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Infrastructure - Job Descriptions
Sensitive Information Policy Template released by Janco
03/06/2010
The Sensitive Information Policy Template (Version 2.4) has just been released by Janco. This policy applies to the entire enterprise, its vendors, its suppliers (including outsourcers), co-location providers, and facilities regardless of the methods used to store and retrieve sensitive information (e.g. online processing, outsourced to a third party, Internet, Intranet or swipe terminals).
New with this version are updates that specifically define the mandates of most recent federal (Gramm-Leach-Bliley) and state (Massachusetts and California).
- more info
Which skills are in high demand and low demand
03/04/2010
IT salaries are determined by the skills that are required. Janco has determined the following are the skills in high demand and low demand.
Skills with a high demand
- Project Management - especially large projects with short time frame for delivery
- Security - focus on mandated compliance issues
- Network Administration - wireless and cloud administration
- Virtualization (Cloud) - new applications and management of the IT infrastructure
- Business and Operational Analysis - focus on business change
- Productivity Improvement Analysis - metrics and operational analysis
- Web 2 - interactive applications that add value
- Database Management - applications that leverage enterprise assets
- System Administration - Windows and UNIX management
- Desktop Support - standardization and change management
Skills with a declining demand
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- COBOL
- HTML
- System Network Architecture - SNA
- Siebel
- Rapid Application Development - RAD
- ColdFusion
- Wireless Application Protocol - WAP
- Visual J++
- Novell NetWare
- Asynchronous Transfer Mode - ATM
IBM outsourcing cost 2,000 US jobs
03/02/2010
After shrinking its U.S. workforce by as many as 10,000 employees last year, IBM may be on its way to cutting another 2,000 workers.
As of last October, IBM employed 105,000 workers in the U.S., compared to 115,000 in 2008. In 2007, IBM had 121,000 U.S. employees. It employs about 400,000 globally.
IBM isn't commenting on its latest round of cuts and information about it comes from the Alliance union which gathers its data directly from IBM employees.
"IBM is clearly offshoring things where they can," said one IBM employee who received his notice and spoke on the condition of anonymity because he didn't want to jeopardize his severance. A 10-year veteran and UNIX administrator, this employee said his customer support team once had 15 U.S.-based workers. That staff was reduced over time to just three workers in the U.S., with other members of the customer support team now in Brazil, Argentina and India.
The employee said he was not given a good reason for his layoff. "Higher ups made a decision that a certain percentage had to be cut - it was not performance-based at all," he said. Although the employee said he's uncertain about the job market, "my sense is that it is not horrendous but I'll have to assume that I'll have to take a cut in pay."
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Practical Guide for IT Outsourcing Released by Janco
02/27/2010
Practical Guide for IT Outsourcing Released - Version 3.0 of the Practical Guide for IT Outsourcing has just been released. It includes a sample Outsourcing contract, Service Level Agreement with metrics, Risk Assessment - Business and IT Impact Questionnaire, and much more.
The guide is delivered electronically and is available in MS - Word and industry standard PDF.
- more info
CIOs are looking for more cost savings
02/25/2010
The recession is impacting how IT is performing. Budgets for many IT organizations has been frozen for about two years, and CIO have been on this efficiency kick for about the same amount of time. IT organizations have virtualized, consolidated data centers, have cut hiring and outsourced. There is no low-hanging fruit left.
Service level agreements are set however costs need to be reduced.
The only areas where cost savings can be made are in hardware and software maintenance.
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CIO must protect critical data
02/23/2010
CIOs need to focus on at least four areas in order to protect critical data:
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- Implement a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan. This is the traditional solution for mitigating exposure to information loss. However it has grown more complicated as 24/7, global economy, and open source have become standard business mantras. Of paramount importance is overcoming the hurdles associated with backup window requirements, application performance, reliability and consistency, and recovery time.
- Streamline IT Infrastructure and Increase Productivity. As staff and resources become overburdened, companies are refocusing on infrastructure management. Easing critical pressure points is often the catalyst to surviving a difficult fiscal climate.
- Manage Storage and Server Costs Closely. Controlling cost of operations has become a top priority for many organizations. With data growing at exponential rates, these costs can easily mushroom.
- Support IT Infrastructure Consolidation. Today's data protection architecture seems to be intrinsically broken - as characterized by slow backups, complex recoveries, compromised application performance, and difficult resource administration. IT infrastructure consolidation including server virtualization magnifies the problems and elevates the rearchitecture of storage and data protection as a priority. Finding high performing, easy-to-use, scalable data protection remains a key imperative. Further, system migration of production servers and critical applications to a virtual environment are likely to be costly and painful unless an easy and minimum-impact solution to migration is built into the rearchitecture.
CIO and CTO Changing Role
02/20/2010
In a recent study of over 2,000 CIOs a major firm defined high-growth and low-growth CIOs who work in organizations with high Profit Before TaxProfit Before Tax growth as "High-growth CIOs" and to those working in organizations with low Profit Before Tax as "Low-growth CIOs." The characteristics of the role played in each type of firm are different.
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High Growth Companies
Low Growth Companies
Are members of most-senior management team
62%
46%
Integrate business and technology to innovate
64%
33%
Focus time on enabling the business and corporate vision
28%
15%
Focus your time on providing core technology services
23%
40%
IT team uses collaborative tools
53%
33%
IT team provide collaborative tools across the enterprise
41%
22%
Aggressively turn data into actionable information
58%
36%
Give customers excellent data integrity and transparency
68%
44%
Seek active input from your customers
87%
70%
Co-create business strategy with fellow execs
74%
61%
Co-present business strategy to senior management
66%
53%
Part of the team setting the organization's strategy
62%
46%
Business models unique and hard to imitate
63%
49%
Business models include partnering alternative sourcing
60%
52%
Create IT centers of excellence
44%
26%
Data readily available for relevant users
67%
51%
Data reliable and secure
81%
66%
Manage change successfully
61%
43%
IT Infrasturcture Policy Bundle Released
02/15/2010
Janco has combined the policies that it has developedin concert with some of the best IT organizations around the globe into a single package. With this bundle you get a PDF file that has all of the procedures in a single document that is over 210 pages long. It would take your staff months to develop these procedures from scratch. In addition you get a separate MS-Word document for each procedure which can easily be modified.
This bundle contains the following policies:
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- Backup and Backup Retention Policy
- Blog and Personal Web Site Policy
- Internet, Email, Social Networking, Mobile Device, and Electronic Communication Policy
- Outsourcing Policy
- Record Management, Retention, and Disposition Policy
- Sensitive Information Policy
- Service Level Agreement Policy
- Telecommuting Policy
- Travel, Laptop, PDA and Off-Site Meeting Policy
Blackberrys with car chargers a key component of business continuity
02/11/2010
Business interuptions caused by the East Coast blizzard of 2010 show that BlackBerry are a must have solution. A blizzard with whiteout conditions, warnings to stay off the roads in the Washington metropolitan area and power interruptions have proven to be no match for teleworkers with access to a BlackBerry smart phone and a car charger.
Many federal employees were 100 percent on BlackBerrys during the outage. With power losses to homes car chargers were the only way to keep the devices charged.
This is a strategy that gained attention during the one-two punch of blizzard conditions and multiple power outages in the Washington area. For three days in a row, the federal government and many local governments are closed while a second major snowstorm blew through on the heels of a historic snowfall Feb. 8. Utility companies in Washington and Baltimore reporting about 17,000 homes without power in the afternoon.
Many federal employees are relying on their BlackBerrys haven't slowed down one bit.
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Feds to increase goverment IT budgets
02/10/2010
President Barack Obama today requested $79.4 billion in spending on information technology projects for fiscal 2011, a 1.2 percent increase from what he proposed in fiscal 2010 and a slight decrease from the $80.6 billion the 2010 budget actually allocated.
The Obama administration has proposed increasing the number of major IT projects. Last fiscal year, the administration proposed handling 781 major IT projects with $40.3 billion. In fiscal 2011, it's proposing 809 major IT projects at $40.4 billion, according to the budget proposal.
Despite modest increases in the budget request, Obama wants IT efforts related to open government and technology modernization to continue in 2011.
For example, work on the General Service Administrations Citizen Engagement Platform would continue under the 2011 request. Designed to be a resource for all federal agencies, that platform is a collaboration between GSA and the Office of Management and Budget. It is intended to increase the governments ability to interact and collaborate with the public and provide a cost-effective way for agencies to access tools and guidance related to engagement.
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