobe Systems, Vestas Wind, News Corp., CLP Holdings and Deutsche Bank. They’re leaders in buying renewable energy...Most companies do this by buying renewable energy certificates (RECs). Here’s a table from the report..." more

Fighting a Losing Storage Management War

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:07:39 GMT

Michael Vizard writes "...IT organizations need to start focusing on best practices for data and storage management today. Unstructured data, in particular, is out of control because IT organizations tend to treat network-attached storage (NAS) systems as “universal dumping grounds," adds Burton. In fact, much of the data stored in expensive primary storage systems is often..." more

What Can You Sensibly Offshore in Cloud CRM Projects?

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 18:36:56 GMT

CIO writes "[by David Taber]...When it comes to personal financial, educational, or health-related data, however, I don't know of a good way to offshore any of that processing. However, the front end of the CRM lead creation process — doing online research and demographic targeting — is a perfect target for..." more