A huge portion of IT resources is being wasted on the support and maintenance of outdated legacy applications. A modern, streamlined application environment can help an enterprise save money and remain competitive. Knowledge Center contributor Tim Pacileo offers CIOs five tips to effectively plan and implement a successful application modernization initiative.
Cyber Monday is just around the corner to officially kick off the 2008 online holiday shopping season. Retail organizations' e-commerce Web sites need to be prepared to handle the surge in online holiday shopping traffic. To help ensure their e-commerce Web site is ready, Knowledge Center contributor Mark Sarbiewski offers IT professionals an e-commerce Web site readiness checklist.
Fibre Channel over Ethernet is an emerging protocol that is creating a lot of buzz in the IT industry. Knowledge Center contributor Jay Kidd shares a quick overview of Fibre Channel over Ethernet and explains how it can improve the efficiency in your data center.
IT departments can reap the benefits of a lower total cost of ownership for their mobile workforce by replacing their field and remote staff's laptops with mobile smart phones. Knowledge Center contributor William Anderson explains the benefits of moving field and remote staff over to smart phones, and offers nine best practices for IT professionals to follow when doing so.
With data volumes growing at 60 percent to 70 percent per year (Gartner's educated guess), and power costs expected to increase by 15 percent (the power industry's educated guess), how does an IT manager make peace with the very real possibility that he or she won't be able to buy as much power and capacity this next fiscal year?
Disk-based archiving can be the most logical step for IT professionals looking to add capacity and increase storage efficiencies, while avoiding the additional cost of purchasing more primary storage. Disk-based archiving solves today's data retention and compliance needs, while laying the foundation for upcoming requirements for data retention. Knowledge Center contributor George Crump explains the benefits of using disk-based archiving in your enterprise.
Today's uncertain economy is affecting everyone's jobs, businesses and the world of tech in general. The uncertainty is creating psychological, mental, financial and social stress on everyone. Knowledge Center contributor David Gewirtz gives IT professionals some coping strategies to make it through this uncertain and stressful period.
Virtualization is heralded for reducing server sprawl and optimizing utilization. Yet deployed incorrectly, it can wreak havoc on an enterprise. With virtualization, enterprises have the power to move resources in an instant, but the wrong move can actually hinder user performance and increase management costs. Knowledge Center contributor Justin Steinman explains the steps necessary to successful virtualization in a mixed data center environment.
With the growing popularity of cloud computing services, companies seeking to gain a foothold in the industry are increasingly jumping on the cloud computing bandwagon. But presence does not equal proficiency, and some companies are simply unprepared to provide reliable service to customers for the long term. Knowledge Center contributor David Barley offers recommendations for selecting a stable and trustworthy cloud computing vendor.
In organizations across various industries, IT professionals can use scripting technology to automate manual tasks, streamline processes and work smarter. With a small initial investment in scripting technology, Knowledge Center contributor Margaret Mayer explains seven things you can do today using scripting technology to save big tomorrow.
Greening one's data center is a strategy that enables an enterprise to improve profitability while reducing expenses, contribute positively to the overall community and be better positioned in the global information economy. Knowledge Center contributor Peter Melerud explains how to green the data center in your enterprise.
Virtualization on the server level can give administrators an exponential increase in hardware agility, flexibility and efficiency. To achieve this successfully, the surrounding architecture needs to share all of these traits. Knowledge Center contributor David Hubbard explains how sophisticated, virtualized, IP-based storage is the best way to achieve this.
Sales forecasting has changed with the popularity of sales force automation and with CRM moving to a software-as-a-service delivery model. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Joe Ruck explores the art of sales forecasting, including how sales forecasts are often erroneously based on the opinions of individual sales reps, who rarely know without a doubt whether a particular deal will close in the designated time frame.
Information security has emerged as a significant concern for businesses that use call centers and Interactive Voice Response or voice portal systems for customer service, which include financial services institutions, insurance agencies and health care companies. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Ron Settele explains how companies can safeguard against a contact center security breach, while meeting new regulatory demands to prevent identity theft.
Microsoft officially launches on Nov. 13 new and revamped Windows Live services that will start rolling out over the coming weeks and, internationally, into 2009.
The SQL Anywhere product is an entire suite of database applications and servers. It runs on many platforms, including Windows Mobile. Using Visual Studio, programmers can develop database applications that run on a Windows Mobile device.
Google's Gmail group adds voice and video chat to the popular Web mail application. No telling whether Gmail chat with the new tool will give Skype a run for its money, but the free plug-in is available for Webcam users beginning Nov. 11. The tool is Google's latest move to make Gmail more of a unified communications and collaboration application.
CIOs who understand how their enterprise's network is impacting application delivery will be in a better position to ensure that the IT organization is supporting business operations optimally. Knowledge Center contributor Joel Trammell gives CIOs five key questions to answer, which will help them gauge the overall picture of application service delivery at any given time.
Microsoft Exchange has become a mission-critical application in today's enterprise. Today's new requirements for Microsoft Exchange involve improving the data backup process, as well as the data recovery and data retention capabilities of Microsoft Exchange. For these requirements to be effective now, a higher level of integration is a must. Knowledge Center contributor George Crump explains how you can better manage Microsoft Exchange's data backup process and its data recovery and data retention capabilities.
The U.S. government has recently been given full permission to check the contents of laptops and mobile devices belonging to travelers passing into the United States at border control checkpoints. Enterprises with international travelers should take immediate steps to safeguard the sensitive corporate data that exists on their executives' laptops and mobile devices. Knowledge Center contributor Jack E. Gold explains the steps you must take to ensure that your company's mission-critical data is protected from prying eyes.
Enterprises are increasingly relying on wireless services to improve employee productivity. It is imperative that IT departments, and specifically telecom managers, implement a smart wireless expense management plan. Knowledge Center contributor Jim Carroll explains how to create a wireless expense plan that controls cell phone expenses and the management of wireless devices.
E-mail deliverability plays a crucial role in turning a company's Web site prospects into revenue-driving customers. Especially in today's economy, e-mail deliverability is more critical than ever to make sure your customer leads are not being lost due to undelivered e-mails. Knowledge Center contributor Phil Fernandez explains how you can drive revenue using seven best practices designed to keep your company's e-mail deliverability efforts aligned with its revenue goals.
Our ubiquitous network society, in which anyone can connect to the Internet at any time and from any location, is progressing at an ever-increasing rate. It requires that IPv6 (or next generation Internet Protocol), with its almost inexhaustible address space, be adopted sooner rather than later. Knowledge Center contributors Bob Fischman and Steve Grassi explain how to choose the right strategy for your IPv6 migration.
The purpose of business intelligence is to give companies the ability to make better decisions. When your company begins to develop its own business intelligence strategy, there are important principles to keep in mind. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Brent J. Estes outlines the three key business intelligence principles to remember.
IPv6 has the potential to be a turning point in the evolution of the Internet, the global economy and many businesses. But the decision to fund IPv6 deployment in your company is easier to make if you take into consideration your organization's priorities, business model, and the market in which it operates. Knowledge Center contributors Patrick Grossetete, Ciprian P. Popoviciu and Fred Wettling explain how to build a business case that would justify resources being spent for the move to IPv6.
IT managers have recently been forced by rapidly changing market dynamics and regulations to find ways to lower their static data center's computing costs and resource consumption. Transforming an industry-standard, system-based, static data center into a virtualized, automated, dynamic data center can lower costs and increase efficiency. Through virtualization and automation, Knowledge Center contributor Daniel Kusnetzky explains how you can transform your static data center into a dynamic data center.
The same question is looming on the minds of many Americans across the country: "Am I going to lose my job as a result of the economy?" Although some industries, such as IT, will likely fair better than others, the reality is that the economic meltdown has put a strain on many jobs across America. Knowledge Center contributor Rich Milgram discusses four tips that IT professionals can follow to increase their chances of surviving this recession.
Like its software-based predecessor, a network-based entitlement control and management platform allows an enterprise to adhere to stringent regulatory compliance standards while securing sensitive data center resources. However, a network-based entitlement control and management solution can be managed from a single, highly intuitive GUI application to administer policies across the data center. Knowledge Center contributor Shane Buckley explains the top 10 reasons why you should adopt a network-based entitlement control and management platform in your enterprise.
Anticipating the release of the first processors based on Intel's Nehalem microarchitecture, the first comprehensive reviews of these chips were published on Tom's Hardware, ExtremeTech and other Web sites Nov. 3. The first of these Nehalem-based processors, called the Intel Core i7, will feature four processing cores. Intel will release three versions of the Intel Core i7, which will have clock speeds beginning at 2.66GHz and a starting price of $285. These Intel Core i7 processors will be released by the end of November.
Companies need to protect their electronic assets. IT departments need to get employees on board with password security policies-not as another bothersome procedure imposed by management, but as a reasonable security precaution that they understand and willingly embrace. Knowledge Center contributor Bill Carey explains five steps a company can take to educate their employees on how to strengthen password security.
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