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  • BYOD and Your CEO

    CIO Dashboard
    Chris Curran
    10 May 2012 | 6:02 pm
    What’s small, shiny and keeps CIOs up at night? The CEO’s personal devices. CEOs are like every other employee. They love tablets, smart phones and apps. The glaring difference is that the CEO’s personal devices put the company at much greater risk than the gadgets of virtually all other employees combined. CIOs must  include chief executives in conversations as they grapple with putting BYOD security policies and procedures in place. Many CEOs criss-cross the globe carrying the company’s most sensitive information—trade secrets, delicate details about employees, financial…

  • International Space Apps Challenge: Carbs, Caffeine, and Coders

    NASA CIO Blog
    12 May 2012 | 1:00 am
    Challenges like these engage citizens in a meaningful way. It taps into the collective creativity of the crowd and fosters co-creation that quickly and cost-effectively helps agencies advance their mission.

  • Unified Communications Still Fragmented

    CIO.com Feed - Articles
    15 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    The technology may get a big push from mobile adoption, but integration among multiple UC components is still a tough slog.

  • CIO view: Consumerization and the impact on IT

    ZDNet | IT Project Failures Blog RSS
    Michael Krigsman
    7 May 2012 | 8:35 am
    Even the most casual observer of enterprise software can see the growth and importance of cloud computing. For example, SAP’s purchase of SuccessFactors for $3.4 billion and Oracle’s acquisition of Taleo for $1.9 billion make clear that cloud is now part of mainstream enterprise software.While the growth of cloud is obvious, the impact on IT is less clear. Consider the following chart from a report by the SandHill Group (and sponsored by SAP):The chart shows the growth of IT spending compared to growth rates of a variety of cloud-focused technology companies. This chart…

  • SAP Gets Serious About The Large Enterprise Application Cloud

    CIO
    Stefan Ried
    15 May 2012 | 8:15 am
    SAP Gets Serious About The Large Enterprise Application Cloud: Its Long-Term Strategy Should Involve A Triple Platform Play For The Cloud Until now, it looked like SAP was still trying to balance its existing on-premises licensed business with the cloud alternative. But following its acquisition of Success Factors and the arrival of that company's outstanding CEO, Lars Dalgaard, SAP has become really serious about applications in the cloud, placing Mr. Dalgaard at the head of a 5,000-person development team. SAP's new cloud strategy is all about business applications in large enterprises. SAP…
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    CIO Dashboard

  • BYOD and Your CEO

    Chris Curran
    10 May 2012 | 6:02 pm
    What’s small, shiny and keeps CIOs up at night? The CEO’s personal devices. CEOs are like every other employee. They love tablets, smart phones and apps. The glaring difference is that the CEO’s personal devices put the company at much greater risk than the gadgets of virtually all other employees combined. CIOs must  include chief executives in conversations as they grapple with putting BYOD security policies and procedures in place. Many CEOs criss-cross the globe carrying the company’s most sensitive information—trade secrets, delicate details about employees, financial…

  • Is Social Media Leadership Critical for a CIO?

    Chris Curran
    3 May 2012 | 5:48 pm
    Do CIOs need to engage and evangelize public social media networks to effectively lead their organizations in social media initiatives? Or is facilitating connection and collaboration among employees and clients enough? Who is most responsible for cultivating a social corporate culture? These are the questions I asked myself after reading the news that only about 10 percent of CIOs in the Fortune 250 are using public social networks. According to harmon.ie’s research, a paltry 4% maintain blogs. Sadly, most of the LinkedIn profiles of the CIOs who were researched are populated with…

  • The Value of Visualization

    Chris Curran
    24 Apr 2012 | 6:12 pm
    Recently I was discussing a history project with my son.  He was writing a paper about the inconsistencies in access to clean water in all parts of the world and their causes.  In researching the history of urban water access, he came across the story of the outbreak of cholera in the mid-1800′s in London and the impact it had on modern medicine. A young doctor, John Snow, proposed that cholera was carried in contaminated food or water, not through the air as most diseases were believed to be transmitted at the time. He plotted the reported cases on a map which also showed the…

  • Social Collaboration vs. Quiet Contemplation

    Chris Curran
    12 Apr 2012 | 12:53 pm
    Roughly 20-30% of the population is acknowledged introverts and it’s no secret that IT has its fair share. One of the more famous is Steve Wozniak who dreamt up the first Apple computer in solitude. It’s highly unlikely that this quantum leap of imagination that changed the world would have bubbled to the surface in a boisterous brainstorming session. That’s because introverts like Wozniak excel in low-key environments and crave quiet to create, as Susan Cain, author of “Quiet: The Power of Introverts,” noted recently in her TED talk. Cain’s reminder that introverts respond to…

  • Whiteboard Culture: An Organizational Competitive Advantage?

    Chris Curran
    3 Apr 2012 | 1:52 pm
    Guest post by Sachal Lakhavani Does your organization have a whiteboard culture?  When faced with complex problems or collaborating with people with different perspectives, do the people in your organization draw to communicate in a dynamic and visual way, or do they rely solely on verbal explanations and static Powerpoint slides? I recently attended a panel at SXSW that was instructively entitled “Shut up and Draw.” The panelists, Dan Roam, Sunni Brown and Jessica Hagy, made a very compelling case for why you should cultivate a whiteboard culture in your organization. Pictures have high…
 
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    NASA CIO Blog

  • International Space Apps Challenge: Carbs, Caffeine, and Coders

    12 May 2012 | 1:00 am
    Challenges like these engage citizens in a meaningful way. It taps into the collective creativity of the crowd and fosters co-creation that quickly and cost-effectively helps agencies advance their mission.

  • Geek Power

    19 Feb 2012 | 4:04 pm
    Have you hugged your Geek lately? Please do --they are important to your organization.

  • The End of the Mainframe Era at NASA

    11 Feb 2012 | 10:15 pm
    This month marks the end of an era in NASA computing. Marshall Space Flight Center powered down NASA’s last mainframe, the IBM Z9 Mainframe

  • Technology Divas

    22 Jan 2012 | 12:50 pm
    Ok, so I’m on a cruise and writing a blog about technology. I’m not weird; I’m a CIO – same thing, right?

  • NASA Launches apps@NASA

    29 Nov 2011 | 1:47 pm
    Managing diversity like this is where CIO’s tread carefully. apps@NASA is a first small step for the mankind that work at NASA into a daunting world where customer expectations are measured in hours or minutes and not in 18-month software develop lifecycles.
 
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    ZDNet | IT Project Failures Blog RSS

  • CIO view: Consumerization and the impact on IT

    Michael Krigsman
    7 May 2012 | 8:35 am
    Even the most casual observer of enterprise software can see the growth and importance of cloud computing. For example, SAP’s purchase of SuccessFactors for $3.4 billion and Oracle’s acquisition of Taleo for $1.9 billion make clear that cloud is now part of mainstream enterprise software.While the growth of cloud is obvious, the impact on IT is less clear. Consider the following chart from a report by the SandHill Group (and sponsored by SAP):The chart shows the growth of IT spending compared to growth rates of a variety of cloud-focused technology companies. This chart…

  • Who's accountable for IT failure? (part two)

    Michael Krigsman
    17 Apr 2012 | 6:36 am
    This two-part series presents a structure for understanding why IT projects fail, in a way that goes far beyond project management alone. Part one elaborates the problem while part two discusses the need for greater accountability on the part of senior management.BE SURE TO READ PART ONE OF THIS SERIES.RISK AND ACCOUNTABILITYWhile executives cannot anticipate every risk, current standards of accountability are clearly too low. The incidence of failed IT projects, leading to dramatic examples of waste, remains high and there is little cause to assume this situation will change soon.Author and…

  • A Special Offer From Our Sponsor

    16 Apr 2012 | 6:45 am

  • Who's accountable for IT failure? (part one)

    Michael Krigsman
    16 Apr 2012 | 6:45 am
    This two-part series presents a structure for understanding why IT projects fail, in a way that goes far beyond project management alone. Part one elaborates the problem while part two discusses the need for greater accountability on the part of senior management.BE SURE TO READ PART TWO OF THIS SERIES.It’s a sobering statistic: nearly 70 percent of IT projects fail in some important way, putting the economic impact worldwide at three billion dollars, which corresponds to 4.7 percent of global GDP. And it’s a universal problem: setbacks span the public and private sectors, occur…

  • Worldwide cost of IT failure (revisited): $3 trillion

    Michael Krigsman
    10 Apr 2012 | 7:25 am
    Image credit: iStockphotoCalculating the global impact of IT failures on an annual basis is a worthy goal. However, aside from the challenge of collecting data, failure itself has no clear definition, subjecting the entire effort to assumptions and guesses. Still, several years ago, one analyst attempted to quantify the data in a noble, yet ultimately flawed, effort.Also read:Worldwide cost of IT failure: $6.2 trillionCritique: $6.2 trillion global IT failure statsRelated:British Computer Society:A study in project failureNonetheless, the challenge of quantification remains. For this reason,…
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    CIO

  • SAP Gets Serious About The Large Enterprise Application Cloud

    Stefan Ried
    15 May 2012 | 8:15 am
    SAP Gets Serious About The Large Enterprise Application Cloud: Its Long-Term Strategy Should Involve A Triple Platform Play For The Cloud Until now, it looked like SAP was still trying to balance its existing on-premises licensed business with the cloud alternative. But following its acquisition of Success Factors and the arrival of that company's outstanding CEO, Lars Dalgaard, SAP has become really serious about applications in the cloud, placing Mr. Dalgaard at the head of a 5,000-person development team. SAP's new cloud strategy is all about business applications in large enterprises. SAP…

  • 2012 Huawei Global Analyst Summit: ramping up the game

    Dan Bieler
    15 May 2012 | 2:31 am
    Dan Bieler; Bryan Wang; Henry Dewing; Katyayan Gupta; Tirthankar Sen Huawei hosted about 160 industry and financial analysts at its annual analyst summit in Shenzhen, China in April 2012. The main take-aways from the event are: Huawei continues its drive for more financial openness and transparency. Huawei provided detailed information about its financial and operational performance. In 2011 Huawei grew revenues by 12% to reach US$32.4bn and EBIT by 9% to US$3bn. The main regional growth was registered in Latin America, up 40%. Although due to higher capex cash from operating activities…

  • Deloitte Meets “Mad Men”

    John McCarthy
    14 May 2012 | 10:45 am
    Earlier this morning, the consulting firm launched "Deloitte Digital." Part offering and part organizational change, the initiative brings together a mix of business, technology, and creative expertise to address perfect storm of technology change. The firm will bring together five key capabilities - strategy, mobile, social, web content, and digital ERP. Deloitte Digital will focus on mobile and social, while the traditional technology services and consulting groups will handle the strategy, web content, and digital ERP elements. The tag line for Deloitte Digital is "business led, tech…

  • Colt Revamps The Way It Develops Agile Solutions For Its Customers

    Dan Bieler
    9 May 2012 | 2:28 am
    The other day I visited Colt's London HQ and saw how the telco is revamping its approach to developing more customer-centric and Agile solutions (Colt consciously avoids the "cloud" terminology). By now, most telcos managed to jump onto the cloud bandwagon by launching cloud-based services. The challenge, from an end user perspective, is that these solutions all seem very similar. Customers can get storage, server capacity, unified communications, etc., from most telcos. All telcos underline the value-added nature of end-to-end network QoS and security that they can ensure (check out our…

  • Q1 2012 Data Shows Economic And Tech Market Softness At Start Of The Year

    Andrew Bartels
    30 Apr 2012 | 11:39 am
    While I am still relatively bullish on the 2012 tech market outlook for the US (see our April 2, 2012, "US Tech Market Outlook For 2012 To 2013" report), I have to say that the data we got on the US economy and on the US tech market was a bit softer than I expected. US real GDP growth came in at 2.2%, a bit lower than my expectation of 2.5%. On the positive side, consumer spending rose by 2.9% in real terms, and residential construction continued to improve. On the negative side, business investment in structures was weak, and government spending fell at both the federal and state…
 
 
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    An IT View

  • So what are you doing about passwords?

    Mark Brewer
    15 May 2012 | 8:38 pm
    You realize the password problem is getting out of hand. We are requiring (or asking/begging) people to use separate passwords for everything and to make the passwords longer, and to use symbols, numbers, upper case, etc. and to change their password more often. There are articles like How to Create a Good Password that You Will Never Forget or the following video by Google: The ideas on these two sites are fine when you think of doing a single password. But what about the dozens/hundreds we all have between work/school/home?  Because we are making it harder, many will choose to take the…

  • Insanely Simple

    Mark Brewer
    3 May 2012 | 8:20 pm
    I’ve got a new book to recommend to the IT folks out there. It is called Insanely Simple by Ken Segall.  It goes along perfectly with my earlier post about the need to simplify things. This is a telling of how Steve Jobs was fanatically focused on the simplest possible solutions at Apple. While I don’t want to bow down to Steve, I do think that there are some excellent principles in this book that apply to IT and to company processes and decisions. Have small teams? Simple documentation and instructions? Simple packaging? Refuse to accept no as an answer? All relate to IT. The…

  • Time for a Simplification

    Mark Brewer
    24 Apr 2012 | 8:49 pm
    You know, this IT stuff is getting harder. There are more threats/risks, more control points and demands, more functionality being required and more services being delivered. There is just more and more and more going on and it is getting harder to keep on top of all of it. I wrote of wicked problems a while back and those hard problems are still here with us. And business is speeding up with supply chains getting shorter and moving faster. The combat these changes in business we need to: Simplify where you can. Ask your team where we are doing things that are not adding value and not helping…

  • Been Thinking about Control of IT Systems

    Mark Brewer
    14 Apr 2012 | 10:57 am
    I’ve been talking to myself lately(I do this a lot) about control in the IT environment. That is, change control and security of the information systems from an audit point of view. There are two viewpoints that seem to be discussed. I’ve heard one viewpoint that says think about it like a manufacturing process where you put processes and controls in place to get a high-yield (or a low excursion rate) on control breakdowns. That is, you can’t achieve 100% control and just like a real-world manufacturing process, you are going to always have events that seem to be out of…

  • An Open Door

    Mark Brewer
    31 Mar 2012 | 9:17 pm
    Wednesday I was talking to a team of leaders about security in the enterprise and basically charged them to be involved and thinking about protecting our IP. Security is personal, right?  One of the slides I used talked about the need to physically secure your endpoints (smartphones, laptop, ipads, etc.). That night I went to dinner with friends and returned to my hotel room to find my door unlocked and open with the door security bar blocking its closing.  The lights were out. I was not amused. Housekeeping had returned some laundry to my room and failed to properly close the door.
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    Life as a Healthcare CIO

  • The State of e-Prescribing in the US

    16 May 2012 | 5:00 am
    Tomorrow Surescripts issues its annual report about the state of e-prescribing in the US.I think you'll find the summary quite valuable as it illustrates the impact of Meaningful Use Stage 1 on providers and the industry.    Here are the high points from the report:Meaningful Use*By the end of 2011, 58% of office-based physicians in the United States had adopted electronic prescribing – vs. less than 10% a little more than 3 years prior.*Research suggests that the federal incentives for meaningful use of e-prescribing are well founded.*As physicians gain more experience with…

  • The NwHIN Governance RFI

    15 May 2012 | 5:00 am
    Last week ONC released the Nationwide Health Information Network: Conditions for Trusted Exchange Request for Information that will be published in the Federal Register todaySteve Posnack, Director of the Federal Policy Division, ONC presented this webinar using these slidesThe work is part of the HITECH mandate that requires the National Coordinator to establish a governance mechanism for the nationwide health information network.Key concepts in the presentation include a few new acronyms that we'll all be using over the next few years, so it's a good idea to memorize them now.CTE -…

  • Gamification

    14 May 2012 | 5:00 am
    Recently, I've met with several internet startups, web thought leaders, and venture capitalists.There's one word that's come up in every conversation and it's not Plastics .  It's Gamification Gamification, described by Wikipedia is applying gaming principles to non-gaming applications and processes,"in order to encourage people to adopt them, or to influence how they are used. Gamification works by making technology more engaging, by encouraging users to engage in desired behaviors, by showing a path to mastery and autonomy, by helping to solve problems and not being a distraction,…

  • Cool Technology of the Week

    11 May 2012 | 5:00 am
    I've written many times about the Bring Your Own Device movement (BYOD) and the need for increasing security controls. For years, we've controlled device settings on Blackberry devices with the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES).   We force passwords, encryption, and device memory wipes for ten failed passwords so that every user has enterprise enforced securityWith iPhones and Android devices it's harder to control settings and behavior on personal equipment.We think the best we can do within the limitations of present server-side technology is to enforce the use of passwords on all…

  • Our Cancer Journey Week 21

    10 May 2012 | 5:00 am
    Kathy heads to surgery tomorrow at 7am.   She'll be NPO (nothing by mouth) after midnight.  She'll wake at 5am, shower with Hibiclens (a antibacterial prep), and I'll drive her to surgical check in.  Prior to surgery, the radiology department will insert a wire adjacent to the titanium markers that were placed in her tumor at first diagnosis.   Her surgeon will use this wire to guide the lumpectomy. Her left breast will become smaller than her right.  She jokes that her career in exotic dancing will come to an end.The operating room will call me at the end of her…
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    DON CIO - All Content

  • IT Vendor Business Case Analyses: Driving Savings Today and Sustaining Relationships in the Future

    10 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    The Department of the Navy Chief Information Officer and the Information Technology/Cyberspace Efficiency Integrated Product Teams (IPTs) have undertaken a number of initiatives that have important implications for the future of the DON business IT environment. Specifically, the DON Enterprise Software Licensing (ESL) IPT developed business case analyses (BCAs) that provide enterprise-level visibility of how much money is spent with specific IT vendors, insight into relevant market and technology trends, and recommendations for better managing vendor relationships, optimizing resources and…

  • NMCI's Ever-Improving Security Profile

    10 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    The Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) continues to improve its security profile by increasing the use of smartcard credentials for network authentication. The network has established interoperability with Personal Identity Verification (PIV) smartcards issued by non-Department of Defense agencies and departments. ...

  • NGEN RFP Released

    8 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    The Naval Enterprise Networks (NEN) Program Management Office/Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN) Program has released the final Request for Proposal (RFP) for transport and enterprise services.

  • DON Secretariat ITEAA FY12 IT Spend Plan Template

    3 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    The Department of the Navy Secretariat Information Technology Expenditure Approval Authority (ITEAA) FY12 Spend Plan Template provides traceability from the IT budget to actual IT expenditures. It was developed to give the ITEAA and the DON Assistant for Administration both a summary and detail view of each Secretariat organization's IT requirements and planned/actual expenditures during the current year. The template also includes a change request form, which is used as needed to add to or modify spend plans that have been previously approved. For a Section 508 accessible version, please…

  • Secretariat Information Technology Expenditure Approval Authority

    1 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    With significant reductions in the Department's budgets, finding efficiencies in information technology expenditures has become a priority. In 2011, the Department of Navy established centralized oversight of IT expenditures via three designated IT Expenditure Approval Authorities (ITEAA) – one each for the Navy, Marine Corps and DON Secretariat. These authorities are responsible for approving all IT planning, programming, budgeting and expenditure actions for IT software, hardware or services at specified thresholds with the objective of reducing costs without impacting mission…
 
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    CIOInsight - RSS Feed

  • Hot IT Projects at American Express, Dannon and 25 Others

    15 May 2012 | 7:16 pm
    SAP implementations, SQL upgrades and Windows 7 migrations are among the IT projects undertaken by the 27 Fortune-ranked and mid-market companies highlighted here. Information for this feature is provided exclusively to CIO Insight by the researchers at DiscoverOrg.SAP implementations, SQL upgrades and Windows 7 migrations are among the IT projects featured in this installment of IT Projects: The Inside Scoop. American Express, Dannon, TD Ameritrade and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts are among the 27 Fortune-ranked and mid-market companies highlighted here. Information for this feature is…

  • Kids and Technology: 10 Reasons They Should Never Meet

    15 May 2012 | 12:42 pm
    Our children help us remember not to take life too seriously and to live in the moment. They often bring us joy at the end of a long day, and help us remember why we work as hard as we do. In many ways, kids are the cure for many of life's pains. That is, until they get ahold of your laptop, tablet or smartphone. For CIOs, the “kid factor” is an often overlooked but very real concern when it comes to ensuring that workplace technology is used safely and securely. Are your employees letting their kids run amok with work technology? If so, some serious damage can be done to computers,…

  • How to Know If Your Employees Are Management Material

    15 May 2012 | 12:02 pm
    Part of being a leader is mentoring the next generation of management and helping your teams advance professionally. In his new book “Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager (Apress/available in May), author Michael Lopp uses insight gained from 20 years in software development to help managers do their jobs better. He ponders why anyone would leave the safe world of "bits and bytes" for the messy world of overseeing people, and sheds light on what he thinks it takes to be an effective manager. Asking these questions can help CIOs and other…

  • Mac OS X Security to Be Vetted by Kaspersky Labs

    14 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Kaspersky CTO Grebennikov called the OS "really vulnerable" and pointed to the Flashback botnet as proof that the company's asleep at the wheel.Apple is asking Kaspersky Labs to analyze security on its Mac OS X platform, Kaspersky Labs CTO Nikolai Grebennikov has told Computing magazine. It s a good thing, Grebennikov told Computing, seeing as how Apple quot;doesn't pay enough attention quot; to security and given that its OS is basically a sitting duck. quot;Mac OS is really vulnerable, quot; Grebennikov said, quot;and Apple recently invited us to improve its security. We've begun…

  • Apple Expected to Update iCloud, MacBook Pros at WWDC

    14 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Apple is expected to introduce an iCloud updated with new photo and video features at its Worldwide Developers Conference, according to a report. New MacBooks are also likely.The Apple iPhone 5 isn't likely to put in an appearance at the 2012 Worldwide Developers Conference, planned for June 11. What Apple instead plans to show off is an update to iCloud, the Wall Street Journal reported May 14. iCloud users currently can store sets of images in the cloud, which can be synced to photos on various Apple devices. The next version of iCloud, reports the Journal, citing people familiar with the…
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    DON CIO - News

  • IT Vendor Business Case Analyses: Driving Savings Today and Sustaining Relationships in the Future

    10 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    The Department of the Navy Chief Information Officer and the Information Technology/Cyberspace Efficiency Integrated Product Teams (IPTs) have undertaken a number of initiatives that have important implications for the future of the DON business IT environment. Specifically, the DON Enterprise Software Licensing (ESL) IPT developed business case analyses (BCAs) that provide enterprise-level visibility of how much money is spent with specific IT vendors, insight into relevant market and technology trends, and recommendations for better managing vendor relationships, optimizing resources and…

  • NMCI's Ever-Improving Security Profile

    10 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    The Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) continues to improve its security profile by increasing the use of smartcard credentials for network authentication. The network has established interoperability with Personal Identity Verification (PIV) smartcards issued by non-Department of Defense agencies and departments. ...

  • NGEN RFP Released

    8 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    The Naval Enterprise Networks (NEN) Program Management Office/Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN) Program has released the final Request for Proposal (RFP) for transport and enterprise services.

  • NMCI Continues to Offer Solutions for Diverse Mission Needs

    29 Apr 2012 | 11:00 pm
    The Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) has been operational for more than 10 years and serves more than 810,000 users across the country. The network continues to mature every day with the implementation of new solutions and security measures designed to help Sailors and Marines perform their mission critical tasks more effectively and efficiently. ...

  • Data Center Consolidation: Industry and DON Perspectives

    23 Apr 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Consolidation of data centers is a complex and long-term issue that both private and public sectors are facing. This issue was the focus of the panel discussion, Data Center Consolidation from the Department of the Navy Perspective, that Mr. Terry Halvorsen, Department of the Navy Chief Information Officer, moderated at this year's Sea Air Space Convention. Comprised of data center consolidation and data storage experts from across the government, private industry and consulting, panelists discussed lessons learned, how industry and government can better work together to solve the issues…
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    Steve Francia's Epic Blog

  • Getting Started with MongoDB and PHP

    Steve Francia
    14 May 2012 | 4:45 pm
    Nearly 3 years ago I discovered a new database that literally changed my life. I know, that’s a pretty bold claim, but it’s true. While leading the engineering team at OpenSky I faced a problem I was well familiar with. How to build a e-commerce product that: 1. Provided performance and scale 2. Handled many verticals and 3. Provided proper indexing on key attributes. In search for a better solution to this problem I encountered MongoDB. I soon experienced a realization that not only was MongoDB the solution to my e-commerce challenge, but fundamentally would change the way all…

  • NoSQL databases and Managing Big Data

    Steve Francia
    8 May 2012 | 10:55 am
    I had the unique opportunity to present at the annual technology forum Insight Venture Partners holds for their portfolio companies. Over 100 CTOs gathered in NYC to hear from great presenters from companies like 10gen, Tumblr, Shutterstock and Buddy Media. I’ve included a slightly longer version of the presentation given which includes a few slides that I cut out for brevity to fit in the allocated time while still allowing time for questions. Another presentation I gave is similar but takes a broader review on MongoDB, including example schemas, queries and how sharding and…

  • MongoDB, Hadoop and Humongous Data

    Steve Francia
    4 May 2012 | 6:06 pm
    Learn how to integrate MongoDB with Hadoop for large-scale distributed data processing. Using Hadoop’s MapReduce and Streaming you will learn how to do analytics and ETL on large datasets with the ability to load and save data against MongoDB. With support for Hadoop streaming support goes beyond the native Java enabling map reduce to be run in languages like Python and Ruby.     MongoDB, Hadoop and Humongous Data View more presentations from Steve Francia

  • Don’t look now, I’m on DZone

    Steve Francia
    18 Apr 2012 | 3:36 pm
    I’m happy to announce that going forward you’ll be able to read my articles on DZone as well as spf13.com. DZone has invited me to join their MVB program. They describe their program as: DZone’s Most Valuable Blogger program brings together a group of highly talented bloggers, authors, and technologists actively writing about topics of interest to the developer community. These people are recognized in the industry for their contributions and deep technical knowledge on subjects ranging from software design and architecture to programming on a range of platforms including…

  • New personal site powered by GitHub Pages

    Steve Francia
    9 Apr 2012 | 9:18 am
    At 10gen we had new headshots taken recently. I think mine came out great. I took this opporitunity to play with GitHub pages and update http://stevefrancia.com. You should goto http://stevefrancia.com and checkout my new personal page. If you like it, fork it. The entire page is here https://github.com/spf13/spf13.github.com, it being a derivative of https://github.com/weightshift/The-Personal-Page.
 
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    CIO Blogs - Apple Enterprise Now

  • Who Wants To Be CEO, Anyway?

    Tom Kaneshige
    15 May 2012 | 12:45 pm
    As former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson steps down, we are reminded of that fatal flaw shared by tragic Greek heroes, Shakespeare’s Macbeth and modern-day CEOs: hubris.read more

  • Yahoo CEO's Resume Lie Exposes an Ugly Truth

    Tom Kaneshige
    4 May 2012 | 4:22 pm
    What has Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson taught my college-bound nephew who hopes to earn a degree in computer science? Sadly, a lot.read more

  • Cartoon: Consumerization of IT Gets Comical

    Tom Kaneshige
    3 May 2012 | 1:28 pm
    Hey IT, don't let vendors pass you by.read more

  • Is Apple Changing Its Enterprise Tune?

    Tom Kaneshige
    25 Apr 2012 | 1:25 pm
    Even while touting its success in the enterprise, Apple hasn’t publicly courted CIOs or really pushed iPads into companies. But CEO Tim Cook is well-suited to do just that. read more

  • Are Free Smartphone Apps a Bargain?

    Tom Kaneshige
    12 Apr 2012 | 2:32 pm
    You may not have to pay money directly to download most mobile apps, but they can cost you a lot in battery drainage and power inefficiency.read more
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    CIO Blogs - Doing Business in Real Time

  • Startups Where Necessity Defines IT Best Practices

    Michael Hugos
    7 May 2012 | 8:51 pm
    You work on a tight budget where requirements are hard to pin down and they change all the time. And whatever you build has to go into production quickly and be flexible to grow in any number of directions depending on what happens next. How do you handle this challenge? read more

  • A Massively Multiplayer Online Company [and Innovative CIO]

    Michael Hugos
    1 May 2012 | 12:18 am
    What would happen if your company employed game dynamics to keep everybody informed and enthusiastically involved in achieving its business goals? A multi-billion dollar global consumer products company is doing just that. This is an example of the power of game dynamics applied to business. read more

  • Tough Times, Social Technology and the Innovative CIO

    Michael Hugos
    23 Apr 2012 | 9:40 pm
    The combination of tough times plus the spread of social technology makes this a great time for the CIO who has innovative ideas about how to use the latter to respond to the former. Here's an idea to consider. read more

  • Mixing Quality Time with Real Time Connectivity Creates Serious Synergies

    Michael Hugos
    23 Mar 2012 | 1:24 pm
    Sunlight shining on my face woke me up this morning. I was stretched out flat on my back, warm under covers, and so relaxed my legs and arms felt fuzzy. read more

  • Monitoring Employee Performance in Real Time

    Michael Hugos
    29 Feb 2012 | 12:26 am
    Social media and web-based data collection tools allow companies to monitor individual customers in real-time and amass huge amounts of data about their habits and preferences. What if they started amassing similar data about the habits and effectiveness of their employees? read more
 
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    CIO Blogs - Mobile WorkHorse

  • Check It: One in Ten Adults Check-In on Foursquare, LBS?

    Al Sacco
    11 May 2012 | 1:23 pm
    Roughly one in five adult smartphone users "check-in" on location-bases services (LBS), including the popular foursquare location-sharing site, and one in ten adults use LBS, according to a new report. CIO.com's Al Sacco thinks those numbers are dubious. Here's why.read more

  • BlackBerry, TomTom Deal is RIM Strategic Shift in Action

    Al Sacco
    8 May 2012 | 11:31 am
    RIM's appointment of new marketing and operations executives is certainly noteworthy, but the real news is the BlackBerry-maker's partnership with maps and traffic company TomTom, according to CIO.com's Al Sacco. Here's why.read more

  • BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha Smartphone: Tech Specs and Details

    Al Sacco
    1 May 2012 | 7:29 am
    CIO.com's Al Sacco provides a partial technical specifications list and some general thoughts on RIM's BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha smartphone, the first handheld that runs RIM's brand new BlackBerry 10 mobile OS.read more

  • Enterprises Can Now Test Prerelease BlackBerry Software

    Al Sacco
    25 Apr 2012 | 8:53 am
    RIM's new BlackBerry Beta Zone for Business lets enterprises test beta BlackBerry software, to help those businesses prepare for software releases and improve future products.read more

  • Note to Android Handset Makers: We Want Removable Batteries

    Al Sacco
    24 Apr 2012 | 9:00 am
    The latest wave of high-end Android handhelds packs a variety of cool new features and speedy, 4G wireless connections, but most of the handsets suffer from the same universal problem: Poor battery life. An unfortunate trend has Android smartphone makers building many new devices with fixed batteries that can't be removed, in an effort to slim down already-trim gadgets.read more
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    CIO Blogs - Movers and Shakers

  • CIO Changes at J&J, Burger King and Western Union

    Martha Heller
    8 May 2012 | 8:10 am
    Executive recruiting specialist Martha Heller shares updates on some of the most noteworthy recent CIO shifts.read more

  • The Product CIO

    Martha Heller
    3 Apr 2012 | 10:22 am
    Spring seems to be the season for big CIO moves at companies like Starbucks, the New York Times, Jet Blue and Southwest Airlines.read more

  • Hail to the Women CIOs!

    Martha Heller
    29 Feb 2012 | 11:00 pm
    When I last checked the stats, a mere nine percent of CIOs were women. If today’s Movers & Shakers report is a sign, that number may be growing (or the women in that nine percent are really moving and shaking). read more

  • Fortune 500 CIO Activity

    Martha Heller
    10 Jan 2012 | 1:48 pm
    We have some major CIO hiring activity among Fortune 500 companies with new appointments at American Airlines, Xerox and Caterpillar.  In each case, the new CIO will be stepping into the shoes of executives who have been with their companies for many years.  John Heller has been with Caterpillar for 38 years; John McDermott has been at Xerox for 10, and Monte Ford has been with Ameread more

  • CIOs wanted for business intelligence

    Martha Heller
    6 Dec 2011 | 9:18 am
    “Data, data everywhere, and not a drop to manage.”  Please don’t let my botched modification of the wonderful Coleridge quote, scare you away from this latest blog post on CIOs and their careers.read more
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    CIO.com - Blog

  • How to Address Cloud Application Lifecycle Challenges

    7 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Taking an agile approach to the application lifecycle in a hybrid cloud environment means moving beyond the one-and-done method of V2C conversions and embracing DevOps. Getting development and operations to collaborate means linking resource, configuration, and cloud management.

  • CIOs' Cloud Strategy Must Include Public Cloud Services

    25 Apr 2012 | 11:00 pm
    For all the apprehension they may bring, public clouds demand a position in the enterprise IT strategy. CIO.com columnist Bernard Golden explains how CIOs and business leaders can make their peace with the public cloud, and how it's not incompatible with the much-revered private cloud.

  • Cloud Computing Done the Netflix Way

    4 Apr 2012 | 11:00 pm
    What can Netflix teach enterprises about data center operations and always-on reliability? Netflix is a consumer-facing Web shop with only a few applications--a completely different infrastructure challenge, right? Wrong. CIO.com's Bernard Golden explains the lessons to be learned from Netflix's data center transformation.

  • Dell Buys Wyse to Continue Evolution to "Not Really a PC Company"

    1 Apr 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Michael Dell wants to change the perception of the Dell brand to extend beyond the PCs, and buying Wyse grows Dell to do just that.

  • Cloud Computing Calls for Rebuilding Enterprise IT

    20 Mar 2012 | 11:00 pm
    For all of the buzz about cloud computing, there remains confusion about its real implications for an IT organization. CIO.com's Bernard Golden argues that to take full advantage of the cost savings and efficiency improvements of the cloud, CIOs have to rethink their approach to IT.
 
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    CIO.com - Careers

  • Tech Managers aren't Doing a Good Job Developing IT Talent: Survey

    14 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Tech managers need to do a better job developing talent, IT pros say. There's too much judgment and not enough instruction, according to new poll data from Dice.com.

  • Resume Copy; Writing in IT Terms

    13 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Perhaps you see your IT resume as a way to get a job interview. That's the goal when we send out our resumes, after all. But thinking about resumes that way doesn't really help you determine how to prepare one.

  • Faking IT: 5 Executives Who Lied in Their Resumes

    13 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Poor Scott Thompson. Just when his plan of revamping Yahoo was gaining steam, the falsified resume (or "Resume-Gate" as it shall forever be known) cut short his stint as CEO. In spite of the "lie" being of an inconsequential nature -- Thompson's resume claimed he had a degree in Computer Science when he didn't - Thompson will now have to add "ex-CEO, Yahoo" on his resume.

  • Can a New Analyst Firm Take Down Gartner?

    10 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    For more than 30 years, Gartner has dominated the IT analyst market. CIO.com columnist Rob Enderle sees Ombud, a new analyst firm focusing on social CRM and pulling member profiles from LinkedIn, as a viable challenge to a firm founded before there were even PCs.

  • IT Workers Are Happy, But Will Still Leave for Something Better

    9 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Despite overall satisfaction with their current job situation, IT workers still show a readiness to jump ship when the next best thing comes along.
 
 
 
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    CIO Blogs

  • iPod Owners: Did You Know You're Suing Apple?

    Bill Snyder
    15 May 2012 | 3:35 pm
    Apple has been hit with a class action suit by iPod owners saying that the company has made it unfairly difficult to play songs if they haven't been purchased on iTunes. Unless you opt out, you're part of the suit.read more

  • Who Wants To Be CEO, Anyway?

    Tom Kaneshige
    15 May 2012 | 12:45 pm
    As former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson steps down, we are reminded of that fatal flaw shared by tragic Greek heroes, Shakespeare’s Macbeth and modern-day CEOs: hubris.read more

  • Why the New '.Secure' Domain Idea is a Dud

    Constantine von Hoffman
    15 May 2012 | 11:08 am
    A proposed new ".secure" Internet domain designed to secure websites and ease Web surfers' security concerns is a novel idea, but your online security is ultimately your own responsibility, according to CIO.com blogger Constantine von Hoffman.read more

  • Windows 8 Tablets Due in November: Should You Wait It Out?

    Shane ONeill
    14 May 2012 | 3:46 pm
    Tablets and tablet/laptop hybrids running Windows 8 and Intel chips will be here for the holidays. Despite many challenges in the tablet market, a beautifully designed Windows 8 hybrid device could be a game-changer.read more

  • Why I’m Resisting the Post-PC Revolution

    James A. Martin
    14 May 2012 | 11:44 am
    In 2010, not long after the iPad’s debut, Steve Jobs famously said the tech world was transitioning to an era in which PCs would be like trucks and mobile devices would be like cars. In the “post PC” era, computers would do the occasional heavy lifting but mobile gadgets would be our day-to-day devices, Jobs said.read more
 
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    CIO.com - CIO Role

  • Five Things CIO's Should Know About Big Data

    13 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Big data analysis got its start from the large Web service providers such as Google, Yahoo and Twitter, which all needed to make the most of their user generated data. But enterprises will big data analysis to stay competitive, and relevant, as well.

  • Can Google Apps Unseat Microsoft Office and Exchange?

    7 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    The BYOD phenomenon and the need to collaborate with mobile users and international subsidiaries led New England Biolabs to weigh a switch from Microsoft Office and Exchange Server to Google Apps. The results of their proof-of-concept testing surprised many, including the CIO.

  • IBM on Path to Cut Internal Apps by 85%

    6 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    IBM has reduced the number of applications it uses internally by 70%, but that's not enough for CIO Jeanette Horan.

  • Turning Long Demands Into a Short List

    6 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    IT is under pressure to get more agile in its delivery methods and pursue flexible prioritization strategies to work with, not against, the burgeoning needs of the business.

  • IT Needs to Aspire and Really Make a Difference

    6 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    IT leaders deploying today's transformational technologies can do so resignedly or aspirationally. Only one approach can really make a difference for the business.
 
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    CIO.com - Project Management

  • Five Things CIOs Should Know About Big Data

    10 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    You may not think you have petabytes of data worth analyzing, but you will, if you don't already. CIO magazine breaks down the 5 things CIOs need to know, now.

  • Kicking Waterfall Project Management Habits Requires Agility

    10 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Things that won't die are great for the movies, but bad ideas that won't go away can really hurt cloud projects. Unfortunately, management likes classic, counterproductive waterfall project management and binary go-live deployments for cloud projects.

  • Using Pair Programming Practices in Code Inspections

    8 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    If the dynamics of code inspections have changed in the past three decades, how should we inspect now? Matt Heusser suggests that pair programming principles could provide some, but not all, of the answers.

  • How to Address Cloud Application Lifecycle Challenges

    7 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Taking an agile approach to the application lifecycle in a hybrid cloud environment means moving beyond the one-and-done method of V2C conversions and embracing DevOps. Getting development and operations to collaborate means linking resource, configuration, and cloud management.

  • 10 Predictions for What the CIO Role Will Look Like in 2020

    2 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    CIOs can expect their jobs to change dramatically by the end of the decade. Expect an increased role in everything from business planning and cybersecurity to robot management and, of course, the cloud.
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    CIO.com - Research & Analysis

  • PC Users Admit to Pirating Software--$63 Billion Worth of It

    14 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Software trade association reports that surging PC usage in emerging markets contributed to the economic losses from piracy; more than half of respondents to new survey admit that they pirate software at least occasionally.

  • Does the HP Folio 13 Ultrabook Succeed in Business?

    14 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Hewlett-Packard bills its HP Folio 13 as an ultrabook built for businesses. CIO.com's Paul Mah takes a look at the HP Folio 13's specifications, usability and security.

  • 5 Key Interop 2012 Takeaways for CIOs and Other IT Pros

    13 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    As everything from application delivery to security and monitoring is seemingly shifting to the cloud, IT faces a chaotic and difficult to manage world. The good news is the tools are there, but you just can't go to a single provider as you did in the past. Given this shift, it's no surprise that Interop returned to its interoperability roots last week.

  • The Consumerization of IT and BYOD Guide

    10 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    BYOD (Bring You Own Device) promises many benefits such as greater innovation, better work-life balance and improved productivity, but it also increases pressure on IT to manage and secure devices and data. Keep up on the latest consumerization of IT news and research on CIO.com.

  • Five Things CIOs Should Know About Big Data

    10 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    You may not think you have petabytes of data worth analyzing, but you will, if you don't already. CIO magazine breaks down the 5 things CIOs need to know, now.
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    The Cutter Blog

  • Beyond Big Agile: Theories of Management

    John Heintz
    8 May 2012 | 7:28 am
    Big Agile is “agile as far as the eye can see.” It is not “one Big Agile organization.” The distinction becomes clear when you consider the context of size: team versus whole organization. While it is certainly possible, and desirable, for a company as a whole to be influenced by agile practices and principles, that doesn’t mean that agile alone can make a whole company move more quickly and easily. Agile, as both a theory of management and of software engineering, is tuned very well for one to several teams of individuals working closely together. Beyond that…

  • Selecting Leaders: Leadership Husbandry

    Robert Charette
    24 Apr 2012 | 10:06 am
    We believe leadership is just as much a definable science as management. What has made this notion difficult for most people to grasp is that leadership is seen as being something someone is born with (or not). In addition, management appears more “concrete” to people than leadership. Management is something that they can get their hands around because it is largely about following a set of defined processes. We would argue that most C-suite executives are selected on their management skills, not their leadership skills, which is why there is a dearth of leadership across both…

  • Keeping the Innovation in Agile

    James Robertson
    10 Apr 2012 | 9:54 am
    Quite a few clients report that agile is anti-innovation. The developers have a vested interest in developing whatever they can produce within the allowable time. They are rewarded for maintaining the velocity of the project, not for their innovative solutions. Note that innovation, as we use the term here, means fresh thinking. We do not mean that innovation is the same as invention — it’s not. Innovation is thinking differently about the business problem with the intention of finding more beneficial things for the business to do. User stories that are not based on real business…

  • Understanding Resilience

    Brian Dooley
    27 Mar 2012 | 10:20 am
    A resilient organization aligns its strategy, operations, management systems, governance structure, and decision support capabilities so that it can adjust to continually changing risks, rebound from disruptions of any type including those that involve primary earnings drivers, and create advantages both through ability to respond and through beneficial changes brought about by absorbing new learning. It should be able to withstand the widest range of threats, including natural disaster, hazardous economic and market conditions, fraudulent employee behavior, IT infrastructure failure,…

  • ITIL: Handicap, Booster or Poison for IT Operational Excellence?

    Christine Generali
    21 Mar 2012 | 11:26 am
    In IT circles, ITIL projects induce feelings of both love and hate. While the IT landscape has many successful ITIL implementations, that landscape is also littered with cost overruns, frustrated IT staff that couldn’t focus on immediate customer demands, and dissatisfied end users whose business “technology” needs were put on hold pending completion of the ITIL projects. The June 2012 Cutter IT Journal with Guest Editor Bill Keyworth, seeks to identify how ITIL can be used effectively to satisfy the customer goals of IT service management and how IT operations can balance…
 
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    IT Management and Strategy

  • Leadership Lessons from Scott Thompson's short tenure at Yahoo!

    13 May 2012 | 12:03 pm
    All Things D is now reporting that Scott Thompson is out as the CEO at Yahoo!  This marks the end to a really ugly week of events unfolding for...

  • Entrekin's Theorem

    10 May 2012 | 10:23 am
    Main Theorem "In any given technology project, there is no such thing as a technology problem.  There are only human problems."   Corollary 1 Unless we are severely resource constrained, we are typically only limited by o...

  • What's all the excitement about Big Data?

    9 May 2012 | 5:14 pm
    Over the last few months, I've noticed a new trend coming through my RSS Reader:  Big Data.  Every day it seems that there are a few posts that flash across with that meme featured in either the post title, or in the summary.  I'll be honest, I pretty much let them go.  I had ...

  • Online Video Demos are now available for PPM Litecycle - the Open Source PPM, ALM, IT Governance, Workflow Software

    2 May 2012 | 7:24 am
    Online demos are available which can be used to review the capabilites of PPM Litecycle; a potential all-in-one, IT Project Initiation to Deployment,, Governance software application with built in Workflow Management. For the demos: http://ppmlitecycle.com And if you like what you see, sign up for a free trial of the software at : http://0337a70.netsolhost.com/ppmtrial.html This is the only software to work across the entire Project - Release - Deployment spectrum. And it even aids the configuration management domain.

  • Action and Reflection

    1 May 2012 | 1:39 pm
    Lately I find it harder and harder to step back and reflect on what we are doing.  I get so caught up in the inertia of big projects and day-to-day activities and fire-fights that there's not enough time to step back and see things in a disinterested way.   The work cult...
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    Content Vault

  • Speech & Sound: The Next "Killer Paradigm Shift"..?

    AdrianB
    16 May 2012 | 5:14 am
    There was a time, not so very long ago, when IT directors and chief information officers dismissed the Internet as something of a passing fad. Somehow though, things took off pretty well with the whole web thing didn't they? Mobile telephony has also grown to a level of dominance that we could never have predicted when it first started appearing around 30-years ago.Then came the tablet... just another fad right? Well, the first few were, but then "Magic Steve" produced the tablet we all love and cherish didn't he? (OK yes - I know Android is doing well in this space too, you don't need to…

  • Is Cloud Bursting not ready for Prime Time?

    Christian
    16 May 2012 | 2:29 am
    Earlier today I ran into an article from Arthur Cole, titled: “Cloud Bursting not ready for Prime Time”, arguing you cannot really do cloud bursting in practice. Now, what cloud bursting is he talking about? As I pointed out in another blog entry “Cloud computing: 1 concept, 3 types and 2 business models”, we need to be very precise when we talk about cloud. There are actually two concepts hidden behind the term cloud bursting: Provision a service using infrastructure resources provided by an external cloud. When you provision a service and your private cloud is running…

  • How Toy Story 2 Was Almost Accidentally Destroyed (And Why We Desperately Need CIOs)

    Ron Stauffer
    16 May 2012 | 1:15 am
    This short video shows how the movie Toy Story 2 was almost completely deleted from a server during production at Pixar Studios. This story shows exactly why CIOs are desperately needed, and worth every penny (the figure given says it would have taken nearly 40,000 man-hours to re-create the footage if it had been lost).Only a fluke (and, incidentally, a MAJOR security breach) ended up saving the film. Pixar was extremely lucky, yet there are so many things that went wrong. Everything could have been prevented with proper policies and procedures in place. The lack of a contingency plan and…

  • Converting legacy apps into converged cloud, how is existing IT integrated into cloud

    jdodge
    15 May 2012 | 1:23 pm
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNvToFn8O7M HP chief cloud technologist Christina Verstraete explains to Enterprise CIO Forum community manager John Dodge which apps stay in existing IT and which head for the cloud. How are IT and the cloud integrated? Do you use have to use a proprietary cloud or any cloud you want?Follow John Dodge on Twitter.

  • Real IT managers speak out about management and measurement

    myles.suer
    15 May 2012 | 1:22 pm
    Real IT managers speak out about management and measurement Last week I participated in two roundtables attended by customers in healthcare and public sector. The topic for both was IT management and, in particular, a discussion around what one area would you like improve in your organization in terms of management and measurement. A number of the comments coming from this question were fascinating, because they illuminate what many in IT are going through right now.  Improving IT service delivery without adding cost It was especially enlightening to hear about the depth of cuts taking…
 
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    News

  • Unnecessary wireless expenses waste bundles

    ccarlson
    13 May 2012 | 7:23 pm
    Last week in this space I wrote about a number of energy-saving initiatives at the restaurant chain Shari's, which had identified electricity, gas and water as operational expenses that could withstand some efficiency improvements. For many organizations, there may be a lot less room for reducing expenses when it comes to turning down the lights, the heat or the water flow, but recent research suggests that the average company could save a bundle by cutting back on wasteful mobility spending. By analyzing billing statements from carriers, mobile device management data, wireless…

  • How your job might look in 2020

    ccarlson
    13 May 2012 | 3:04 pm
    The job of CIO today entails many different challenges than it did a decade ago, including dealing with cloud computing and advanced security threats, and it's certain that the coming decade will change the role even further. For 10 predictions on the nature of the CIO role in 2020, take a look at a post by John Brandon at CIO magazine. The most noticeable change may be that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is no longer necessarily at the heart of enterprise IT.  Mobility is transforming the way employees work, and the CIO will have to focus increasingly on providing an…

  • Outsourcing contracts aren't getting any easier

    ccarlson
    13 May 2012 | 2:59 pm
    Despite the maturity of the outsourcing market, IT services contracts haven't become any easier, according to lawyers who specialize in these agreements, reports Stephanie Overby at CIO magazine. Years of experience among customers and suppliers and the rise of standardized cloud-based services may be responsible for the growing complexity of contracts. As customers become more savvy, they are looking for greater value in outsourcing, and they are also looking to outside providers to do more complex work. According to a report by KPMG, 41 percent of outsourcing lawyers say that…

  • CUNA Mutual's CIO also heads up procurement

    ccarlson
    13 May 2012 | 2:52 pm
    With increasing frequency, we're coming across CIOs who run not only IT but also another major aspect of their companies. This is the case at CUNA Mutual Group, where Rick Roy serves as CIO as well as chief of procurement, real estate, physical security and facilities, writes InformationWeek's Chris Murphy. IT and procurement have a number of things in common, according to Roy, beginning with the less-than-warm welcome the two departments tend to receive when intervening in the business units. "We [in procurement] do run the risk of showing up on someone's doorstep with a…

  • How CFOs really feel about BYOD

    ccarlson
    13 May 2012 | 2:45 pm
    CIOs are being pressured from all corners to embrace the BYOD phenomenon--with the exception, perhaps, of the corner office taken up by the CFO. In a contrarian look at iPads and other consumer devices in the workplace, David Rosenbaum makes the case that personal devices don't always lead to increased productivity or profitability. The popularity of tablets and smartphones--Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) tablets and smartphones, in particular--can't be denied. What's more, BYOD can help lower the capital expenditure on equipment and maintenance, Rosenbaum notes in a post at CFO…
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    Plato's Revenge

  • A great team

    Plato's Revenge
    24 Apr 2012 | 6:10 pm
    The other day I caught up with some of my old team and some old colleagues. I was pleasantly surprised how many times I was told that they missed me. Not just to be nice, but they genuinely seemed to indicate that they felt that things ran better when I was there. Not only operationally but also with respect to the team atmosphere. Yes, I am proud what I was able to achieve with the team over the years. Of course this was not just my own doing and I must say that the CTO that I worked with for a long period of that time was crucial to this as well. We both worked well as a team which had its…

  • Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) - mutual benefits requires mutual trust and responsibilities

    Plato's Revenge
    13 Jan 2012 | 5:39 pm
    BYOD is all about the mutual benefits (WIIFM) for the organisation on the one hand and the employee on the other hand.We change from personal computing to personalised computing. Companies have started implementations of a BYOD strategy. There are a variety of reasons why you would want to do this: Young people have grown up with personal computing at school and at home. They expect their new employer to be flexible in that respect and meet their individual demands. A corporate provided device might not be as powerful and up to date as what employees have at home and expect to be available at…

  • Microsoft, ultrabooks, BYOD and the battle for the business-consumer devices market

    Plato's Revenge
    4 Dec 2011 | 3:47 am
    Apple has gained much market share with its iPads. People enjoy the power of a light and easy to carry device and have the power of the web at hand without the size limitations of the smart phones. However a key criticism for many is that though it is good for information consumption and communication, it is not well suited for data entry and information processing. The new ultrabooks with which also Apple set the trend with its MacBook Air, are a good alternative. A laptop that is easy to use and easy to carry around. I expect that the big thing for the future will be a powerful tablet that…

  • Why IT Managers are getting tired of "the Cloud"

    Plato's Revenge
    31 Oct 2011 | 6:41 pm
    I noticed recently that CIO's and IT professionals will roll their eyes when you mention the word "cloud" as if they had enough of the term and the hype around it. Though most of us all acknowledge that these new technologies and services provide great opportunities, in general most feel that the term is overused and that in many cases reality is not as simple as vendors seem to make it be. What the CIO's and IT professionals see is that the world goes around in circles and that they need to explain the hidden complexities of the reality of cloud computing. And this is not easy. How foggy is…

  • How I promoted agile and the cloud a long time ago

    Plato's Revenge
    3 Oct 2011 | 6:22 pm
    The other day I ran into an old article that I wrote in 1997 for the magazine "Informatie" in the Netherlands and for some reason, I also had an English translated version. The contents is still actual today, so I thought I publish this article here. The magazine does not exist anymore, so I hope that the publisher doesn't mind since it is now over 10 years old. The first thing you will notice is that my English has improved over the years (I hope so!).This English version was never published and it seems to be more like a draft, but I left it as I found it even though it is a bit long…
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    Eric D. Brown's Technology, Strategy, People & Projects

  • Is IT & the CIO set up for failure?

    Eric D. Brown
    15 May 2012 | 4:21 pm
    This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP. A new video over on the Enterprise CIO Forum with Bill Laberis in apost titled Are we setting CIOs up for failure?. Bill’s video is embedded below for your viewing. Its short but asks a good question – Are we setting the CIO up for failure? So…are we setting CIOs up for failure? Bill thinks the answer is “Yes”. He points to all the things that a CIO is now being asked to do as proof…and says that the future CIO (and IT) must step away from a good portion of IT operations and put more focus on…

  • Links for May 13 2012

    Eric D. Brown
    13 May 2012 | 6:16 pm
    Don’t Underestimate the Quiet Ones by Mary Jo Asmus on Aspire-CS Quote: In the end, we need all kinds of people in leadership. Don’t overlook those who are quieter than the rest. Get to know them, understand their strengths and determine whether your assumptions are correct. You might be pleasantly surprised at what the quiet can do for your organization when they are encouraged to lead. The Diffusion of the Consumerization of IT by Jim Harris on OCDQ Blog Quote: From my perspective, traditional IT departments are just now crossing the chasm of the diffusion of the consumerization of…

  • Foto Friday – Old Faithful

    Eric D. Brown
    11 May 2012 | 4:30 pm
    From the archives: I shot the heck out of old-faithful erupting and got lucky with this shot and got the rainbow I was hoping for. Captured with Canon 5D and Canon 24-105 L. See more photos in my flickr photostream and/or my Zenfolio portfolio (where you can buy images). If you like my photography, feel free to support my addiction habit by visiting Adorama (affiliate link) to purchase new or used photographic gear. Or, if you are interested in renting gear before buying, try out my favorite camera, lens and gear rental site -  Borrowlenses.com (affiliate link) -…

  • More on Shadow IT…

    Eric D. Brown
    10 May 2012 | 2:34 pm
    This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP. Martin Davis wrote a nice piece titled Is Consumerization of IT” really “Shadow IT” in disguise? where he asks a really great question….Is Consumerization of IT (which is something many people are talking about today) just another version of Shadow IT? I’ve written about Shadow IT many times in the past and will most likely continue to write about it in the future. In this article, Martin writes: CIOs have long battled against Shadow IT and how to prevent, control, deal with or remove it. The…

  • The Marginalization of Employees

    Eric D. Brown
    8 May 2012 | 2:56 pm
    Does your team and/or coworkers know they are important to the organization? How do they know they are important? Did someone tell them? Or…do they just “know” they are? Maybe a combo of both perhaps? Regardless of how, if you /your team / your coworkers feel important to your organization, someone is doing something right. Take a look at this ‘welcome’ letter that’s reportedly given to Apple employees on their first day: HT: http://www.rescuemarketing.com/blog/2012/05/08/swim-in-the-deep-end/ Whether that is a real letter or not is beside the point.
 
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