http://www.cioinsight.com CIOInsight - RSS Feed en-us Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:35:02 -0500 Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:35:02 -0500 Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:58:53 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Books/Ten-Enemies-of-Innovation-597885/?kc=rss : Innovation. Everyone wants it, but many companies consider it a "nice to have" rather than a "must have". Few C-suite executives openly dismiss the effort employees make to do things better and improve upon products and services, but when it comes to putting plans in motion, sometimes the follow-through isn't there. The book "Relentless Innovation: What Works, What Doesnt &#8209; And What That Means For Your Business" (McGraw-Hill Professional/available now), chronicles a "usual suspects" list of barriers for innovation. Author Jeffrey Phillips says problems could arise from poor planning, budgeting, scheduling or talent managing. Companies must embrace "breakthrough" practices as valued cornerstones of their corporate culture to overcome these obstacles. To make it all work, a perfect balance must be reached between innovation and the need to keep driving the internal operating model. Phillips leads the innovation consulting team for OVO Innovation, a consulting/training firm. For more about the book, click here. Here we look at what you want to avoid if you want to get the greatest ideas and innovations from your team.]]> /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies.jpg <b>Numbers Aren’t Everything</b><br> Quick-win senior execs demand numbers for every decision, when innovation also requires qualitative analysis. 10 /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies2.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies2.jpg <b>Fear of the Unknown</b><br> There’s a constant demand for predictable success. Innovation thrives on the unforeseen. 10 /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies3.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies3.jpg <b>Stinky Skunks</b><br> “Skunkworks” approach will select “chosen few” for innovation. Then expect them to do it as a part-time job. 10 /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies4.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies4.jpg <b>Failure to Plan</b><br> With little guidance given to designated teams, innovation is perceived as “knee jerk” reaction and eventually abandoned. 10 /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies5.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies5.jpg <b>Follow the Money</b><br> CFOs grumble because there is no one department in which to allocate investment for innovation. A good excuse not to spend anything. 10 /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies6.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies6.jpg <b>Who Does What?</b><br> Leadership can’t align innovation steps with day-to-day operations because they don’t know how things get done. 10 /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies7.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies7.jpg <b>The Lean Machine</b><br> The constant push toward greater efficiencies means nobody has the time to think about innovation. 10 /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies8.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies8.jpg <b>Fuzzy Definition</b><br> Not all innovation is the same. “Disruptive” innovation revolutionizes markets. “Open” innovation involves partner collaboration to develop ongoing ideas. 10 /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies9.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies9.jpg <b>Foregone Conclusions</b><br> Early failures lead to ill-conceived conclusions such as “we don’t have innovative people” or “innovation as a technique doesn’t deliver.” 10 /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies10.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies/SS_014212_CIO_TenEnemies10.jpg <b>What’s the Incentive?</b><br> Other than “attaboys!” there’s little career advancement or financial incentive for teams to pursue innovation. 10 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Books/Ten-Enemies-of-Innovation-597885/?kc=rss Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Oracle-Taleo-Buy-Targets-SAP-Salesforcecom-605162/?kc=rss Oracle's $1.9 billion bid for Taleo follows SAP's $3.4 billion play for SuccessFactors and Salesforce.com's acquisition of Rypple in the burgeoning sector for cloud-based human capital management software.Oracle's (NASDAQ:ORCL) $1.9 billion acquisition bid for Taleo (NASDAQ:TLEO) Feb. 9 was a matter of if and not when and comes in the wake of SAP's (NYSE:SAP) $3.4 billion for SuccessFactors and Salesforce.com's (NYSE:CRM) acquisition of Rypple. Taleo offers a quot;talent management cloud, quot; for human capital management (HCM) software, a jargon-laced way of saying the company's software aims to help lure, hire, motivate and keep employee talent at a lower cost than traditional HCM practices. Taleo has more than 5,000 customers, ranging from small and midsized businesses to larger enterprise fish. Oracle expects to use Taleo's team and customers to fortify human resource operations for its public cloud, in which the software giant hosts apps and provisions them over the Web to end users' computers via browsers. While Oracle CEO Larry Ellison spent much of the last decade deriding the notion of the cloud, enterprise customers are increasingly turning to the cloud to offload server management and defray maintenance costs. Seeing this trend, Oracle in the past few months embraced cloud computing to chase the likes of enterprise cloud pioneer Salesforce.com and keep up with SAP. To wit, Taleo is Oracle's second major purchase bid for a Web-based software purveyor after the company acquired RightNow Technologies, challenging Salesforce.com's cloud customer relationship management (CRM) apps. Oracle already commands a suite of on-premise human capital management (HCM) solutions, but the popularity of SuccessFactors, Taleo, Kenexa, Cornerstone and SumTotal Systems validated the sector, Forrester Research analyst Paul Hamerman said. quot;By acquiring Taleo, Oracle puts itself back in the game for SaaS recruiting and talent management, quot; Hamerman wrote on his corporate blog Feb. 9. In something of a cost-efficiency coup, Oracle is paying one and a half times less than the $3.4 billion SAP is shelling out for Taleo rival SuccessFactors, which has more than 3,500 customers. Oracle's bid for Taleo is more than six times Taleo's $309 million in revenues in 2011. Such premium-paying is catchy: SAP paid 11 times SuccessFactors' 2011 revenues, underscoring just how hot the sector is for growth and potential. To read the original eWeek article, click here: Oracle Taleo Buy Targets SAP, Salesforce.com]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Oracle-Taleo-Buy-Targets-SAP-Salesforcecom-605162/?kc=rss Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Is-This-the-Year-PaaS-Goes-Mainstream-430373/?kc=rss For years, the industry has readied itself for widespread adoption of PaaS. Is 2012 the year when this latest cloud technology gets the recognition it deserves?Will 2012 be the year of platform as a service? If you let the vendors tell it, 2011 was to be the year PaaS offerings began to coalesce and take off. And the major market research firms have been watching the space carefully, predicting consolidation and more and more investment in PaaS. While many people are still unfamiliar with the concept of PaaS, Gartner has actually been tracking PaaS since 2007. In its latest report about the technology, the research firm said that PaaS revenue would rise about 38 percent from $512.4 million in 2010 to $707.4 million in 2011. PaaS represents the on-ramp to the cloud in that it provides the linkage between application platforms and underlying cloud infrastructures, according to Forrester Research. Further, Forrester defines platform as a service as a complete application platform for multitenant cloud environments that includes development tools, runtime, and administration and management tools and services and adds that PaaS combines an application platform with managed cloud infrastructure services. With more IT suppliers moving their offerings to the cloud and more enterprises adopting the cloud computing model for a number of reasons--fast, easy deployment, immediate access to resources, immediate scalability, at-your-request development and testing capability, and pay-as-you-go pricing--the cloud model continues to grow and offer a viable alternative to on-premise solutions. "I think that PaaS is a foundation for a major transformation of how people build software," said Dave West, an analyst with Forrester. "Imagine a world where business-type people, or at least business developer types, assemble their applications from a combination of PaaS and software as a service. This is particularly true for systems of engagement, with a strong focus on the consumption rather than the creation of information. It will be interesting to see how the PaaS vendors shake out in the next year." In many cases, PaaS is viewed as an alternative to middleware stacks offered by the likes of IBM, Microsoft and other software providers. Depending on which cloud technology provider you ask Salesforce.com, Microsoft, Google or VMware--almost all appear to have leadership positions in PaaS. In a May 2012 report on PaaS, Forrester chose Salesforce.com and Microsoft as leaders. However, Evans Data ranked VMware s Cloud Foundry as the top technology in its PaaS survey, while giving IBM and Google high marks. Forrester also gave Google credit for its early entry with Google App Engine. The PaaS space is in the process of evolution. It represents a new development paradigm and can enable users to move existing applications to new platforms. For instance, Jelastic, a Palo Alto, Calif., startup that provides a next-generation cloud platform for Java server hosting, offers a PaaS product that enables Java applications to be uploaded in minutes without changes to code or programming language and with no need to write for specific APIs. Application developers can choose which stack components they want and need, and their application will run and scale on the Jelastic platform. However, not all PaaS offerings are created equal. Some are more complete than others. Most PaaS providers like startup Jelastic and CloudBees are small, and even large vendors like Google and Microsoft have incomplete offerings, according to Forrester. In a blog post from May, Forrester analyst John Rymer wrote: "The PaaS market is a sprawling, fast-changing, and immature market. Most PaaS vendors are small, and even big vendors like Google and Microsoft have incomplete, new products. Salesforce.com has the most mature PaaS, but it just acquired an entirely new PaaS product (Heroku), and its fit into the portfolio and strategy isn't yet clear." Despite its immaturity, the PaaS space deserves continued monitoring by enterprise IT managers and development teams as it becomes a favored method of developing and deploying new applications.To read the original eWeek article, click here: Is This the Year PaaS Goes Mainstream?]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Is-This-the-Year-PaaS-Goes-Mainstream-430373/?kc=rss Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Multiple-Cloud-Formations-Require-New-Security-Approaches-820244/?kc=rss New-generation service providers are filling gaps in private-public cloud security.Reliable user authentication in deployment of a cloud service is of utmost importance. Even though a cloud service to which you subscribe may have two-factor or higher levels of secure authentication, certain protocols must be observed and rules must be followed to enter each session. Frequent changing of passwords is required, and those passwords often must be long and complicated. However, in this day of increasingly sophisticated hacking practices, conventional online authentication for access to these systems and services is often not enough--especially for systems moving highly sensitive data, such as in the government, military, financial and retail sectors. As cloud services gain more traction at all levels of IT--and that includes high-level enterprises down to single users at home--providers are coming up with new ways to keep everything tight. New Factor: Multiple Types of Clouds to Secure Another factor in cloud computing security is coming to the fore as more of these service systems come online: Private clouds are now interacting with public cloud services and each other--especially in large enterprises with numerous partners, affiliates and contractors in the production chain. These multiple cloud formations require a whole new perspective on security. CloudPassage, a 3-year-old San Francisco-based startup founded by CEO and longtime RSA Security veteran Carson Sweet, is taking a leadership role in this area. Sweet describes CloudPassage's Halo Netsec service, launched Jan. 31, as the industry's quot;first and only server and compliance service that specifically provides multiple-level security for elastic cloud servers. quot; Halo Netsec features a firewall, two-factor authentication and intrusion-detection capabilities through a cloud service. Literally, this is a quot;secured security quot; service. At this early point, Halo Netsec stands alone in securing cloud services because it enables administrators to build a perimeter defense without having to worry about the physical network. It secures everything from the endpoint to the virtual server, even if some or all of that traffic is passing over a public Internet or from cloud to cloud. This is of huge importance to IT administrators, especially when managing cloud services, because those administrators have no control or management capabilities for the public portion of cloud communications. Once installed and configured, administrators are able to apply firewall rules and policies to any connection accessing public, private or hybrid cloud services. A small (3MB) security daemon works with CloudPassage's computing grid to enforce rules, policy and monitor for intrusions. CloudPassage also has added a physical aspect to cloud security: a USB key that creates a one-time password for each session. This also may become a trend as time goes on. quot;What we've done is create a cloud-ready platform that handles automatically all management and policy controls with a combination of a lightweight host-based agent and software as a service grid, quot; Rand Wacker, vice president of products at CloudPassage, told eWEEK. Tighter security like this is becoming mandatory, with all the system break-ins that seem to be happening more frequently around the world. "When people look at adding security to a cloud system, they generally think they're buying a slice of something, quot; CloudPassage founder and CEO Carson Sweet told eWEEK. quot;So now we're doing full-blown dynamic firewall management, multi-cloud. We're going to cross-cloud systems now, so we can have servers in EC2 Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud , in Rackspace and in Terremark with one policy over all of them. The most interesting aspect of all of this continues to be that it all just works in the cloud. quot; Security doesn't work the same way in public and private cloud environments as it does in on-site data centers. quot;When individual servers, especially in a cloud system, become vulnerable, you can clone those things so fast. And when you clone one of those servers, you're also cloning every vulnerability, quot; Sweet said. quot;Pretty soon, a big cloud server farm can begin to look like a chunk of Swiss cheese. You replicate the problems along with the actual server. quot; As an example, Sweet told of one legendary cloud server he knew about quot;that was just plopped out there. We called it Typhoid Mary because when that started to get replicated, it was really bad news. quot; He wasn't at liberty to tell exactly which system was affected, but it was a large one--and it became a huge mess, he said. quot;The interesting thing is that we have gotten away with this in the data center for years, because of the firewalls and other security on the hardware devices, quot; Sweet said. quot;But you can't do that in the cloud." To read the original eWeek article, click here: Multiple Cloud Formations Require New Security Approaches]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Multiple-Cloud-Formations-Require-New-Security-Approaches-820244/?kc=rss Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Small-DDoS-Attacks-Just-as-Damaging-as-Massive-Ones-Radware-191101/?kc=rss Application layer DDoS attacks are smaller than traditional network-based attacks, which try to exceed the available bandwidth. Organizations need to handle them differently.When it comes to distributed denial-of-service attacks, smaller attacks can cause just as much, if not more, damage than enormous ones, according to a recent study. DDoS attackers are focusing less on bandwidth and shifting toward application layer attacks, Radware said in its quot;2011 Global Application and Network Security Report, quot; released Feb. 6. While some organizations do incur massive DDoS attacks, most never experience a high-magnitude attack, Ron Meyran, director of security products, wrote on the company's blog. The Radware Emergency Response Team examined 135 attacks that occurred in 2011 and found that 76 percent were less than 1G bps in bandwidth, of which only 32 percent were less than 10M bps, Radware said. Only 9 percent of attacks in 2011 were over 10G bps in bandwidth. Organizations focused on the traditional methods of expanding the network pipe to absorb malicious traffic needed to change their methods, Radware said. quot;A 5M bps HTTP connection flood attack can also stop you dead in your tracks, quot; the report said. A little more than half, or 56 percent, of attacks targeted applications while 46 percent targeted the network, the report found. Application-based attacks targeted the Domain Name System, HTTP, HTTPS and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. While enormous DDoS attacks tend to flood the network, the majority of organizations hit by attacks that were less than 1G bps in size were targeted with a mix of network and application flood attacks, Meyran said. While it is much easier for an organization to detect and block a network flood attack, such as UDP, SYN or TCP floods, it's harder to defend against real machines with real IP addresses launching legitimate transactions on the application. quot;It's the users which are not real, quot; Meyran said. quot;When evaluating DoS attacks, it is important to understand both the size and type of attack, quot; according to the report. That's not to say attackers are abandoning large attacks. In its seventh annual quot;Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report quot; released Feb. 7, Arbor Networks said 25 percent of organizations in the survey observed DDoS attacks that exceeded the total bandwidth into their data center. About 13 percent of the survey respondents reported attacks greater than 10G bps against their organizations, and the single largest reported DDoS attack was 60G bps, according to the report. Regardless of size, the number of attacks is growing. Cloud-based DDoS mitigation provider Prolexic observed and mitigated 45 percent more DDoS attacks in the fourth quarter of 2011, compared with the same period 2010, and more than double what was observed during the third quarter of 2011, the company said in its quarterly quot;Attack Report quot; released Feb. 7. Packet-per-second volume increased 18-fold and there was seven times more attack traffic than in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to the report. The average attack duration also dropped from last year, from 43 hours to 34 hours. DDoS attacks in 2012 will likely be shorter in duration, but cause more damage because they will feature bigger packet-per-second attack volume, predicted Paul Sop, Prolexic CTO. quot;In the past, attackers had a rifle. In 2012, they have a machine gun with a laser sight, quot; Sop said. Although most DDoS attacks in the news are often launched by hacktivists with an agenda, there are other players. Hacktivists made up the largest group, accounting for 22 percent of the attacks, but other perpetrators included angry users, competitors and criminals looking for ransom payments to stop attacking, according to the Radware report. Financial services, government and online gaming sites were targeted the most in 2011. Even though organizations often use their firewalls and intrusion-prevention systems to filter out malicious packets to mitigate DDoS attacks, Radware ERT said firewalls are quot;the weakest link. quot; In 24 percent of the attacks, firewalls were the first system to fail, according to the report. Organizations should be investing in dedicated DDoS-mitigation technologies. Conveniently for Radware, the company sells DDoS defense systems. To read the original eWeek article, click here: Small DDoS Attacks Just as Damaging as Massive Ones: Radware]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Small-DDoS-Attacks-Just-as-Damaging-as-Massive-Ones-Radware-191101/?kc=rss Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/IBM-Samsung-to-Show-NextGen-Chip-Tech-at-March-Event-728845/?kc=rss IBM, Samsung and GLOBALFOUNDRIES founders of the Common Platform alliance -- will showcase next-generation chip technologies at the Common Platform Technology Forum in March.IBM, Samsung Electronics, Co. and GLOBALFOUNDRIES will preview the future of silicon technology at the 2012 Common Platform Technology Forum to be held at the Santa Clara Convention Center on March 14. The companies are the founders of the Common Platform technology collaboration, which is the world's largest chip-making consortium, IBM officials said. At the upcoming forum, the companies will address next-generation semiconductor innovation covering topics such as 28-, 20- and 14-nanometer processes, as well as innovations beyond 14nm and 450mm wafer manufacturing. Technology jointly developed by the Common Platform companies -- including more than 20 additional member companies -- power the majority of the world's mobile devices and consumer electronics, IBM said The Common Platform alliance is built upon an unmatched legacy of invention and deep commitment to research and development from IBM, said Michael Cadigan, general manager of IBM's microelectronics division, in a statement. The expertise of the companies is driving breakthrough technology innovations for semiconductor manufacturing. Our extensive and open ecosystem, focused on core manufacturing capabilities, gives our customers a flexible way to bring a wide range of semiconductor products to market. The Common Platform Technology Forum will include keynotes from industry leaders and presentations from senior members of the Common Platform partners management and technical teams. The forum will focus on collaboration for technology delivery, highlighting the rich and broad ecosystem of design enablement and implementation partners through a Partner Pavilion featuring leading EDA, IP, library, mask, packaging and design services companies. Each of the three founding companies brings a unique contribution to the collaboration. IBM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES conceptualized the technology at 90 nm. Samsung joined as the collaboration became formalized and expanded for 65 nm and 45 nm. The three companies are listed in marketing materials in order that they came to participate: IBM, GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Samsung. An FAQ on the Common Platform alliance site says the Common Platform technology enables a single design to be multi sourced so that customers receive the benefits of: Collective innovation and access to application ready, leading edge process technologies Capacity that is synchronized across fabs Sourcing flexibility and choice for single design, multi fab engagements Quality assurance Faster ramp support with risk mitigation for high volume applications Insurance against the risk of expensive redesign or manufacturing disruption Registration for the complimentary, one-day forum at the Santa Clara Convention Center opened Feb. 8. To register go to: http://www.meetingconsultants.com/CommonPlatform/IBMBLAST To read the original eWeek article, click here: IBM, Samsung to Show Next-Gen Chip Tech at March Event]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/IBM-Samsung-to-Show-NextGen-Chip-Tech-at-March-Event-728845/?kc=rss Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/VMware-Issues-vCloud-Integration-Manager-450030/?kc=rss The platform will include Web-based portals to streamline and automate service plan, customer lifecycle and reseller management.Virtualization and cloud infrastructure specialist VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), introduced the vCloud Integration Manager, a platform designed to help service providers automate the delivery and operations of VMware vCloud Director -based clouds. vCloud Integration Manager is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2012 and will be priced on a usage-based subscription model familiar to vCloud Service Providers. vCloud Integration Manager software is designed to allow service providers to create and deploy cloud service offerings, operate at an improved efficiency level and scale to meet customer demand in a repeatable and cost-effective manner. vCloud Integration Manager aims to help service providers accelerate time to revenue and simplify operations to increase efficiency and reduce costs. vCloud Integration Manager will be integrated with vCloud Director, vSphere, vShield Edge and vCenter Chargeback Manager to automate and accelerate the provisioning and delivery of infrastructure and associated services. vCloud Integration Manager will provide a REST-based API to integrate with a service provider s back office systems (CRM, billing, etc.), and a Web-based administration portal. The platform will also include Web-based portals to streamline and automate service plan, customer lifecycle and reseller management. With the click of a button, service providers will be able to standardize product configuration and delivery, manage customer lifecycles from sign-up to decommission, and reduce the time and overhead involved in transacting with resellers. quot;Service providers are looking to get high-margin cloud services to market as quickly as possible, quot; said Mathew Lodge, senior director of cloud services for VMware. quot;Until now that involved wrangling manual processes, diverting scarce development resources onto writing glue code and portals, or choosing to implement complex and expensive third-party systems. With vCloud Integration Manager, providers of vCloud services will have the tools they need to automatically provision services, enable reseller partners and speed customer on-boarding. quot; VMware also announced that nearly 90 service provider partners now offer services that have met VMware criteria as vCloud Powered, an almost threefold increase since Q3 2011. The vCloud Powered program requires the company s Service Provider Program (VSPP) partners to offer services based on vSphere and vCloud Director while exposing the vCloud API and supporting the Open Virtualization Format (OVF). Compliance with these requirements helps ensure that vCloud Powered services offer customers on-demand access to virtual infrastructure from a public cloud, a secure and robust platform, and application and API portability between their internal datacenters and the vCloud Powered services of their choice. Providers of vCloud Powered services are based in the United States, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Russia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, catering to a variety of use cases ranging from compute resources for pre-production environments to seasonal and transient workloads to disaster recovery in the cloud. To read the original eWeek article, click here: VMware Issues vCloud Integration Manager]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/VMware-Issues-vCloud-Integration-Manager-450030/?kc=rss Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Apple-iPad-3-Unveiling-Set-for-March-Report-392245/?kc=rss Apple's iPad 3 will be unveiled in March, according to a new AllThingsD report. Rumors suggest it will feature a more powerful processor and Retina Display.Apple will unveil the iPad 3 at a high-profile March event in San Francisco, reported AllThingsD. No word yet on a street date for the iPad 3 (assuming that s what it s called), noted the Feb. 9 report, which relied on the ever-popular unnamed sources. Those sources apparently confirmed that the next-generation tablet will boast a similar look to the iPad 2, but running a much faster chip, sporting an improved graphics processing unit, and featuring a 2048x1536 Retina Display or something close to it. Rumors of those features have circulated for some weeks. In a Feb. 1 posting, the Boy Genius Report also suggested the iPad 3 will feature an A6 processor. That information likewise came from an unnamed source, who provided the blog with screenshots of output from an iPad 3 using a development and debug tool called iBoot. Based on those screens, the iPad 3 will come in two versions: one with WiFi only and one with WiFi and embedded GSM/CDMA/LTE for all carriers. In the last quarter alone, Apple managed to sell some 15.43 million iPads. The company will expect any new tablet release to continue that blockbuster sales run. Moreover, that massive sales volume is apparently affecting other products in Apple's hardware ecosystem. There is cannibalization clearly of the Mac by the iPad, but we continue to believe there is much more cannibalization of Windows PCs by the iPad, Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts and media listening to the company s Jan. 24 earnings call, and there s many more of them to cannibalize. And so we love that trend. As a whole, the iPad franchise enters 2012 in a particularly strong market position. Throughout 2011, other tablets have plunged into the tablet arena with huge advertising budgets and the stated aim of becoming an iPad killer, only to find apathetic customers and a general lack of buzz. "Our checks indicate modest sales of most competing tablet offerings including the Motorola Xyboard, RIM PlayBook, HTC View 4G, Samsung Galaxy tab and several other Android-based devices," T. Michael Walkley, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity, wrote in a Jan. 24 research note. "Also consistent with our checks, the Amazon Kindle Fire did not adversely impact iPad sales but more likely had a greater impact on e-reader sales." Later in 2012, Apple will likely face a tablet challenge from Microsoft and its manufacturing partners, who could market a host of touch-screen devices loaded with the upcoming Windows 8. Whatever features are included with the iPad 3, they will need to prove capable of beating back that challenge, in addition to keeping Android at bay. To read the original eWeek article, click here: Apple iPad 3 Unveiling Set for March: Report]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Apple-iPad-3-Unveiling-Set-for-March-Report-392245/?kc=rss Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Certifications-Key-to-Tech-Contracting-Jobs-Dice-Report-859832/?kc=rss To potential clients, certifications can inspire confidence that contractors are qualified to contribute, manage or lead various projects.According to the latest IT jobs report from online recruiting and job posting service Dice, one aspect of marketing that tech consultants appear to value is certifications. Forty percent of tech consultants said obtaining a certification helped them land a new gig, which is about 10 percentage points higher than their colleagues working in traditional roles. The report indicates that to potential clients, certifications can inspire confidence that contractors are qualified to contribute, manage or lead various projects. Project Management Professional (PMP) made the top 10 and it's the most frequently desired certification on Dice, with nearly 2,200 requests in job postings on any given day, up nine percent year over year. Project management is a lucrative role, with an average annual salary of about $104,000, add PMP and average salaries jump to nearly $120,000. Other top certifications include three Microsoft-based specifications, including Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) and Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP). "There are very few certainties in tech contracting. It isn't just another way of approaching a technology career. It's more akin to starting a small business and that means taking risks, marketing, financial management and more," noted Alice Hill, managing director of Dice. "It's important to remember that not all certifications create the opportunity for a new job or a fatter paycheck, so tech professionals have to be certain that the investment is worth it." Hill said a company's network is its lifeblood - Cisco Certified Network Associates demonstrate their ability to administer medium-sized routed and switched networks (1,200 job postings, up 21 percent yr/yr), while entry-level network technicians have found CompTIA's Network+ certification helpful in job hunting. In addition, ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) experience and expertise is becoming more vital. Service deliverability is essential and those with ITIL credentials can command a six-figure salary -- nearly $110,000 -- in addition to expanding their job options. In addition, the report pointed out that seasoned information security professionals are eligible for the Certified Information Systems Security Professionals (CISSP) certification, which is recognized, along with Security+ by the Department of Defense, which requires contractors with privileged access to federal computer networks to obtain specific certifications. This is one factor driving the high level of tech professionals (53 percent) who have at least one certification and are based in Washington D.C., according to Dice research. The monthly report also tracks the top tech metro areas based on the number of jobs posed by zip code on Dice as of February 1. The New York/New Jersey led the list with 8,862 postings, followed by Washington DC/Baltimore with 8,226 postings and Silicon Valley with 5,366 postings. Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Dallas, Seattle and Philadelphia filled out the top ten. Total available tech jobs reported by Dice stood at 83,272 as of Feb. 1, with 50,730 full-time positions, 36,103 contract positions and 1,655 part-time positions. To read the original eWeek article, click here: Certifications Key to Tech Contracting Jobs: Dice Report]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Certifications-Key-to-Tech-Contracting-Jobs-Dice-Report-859832/?kc=rss Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Microsofts-Windows-8-Consumer-Preview-Event-Feb-29-370491/?kc=rss Microsoft will host a Windows 8 Consumer Preview event in Barcelona Feb. 29. That's likely the launch date of Windows 8 beta.Microsoft will almost certainly use this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as the venue for whipping back the curtain from its Windows 8 Consumer Preview. The company has sent eWEEK and other media an invitation to a Windows 8 Consumer Preview -themed event at 3 pm Feb. 29 at the Hotel Miramar. If a release of the Consumer Preview is indeed in the making, that's in line with Microsoft's previous predictions that the Windows 8 beta ( Consumer Preview is a fancy synonym) would arrive sometime in February. It's widely expected that the release version of the next-generation operating system will hit the market late in 2012. In a bid to expand Windows reach to tablets and more mobile form factors, Microsoft's engineers have subjected the operating system to some fairly radical alterations. Chief among them: a start-screen based around large, colorful tiles linked to applications. That interface conforms to the same Metro design aesthetic underlying many of Microsoft's properties, including Windows Phone and the latest Xbox dashboard. In theory, those big tiles--along with other features such as a mobile-applications storefront--will facilitate Windows 8's operation on tablets. By hosting the event at the Mobile World Congress, Microsoft is again re-emphasizing its aim to make Windows 8 a major player in the mobile arena. Those who want a more traditional Windows experience can flip from that start-screen to a desktop interface with a single tap or click. For power users, Microsoft's teams are busy tweaking Windows 8's file systems for more streamlined and powerful operation. While many of those adjustments are in response to feedback--at least according to Microsoft s official Building Windows 8 blog--some of its revisions have proven a bit controversial: the company's decision to include a ribbon user interface for Windows Explorer, for example, attracted ire from those who dislike that particular feature. Provided it releases in late 2012, Windows 8 will arrive exactly three years after Windows 7 hit the market. That could make it a hard sell to customers and businesses that recently upgraded. Over the past few months, Microsoft executives have taken pains to emphasize Windows 8's enhancements and tweaks to longtime Windows features. To read the original eWeek article, click here: Microsoft's Windows 8 Consumer Preview Event Feb. 29]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Microsofts-Windows-8-Consumer-Preview-Event-Feb-29-370491/?kc=rss Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Federal-Government-Allowing-More-Personal-Mobile-Devices-Study-790129/?kc=rss A new report by CDW's government division shows that federal workers are using their own mobile devices on the job. The question now is how does IT secure all these devices?It might be called a case of extreme bring-your-own-device (BYOD) syndrome. A growing number of federal employees, including many in the defense or national security industries, are using their own smartphones, tablets and laptops for work, according to a new report by CDW Government (CDW-G). The quot;Federal Mobility Report quot; examines how government workers use mobile devices and the challenges they bring to security. CDW-G provides IT services to government agencies as well as education and health care. The company released the results of its survey on Feb. 7. For the report, CDW-G interviewed 414 federal employees and IT staff. Respondents worked in civilian, defense or intelligence agencies. In November, the Obama administration ordered that federal agencies limit the amount of mobile devices they provide to employees, potentially leading to the rise of personal mobile devices in government. In fact, 62 percent of federal agencies now allow employees to use their own mobile devices at work. Meanwhile, 56 percent of federal employees use government-provided mobile devices and 44 percent of federal employees use their own, CDW-G reports. quot;Each agency should take steps to limit the number of IT devices (e.g., mobile phones, smartphones, desktop and laptop computers, and tablet personal computers) issued to employees, consistent with the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 (Public Law 111 292), operational requirements (including continuity of operations), and initiatives designed to create efficiency through the effective implementation of technology, quot; President Obama wrote in an executive order dated Nov. 9. Employees using their own mobile devices at work have led to the BYOD catchphrase. quot;Given the executive order that asked agencies to limit the number of IT devices they issue to employees, including mobile devices, we expect that future growth of mobile device use is likely to be of the BYOD variety, quot; Neal Campbell, CDW's senior vice president and chief marketing officer, wrote in an email to eWEEK. About 99 percent of all federal agencies have deployed mobile devices to workers in their agencies, CDW-G reports. quot;Mobility is no longer just a nice-to-have capability among the federal workforce, quot; said Campbell. quot;It's the norm. quot; Federal agencies, like all industries, realize that mobile devices boost productivity and improve customer service, Campbell noted. Of federal employees who use mobile devices, 89 percent said the devices make them more productive, and 69 percent of federal employees interviewed said mobile access would lead them to serve citizens better. Of the federal workers surveyed, 58 percent of defense employees were likely to use a personal device for work, compared with 30 percent for civilian government employees. To read the original eWeek article, click here: Federal Government Allowing More Personal Mobile Devices: Study]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Federal-Government-Allowing-More-Personal-Mobile-Devices-Study-790129/?kc=rss Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Social-Media-Investment-Lagging-Among-Businesses-446896/?kc=rss The survey suggests marketers recognize the need to dedicate more resources to their social media efforts going forward.A study by the Software amp; Information Industry Association (SIIA), a trade association for the software and digital content industries found that a gap exists between attitudes towards social media and investment in social media. The report, quot;Marketing in Today's Economy , the first SIIA publication to gather business-to-business sales and marketing tactics from industry executives, focused on their companies' use of email, mobile marketing and social media to build their brands, gain leads, and improve customer support. About 90 percent of marketing executives surveyed use social media marketing, and three quarters believe it has a positive impact on their business. At the same time slightly more than half (54.5 percent) of respondents said their company's marketing team spends less than 10 hours per week investing in social media. And further, 35 percent said they spend only between one and five hours per week on social media marketing. quot;Social media has clearly become a widely used tool among B2B marketers and few doubt that it is helping their business, quot; said Rhianna Collier, vice president of SIIA's software division. quot;But our survey also shows that marketers may not be dedicating the resources necessary to get the results they want from social media marketing. It is remarkable to see that, despite their strong belief in the power of social media, over one-third of marketers are engaged in it for only five hours or fewer every week. quot; The SIIA survey suggests that marketers do recognize the need to dedicate more resources to their social media efforts going forward. About 65 percent of respondents cited social media as an area in which they would like to invest more spending, and over 70 percent indicated they expect to increase their use of both Twitter and Linkedin in the year ahead. The study indicated marketers are beginning to apply the same ROI metrics to social media that they do for other marketing efforts, both offline and online. For example, 59 percent of businesses are using social media use web traffic as an indicator of social media ROI, while 53 percent are using qualified leads as a key ROI metric. quot;Social media is still a relatively new method for growing a business, but marketers clearly believe it is has value and will require greater investment. And with more marketers now applying traditional ROI metrics such as qualified leads to their social media efforts, they are more likely to get a clear sense of what level of investment makes sense, Collier said. The maturation process of social media is clearly underway, and we can expect to see significant advancements in the coming years. quot; The survey looked at a range of issues, and found a number of other results that are illuminating for marketers. For example, 75 percent of respondents do not outsource any social media efforts, and nearly 60 percent of respondents said that less than 5 percent of their deals began through social network interactions. Privacy is the top ethical concern in today's marketing world, according to survey results, and most marketers predict that the biggest trend in 2012 will be greater communication and quantification of value to customers. The SIIA joined with Lopez Research to conduct a survey of more than 100 marketing executives in North America. The survey interviewed 106 marketing executives, of which 88 percent were business-to-business marketers. In addition to the survey, Marketing in Today's Economy features commentary from 16 marketing experts whose companies provide technology solutions or services across a spectrum of industries. The authors offer expertise on a range of B2B marketing trends and best practices from social media to search engine optimization and cloud marketing. To read the original eWeek article, click here: Social Media Investment Lagging Among Businesses]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Social-Media-Investment-Lagging-Among-Businesses-446896/?kc=rss Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/SAP-HANA-Offers-Businesses-RealTime-Analytics-415196/?kc=rss HANA is designed to improve decision-making and increase the speed of existing processes and accessing large amounts of data.Enterprise application software specialist SAP (NYSE: SAP) announced two new offerings that are designed to deliver the benefits of the company s HANA platform, a combination of in-memory data management software and SAP partner hardware, to small to medium-size businesses (SMBs). With analytics powered by HANA for the SAP Business One application and HANA Edge edition, SMBs can leverage in-memory technology from SAP. HANA is designed to improve decision-making and increasing the speed of existing processes and accessing large amounts of data in shorter periods of time. HANA Edge edition is globally available via enabled and authorized partners. The platform aims to provide midmarket companies with real-time access to information tailored to their individual requirements. Analytics powered by HANA for SAP Business One are intended to provide a cost-effective combination of a special product version of HANA designed with the needs of small businesses in mind. Targeted at companies using Business One, the channel-only solution aims to offer a small-scale, easy-to-use HANA-based application including operational reporting with the company's Crystal Reports software. Ramp-up is planned to begin at the end of February, with general availability planned for later in 2012. "Analytics powered by HANA for SAP Business One will offer customers the flexibility to create interactive reports and run ad-hoc analysis faster than before," said Ketan Solanki, consulting manager at Evolution Future Solutions, an Australia-based SAP channel partner delivering Business One. "Another major advantage is the access to relevant information in seconds with freestyle search, with the ability to navigate through various business objects from SAP Business One without having to move from screen to screen due to it all being included in the current cockpit. We expect that customers will benefit from tremendously improved productivity." HANA Edge edition is an indirect offering compiled specifically for reselling in the midmarket. The software targets SAP customers in the midmarket -- typically those running the company's Business All-in-One solution. An additional value proposition is offered when the version of HANA for midsize companies is bundled with the company's BusinessObjects Edge Business Intelligence (BI) software, with the combination delivering insight in real time to midsize organizations. "Small enterprises have Big Data issues also," said Donald Feinberg, vice president and distinguished analyst at IT research firm Gartner. "Big Data is not only large volumes of data but also includes the variety and complexity of the data. Looking at content such as audio, video, text, documents, small enterprises have as much Big Data as large enterprises. Solutions for small enterprises must address the issues of Big Data."To read the original eWeek article, click here: SAP HANA Offers Businesses Real-Time Analytics ]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/SAP-HANA-Offers-Businesses-RealTime-Analytics-415196/?kc=rss Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:56:05 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Expert-Voices/CIOs-at-Risk-Four-Areas-to-Watch-752357/?kc=rss The velocity of technological change is providing improved business functionality for organizations that have previously operated with a smaller internal IT footprint. But this change comes at a cost, creating a new set of risks that CIOs must effectively manage to be successful.David Nichols is CIO Services Leader, Geoff Vickrey is Enabling Technologies Leader, and Bob Sydow is Area Center of Excellence Leader for Ernst amp; Young LLP Virtualization and cloud computing, social media, mobile and other disruptive technologies are converging to create something like the perfect storm for CIOs. The velocity of change the pace at which technology is evolving is so fast that uncharted risks make navigating todays IT environment more challenging than ever. As the CIOs role evolves from providing tactical support for the business to becoming a strategic partner, the need to align ITs priorities to those of the business is of paramount importance. You also need to provide sage counsel, turning information into insights when the business is seeking to implement new technology solutions to achieve competitive advantage. The need to be fast to market might encourage organizations to procure and implement new technologies without understanding the full range of risks those new technologies present, and as CIO you must be ready with answers and solutions. Whats the issue? The velocity of change in technology has forced many IT functions to adopt a new approach to sourcing and managing technology vendors and service providers as part of an overall IT infrastructure strategy. The current landscape of disruptive technologies presents numerous opportunities for IT functions to provide a more cost-effective, flexible and scalable infrastructure that better meets evolving business needs. This change is largely driven by advances in broadband, which now allows mobile devices to take full advantage of the cloud technologies that have been developing over the last decade. These advances are providing improved business functionality for organizations that have previously operated with a smaller internal IT footprint. But this change comes at a cost, creating a new set of risks that CIOs must effectively manage to be successful. Why now? The rapid introduction of disruptive technology is fundamentally changing how organizations go to market with products and services, interact with their customers, innovate and achieve competitive advantage. It is also creating a host of new risks that CIOs need to address. How does it affect you? In the past, IT functions had to create elaborate frameworks to deliver services that were primarily administered in-house. Infrastructure was developed and purchased under a peak-usage scenario, and any outsourcing involved long-term contracts with large vendors and often involved the transfer of physical infrastructure and resources. Going forward, infrastructure will be purchased on a pay-as-you-go or consumption-based model. Organizations are contracting with smaller, more nimble vendors with new contractual terms that are reviewed more frequently. Yet even as the physical IT footprint shrinks, the business expects CIOs to improve service delivery. The other change that CIOs will have to contend with is a loss of control in the selection of technology platforms. Those decisions are increasingly being driven by consumers. ITs only option will be to react and respond. This new hybrid infrastructure model creates a number of inherent risks for CIOs, including: Strategic and financial risks. The number of vendors is growing, but the required size is shrinking, which can raise questions about their long-term viability. There could also be business-continuity risks if these smaller providers fail to meet service-level agreements. For instance, what plans need to be in place if a vendors data center goes down? What losses could result? Geographic risks. Geopolitical risks, from natural disasters and political unrest to persistent terrorism threats #8722;particularly in emerging outsourcing markets #8722;present significant risks of disruption to outsourced IT services. Capacity risks. Smaller vendors might be able to offer greater flexibility, but their size could end up working against them and you. Ultimately, they may not have enough capacity to support a growing customer base. Control risks. An increase in outsourcing results in less control over your data. This presents the potential for data breaches and other security exposures. Contract risks. IT functions will need to implement a rigorous vetting process to ensure that contracted vendors offer the right services in stable locations with sufficient capacity to support the business now and in the future. New vendors will also need to prove ongoing solvency and robust security. There are four steps CIOs can take to help mitigate the risks in todays rapidly evolving technology environment: Understand the risks. As the pace of technology changes accelerates, a new set of risks emerge. In addition to external threats, IT functions face evolving internal threats and potential misuse it attempts to blend the use of new technologies within the current IT infrastructure. Identify the risks. The complex factors that drive uncertainty and risk need to be effectively adapted to the design and implementation of governance, processes, controls and tools. As the degree of IT project complexity increases, the risk of failure, or, at the very least, of not meeting the IT project objectives also increases. Mitigate the risks. A comprehensive program risk-management strategy is key to mitigating risks. Once the risk factors have been identified, they can be managed throughout all stages of the evolution. The probability and impact of each risk needs to be evaluated, highlighting the highest risks, as well as sequencing the remediation. It is important to note that not all of the risk-management strategies will be technical in nature. Some will involve policy changes and increases in awareness training. IT functions can plan for 90 percent of the risks, understanding that 10 percent will be in constant flux. Evolve risk management and controls processes. Additional lines of defense are also key to ensuring IT program success. Elements include: Appointing experienced and dedicated risk managers Creating a risk committee that is tasked with managing and monitoring the end-to-end risk program Enhancing the role of internal audit Leveraging external risk experts to complement or extend knowledge beyond the experience within your organization Whats the bottom line? The pace at which technology is changing will not slow it will only accelerate. To be successful, CIOs need to establish a robust set of processes and controls to effectively manage the new risks that new technologies bring. This will require the CIO to gain an immediate understanding of the changing demands from the business, the technologies that are likely to make the greatest impact there, and the ever-evolving vendor landscape within their organization. The CIO doesnt necessarily need to react to every aspect of this rapidly changing environment,but he or she will need to thoroughly understand the change drivers and the impact to the organization. About the Authors David Nichols is CIO Services Leader, Geoff Vickrey is Enabling Technologies Leader, and Bob Sydow is Area Center of Excellence Leader for Ernst amp; Young LLP The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of Ernst amp; Young LLP or any other member firm of Ernst amp; Young Global Limited]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Expert-Voices/CIOs-at-Risk-Four-Areas-to-Watch-752357/?kc=rss Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Small-Businesses-Planning-to-Hire-in-2012-Wells-Fargo-Report-741410/?kc=rss While small business owners indicate plans to hire in the next 12 months -- the most optimistic outlook since July 2008 -- they continue to indicate some concern around hiring today.America's small business owners are the most optimistic since July 2008, according to the latest findings from the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index survey for the period Jan. 9-13, 2012. The Index now stands at positive 15 for January, compared to minus 3 in October and following two previous Index readings of zero (neither optimistic nor pessimistic). The Index's future expectations component (forward looking 12 months) rose to positive 21 in January, an increase of 13 points from the survey's last reading, which occurred in October 2011. More small business owners expect to add new employees (22 percent) than expect to let them go (8 percent) over the next 12 months, an improvement over the previous survey readings. This quarter's 14 percentage point hiring/firing difference (those who expect to hire versus fire employees) is the largest since January 2008 at the start of the financial crisis. In October, the hiring/firing difference was only 2 percentage points, with 15 percent expecting to add new employees and 13 percent expecting to let them go. More than half of the survey's small business owners (52 percent) said they hired employees in the past 12 months, which is little changed from the 51 percent reported in November 2010. However, of this group, more business owners say they have hired as many employees as needed (65 percent, compared to 48 percent in Nov. 2010) versus those who have hired fewer than needed (29 percent, compared to 42 percent in Nov. 2010), an indication of more stable operating environments. While business owners indicate plans to hire in the next 12 months, they demonstrate some concern around hiring today. Only 15 percent said they are currently looking for new employees. Half of all business owners surveyed said that as a general rule, they find it very difficult (21 percent) or somewhat difficult (32 percent) to find the right qualified employees for their business. Driving the increase was a more bullish sentiment across several categories tracked by the survey, including revenues -- 49 percent expect revenues to increase a lot or a little, up from 37 percent in Q4 2011 and the overall financial situation -- 63 percent expect their company's financial situation to be very or somewhat good over the next 12 months, up from 55 percent in Q4 2011. Twenty-two percent said they expect the number of jobs at their company to increase a lot or a little, up from 15 percent in Q4 2011, while 8 percent expect the number of jobs at their company to decrease a lot or a little, down from 13 percent in Q4 2011. Slightly more than half (53 percent) said they expect their cash flow to be very or somewhat good, up from 48 percent in Q4 2011, while 27 percent said they expect credit to be very or somewhat easy to obtain, up from 22 percent in Q4 2011. However, 38 percent said they expect credit to be very or somewhat difficult to obtain, down from 43 percent in Q4 2011. To read the original eWeek article, click here: Small Businesses Planning to Hire in 2012: Wells Fargo Report]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Small-Businesses-Planning-to-Hire-in-2012-Wells-Fargo-Report-741410/?kc=rss Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Verizon-Health-Evolution-Partners-Spur-Health-Care-IT-Development-293661/?kc=rss Verizon and Health Evolution Partners are looking to enable development in real-time care coordination and mobile data services.Health care IT investor Health Evolution Partners and Verizon Enterprise Solutions are collaborating to foster innovation in mobile health, telemedicine and health data management. The partnership, which both companies announced Feb. 6, will leverage Verizon's IT infrastructure to spur innovation in the 100 health care IT companies that Health Evolution Partners invests in. Health Evolution Partners is a health care buyout firm that invests in health care organizations such as hospitals, physician practices, pharmaceutical manufacturers and medical device makers. Verizon and Health Evolution Partners are looking to encourage real-time care coordination and engage patients with mobile technology. Real-time care coordination with quot;connected health quot; could help hospitals and doctors' practices better manage costs and improve patient care, Verizon reports. quot;The next generation of health IT will not be anchored to a desk, quot; said Dr. David Brailer, chairman of Health Evolution Partners and a former national coordinator for health information technology coordinator in the Department of Health and Human Services. quot;Clinicians and patients will expect technologies that support mobility and virtual care. quot; Health Evolution Partners' firms will develop new products using Verizon's mobile health and cloud platforms. Meanwhile, Health Evolution Partners will provide guidance as Verizon looks to get new technologies out of the lab and to market, including identity management products. Future health care innovation will involve broadband, video and wireless devices along with geo-location and sensors, said Brailer. The innovation should connect multiple layers of an IT infrastructure and allow doctors to access data in a quot;much cleaner way, quot; said Brailer. quot;Verizon's never been making a secret of the fact that it's transforming itself from a telephone company to a technology company, quot; Dr. Peter Tippett, vice president and chief medical officer of Verizon's health care practice, Connected Healthcare Solutions, told CIO Insight sister publication eWEEK. Tippett noted that by selling Cybertrust, a security services provider, to Verizon in 2007, it prepared him for developing an innovation incubator. quot;We've spent almost five years in quiet mode building a whole lot of capabilities, quot; said Tippett, referring to application and software as a service (SAAS) products. With the IT networking technologies it has developed, Verizon is looking to enable companies to develop health care IT products in the cloud and mobility rather than sell them to health care companies directly as products, like electronic health record (EHR) applications, Tippett explained. To read the original eWeek article, click here: Verizon, Health Evolution Partners Spur Health Care IT Development]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Verizon-Health-Evolution-Partners-Spur-Health-Care-IT-Development-293661/?kc=rss Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/IBM-and-Tulip-Telecom-Build-900000-Square-Foot-Data-Center-in-India-623856/?kc=rss IBM has helped design and build a 900,000 square foot data center in India for Tulip Telecom. The companies say it is the largest data center in India.IBM has announced that it has worked with Tulip Telecom to design and help build what the companies are calling the largest data center facility in India to deliver new cloud and networking services. Tulip Telecom is a telecommunications network and data service provider in India. Its services reach more than 2,000 cities and towns throughout India. IBM's data center and SmartCloud infrastructure services will support Tulip in extending its existing offerings to quickly meet customer demand. With the number of people using mobile devices to access the Internet increasing dramatically, IDC estimates that the amount of information managed by enterprises will grow 50 times over the next decade, and in the next two years alone the number of servers installed will increase by 49 percent over those installed today. Covering more than 900,000 square feet, and 20 Enterprise Modular Data Centers in a four-tower building, the facility is engineered to support up to 100 megawatts of power, making it the third-largest data center in the world, IBM said. In an interview with CIO Insight]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/IBM-and-Tulip-Telecom-Build-900000-Square-Foot-Data-Center-in-India-623856/?kc=rss Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/iPhone-4S-Midrange-Android-Phones-Drove-2011-Smartphone-Market-IDC-602865/?kc=rss Apple's iPhone 4S and mid-priced smartphones drove a 61.3 percent year-over-year increase in unit shipments worldwide, according to IDC.Consumer demand for Apple's iPhone 4S and other next-generation devices helped the worldwide smartphone market grow 54.7 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to an IDC report. That surpassed IDC's earlier estimate. For the entirety of 2011, smartphone shipments totaled some 491.4 million units, up 61.3 percent from 304.7 million units in 2010. Although the iPhone 4S and other high-end smartphones attracted the lion's share of attention from the media and the blogosphere, manufacturers' midrange offerings contributed mightily to those final numbers. quot;So-called 'hero devices, such as Samsung's Galaxy Nexus and Apple's iPhone 4S, garner the bulk of the attention heaped on the device type, quot; Kevin Restivo, a senior research analyst with IDC, wrote in a Feb. 6 statement accompanying the data. quot;But a growing number of sub-$250 device offerings, based on the Android operating system, have allowed Google's hardware partners to grow smartphone volumes and expand the market concurrently. quot; In IDC's estimation, Apple topped the list of worldwide smartphone vendors with 23.5 percent of the overall market in the fourth quarter of 2011, a notable increase from 15.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010. Trailing just behind it was Samsung, with 22.8 percent for the quarter, likewise a significant increase from its 9.4 percent during the same period in 2010. Nokia came in third, with 12.4 percent of the worldwide market. IDC noted that the company passed the largest year-over-year decrease among top vendors, as it took its homegrown Symbian operating system offline in favor of new devices running Microsoft's Windows Phone. Research In Motion and HTC finished fourth and fifth on that list, respectively, with 8.2 percent and 6.5 percent of the market. Finally, HTC faced a year-over-year decline in its market share, from 8.5 percent to 6.5 percent. To read the original eWeek article, click here: iPhone 4S, Midrange Android Phones Drove 2011 Smartphone Market: IDC]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/iPhone-4S-Midrange-Android-Phones-Drove-2011-Smartphone-Market-IDC-602865/?kc=rss Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Tech-Spending-Remains-Strong-Despite-Economic-Volatility-IDC-359302/?kc=rss Businesses continued to invest in infrastructure upgrades, along with new software applications and mobile devices, including tablets.IT spending increased by 5 percent at constant currency in 2011, despite the worsening economic situation in Western Europe and volatility in other regions, according to the IDC Worldwide Black Book. Emerging markets continued to lead the way, with tech spending in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) enjoying another year of double-digit growth. Strong demand for mobile devices and software across most regions ensured a positive finish to the year, despite the impact of the hard disk drive (HDD) shortage on PC markets. In U.S. dollar terms, the IT industry grew by almost 9 percent in 2011, but the report warned year-to-year comparisons could be difficult for U.S.-based IT vendors this year if currency conditions are less favorable. In constant currency, IDC projects another year of 5 percent growth for worldwide IT spending in 2012. Hardware and software spending are each forecast to increase by 6 percent (in constant currency), with 4 percent growth in IT services. Strongest growth in 2011 came from smartphones (+46 percent), software (+6 percent) and disk storage systems (+6 percent). Businesses continued to invest in infrastructure upgrades, along with new software applications and mobile devices (including tablets). IDC said these positive trends are expected to continue in 2012, when enterprise spending on network equipment will also accelerate as many organizations invest in network upgrades to cope with the continuing increase in digital information, which will meanwhile ensure another positive year for the storage market. By the end of 2012, the PC industry will also return to positive growth, the report noted. "There are risks to the outlook for 2012, mainly related to macroeconomic weakness in Europe, where IT spending is still weak," said Stephen Minton, vice president of IDC s global technology and industry research organization. "In a downside scenario, things could get much uglier in Europe and have a ripple effect through other regions. But leading indicators in the U.S. have improved in recent months, and emerging markets show no signs of a slowdown yet." The macroeconomic crisis in Europe has already had a severe impact on IT spending in that region, according to IDC's research. Overall IT investment was flat in 2011, with declines in spending on PCs, servers, storage, peripherals and enterprise network equipment. The recovery in Europe will be a long haul, with less than 1 percent growth this year and 3 percent in 2013. "Europe is going to be a long, drawn-out recovery," said Anna Toncheva, program manager and economist in IDC's global technology and industry research organization. "The debt crisis will take a long time to resolve, and there are numerous downside risks, which could yet see the unraveling of the European single currency and, in the near term, an escalation of the crisis due to sovereign debt defaults in peripheral Eurozone countries." In other regions, however, the momentum of 2011 is still evident in recent polls, which show continuing enthusiasm for tech investment among businesses and consumers. In the U.S., where IT spending increased by 7 percent last year, 2012 is likely to bring another year of solid growth (5 percent) driven by mobile devices, software and network equipment. Japan will see a return to positive growth, after the declines triggered by last year s tsunami and earthquake disaster. IT spending in Brazil, Russia, India and China will be up by 9 percent, 11 percent, 16 percent and 15 percent, respectively. To read the original eWeek article, click here: Tech Spending Remains Strong, Despite Economic Volatility: IDC]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Tech-Spending-Remains-Strong-Despite-Economic-Volatility-IDC-359302/?kc=rss Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Smartphone-Sales-Beat-PCs-for-First-Time-Ever-Canalys-164565/?kc=rss Smartphone sales surged past PC totals even with the iPad helping numbers for the first time ever during the fourth quarter, according to Canalys.Smartphone sales surpassed those of PCs for the first time ever, during the fourth quarter of 2011, according to research firm Canalys. What's more, smartphones also outsold PCs--even with the inclusion of tablets, such as the Apple iPad, into the mix. In all, vendors shipped 158.5 million smartphones during the quarter, up 57 percent from 101.2 million units during the same quarter a year ago, compared with 120.2 million PCs. Smartphones led for the full year 2011, as well, on shipments of 487.7 million units to 414.6 million PCs. Of those PC units, 63.2 million were tablets. quot;Smartphone shipments overtaking those of client PCs should be seen as a significant milestone, quot; Canalys analyst Chris Jones said in a statement. quot;In the space of a few years, smartphones have grown from being a niche product segment at the high-end of the mobile phone market to becoming a truly mass-market proposition. quot; Helping quot;tremendously, quot; he added, are smartphones at the lower end of the price range and consumers' growing appetites for Web browsing, content consumption, apps and mobile services. That said, the firm expects smartphone sales to slow some in 2012, as vendors quot;exercise greater cost control and discipline, and put more focus on profitability, quot; added Jones. quot;Notably, even vendors who have focused on conquering the low-end of the market with aggressive pricing, such as Huawei, ZTE and LG, are now placing greater attention on the higher tiers. Flagship models aimed at raising selling prices and improving margins will feature more heavily this year. quot; As IHS iSuppli reported earlier this year, Apple was the top smartphone seller during the fourth quarter, moving 37 million iPhones, as well as 15.4 million iPads and 5.2 million Macs. quot;It also smashed the record for the most smartphones shipped globally by any single vendor in one quarter, quot; wrote Canalys, quot;beating Nokia s previous record of 28.3 million shipped in Q4 2010. quot; Unlike IHS, however, Canalys found Apple to have additionally displaced Nokia as the leading smartphone vendor for the year, on shipments of 93.1 million iPhones in 2011. According to its figures, Samsung followed with sales of 91.9 million units, with a third-place Nokia shipping 77.3 million smartphones globally. To read the original eWeek article, click here: Smartphone Sales Beat PCs for First Time Ever: Canalys]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Smartphone-Sales-Beat-PCs-for-First-Time-Ever-Canalys-164565/?kc=rss Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/CyberLegislation-Bill-Approved-by-House-Senate-Prepares-its-Own-200306/?kc=rss As federal officials and the White House increasingly call on Congress to pass the comprehensive cyber-security bill to protect critical infrastructure, the House moves forward with its version.Federal law enforcement officials expect cyber-espionage, hacktivists and cyber-attacks to soon surpass traditional terrorism as the No. 1 threat facing the United States, according to Congressional testimony. quot;Stopping terrorists is the No. 1 priority, quot; Robert Mueller, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Feb. 1. quot;But down the road, the cyber-threat will be the No. 1 threat to the country. I do not think it is necessarily the No. 1 threat, but it will be tomorrow. The U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper urged the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate to pass legislation to increase cyber-security in both the public and private sectors during a hearing of the House Select Intelligence Committee on worldwide threats on Feb. 2. Clapper discussed intrusions on public systems that control major defense weapon systems, electrical grids and banking infrastructure. The U.S. economy is losing upwards of $300 billion per year because of rampant cyber-espionage, Clapper said. Perhaps Mueller is right to be nervous. The hacktivist collective Anonymous released audio transcripts on YouTube of a 16-minute call between the FBI and Scotland Yard where law enforcement officials discussed several Anonymous- and LulzSec-related cases on Feb. 3. The FBI and British police have confirmed that the transcripts are legitimate and said they are investigating. Anonymous had access to one of the call participants' email accounts and had intercepted an email containing the dial-in information and passcode for the trans-Atlantic phone call, an Anonymous member bragged on Twitter. quot;The #FBI might be curious how we're able to continuously read their internal comms for some time now. #OpInfiltration, quot; AnonymousIRC wrote on Twitter. The email invitation for the Jan. 17 conference call had been sent to 44 government officials and members of the law enforcement community, including FBI's cyber-crime-specialist counterparts in the French government, London's Metropolitan police, representatives from the European Union criminal intelligence agency Europol, the Swedish government and the Netherlands, according to a post on the text-sharing site Pastebin. Congress is making some movements toward a comprehensive cyber-legislation. The House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cyber-Security, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies marked up the cyber-security bill sponsored by Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) and unanimously approved it Feb. 1. Lungren's Promoting and Enhancing Cyber-Security and Information Sharing Effectiveness Act (PRECISE) calls for creating a nonprofit National Information Sharing Organization that would collect cyber-security threat information and allow the industry to voluntarily share the data with the government. The NISO umbrella would make private firms and government agencies exempt from privacy laws that prevent data sharing, so long as they share the information only for cyber-security purposes. The bill also identified the Department of Homeland Security as the lead federal agency for securing networks operated by civilian government and private sectors. The bill also does not give the government an quot;Internet kill switch quot; or authority to limit Internet traffic in case of an emergency. ISPs and other operators need quot;clearer legal authority quot; to share signatures and other information about suspected attacks with each other and with the government, wrote Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology, on the CDT blog. A private nonprofit organization would pose far fewer privacy risks than an information-sharing hub run by the government, according to Nojeim. The Senate has plans to present its version of the cyber-security bill for markup by Feb. 17. The Senate bill is rumored to also put the Department of Homeland Security in charge, but the agency would also have the authority to create security rules for the private sector to follow, and punish companies that do not comply with the rules. The Department of Homeland Security would decide which companies it would be able to regulate but would select those with systems whose quot;disruption could result in the interruption of life-sustaining services, catastrophic economic damage or severe degradation of national security capabilities, quot; according to a summary of the bill. As much as 85 percent of the country's critical infrastructure is controlled by the private sector. quot;Where the market has worked, and systems are appropriately secure, we don't interfere, quot; said Sen. Joseph Lieberman (Ind.-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. quot;But where the market has failed, and critical systems are insecure, the government has a responsibility to step in, quot; Lieberman said. ]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/CyberLegislation-Bill-Approved-by-House-Senate-Prepares-its-Own-200306/?kc=rss Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Symantec-Doyenz-Partner-on-CloudBased-Recovery-Service-for-Virtual-Environments-611443/?kc=rss As part of the new release, Symantec transformed Backup Exec s user interface and configurability to provide users with a simpler experience.Doyenz Inc., a provider of cloud-based recovery services for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), announced that its cloud-based recovery technology was selected by Symantec to power the new Cloud DR Option available as part of Backup Exec 2012. The service enables customers to leverage Recovery as a Service (RaaS) for recovery of VMware environments in the cloud in less than 15 minutes. Backup Exec 2012 is designed to help users eliminate complexity, perform backups in 100 percent virtualized environments, and deliver and cloud-based recovery through a single solution. As part of the new release, Symantec transformed Backup Exec s user interface and configurability to provide users with a simpler experience. Through integration with Doyenz s cloud-based recovery technology, Symantec now offers the Backup Exec Cloud DR Option as part of the offering. This addition allows customers to leverage RaaS in the cloud, whether they are managing planned or unexpected downtime. "Close to two million customers worldwide trust in Symantec Backup Exec as part of their data protection strategy," said Amit Walia, vice president of Symantec's information management group. "The partnership with Doyenz demonstrates our commitment to delivering leading solutions by offering our customers a proven cloud-based approach to backup and recovery. Through this joint offering, customers can proactively prepare for disasters before they strike." The Doyenz solution is designed to enable recovery for VMware vSphere environments in the cloud in less than 15 minutes. Doyenz leverages vSphere virtual machine snapshots to take both full and incremental backups of virtual machines for enterprise-grade recovery of production environments, providing virtual failover in minutes instead of hours or days. Additionally, with Doyenz Virtual Lab, businesses can help ensure the integrity of the disaster recovery environment by frequently testing it in the cloud. "The combined force of Doyenz and Symantec highlights our dedication to protecting VMware environments and eliminating costly downtime for our customers," said Ashutosh Tiwary, founder and CEO of Doyenz. "The Backup Exec Cloud DR Option powered by Doyenz delivers an always-on approach to backup and recovery so our customers can be assured that their information is protected and their business-critical applications are available at anytime." Symantec also announced it is taking aim at the often complex and time-consuming process of backup and recovery services with the release of NetBackup 7.5 and Backup Exec 2012 software and cloud services, as well as Backup Exec Small Business Edition for midmarket companies. In addition, the company s NetBackup Auto Image Replication (AIR) allows customers to eliminate volumes of physical assets and prioritize files that can be sent over the network. Symantec's strategy is to eliminate 80 percent of the operating cost of backup by delivering an integrated platform that replaces multiple solutions typically used in backup today. Symantec backup appliances can drive down costs even more than traditional appliances by combining backup software and deduplication into a single solution supported by one vendor, that is fast to deploy and easy to manage. To read the original eWeek article, click here: Symantec, Doyenz Partner on Cloud-Based Recovery Service for Virtual Environments]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/Symantec-Doyenz-Partner-on-CloudBased-Recovery-Service-for-Virtual-Environments-611443/?kc=rss Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/iPad-Android-Will-Spur-Tablet-Market-to-125M-Units-820105/?kc=rss Apple's iPad and Google's Android tablets will continue to pace the slate market in 2012, with an assist from Microsoft Windows 8, said Jefferies & Co.Tablet shipments could top 125 million units in 2012, led by Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad and tablets based on Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android and Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 8 operating systems. So goes the prognostication from equity analysts at Jefferies amp; Co., which actually shaved off 25 million units from its earlier estimate for this year because the market consolidated faster than it expected. Moreover, carrier tablet subsidies never materialized in 2011. Carriers such as Verizon Wireless and AT amp;T simply chose not to aggressively market their Android tablet offerings, impinging unit sales. Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said Apple sold 40.5 million of the 70 million tablets that shipped in 2011, with Samsung shipping 10 million Galaxy Tabs and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) selling 4 million Kindle Fire Android tablets for the year. With the Kindle Fire and some Tab models being the exceptions, much of the Android tablet market suffered from built-in anemia. Most of the machines were initially priced too high compared with the iPad, which started at $500 for the WiFi model. Motorola Mobility (NYSE:MMI) sold its Xoom Android Honeycomb tablet for $699 on contract a year ago this month. That price, some bugs in Honeycomb, and the lack of a strong application ecosystem for Android slates led to Motorola only selling 1 million tablets for 2011. For perspective, Apple sold 15.4 million iPads last quarter alone. The Kindle Fire came to market Nov. 15 with the opposite approach: It was WiFi-only and cost $199. These factors made the tablet quite attractive to cost-conscious consumers. Over 4 quarters, the Fire could conceivably sell 16 to 24 million units. Good news then, from Misek, who said Android tablet apps should drive shipments in 2012. Still, Misek had originally modeled the 2012 tablet market to top 150 million units shipped. He's curbed his model to account for market consolidation. Specifically, tablet vendors, including Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM), HP (NYSE:HPQ) and other Android OEMs, failed to gain any traction against Apple, Samsung and Amazon. To read the original eWeek article, click here: iPad, Android Will Spur Tablet Market to 125M Units]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/iPad-Android-Will-Spur-Tablet-Market-to-125M-Units-820105/?kc=rss Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:27:38 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Careers/IT-Workers-More-Confident-in-Jobs-Economy-452693/?kc=rss Anyone who's been in the workforce in the past few years knows what a rollercoaster it's been. But things are looking up, according to a recent survey of IT professionals from Technisource. The company's latest IT Employee Confidence Index reveals that optimism levels have climbed above 50, after dipping below that critical mark last year. Overall, tech workers feel better about job security, employment-search prospects and the future of their organizations. "With the demand for IT professionals steadily increasing, confidence is rising once again," says Andrew Speer, president of technology solutions for Technisource. "We're seeing great demand for project managers, analytics professionals and .NET application developers, demonstrating that companies are opening their budgets and embracing technology implementation." And one-third of employees are actively looking for new employment, Speer notes, meaning CIOs and other tech managers must focus on the needs of IT teams to avoid unnecessary hiring and re-training costs. More than 245 IT professionals took part in the research.]]> /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence.jpg 52 is the most recent, overall IT Employee Confidence Index reading, up from 47.3 the prior quarter. 10 /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence2.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence2.jpg 22% of IT professionals believe the economy is getting stronger, up from just 13% the prior quarter. 10 /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence3.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence3.jpg 18% of tech workers believe more IT jobs are available now, up from 11%. 10 /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence4.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence4.jpg 56% of IT professionals feel that fewer jobs exist now than in the recent past, a percentage that’s holding steady. 10 /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence5.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence5.jpg 42% of tech employees are confident in their ability to find a new job, up from 40% the prior quarter. 10 /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence6.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence6.jpg 63% of IT workers remain very confident about the future of their current employer, a slight increase. 10 /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence7.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence7.jpg 70% of these employees say they’re not likely to lose their current job, up from 67%. 10 /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence8.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence8.jpg Just 16% of IT employees believe they are likely to lose their jobs, down from 19%. 10 /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence9.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence9.jpg 25% of men in IT surveyed say the economy is getting stronger, compared to just 3% of women. 10 /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence10.jpg /images/stories/slideshows/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence/SS_012912_CIO_Confidence10.jpg 19% of male tech employees say there are more jobs available, as opposed to 12% of female tech employees. 10 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Careers/IT-Workers-More-Confident-in-Jobs-Economy-452693/?kc=rss Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/FBI-Prepares-to-Shut-Down-DNSChanger-Temporary-Servers-Infections-Remain-846224/?kc=rss Thousands of computers still infected with the DNSChanger Trojan will not be able to access the Internet after the FBI shuts down its temporary servers March 8.Some major organizations still have not removed the DNSChanger Trojan from infected computers, despite the fact that the botnet's command-and-control infrastructure has been under the Federal Bureau of Investigation's control for the past few months. Half of Fortune 500 companies and 27 out of 55 government entities still have at least one computer or router still infected with DNSChanger malware in their network, according to a study by Internet Identity released Feb. 2. The report data was collected from IID's ActiveKnowledge Signals systems as well as from other data-collection systems. That translates to about 450,000 computers still actively infected, according to the DNS Changer Working Group. The primary function of the DNSChanger malware family is to replace the Domain Name System servers defined on the victim's computer with rogue ones operated by the criminals. DNS translates domain names into the numeric IP addresses and lets users access Websites and work online without having to know each specific computer's address. Windows and Mac OS X users are both vulnerable to this Trojan. All user activity from infected machines was directed to rogue DNS servers, which sent users to malicious sites instead of to sites they were really trying to reach. The FBI said the criminals in charge of the operation were making money from referral fees from affiliate programs and fake antivirus software sales. DNS Changer also prevents machines from getting security updates for all software programs running. The FBI took over the botnet's command-and-control (C amp;C) servers in November as part of Operation Ghost Click. The FBI replaced the rogue DNS servers with legitimate servers and published instructions on how system administrators could detect and disinfect the malware-ridden computers. The FBI believes as many as 4 million machines had been hijacked by the malware at the height of the criminal campaign. The FBI has arrested six Estonian nationals. The FBI will have to take down the servers they put up to replace the rogue ones on March 8. The court order that allowed Operation Ghost Click permitted the FBI to run the legitimate servers only for 120 days. If the IT teams don't clean up those computers immediately, come March 8, those computers and routers will be unable to get on the Web, send emails or do anything online. The DNSChanger Working Group is considering requesting a court order to extend the deadline beyond March 8. There's no guarantee, however, that organizations would take advantage of that extension to finally clean up their machines. The Conficker worm is still infecting millions of machines, even though the Conficker Working Group has been actively cleaning up after the worm since 2009. To read the original eWeek article, click here: FBI Prepares to Shut Down DNSChanger Temporary Servers, Infections Remain]]> http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/FBI-Prepares-to-Shut-Down-DNSChanger-Temporary-Servers-Infections-Remain-846224/?kc=rss