IT Leadership

Most of us are probably familiar with safe deposit boxes -- you know, the secure storage areas that banks and post offices provide to keep things like jewelry and important documents secure. Even if you've never rented one yourself, chances are you're probably familiar with the concept: a safe place...

Enterprises that have merged with or acquired the systems and assets of another company know how difficult it is to combine disparate systems -- platforms, databases and software solutions -- with its existing infrastructure. Mergers can be very disruptive, especially if the companies have standardi...

EXPERT ADVICE

Improve Morale, Improve Security

Have you ever tried to work when you're really sick? I don't mean a little cough or sniffles. I'm talking about a genuine, drag-out, "can't get out of bed" illness -- the kind where it hurts to stand up, let alone go into the office. I hate to admit it, but I've gone to work in that condition -- you...

EXPERT ADVICE

5 Tips for Managing IT and Physical Access

Entering a physical facility should be just as secure as logging onto a PC. Security professionals often find themselves hard-pressed to secure both physical and logical assets. So why are so many organizations behind the curve when it comes to managing physical and logical access? There are dozens...

OPINION

Best Things From the Dismal Aught Decade

From a technology perspective, this decade -- with Apple and Google being exceptions -- sucked. There were some interesting things that happened that set us up for the teen decade, though, and that fuel anticipation for the 20s, which a hundred years ago, was actually a decade of wonder and exciteme...

EXPERT ADVICE

Save Yourself a Boatload of Hassle: Document

Remember the "Scantron" sheets that you had to fill out in school for taking standardized tests -- you know, the ones where you had to fill in the circle with a No. 2 pencil to mark your answer? Now imagine you're watching someone take a standardized math test -- you watch as they spend 15 minutes c...

EXPERT ADVICE

Back to Basics: 5 Things IT Could Do Better in 2010

Well, it's November again -- which means that it's just about time for this year's set of New Year's predictions. Every year around this time, everyone from antimalware companies to analyst firms line up to tell us about the top IT and security trends -- what they are and why we should care. This ...

As a resident of New Hampshire, I can tell you that the Old Man of the Mountain is a very tender topic for Granite Staters. If you've never heard of it, the Old Man is -- or rather was -- a natural rock formation that was the spitting image of an old man's face. It was carved out of granite on the...

The age of the computer started in the 1950s, and one of the first things that happened to a then relatively tiny IBM was it got nailed by the Department of Justice. The result was competition and the modern age of computing. Last week, the DoJ opened another, very similar, investigation of IBM. It ...

Graphics processor vendor Nvidia on Wednesday announced its next-generation CUDA graphics processor unit architecture, code-named "Fermi." The Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Department of Energy's largest science and energy laboratory, has announced it will build a new supercomputer based on Fer...

ANALYSIS

Does Your Cloud Have a Green Lining?

Although the ultimate definition of "the cloud" remains elusive to vendors and end users alike, the cloud represents the next major paradigm shift in the IT industry and business computing. Coinciding with the emergence of cloud computing, green IT and sustainability are becoming integral components...

EXPERT ADVICE

Maybe the Policy Is the Problem

Imagine for a moment one of your company's employees getting out of their car and arriving at your office building. It doesn't really matter who it is, but for the sake of visualizing the scene more clearly, assume it's someone conservative and maybe a bit socially inept. Maybe it's one of the "su...

For professionals in the business continuity field, it is that time of year again: hurricane season. If you haven't started to exercise hurricane planning procedures, it isn't too late. I believe that it was The National Hurricane Center that stated that 2009 would be a moderate or "near-normal" yea...

Everyone knows the old adage that "out of sight" is "out of mind." There's quite a bit of truth to it. It's a facet of human nature that things that are directly in front of our face get noticed, while things that are out of our scope of awareness don't. Seems pretty obvious, right? In fact, it i...

We all know that some things are easier to do than others. In fact, what separates an average manager from a great one is the ability to balance decisions based on two almost totally unrelated sets of criteria: ease of accomplishment on the one hand vs. value to the organization on the other. Think...

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