IT Job Descriptions and
Salary Data Latest News
November 20th, 2008
- 01:21 PM
Vista's Acceptance Trails XPs Acceptance by over 50% in the First 24 Months
In the
first 23 months after its release, Vista only has 17.32% of the operating system
market. That is in sharp contrast
to the history of Windows XP which had 37.05% of the market 23 months after its
initial release. A full study has
been released by Janco Associates, Inc.
More information can be found at http://www.e-janco.com/VistaMarketShare.html
more info
November 11th, 2008
- 12:34 PM
Disaster Plan In China
 Natural
disasters occur frequently in China, affecting more than 200 million people
every year. In 1998, the direct economic loss exceeded 300 billion RMB. Natural
disasters have become an important restricting factor for economic and social
development. The Chinese government devotes great attention to disaster
reduction and has achieved significant results through efforts over 40 years. In
China, the study of disasters has entered a phase of rapid development since the
mid to late 1980s and has resulted in some important
achievements.
The theoretical study and practice of
reaction to natural disasters has many problems, and there is a large
gap in comparison with the level of disaster
emergency management of developed countries.
-
Work on government emergency
management is primitive, and inconsistent with theoretical studies
and technology. The management level of
different governmental organizations is not balanced.
-
Propaganda and education on disaster
emergencies are insufficient.
-
The level of theory and practice for
various classes of disaster is different.
-
The management of natural disaster
emergencies is different in various regions. The level of study and
management in regions with relative developed
economies or frequent occurrence of disasters is higher than that in regions with relatively undeveloped
economies.
-
There is no comprehensive law for
manage disaster reduction across the whole
country.
more info
October 24th, 2008
- 06:34 AM
China Rips Off the West's Intellectual Property and Complains
China
continues to “rip-off” the intellectual property of the West and then complains
about efforts by the owners of that property when the owner point out that theft
be it music, video, or software.
Case is point the recent launch by Microsoft of its “black-screen” update
as part of the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA).
 
Microsoft
announced that anti-piracy software would be automatically installed on users'
computers through a routine Internet-based updated mechanism. If a computer
fails a validation test, the desktop changes to a plain black background when
the computer is restarted.
Users will
be able to reset the black background to any wallpaper or another color but the
screen reverts to black every hour until a genuine copy of Windows is installed
and validates.
A Beijing
lawyer, described Microsoft "as the biggest hacker in China with its intrusion
into users' computer systems without their agreement or any judicial
authority".
The attorney filed a complaint with the Ministry of Public
Security on Sunday. He told the China Daily: "Microsoft's measure will cause
serious functional damage to users' computers and, according to China's Criminal
Law, the company can stand accused of breaching and hacking into computer
systems of Chinese."
more info
October 22nd, 2008
- 06:50 AM
Electonic Software Delivery - Wave of the Future
Electronic
software delivery (ESD) offers software companies significant business benefits
and as a result nearly all software companies have moved to offer electronic
delivery as the preferred method for delivery of their products.
The
benefits of ESD can only be realized by software companies that are able to
provide successful and consistent downloads, a task that can be challenging
given the inherent bottlenecks and unpredictability within the Internet. Poor
download performance in turn leads to high user abandonment and low take-up
rates for electronic delivery, greatly hampering the return on investment for
ESD.
 
more info
October 17th, 2008
- 03:03 PM
Password Implementations Frustrate Users
 In
a recent survey of IT professionals, it was found that:
-
Users flet there were too many
passwords - Over 50% of all enterprises said the average
employee in their firm was required to remember three to five passwords,
with an additional 26 percent saying the number ranges from six to ten or
more; 16 percent of "power users" reported having over 100
passwords.
-
Passwords required too often - 49
percent responded that employees are required to use passwords more than 25
times per week, with 8 percent stating the number of password uses exceed 100
per week.
-
Unprotected passwords - 66
percent stated that employees write down or store passwords in unsafe places,
creating a security problem for their
companies.
more info
October 10th, 2008
- 12:28 AM
Change Management Defined
 Determining which
of an IT organization's thousands of changes are authorized - and which are not
- is what IT Service Management is all about. A good change management system
has change reconciliation capabilities which enable IT organizations to
institute a variety of manual and automated techniques to identify appropriate
changes and unauthorized changes that may negatively affect enterprise
compliance, security, or service quality.
Detailed
change information enables IT organizations to quickly ascertain:
-
Who
made a particular change
-
When a
particular change occurred
-
Which
maintenance release was a particular change delivered
-
Whether
the change matches a change previously detected and approved in a QA
environment
-
Whether
the change corresponds with an approved change ticket
By delivering detailed change
information to the appropriate staff members, a world class IT Service
Management System allows enterprise to match approved, expected changes with
actual changes - to validate authorized upgrades or releases. Integration with
change ticketing systems can automate the reconciliation process, triggering
appropriate actions when change is detected.
more info
September 30th, 2008
- 12:28 PM
IT Service Management is Key Challenge Faced by CIOs
In todayÂ’s environment, companies in multiple industries are
looking for ways to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. Bigger slices
of the budget are spent on delivering better service and collecting more
relevant metrics with the expectation of more loyal customers and improved
financial performance. The goal is clear: Achieve market-share advantage by
delivering better support.
Companies are building out their support capabilities by
progressively earmarking more resources and budget line items for service
delivery (currently over 66 percent of global service and support budgets), and
it is vital that potential consumers and enterprise customers gain confidence in
your service and support practices before making purchasing
decisions.
If you build it, they wonÂ’t necessarily come - at least not
without some effort on your part -three ways to make better service translate
into market-share advantage:
-
Understand your customers. It is essential to
keep current with the business environments of your customers as it directly
affects your bottom line.
-
Increase visibility of great service.
Increase your ROI for service and support not only by delivering great service
and winning customer satisfaction, but by making better service more visible
through media relations (e.g., press releases, articles, customer success
stories, case studies and other external
communications).
more info
September 24th, 2008
- 02:20 PM
Post Disaster Assessment - Questions to Ask
After the disaster occurs what are the questions
that need to be asked to assess the impact of a disaster on a business from
both a financial and physical (infrastructure) perspective:
-
How many/much of the organization's resources could be
lost?
-
What are the total costs?
-
What efforts are required to rebuild?
-
How long will it take to recover?
-
What is the impact on the overall
organization?
-
How are customers affected, what is the impact on
them?
-
How much will it affect the share price and market
confidence?
more info
September 17th, 2008
- 10:49 AM
Politicians Address Communication Issues the Same Way
 The memories of 9/11, hurricanes, and other
disasters remain vivid, including the inability of emergency services to
communicate effectively.
Looking
ahead to the election of a president less than two months from now. Both
Senators McCain's and Obama's homeland security plans pay attention to
communications, and in much the same language. McCain says his administration
will provide first responders with additional spectrum and develop an
interoperable emergency communications system. Obama will increase technical
assistance to first responders, fund systems and accelerate the turnover of
broadcast spectrum. Cross-agency communication, especially when it is not common
and is instituted when the technical and human stress is at its zenith, is
understandably difficult. It is vital, though.
more info
September 3rd, 2008
- 10:38 AM
VoIP Sector Set To Zoom
The
mobile VoIP sector, which has languished to a certain extent - perhaps because
some of the procedures are confusing - is heating up. BusinessWeek
does a good job of summing up the situation from the consumer point of view. The
bottom line is that a lot of providers - including Jajah, iCall, Gorilla
and Truphone - are lining up to serve customers. At the same time, the
piece does a good job of describing the confusion. In addition to the fact that
there is more than one way to provide service, device manufacturers and carriers
aren't totally ambivalent. Half Life Source reported that Skype, the most
recognizable provider of third-party VoIP phone software, has begun beta testing
a Java-based version of its mobile software. The use of cell to make VoIP calls
makes too much sense not to find wide use. The story cites several analysts'
reports. ON World says that last year there were 7 million people making mobile
VoIP calls. That number will grow to 100 million by 2011.
more info
August 15th, 2008
- 10:54 AM
iPhone May Make In Roads With The Enterprise Market
A global
banking conglomerate HSBC is taking a hard look at using the iPhone 3G over its
current BlackBerry devices. This could mean the purchase of 200,000 iPhones
globally and be a first step by Apple to meet its goal of penetrating the
enterprise market. HSBC is reviewing the iPhones from a HSBC enterprise
perspective – they have approximately 330,000 employees globally.
One issue
that keeps on popping up is the “closed architecture” of the iPhone. Many companies are concerned that Apple
continues to offer solutions that are not open and under the control of one
company. One CIO cited a quote by
the CEO of Apple in the Wall Street Journal in which he said that Apple has included
a “kill-switch” which they can control remotely.
Apple has
made it a priority with this latest iPhone launch to penetrate large
corporations. The company has worked with Cisco to include corporate VPNs in the
new iPhone as well as support for Microsoft Exchange. A beta program had support
from just over a third of the Fortune 500 companies.
more info
August 6th, 2008
- 03:36 PM
SOA Improves the Productivity of the IT Infrastructure
 The primary benefit of Service-Oriented
Architecture (SOA) is that applications can are built by combining coupled and
interoperable objects, the fact that an object may be widely used throughout the
enterprise by many applications can lead improved productivity and higher
service levels. Without SOA IT
organizations face the following exposures:
-
Poor response times for users and business processes
-
Low productivity of IT staff, systems, and equipment
-
Poor service levels and perception of IT value
-
Missed service levels for critical business functions
-
Noncompliance with industry and government
regulations
-
Security breaches
-
Inadequate service management
-
Governance gaps and limitations
-
Testing challenges
Until now, many IT organizations have focused on
managing the infrastructure
as an asset to support
applications and business units. With SOA, the focus shifts towards managing the
services which support business processes and results. SOA changes the role of
the IT infrastructure.
more info
August 1st, 2008
- 09:57 AM
Wireless Fees Ruled as Unfair to Consumers
A judge in California has ruled that Sprint
Nextel's early termination fees are illegal and said the wireless operator
should pay back $18.2 million in collected fees to consumers, a decision that
could help sway decisions on similar cases throughout the country. It is likely that Sprint will appeal the
decision.
 
Verizon
Wireless, which was also being sued in California, has already settled its case,
agreeing to pay $21 million to settle all claims against the company. And after
the decision against Sprint, there's a chance that cases against T-Mobile and
AT&T could also be settled.
Wireless operators impose the fees, which can
be as high as $200 per line, on customers who cancel service before their
contracts have expired. Phone
companies say they must impose these fees to recover the cost of subsidizing
handsets and for guaranteeing low monthly service charges. But consumer
advocates don't buy that argument, and they say the fees are excessive and
restrict customers' ability to switch
services.
Wireless operators say they are adapting their
practices to customers' concerns, and they have begun adjusting their fees to
prorate them so that customers who terminate later in their contract pay less.
Verizon Wireless was the first to offer pro-rated early termination fees. And
now AT&T and T-Mobile offer prorated rates. Sprint Nextel said it will offer
prorated fees later this
year.
more info
July 22nd, 2008
- 09:37 AM
Bush administrations stonewalls congress on seizure of PCs
 Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael
Chertoff has refused to show up for a hearing on possible constitutional
violations of a government program that allows customs officials to search,
seize and/or copy the contents of laptops and smart phones. Under the current program customs
officials can do this even if they have no reasonable suspicion of any criminal
activity.
more info
July 17th, 2008
- 03:27 PM
New CIO Required to Implement SOA
There
is a lot of talk about the viability of the CIO role, but sometimes, a CIO
can make all the difference. And, as it turns out, this is particularly true
with SOA implementations. A new CIO coming on board during a business and IT
reorganization often made the difference between SOA failure and SOA
success
A Cigna
Architecture Director said the company's SOA started four years ago with a
"technical focus mostly based on integration," but within two years, the SOA
implementation had faltered. One big problem: It was seen as "an IT thing." It
took a new CIO to move SOA from "an IT thing" to a "business-enabling
thing."
more info
July 6th, 2008
- 08:25 AM
Why Have a Disaster Plan
  It is impossible to deny how important disaster recovery and
business continuity are in today's digital economy. Without systems in place to
keep applications and data flowing after a natural disaster or other
interruption, an enterprise risks losses that extend far beyond a manufacturing
plant or data center. It is possible to incur ongoing financial problems, damage
to a firm's reputation, and possible regulatory and legal sanctions. In a worst
- case scenario, a company can find its existence threatened.
To be sure, an online retailer cannot conduct business if its e-commerce
application, database and customer records are unavailable. A bank that cannot
dispense money from ATMs and a hospital that cannot access electronic patient
records is at risk - but so too are its customers. Not only can the resulting
damage to a company's reputation lead to lost revenues, it can endanger pubic
health or welfare. And these days, no industry or company is
immune.
more info
July 2nd, 2008
- 04:57 AM
Spam Filters Block Political Bloggers
(Computerworld) Google Inc. has found itself immersed in a
blogger brouhaha after its Blogger subsidiary shut down the postings of several
political bloggers opposing the election of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for
president.
At least seven bloggers who use the Google self-publishing blog
service noted that their sites were shut down last week. The blogs were
reinstated by Monday, and some of the bloggers posted an e-mail apology from
Google.
A blogger who blogs about her support for Sen. Hillary Clinton
for president at a site called Blue Lyon, posted the e-mail apology sent to her
by Google. In the note, Google said that the Blogger spam filters caused some
accounts "to mistakenly be blocked from creating new posts."
Google went on to note that the company believes that the
mistake may have been caused by mass spam e-mails mentioning the Just Say No
Deal network of anti-Obama blogs, which caused Blogger's system to classify the
blog addresses mentioned in the e-mails as spam.
more info
June 11th, 2008
- 11:02 AM
Most Business Are Not Ready For Vista - Economic Downturn Does Not Help
A hardware vendor performed a survey of nearly 145,000 desktop
and laptop PCs within businesses to determine how they compared to MicrosoftÂ’s
recommended hardware requirements for Windows Vista:
 Recommended Minimum
Requirements (Premium-Ready PCs):
- 1 GB RAM
- 1 GHz microprocessor
- 40 GB hard drive
- 15 GB free hard drive space
The survey concluded that:
- 69.5% of machines do not have the required RAM
- 62.4% of machines do not have the required hard
drive
- 18.4% of machines do not have the required free hard drive
space
- 6.7% of machines do not have the required processor
speed
- 79.9% of machines do not meet at least one of the above
listed requirements
- 93.8% of companies have at least one machine that does not
meet the above requirements
more info
May 28th, 2008
- 12:24 PM
Outsourcers Expand US Operations
(Computerworld) Some offshore outsourcers that want
more IT work from companies in the U.S. are expanding their operations here,
with the latest example being Brazilian vendor Politec SA.
Brasilia-based Politec, which has about 7,000
employees and $300 million in annual revenue, currently provides outsourcing
services primarily to companies in Latin America. The vendor has just 50
employees in the U.S. now. But by 2010, it intends to have as many as 800 people
working in development centers in Atlanta, New York and the Miami area, said
Dalton Luz, Politec's vice president of corporate affairs.
In April, Politec received an $80 million
investment commitment from Mitsubishi Corp., and Luz said the financial infusion
is increasing its ability to expand internationally. He added that most of the
people who staff the planned U.S. offices will be hired locally.
Brazil's total outsourcing market is about $8
billion annually, according to the Everest Group, a Dallas-based outsourcing
consulting firm. But the offshore component - meaning services delivered to
companies based outside of Brazil - amounts to only about $700 million,
Everest said. By comparison, the company added, India's offshore market reached
about $40 billion last year. Everest is forecasting that the offshore business
in Brazil will increase to $1.25 billion within two years.
more info
May 23rd, 2008
- 03:47 PM
What Information Do You Need to Implement a Complete Security Plan?
Execurives are getting targeted by "whale phishing" attacks
— malicious e-mails and Web sites designed to coerce them into giving up
valuable personal and business data. How are you going to protect your top
managers? And while you are thinking scary thoughts, have you taken
adequate steps to protect all your employees from the aggressive and adaptive
Storm worm, which exploits e-mail and Web 2.0 vulnerabilities to propagate
spam-churning malware across business networks? And do you have measures in
place to prevent staff from accidentally "leaking" sensitive customer data in
e-mails, a crucial element of compliance with PCI, HIPAA, and global privacy
regulations? What need to know information about whale phishing, the Storm worm,
and e-mail leakage, plus details on a cutting-edge solution that can protect
your staff, executives and data from all three are you
missing?
more info
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