News

The Triumph of the Geek: The Evolution of Tech-Obsessed Nerds Through Time

No so long ago, the computer geek (origin: Dorkus IBM-us) was confined to the back rooms and basements of companies everywhere. White dress shirts (sleeves optional), thin black ties and horn-rimmed glasses were standard issue. Mainstream social acc

Market for Executive Jobs Loosens Up in April

Recruiters' confidence in the executive job market crept up in April 2009, according to ExecuNet's Recruiter Confidence Index. Unfortunately, IT professionals' confidence in the economy, job market and their employers' futures hit

Another Data Center Headache: Log Data Exploding

The newest storage headache for data centers? A worsening torrent of real-time log data. Bad news: For compliance reasons, you'll soon have to not only store more log data, but also make it more searchable. Good news: You can use this data to im

Offshore Outsourcing: Will Recession Cause a Bangalore Backlash?

Some high profile offshore outsourcing customers say they're bringing call center and information technology services back onshore. But experts are divided on the significance of individual "backshoring" announcements from Delta Air Li

J.C. Penney’s Recession Investment Strategy

Retailer J.C. Penney plans to accelerate its investment in strategic business initiatives where technology plays a major role. Our columnist, Charlie Feld, talks with CIO Tom Nealon and CEO Mike Ullman about their plans.n

Cloud Standards: Trickier than Nailing Jell-O to a Wall

Open cloud computing standards and specifications now could help IT avoid vendor lock-in later. Major virtualization vendors and the DMTF came together this week to accelerate work on standards, but the early plans still need "a lot of work,&quo

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: 10 Tips for Outsourcing Incentives and Penalties that Work

The incentives and credits written into an IT services contract are critical to the long-term success of an outsourcing deal. But overly broad, ambitious, or punitive provisions can prove ineffective–or worse–injurious to the client/vendor relation

What Netbook Fans and Frustrated ERP Customers Have in Common

Will Oracle Become the Java the Hutt of Open Source?

Selfridges $1,500 BlackBerry Bold Gets You Yellow Battery Cover, Matching Keypad, Buyer’s Remorse

RIM Puts BlackBerry Unite! to Bed; New “Groups” Collab App on Horizon?

Nortel Gets Extension of Bankruptcy Protection

A Canadian court has extended until summer the stay of proceedings against Toronto-based Nortel Networks, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January.

Desktop Management: How UnitedHealth Used Standardization to Cut Costs

UnitedHealth Group's Hercules program helped manage growth through acquisition and save money by standardizing desktop management

Leadership Lessons from…Eleanor Roosevelt

How would the first lady manage during today's troubled economic times?

Virtualization Scalability: Bumping Into a Cloud Ceiling

As companies flock to the cloud, new-fangled service providers facing scalability and reliability issues turn to big infrastructure players for help.

Build a Better Online Persona: Four Steps

How can you manage your personal brand online with an eye to career success? Dan Schawbel discusses his new book and shares practical advice that doesn't just apply to Gen Y.

Lenovo Constant Connect for BlackBerry, ThinkPad Now Available

The 54mm Lenovo Constant Connect ExpressCard, which features a built-in Bluetooth radio–with a range of about 30 feet–and 500MB of storage, is designed to make it simpler and more effective for road warriors to manage corporate e-mail while on the

Consulting: How CIOs Know It’s the Right Career Move

In a tight economy, consulting can provide a lucrative alternative career. But it's not the right fit for all CIOs.

From Computers to Crime Busting

Financial services CIO puts IT to work battling crime

The *Real* Cost of Offshore Outsourcing

Quantifying the actual cost of bad customer service, loss of intellectual property (IP), loss of intellectual capital (IC) and more can reveal whether outsourcing really is a viable option for your company.

New Technology in a Down Economy

Even in a tough economy, people are still turning to technology and science to better the world and drive business value.

Social Networking Sites Too Risky for Recruiting, Says Bank CEO

Plan an Outsourcing Deal’s End at Its Beginning

Plan ahead to ensure a successful exit for you and the vendor.

CRM On The Cheap: 5 Strategies That Backfire

You can save money in a CRM implementation, and you can really snooker yourself. Watch out for these classic "great ideas" that backfire.

IBM Supercomputer to Compete on Jeopardy

What's the best way to showcase your AI-powered supercomputer? For IBM, that solution will be to pit its question answering system, Watson, against humans on a popular game show. n

McKinsey Cloud Computing Report Conclusions Don’t Add Up

While the report is interesting for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it demonstrates how big picture strategy firms view cloud computing, it glosses over a number of issues, with ambiguous calculations and comparisons, argues CIO.c

Union Pacific Makes a Game of Risk

Training game lets Union Pacific workers learn from their mistakes to become safer and more efficient in their jobsn

How CIOs Control IT Costs

New study finds discretionary cuts trump cost control initiatives to achieve quick savings.

Jet Blue’s Founder Starts Over With IT at Azul

David Neeleman, Jet Blue's founder, applies what he learned about IT to Azul, the airline he launched last year.

Home Healthcare Devices Help Patients Stay out of the Hospital

Remote devices allow patients to monitor their health at home and reduce hospital visits.

HGTV Renovates Its Website

Upgrade targets growth of online community for design-minded viewers.

How Motorola Uses Prediction Markets to Choose Innovations

Employees use prediction markets to vote up product ideas and productivity improvements they think should be selected for development

Business Etiquette: 10 Cultural Faux Pas You Should Never Make in Japan

Gaining respect when doing business in Japan is important. Do you know enough about the culture to impress them? Or is it so unfamiliar to you that your potential Japanese client won't want to sign on the dotted line?

CIO’s must be …

Use of WAN Optimization Appliances … for those of us who work in parts of the world with not-so robust telecomm connectivity

Non-profits Must Consider Streamlining Processes, & Consider Services like GoogleApps to lower costs

One Week in the Twitterverse: Me, Oprah and Millions More on Twitter

BlackBerry 9630 to be Named “BlackBerry Tour;” U2 360 Tour Tie-In?

Fluke Networks Announces VoIP Enterprise Service Kit

Fluke Networks announced the availability of the VoIP Enterprise Service Kit, designed to ensure successful deployment of VoIP phones over existing network infrastructure. The VoIP Enterprise Service Kit is intended to fill a void created by existi

Google Profiles: How and Why to Get Started

Here's a quick look at what Google's answer to Facebook can do for you. My early hands-on impression: Google Profiles is helpful for making sure Google searchers find you instead of someone with a similar name, but it lacks social features.

My Dream Netbook: IT Pros Describe the Ideal Device

Netbook vendors have their own ideas about the lilliputian tech darlings of the day. But what features do IT pros really want in a netbook? Here's what you say would make sense.

Customer Service: Job One for McCormick & Schmick’s IT Department

McCormick and Schmick's Seafood Restaurants' seven-person IT staff supports 96 dining establishments in the U.S. and Canada and a core user group of 700 employees. In this latest Hiring Manager interview, McCormick & Schmick's Vice

BarackBerry: Prez Obama to Get Top Secret, Commando BlackBerry 8830

Viigo to Unveil New BlackBerry Biz Features, Streaming Audio at RIM’s WES 2009

Four Tips for Getting Good ROI from Web 2.0 Projects

Telecom company Embarq has seen early success making Web 2.0 technologies part of its innovation strategy. Here are four lessons they've learned on how to make social networking or collaboration software work.

The Millennials Drive Innovation In The New Economy

Companies not replacing CIOs? (and new CIOs to report)

BlackBerry Users Get (Barely) Updated Facebook App, v1.5

Robots: The Good, the Rad and the Plain Ol’ Scary

Today's robots have not reached the level of self-awareness or service that robots in sci-fi staples such as Star Wars, A.I. and Wall-E demonstrated. Still, what they can do will either have you marveling at technology or fearing for your future

Gartner: Save By Rationalising Data Integration Tools

Organisations that have implemented substantial data integration architectures can save more than US$500,000 annually by rationalising tools in the short term and adopting a shared-services model in the longer term, according to Gartner. Deployment o