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IT security - Often a Myth
03/04/2010
IT Security polices for notebooks and desktops are typically managed by restricting the choices that users have by reducing the number options that are supported. This standards-based process ensures control by reducing flexibility. But try maintaining that system when users can buy a relatively cheap smartphone with as much power as a desktop had in the early 1990s.
Furthermore, attempts by IT organizations to prevent the use of handheld devices has largely failed because of the number of tools available to work around IT policies. For example, users who are restricted from using wireless e-mail often find ways to redirect e-mail to outside ISP services, where they synchronize e-mail to their personally owned devices. This raises the security threat for enterprises because it means that control of e-mail routing has been losts.
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Microsoft gives Google Chrome an edge in the EU
03/01/2010
Microsoft's new browser ballot screen, which is supposed to randomly scramble the positions of the top five browsers, instead gives Google's Chrome the best chance of landing in the preferred first spot, an IBM software architect said today.
"This was a rookie mistake," said a professor, who works for IBM and has a degree in astrophysics from Harvard University. "I was definitely surprised to see an error of this type in the ballot."
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Windows 7 Crushes Vista In terms of adoption
02/23/2010 Microsoft has already said that Windows 7 is the fastest selling operating system in history, but, judging by the adoption rate, the platform is simply leaving Vista in the dust. Janco found that Windows 7s market share had skyrocketed to no less than 12.5% since the OS was released. In this regard, the market share of Windows 7 is dwarfing that of Vista, comparing the first seven months after release. - more info
IE Loses 6.21% Market Share in 12 Months
02/20/2010
Janco has just released its Browser and Operating System Market Share White Paper. The major findings are that in the last 12 months Microsofts browser market share has continued to erode Microsoft lost over 6% in the last 12 months; Firefoxs market share is unchanged for the last 12 months; Google Desktop and Chrome now have just under 6%; and Netscape is no more. On the operating systems side, Windows 7 is being accepted at a pace is parallel to the way Window XP was in the 90s. The CEO of Janco Associates, Victor Janulaitis said, "The last six months have been a mixed bag for Microsoft. Their browser market share has fallen to level that they back in 1998 with no end in sight. At the same time Windows 7 now has 12% of the OS market in less than 7 months since its release."
The top five browser market share rankings are: 1 - Microsofts IE 64.78%; 2 - Firefox 17.38%; 3 Google (Desktop & Chrome) 5.78%; 4 Mozilla 1.73%; 5 Safari 1.39%. The CEO of Janco Associates, Inc and the ITPC, M. Victor Janulaitis said: "The positive glow on Googles Chrome was dulled in with the identification of some defects in the way it handles XML pages. But the real story is the continued erosion of Microsofts" market.
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IT service management issues that CIOs face
02/12/2010
The key service management business questions facing CIOs and senior IT managers today are:
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- What are the service management impacts with the ever-increasing technical complexity on margins and customer satisfaction?
- Where are the areas where margin-improvement opportunities exist?
- How can IT minimize the maintenance-contract price pressure to drive new service-revenue opportunities to the bottom line?
- How does improved service management translate into a competitive advantage?
What is the future as the IT function moves from fixing problems to driving product value?- What are the challenges of off shoring support and how should the enterprise address them?
IT Infrastructure a CIO Challenge
02/10/2010
The CIO struggles to manage Infrastructure as they prepare for change
While the business faces changes that require more agility, IT is seen as lagging behind - even when CIOs carefully manage business and IT alignment:
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- IT objectives still include only cost reduction and quality. IT objectives rarely reflect enterprise agility objectives. CEOs want greater agility but do not talk about it as a measurable objective. Instead, many firms still measure IT on its contribution to cost reductions inside and beyond the walls of IT, along with its reliability and its availability to run today's business.
- Business agility improvement projects do not easily gain funding. There are a number of current trends that, in theory, should improve agility - such as service-oriented architecture (SOA), on-demand services, pervasive technologies, outsourcing, Dynamic Business Applications, agile development, and offshoring. However, IT still needs to plan for and rightsize these options to reach the agility required while balancing the costs and risks. In addition, these technologies require cross-department investment in enterprises where each business unit manages budgets separately.
Obama administration to ask for more 1984 Big Brother powers
02/03/2010
Everyone knows that police can peek inside an email account it if they have a paper search warrant
But cybercrime investigators are frustrated by the speed of traditional methods of faxing, mailing, or e-mailing companies these documents. They're pushing for the creation of a national Web interface linking police computers with those of Internet and e-mail providers so requests can be sent and received electronically.
A federal task force (soon to be released) study says that law enforcement agencies are virtually unanimous in calling for such an interface to be created. Eighty-nine percent of police surveyed, it says, want to be able to "exchange legal process requests and responses to legal process" through an encrypted, police-only "nationwide computer network."
The study also says: "89 percent of investigators agreed that a nationwide computer network should be established for the purpose of linking ISPs with law enforcement agencies so that they may exchange legal process requests and responses to legal process. Authorized users would communicate through encrypted virtual private networks in order to maintain the security of the data."
But the most controversial element is probably the private Web interface, which raises novel security and privacy concerns, especially in the wake of a recent inspector general's report from the Justice Department. The 289-page report detailed how the FBI obtained Americans' telephone records by citing nonexistent emergencies and simply asking for the data or writing phone numbers on a sticky note rather than following procedures required by law.
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Oursouring continues
01/31/2010
U.S. defense contractors growing use of offshore (outsource) subsidiaries from 2003 to 2008 allowed the Defense Department to save money on contracts but also resulted in the loss of U.S. tax revenue and unemployment benefits for some U.S. workers, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.
Practical Guide for IT Outsourcing a HandiGuide
The 29 largest publicly traded defense contractors increased their use of offshore subsidiaries by 26 percent from 2003 to 2008, the report states.
Those subsidiaries helped the contractors reduce taxes, in part by avoiding Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes for U.S. workers hired at the foreign subsidiaries, GAO auditors said.
About a third of the contractors also decreased their effective U.S. corporate tax rates in 2008 in part through the use of foreign affiliates, lower foreign tax rates and indefinite reinvestment of foreign income outside the United States.
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Almost 200,000 jobs lost in IT during this recession
01/26/2010
Job cuts in technology were fierce in 2009, but 2010 is expected to see modest growth in a number of subsectors. The last time layoffs were this bad was in 2005.
Job cuts in technology were fierce in 2009. Last year saw 174,629 jobs lost in the sector, catapulting up 12.3 percent from the 2008 cuts of 155,570 jobs, according to an outplacement company which tracks industry numbers on announced layoffs. Technology - still considered by the Department of Labor to be one of the most promising industries for future job creation - has not seen that many layoffs since 2005.
The worst of the downsizing occurred in the first quarter, which is when the overall economy hit rock bottom. The recession's impact on the tech sector was inescapable.
The technology-focused blog TechCrunch developed its own "layoff tracker" Web application, which has been documenting layoffs in the sector since October 2008. For comparison, as of its last update in November 2009, TechCrunch had reported a total of 350,299 employees laid off - roughly 20,000 more, but certainly in the same ballpark.
The tech sector accounted for about 13.2 percent of the total 1.3 million announced job cuts in the United States in 2009, said Challenger, Gray & Christmas. By subsector, electronics fared the worst with 65,000 jobs cut - up 55 percent from 2008 - while telecommunications lost 9.4 percent fewer jobs in 2009. The computer industry was unchanged.
It's going to be a slow climb out of this recession, but computer and electronics firms should be among the first to see the turnaround, as companies try to postpone hiring by achieving productivity gains through technology. Even with the economy showing some nascent signs of recovery beginning the second half of the year, many companies are holding off on investments in new technology. And, with it still [being] difficult for small businesses and startups to obtain loans, there are few opportunities for tech firms to expand their customer base.
Despite the potential for improved hiring in the new year, there are a lot people competing for every opening and many employers are very particular about what skills and experience they want new workers to have. It is critical that technology workers continually update their skills in order to remain competitive. It is necessary to maintain a balance between having specialized skills and having the flexibility of a generalist. It may also be necessary to expand one's search to more industries or geographically.
We'll see a radically transforming marketplace - driven by surging demand in emerging markets, growing impact from the cloud services model, an explosion of mobile devices and applications, and the continuing rollout of higher-speed networks. These transformational forces will drive key players to redefine themselves and their offerings and will spark lots of M&A activity.
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IT Job Descriptions HandiGuide 2010 Version Released by Janco
01/19/2010
The IT job descriptions contained within the Internet and Information Technology Position Descriptions HandiGuide® was updated in 2010 and contains over 650 pages; which includes sample organization charts, a job progression matrix, over 231 job descriptions, best practices for resume screening and best practices for phone screening.
The author of this book has extensive experience in job content definition and analysis. He personally is recognized by the courts as an "expert" and has been used by a number of firms as an expert in age and job discrimination cases. The HandiGuide includes some of the tools that he uses in that process.
The book also addresses Fair Labor Standards and the ADA, and is in a new easier to read format. Each job description meets ADA standards and the position description is delivered in electronic format - word which is editable and PDF which is printed. Also included are tools to help you expand, evaluate and define your enterprise's unique additional required. Those tools include:
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- Job Evaluation Questionnaire
- Position Description Questionnaire
- Job Progression Matrix (Job Family Classifications)
- Best Practices for
- Screening Resumes
- Phone Screening
- Hiring employees
- Motivating employees
- Mandated Requirements
- American with Disabilities Act (ADA)
- Health and Safety Requirements (Federal and State)
- Fair Labor Standards Act
- Sexual Harassement
- Other Labor Laws
