News

Republicans’ Web 2.0 Aims: Streaming Convention Video, Online Chats, User-Generated Content

Republican Convention CIO Max Everett's plans include technology partnerships with Google, YouTube and Qwest, plus ethical hackers to test his website's security.

Master Data Management: Companies Struggle to Find the Truth in Massive Data Flows

Enterprises are struggling to get to "one version of the truth" with their master data. A new Forrester Research report explains the overwhelming adoption barriers and why companies are failing.

Developers Rate Satisfaction with Their IDEs

Programmers spend a huge amount of time in the integrated development environment, where they write, debug and optimize their applications. A new Evans Data report identifies the IDEs that make developers say, "Boy, do I love this tool!"

Trendlines from 6/1/08: New, Hot, Unexpected

In this issue: Net neutrality; SaaS in the enterprise; Airlines and broadband; Business execs and IT; State of the CEO; Pitney Bowes goes mobile; and Google's new CIO.

What Warren Buffet Can Teach You About IT Success

Warren Buffet offers rules for business success. Here's what they mean for technology's role.

Web 2.0 in Business

To understand the value, you have to try it for yourself

Mobile Web 2.0: Gen Y Embraces Mobile Social Networks

Where does your company need to be to reach Gen Y? On their smartphones: The number of people using phones to access mobile social networks should jump from 210 million users today to 975 million in 2012, according to new research.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure: A concept more than a product

VDI isn't just about VMware. Here's a look at the four parts of virtual desktop infrastructure.

CIO and CTO – two different roles, really?

Tap Tap Tap — Is This Thing On?

The Best Ways to Carry Your RIM BlackBerry In Style

Whether you prefer to tote your Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry smartphone in a holster or case on your belt, or within a skin or sleeve in a jacket or pants pocket, here's a list of your best options for practical, stylish cases.

Retailers Aren’t Sold on In-Store Mobility and Wireless Systems

A recent Retail Systems Research report explains why retailers aren't rolling out mobile applications for their employees and customers, even though they should be.

HP Winning the VMware-Microsoft Virtualization Battle

As Microsoft and VMware battle to help IT manage virtualization, HP can take advantage of the shooting war by selling weapons to both sides.

CIOs Earn Promotions as Companies Realign their Management Structures for Growth

Technical Difficulties with CIO.com Blog

Understanding Lotus Connections, IBM’s Version of Web 2.0 For The Enterprise

As innovation in the consumer space spills over into the enterprise, IBM believes its social software suite that includes blogs and social networks for business will give users the collaboration features they want while giving IT the ability to hook

Six Secrets of Top-Notch Business Analysts

While a business analyst's responsibilities may vary by company and project, every IT employee and businessperson knows a good or bad BA when he sees one. Here's what the good ones do very well.

Using Open-Source Innovation Networks to Drive Collaborative Software Development

Collaboration on software development is essential, but how do you include your partners, customers and even competitors as part of an extended team? Read on for tips on using open source software to establish an innovative network for IT.

Four Tips for Crafting a Document Retention Policy

CIOs share strategies for creating a document retention policy

New VMware Certifications for Architects: Competitive Weapon?

VMware uses knowledge as a weapon in the developing virtualization market battle with Microsoft and Citrix. New certification is aimed at architects, not technologists, moving VMware expertise up the management ladder.

Threats Lurk Outside Open Doors in Virtual Infrastructure

Have you thought carefully about Active Directory and your virtual infrastructure? If not, get started.

Five Tips for Managing the Messaging About Your Departure From a Company

Microsoft CEO Ballmer Gets Egged — How Fitting

NASA Phoenix Mission to Mars: An Out-Of-This-World Content Management Challenge

When NASA's Phoenix Mars lander touches down and begins a historic mission on May 25, the images and video promise to be spectacular. Behind the scenes, an IT team must manage all that content: Here's an inside look at their mission, strate

RIM Exec on Why BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (MVS) Is the Future of Enterprise Unified Communications

Sick of sticking around the office waiting for that last important call? RIM's director of software product management says its Mobile Voice System (MVS) can seamlessly merge your desktop and BlackBerry to eliminate such headaches, help manage y

How Dow Chemical Keeps Its IT Costs Low

Mack Murrell, Dow Chemical's vice president of information technology, says scale and standardization are key to keeping IT spending in check while maintaining high quality service.

Cisco Systems’ New Client/Server Messaging Protocol Announced

Are your developers using SOAP, CORBA or EJBs? You might want to take a look at Etch. It's language-, platform- and transport-agnostic, and Cisco is planning to release it as open source.

Survey: Enterprise 2.0 Apps Seen as Useful to Business But Confusing

Despite companies acknowledging that they must embrace social software such as wikis, blogs and social networks, many struggle with how to implement and measure their success.

The IT Numbers Paint a Thousand Words

Don’t Lead With Your Ego

A big ego can be a bad thing when it comes to leadership. Here's how to keep yours from getting in the way.n

The Best CIOs Are Great Leaders, Not Good Managers

Top technology executives implore ambitious IT executives to stretch beyond mere management, to develop themselves and their talented teams.

Which Online Retailers Have the Most Satisfied Customers and What You Can Do to Improve Your E-Commerce Efforts

ForeSee Result's annual survey of customer satisfaction finds that Netflix.com, QVC.com and Amazon.com sit atop the list (again) of the leading 100 e-retailers.

Green IT at Washington Mutual Saves Lots of Green (Money) — and Electricity and Trees, Too

CIO Debora Horvath is leading a cross-functional effort to cut WaMu's computing costs and environmental impact. Here's how WaMu got started, takes advantage of its green-thinking employees and is already saving millions.

Mobile-Related Security Threats On the Rise

More than half of information security staffers say risks related to mobile devices and remote workers are up significantly compared to a year ago, new research says. Combine more mobile people with more corporate data passing beyond the corporate wa

How Underwriters Laboratories Plans Virtualization Moves Wisely

As this IT shop contiunues to expand its virtual server infrastructure, it uses CiRBA's data center intelligence tool to eliminate the guesswork in what-if scenarios. Here's how it works.

Safari Books Online: Five Ways to Make the Most of Your Subscription

Christy Confetti Higgins, a program manager in Sun Microsystem's Digital Libraries and Research group, explains how Safari Books Online has become an indispensable training and educational resource for her company.

Business Software Applications Complex and Hurt Productivity, Study Finds

Traditional enterprise software difficult to use and learn, according to study of mid-market companies by software vendor IFS.n

RIM co-CEO Lazaridis on the iPhone, Mobile Device Management, and the Best BlackBerry Product You’ve Never Heard Of

Mike Lazaridis, Research In Motion (RIM) co-CEO, sat down with CIO at WES: Here's the BlackBerry chief's take on the biggest challenges for CIOs tackling enterprise mobility, the arch-rival Apple iPhone and RIM's little-known Bluetooth

VMware, Citrix Duke It Out on Desktop Virtualization

Why is the virtualization news this week all about desktop virtualization? It's no coincidence that everyone wants to talk desktop the same week that Citrix holds its big conference for partners and customers.

RIM WES 2008: My Five Favorite New BlackBerry Products and Services

VMware Makes Thin Client Moves

VMware certifies more thin clients for use with its Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, offers thin clients packaged with Sun WAN technology, and rolls out new professional services for desktop virtualization.

Google Launches Google Health To Help Patients Manage Medical Records

The central portal offered by Google follows Microsoft's launch of HealthVault, which also provides a similar service.

SAP’s Push Into the SMB Market Is Creating a Skills Gap for IT Departments

SAP's strategy to win small- and medium-sized companies as customers has an important "downstream effect" — it means that there's a shortage of people who know how to help SMBs use ERP, NetWeaver, BI, CRM and other tools from SAP

Cost Cutting Tips: It Takes Money to Save Money

If you're cutting costs to improve your bottom-line revenue, don't. Spending money can position your company for long-term cost reduction. Read on for these and other tips on how CIOs are spending during an economic downturn.

Today’s Virtualization Security Tools: One Hidden Risk

Vrtualization security tools add a level of protection but require what you might call a necessary evil: the ability to sniff all traffic on the vSwitches to which they are connected.

Web 2.0 and Social Networking for Business: Take the Plunge

Promotions at the CME and Citi

Should IT Put All Its Eggs in the Microsoft SharePoint Basket?

Staffing for Diversity: The Business Case for an Inclusive Information Technology Workforce

Women, minorities and immigrants will make up a big part of the future information technology workforce. But as Southern Company has discovered, staffing for diversity isn't easy. Find out how the regional utility conglomerate has tried to make

Why SAP’s Customers Don’t Know Enough About the Enterprise Software Giant

Companies did $15 billion worth of business with SAP in 2007. And yet, once the contracts are signed, says AMR Research's Jim Shepherd, everyone seems to forget about SAP.