News

• Enterprise: Seven Mainframe Myths No IT Decision-Maker Should Believe
  The IT industry has been intently focused on distributed and Internet platforms for the past two decades -- and for good reason. Desktop computing and Web-based architectures have delivered breakthroughs that have changed both business and society as a whole.   (10/7/2008)
• Security: McAfee's Secure Computing Acquisition: The View from Gartner
  Last month security giant McAfee Inc. snapped up Secure Computing Corp., a respected provider of network security technology. McAfee says the acquisition is part of a strategy to develop a new Network Security Business Unit, helmed by Secure Computing's existing executive group.   (10/7/2008)
• Storage: Tape is Key to Containing IT Spending
  In the current economic malaise, the quarterly guidance from most publicly traded storage vendors is a bit less high and to the right than in previous years. The reasons are many, but slowing demand from the big buyers in the financial services industry is one that sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb.   (10/7/2008)
• Enterprise: Enterprise Systems 2008 Salary Survey, Part 4: Employee Attitudes
  Just as IT salaries and bonuses are in a growth stage, uncertainty about the economy has begun to cast a pall over the employment market   (10/7/2008)
• Security: Breaking Biometrics Barriers in the Enterprise
  With the increased interest in tighter security post-9/11, the conventional thought was that biometrics-based authentication would become the norm for the enterprise. Fast forward to 2008, though, and most industry analysts privately admit to being a bit surprised that the adoption of biometrics is not more widespread. Three impediments are the likely culprits: user receptiveness, cost, and reliability.   (10/7/2008)
• Storage: IBM's BladeCenter SMB-Friendly Retrofit Includes Storage Consolidation
  According to IBM Corp., SMB-friendly storage consolidation is an idea whose time has come.   (10/7/2008)
• Enterprise: Virtualization for High-End Computing Environments
  In the past five years, the server success story that stands out strongest is the high-performance computing (HPC) segment. According to IDC, this segment has grown at a 20 percent cumulative annual growth rate in recent years, going from less than 10 percent of the overall server market to more than 20 percent, and there's no sign this growth will slow. HPC has grown from being a small niche used mainly by large national and defense laboratories to an indispensable mainstream product many commercial companies depend on to innovate, compete, and survive.   (10/7/2008)
• Enterprise: Enterprise Systems 2008 Salary Survey, Part 3: Salaries by Region, Industry, Company Size
  In the third of our four-part report, we look at compensation by company size, industry, and region and find financial services and employees in the Northeast dominate IT salaries   (9/30/2008)
• Security: Top Tips for Picking a Managed Security Services Provider
  The managed security services market has come a long way. In its early days, managed security services providers (MSSPs) were typically smaller companies that offered large enterprises remote security capabilities. However, as the threat landscape grew more complex, compliance regulations increased, and information protection became a boardroom issue, the MSS market also evolved to meet changing demands.   (9/30/2008)
• Storage: 'Tis the (Trade Show) Season
  The Fall storage conference season is ramping up. I am presently in New York City at the third installment of Storage Decisions, a moveable feast that has already traveled to Chicago and Toronto and will conclude its 2008 run in San Francisco in late November. Still ahead is Storage Networking World, the twice-yearly event controlled by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), and several vendor-specific events that provide a means for vendors to communicate their objectives for the coming year to their customers and to the press.   (9/30/2008)
• Enterprise: .NET versus Java Smackdown
  Five years in and counting, the battle still rages with no clear victor. However, according to a new survey, .NET appears to be widening its lead over Java EE, as the latest revision of the erstwhile Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) specification is now called. Given the volatility of the .NET/Java EE match-up, that could easily change.   (9/30/2008)
• Enterprise: Optimizing Your Data Center
  Data centers have become mission-critical in today's information-driven business environment. Unfortunately, they've also become overcrowded, overheated, and expensive. More often than not, expansion is simply not an option.   (9/30/2008)
• BI: In Treacherous DW Segment, HP Charts a Partner-Friendly Course
  Neutrality in partnerships takes center stage in HP’s data warehousing push   (10/8/2008)
• BI: Analysis: Financial Markets’ New Demands and BI
  The recent financial turmoil has served to raise awareness that we need to fully understand complex investment products and the benefits and risks they bring.   (10/8/2008)
• BI: Q&A: The Power of Dynamic BI
  Dynamic business intelligence can quickly deliver answers to business questions, but it can be difficult to implement in today’s technology and business environment.   (10/8/2008)
• BI: Is One Version of the Truth Still Achievable?
  The Aberdeen Group finds that despite failed attempts to see just one version of the truth, the goal is achievable.   (10/8/2008)
• BI: Microsoft Convenes Second Annual BI Conference
  Microsoft touts an in-memory, column-based Excel data store on every desktop   (10/6/2008)
• BI: With Birst, Former Siebel Veterans Tout SaaS-y BI
  Birst targets the important (but small) projects that are ill-served by existing BI tools, its developers argue   (10/1/2008)
• BI: "Perfect Storm" Drives Analytics, BI into GRC Framework
  A study by Aberdeen Group shows what distinguishes best-in-class companies in their governance, risk management, and compliance activities and shows how BI plays a role.   (10/1/2008)
• BI: TDWI Audio Report: New Orleans Keynote Preview
  Barry Briggs is Microsoft's key IT Architect and CTO. He has particular insight into MDM on an enterprise scale, and will share his thoughts during his keynote, "Master Data Management at Microsoft" at TDWI's World Conference in New Orleans in November. Barry gives us a preview of his presentation.   (10/1/2008)
• BI: Putting Common Sense Back into Credit Scoring
  Today's credit scoring system does a lousy job of predicting customer defaults. SAS's finance architect is out to overhaul it.   (10/1/2008)
• BI: TDWI Audio Report: Dashboard Design for Usability
  Dashboards have become favored executive BI tools because they can present a concise, graphical view of underlying data. Done correctly, dashboards can free technical resources and help move IT out of the reporting business, says Siggi Plommer, president of iQ4bis Software. That can offer a solid return on investment. But perhaps the biggest challenge with dashboards, Plommer says, is ensuring that they are flexible enough to accommodate changing needs, and that they draw on good, solid data on the back end.   (10/1/2008)
• BI: Lyza Empowers New Class of BI Consumers
  Lyza runs completely on the desktop, so there's no administration and minimal IT overhead. The result, officials claim, is an empowered user class.   (9/24/2008)
• BI: Behind Business Objects' New Metadata Management XI Release
  The revamped Metadata Management XI could be a boon to bilateral integration between SAP and Business Objects environments.   (9/24/2008)
• BI: A Best-in-Class Approach to Managing Operational KPIs
  Success or failure in meeting operational performance goals is increasingly dependent on how a business identifies, defines, tracks, and acts upon operational key performance indicators.   (9/24/2008)