Featured Bloggers
CIO Executive Briefing
Microsoft, Linux Take a Beating in Server Sales
by Mel Duvall
This week researcher IDC came out with its survey of worldwide server
sales for the first quarter of 2009, and not surprisingly, the picture
was ugly. Worldwide server revenues sank 25% in the first quarter of
2009, the biggest quarterly drop IDC has seen in 12 years of tracking
the market.
Mel is the Chief Content Officer of the CIOZone. He is a veteran journalist, having written and edited for daily newspapers, magazines and trade publications for more than 20 years. He is a former senior editor of Baseline magazine and was a senior editor for Inter@ctive Week. Mel has won several awards at the national level, including a Jesse H. Neal journalism award and American Society of Business Publication Editors awards.
Memo to Cybersecurity Chief: Watch Your Back
by Laton McCartney
After a 60-day review of the nation’s cybersecurity program conducted
by Melissa Hathaway, Cybersecurity Chief at the National Security
Council, the President is preparing to name a so-called cybersecurity
coordinator who will direct national security policy from the White
House.
Laton is a former editor-in-chief of InformationWeek. He has also been a top editor at several Ziff Davis publications, including Smart Partner. Laton has written for The Washington Post, Fortune and other national publications. He also the author of a number of books, including the best-seller "Friends in High Places: The Bechtel Story." His latest, "The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country", will be published in February by Random House. (photo by Jeff Vanuga)
Security Blog
CWE Top 25 Breakdown - Part 3 of 4
Michael S. Menefee
Last week we discussed the first 9 (top 9) in the CWE Top 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors. This week, we'll discuss the second 8 on the list, which have been grouped into a category called “Risky Resource Management”.
Michael is the Co-Founder and Principal Consultant for WireHead Security, an Information Security services company located in Raleigh, North Carolina. His professional career has spanned the past 14 years focused on IT Security problems and solutions with a focus on web, browser and mobile-based security threats.
The majority of Michael's time has been spent assessing client environments in multiple market verticles and assisting with the development of in-house security strategies that work. A huge believer in self-remediation and security awareness, Michael also spends time educating his clients on gaining control over their own security infrastructures and implementing Open Source technologies to help lower the cost of containment.
Michael is a Certified Information Systems Security Practitioner) CISSP and the North Carolina OWASP Chapter President.
CIO Awareness Blog
ewaste
by Atefeh Riazi
It turns out we are still dumping a great deal of our e-waste from computers and electronic appliances in China, India, and Africa. In my recent trip to China and India, I saw how kids dismantle these stuff using their hand and chisels. In India they were burning them and young men and women breathing the dioxins generated from the electronics.
Atefeh (Atti) Riazi Senior Partner and Chief Information Officer of Ogilvy and Mather Worldwide, a leading global Marketing and Communications agency with 497 offices in 125 countries supporting more than 2,300 clients. With over 17,000 employees worldwide working in over fifty languages Ogilvy and Mather's client list includes a roster of blue chip brands that include; American Express, BP, DuPont, Ford, SAP, Cisco, IBM, Kodak, Kraft, Motorola and many others.
Forrester's CIO Success Imperatives: A guide for CIO success during the recession
Five Tactics For Riding Out A Recession
by Alex Cullen
Last week, Forrester's resident economist, Andy Bartels, and I engaged in a healthy discussion about the current economic climate and how IT can ride out the current recession.
Driving SOA In A Down Economy
by Randy Heffner
Forrester has a spent considerable time over the past six years digging into what it takes for organizations to achieve real value by building a strong program for service-oriented architecture (SOA). We have analyzed trends in SOA adoption, looked at how organizations can build a successful SOA platform, and defined SOA policy management. We’ve even published a starter kit for SOA. What have we concluded? Many get hung up on the technology and try to justify big investments in SOA itself, but the best strategies for moving to SOA are business-focused, portfolio-based, governed, and incremental.
Scenarios For IT Success In The Downturn
by Bobby Cameron
Recently, Forrester spent some time interacting with IT executives regarding their 2009 budgeting and how the recession is impacting their planning. We'll present the results of these in a complimentary webinar on December 11, but here’s a quick summary of what we heard—and our analysis.
Optimizing Applications and Projects in Volatile Times
by Phil Murphy
The current global economic instability is forcing organizations to make tough decisions: some will cut costs; some will proceed with business-as-usual; while still others will take a predatory stance to gain market share from weakened competitors. However the economic crisis affects your organization, Forrester offers this four-step process to optimize your application and project resources in 2009.
Key IT Roles for Cost Reduction
by Marc Cecere
It seems like every CIO I talk with has or is creating a plan to reduce costs. Whether they’re shooting for a svelte, wiry, emaciated or lean organization, there are a number of common roles that senior IT people say are critical to this goal.
How To Maintain Your Learning Program In A Down Economy
by Claire Schooley
There may be a silver lining to the current state of the global economy after all. The world's economic woes present new opportunities for innovative forms of learning using technology like informal learning, eLearning, and blended learning.
With less money in the budget to work with, learning through technology has become very attractive because strong employee knowledge and skills remain key factors in enhancing a company's ability to compete. If organizations can get people faster to competency without travel costs and losses in productivity, it's a win/win situation.
IT Management Blog
RISK Management - Gartner Says it is Broken and handled poorly in many organizations
by John Stevenson
Gartner - recently published a short update on the status of IT and overall Corporate Risk Management. Bottomline - Risk Management in Companies is receiving increased visibility in these turbulent times. Both natural and man-made issues affecting corporate stability are happening with more frequency and are being publicized. Question for CIOZONE Execs: Do you think Risk Management (either just in IT or across the corporation in general) is broken ? Yes or No If Yes, what should be done to fix it ? If No, what is going right ?
John is a seasoned Chief Information Officer with over 25 years of senior Information Technology executive experience. His broad experience includes key executive assignments in large corporations spanning high technology, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals and manufacturing industries.
Which refuge?
by Robert Lewis
ManagementSpeak: This shouldn’t take you too long.
Translation: I don’t know how long it should take, and I don’t care. Get it done today.
Robert Lewis is president of IT Catalysts, a consultancy specializing in IT organizational effectiveness and strategic business integration. He is an award winning author, having written seven books on IT management topics including Keep the Joint Running: A Manifesto for 21st Century Information Technology.
The Retail IT Blog
Gartner Says Social Networks Are Attracting Too Much Traffic for Retailers to Ignore
by Brian Flagg
A very well written and comprehensive article from Gartner on Social Networking and retailers. Many of the points are valid, if retailers are not utilizing the latest Web 2.0 tools (I really like the Digg.com lab Slack tool), then they will quickly find themselves out of touch with what is being written and read relative to their Brand, and certainly risk losing brand control.
Brian Flagg is a Senior Group Manager at Target Corp. where he leads the Client Support Center. Brian has been a technology leader for 28 years, including 25 years with IBM. He has held many leadership positions including Chair of IBM's Interdivisional Technical Liaison Committee on Database technologies, a member of the IBM Academy of Technology, Program Manager for IBM's Global Help Desk, and his current role of Client Support Center Senior Manager. Brian's contributions in the many blogs in which he participates represent his own views and opinions, based on his many years of experience, and not those of Target Corp.
Redefining The IT Value Proposition
Does your IT Strategy have Strong Fundamentals?
by Sumitro Sarkar
Cutting capital projects and reducing headcount are the most popular means to reduce IT costs. CIOs often fall into this trap and experience a creeping operating cost structure in subsequent years after the cost cut. In my previous blog entry, I had explained this phenomenon in detail. In this one, I will attempt to identify a few types of projects that create “value” in the enterprise i.e. increase the potential for a better operating cost model for the future.
Sumitro Sarkar has 20 years of experience in technology consulting and product strategy. He has served in management and leadership positions in big-five management consulting firms, financial information services and technology product companies. His areas of interest are redefining technology value propositions, resolving bleeding-edge technology myths, using technology to change the rules of business. He holds a BA in Economics and Mathematics (with honors) and an MBA from Delhi, India. He also holds an MBA from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. He also writes the "Is IT Worth It" blog.
Consultant's Corner
Effective Management Through Coaching and Counseling
by Alex Silberman
Coaching and counseling as management skills are often reserved for superb leaders, yet are traits that all managers must possess to effectively do their jobs.
Alex Silberman has been managing diverse, complex problems involving people, processes, technology and an ever changing landscape for 20 years. He has held C-level positions in a variety of fields and is the founder of Chief Information Solutions (www.chiefinfosolutions.com), a management consulting firm headquartered in Millburn, New Jersey.
Focus on Platforms and Programs
Unpredictable Users
by David Carr
Someone, once told me, "The only way to understand user behavior is
to let them behave." Damned if I can find the exact quote, but I think
it was either a Yahoo engineer or one of the web gurus at 37Signals,
whom I know are big believers in the concept.
At any rate, the point was that you can reason out your use cases
and run usability tests, but until you let a large number of people
beat up on your application, you never know quite what they're going to
do.
Dave was most recently the technology editor at Baseline, where he was one of the founding editors. He is a veteran technology journalist recognized for his in-depth features on the systems architectures of such large Internet players as Google and MySpace. In addition to writing and editing, he develops Web sites using PHP, MySQL, and AJAX.
IT Career Coach
Plan, Do, Check, Act
by Margaret Meloni
Can the plan, do, check, act or quality cycle apply to how we manage
ourselves professionally? I think it does. In fact I think that
managing your professional brand or image is really about using the
quality cycle for your own development.
Margaret Meloni heads Meloni Coaching Solutions, which helps Information Technology professionals create career strategies that bring them success and enhance their work experiences. Margaret has more than 18 years experience in Information Technology. During this time Margaret has performed in multiple roles including: senior manager; project management expert; business analyst and programmer analyst. She holds a B.S. in Business Administration and an M.B.A. from California State University, Long Beach. She is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) through the Project Management Institute and an instructor at the University of California in Irvine and the University of California in Los Angeles. A dynamic speaker who combines inspiration, common sense and a dash of humor; Margaret has spoken at technology conferences and events hosted by the Association of Information Technology Professionals; The Project Management Institute and The International Institute of Business Analysis.
IT And The Law Blog
Life, Love and Liberty -- Digital Reality of Electronic Discovery
by Daniel Garrie
Personal and Corporate Responsibility for Searching, Preserving and
Producing Information. In March of this year, a court noted that a
corporation’s failure to adopt appropriation information polices can
results in potentially costly legal sanctions.
Daniel Garrie is a Managing Director for EMI Capital, investing in start-up companies that focus on legal business technologies and digital media assets. He also serves as an eDiscovery Special Master with Alternative Resolutions Centers.
IT Futures
Future Enterprise- The Networked Enterprise
by David Hunter Tow
The enterprise of the future will be driven by a networked
architecture- patterns of linked decision processes- constantly
morphing, reforming and adapting to a continuously changing social and
business environment.
David's professional activities include business consulting, science communications, enterprise forecasting, and green advocacy.
Business Consulting: Director and Principal Consultant of The Australian Software Research Centre- a consultancy with over 30 years experience working with business and Government—specializing in the areas of Knowledge and Decision Engineering. Also author of the Decision Engineering Methodology—providing techniques for measuring and optimizing organizational decision processes.
Science Communication: Science communicator and author- production and presentation of a weekly community television series covering big picture science topics—'Theories of Everything'—across Australia and author of a major popular science book on evolution.
Enterprise Forecasting: Producer of a Blog/Feed tracking the future impact of the major processes and technologies driving the evolution of the enterprise Green Advocacy: Development of a unique video Channel on social network- Facebook- providing access to green sustainable initiatives across the planet.
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