When development companies first consider adopting Scrum, there's often confusion about what Scrum is and how to get started. Transforming a company with Scrum requires more than adopting its language and mechanics. Following its process and filling its roles is just one condition for real, sustainable change. The challenge is not only finding the right people to fill Scrum’s roles, but embracing the underlying values that enable Scrum's benefits. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Jimi Fosdick explains how to start doing Scrum in your company.
Cloud computing is a dilemma for today's CIO. The potential to cut capital expenditure and rein in operating costs is so compelling that CIOs will push aggressively for cloud adoption. However, good managers understand that cost savings isn't the only variable to consider when evaluating whether to adopt cloud computing. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Scott Morrison offers 10 tips for CIOs to follow to successfully implement their cloud governance and adoption initiatives.
An emerging core competency of every business is being able to deliver real-time analytical intelligence to those who need it. Advanced technologies such as pervasive business intelligence and active data warehousing can help businesses leverage their portals and Web 2.0 techniques to deliver fresh, timely information to users. Here, Knowledge Center contributors Dave Schrader and Dan Graham offer 10 ways to use pervasive business intelligence to dramatically transform your business.
The storage world is changing rapidly, with innovative services playing a major role. Savvy CIOs are turning to cloud-based offerings such as enterprise storage-as-a-service to reduce costs, optimize compliance and ensure security. As Knowledge Center contributor John Clancy explains, trust, security and a history of information protection are critical factors to consider when choosing a provider to help you implement your cloud storage strategy.
From small businesses to large enterprises, 2009 was the year software as a service broke into the mainstream. But the transformation of this once niche segment into a mass-market phenomenon hasn't come easily. One roadblock to greater SAAS adoption has been executives' lack of clarity around best practices for security protocols and data protection. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Jonathan McCormick explains how executives can ensure that SAAS providers are truly protecting their company's data.
IT managers need to build efficient, cost-effective disaster recovery infrastructures within the enterprise. Virtualization initiatives are dictating that the amount of hardware supported in remote replication sites be reduced. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Shawn Cooney explains how to use software-based WAN optimization technology to accelerate remote backup and WAN replication and how, by embracing virtualization, efficient remote disaster recovery can be achieved.
In this era of downsizing, small and midsize businesses are rethinking their disaster recovery and business continuity plans. While some SMBs have implemented their backup plans from the start, most have relied on backup and disaster recovery as an afterthought, implementing strategies only when needed. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Thomas Nieto explains how SMBs can best develop and execute their disaster recovery and business continuity plans.
E-mail is a critical business communications tool in today's world, with users expecting non-stop access to it. It's often challenging for IT administrators to protect their company's Microsoft Exchange environment. But there are steps they can take to achieve optimal Microsoft Exchange availability. As Knowledge Center contributor Tom Reed explains, these steps identify what availability levels should be designated to satisfy Microsoft Exchange service-level agreement commitments with fewer resources and lower costs.
The cost of fixing computing errors discovered in run time has been estimated to be 20 times higher than the initial software development investment. While malfunctions and glitches have many causes, establishing best practices and policies to follow as the code is being developed can have a significant impact on the quality of the final software product. Here, Knowledge Center contributor John Favazza discusses ways organizations can use governance to improve the quality of their software code.
These days, new technologies are touted daily as being the ones that will revolutionize the industry. Too often, they fall short. But software plus services is a valuable option for companies that want to save money while improving business performance through the increased collaboration and business intelligence today's technology offers. By outlining four advantages of software plus services, Knowledge Center contributor Cindy Bates explains how customers can use software plus services to customize their IT environment to improve business performance.
A well-chosen, thoughtfully deployed deduplication solution can deliver an impressive ROI for organizations of all sizes. Choosing the right deduplication approach can make a big difference in results. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Janae Lee explains four basic rules about deduplication technology that will help organizations choose the deduplication approach that is best for them.
Mobile marketing has now gone mainstream. In fact, mobile marketing is poised to become the most important marketing vehicle of all time. There are simply too many mobile phones and too many people carrying them around all day for it not to become the primary focus of marketing professionals. Here, Knowledge Center mobile and wireless analyst J. Gerry Purdy outlines the four mobile marketing innovations that are taking mobile marketing to the next level.
Today's mobile market is glutted with device manufacturers, publishers and carriers who are all vying for coveted customer mindshare. It's the end of an era for many mobile carriers who have long enjoyed the luxury of exclusively owning the mobile customer experience. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Nahid Giga offers three tips on how carriers can cooperate with mobile device manufacturers and publishers to deliver a better mobile customer experience.
IT outsourcing has been known for high-ticket consulting jobs where IT bodies from overseas are used for projects. Once the Fortune 500's playground, IT outsourcing is now being used by small and midsize businesses to build e-commerce sites, use mobile applications to lure customers or integrate open-source tools into tech support. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Srinivas Balasubramanian explains how small and midsize businesses can benefit from the democratization of IT outsourcing.
Today's data center managers have many techniques to reduce their data center's energy consumption, but a mixture of techniques is often required to achieve energy saving targets. The key to judging success of any energy reduction strategy is the ability to accurately measure results along each step of the way. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Joe Polastre illustrates how power management technology can be used to achieve up to 40 percent energy savings in your data center.
Small and midsize businesses delivering applications for headquarters, remote offices, customers and partners usually rely on more than one WAN link. The WAN's expanding role in supporting the automation of business applications is challenging for IT staff, as many SMBs lack the required WAN infrastructure to deliver appropriate levels of reliability, performance and security. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Marc Goodman explains how to choose the best WAN application delivery solution for your SMB.
Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, blogs and other Web 2.0 technologies have created new opportunities for individuals, enterprises and governments. But where law-abiding users go, cyber-criminals quickly follow. It's critical for users to be wary of increasingly sophisticated online threats—from the recently discovered Botnet platform to cyber-criminals who infiltrate networks to steal data and identities. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Yuval Ben-Itzhak explains how users can protect their systems from cyber-criminals, phishing, botnets, viruses, Trojans and other malware.
For years, IT has been under intense pressure to implement an expanding number of new business services that are critical to the enterprise. To do so, IT staffs have typically added hundreds or even thousands of servers over the years, which has resulted in skyrocketing IT power consumption and energy costs. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Chris Rixon explains how companies can cut IT energy consumption and achieve other green IT objectives by using an approach based on business service management.
Today's businesses succeed or fail as a result of applying the right technology and software. But it's often difficult to find a single all-in-one solution that encompasses everything a business needs to keep track of client information. There is software for each niche a business might need, but sometimes using niche products can lead to problems. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Andrew Bailey explains how to increase efficiency by using an electronic document management system to keep track of all your client information.
The use of e-mail as a business tool has evolved from a matter of simple convenience to one of absolute necessity. Recognizing the dependence on this vital communications tool, many organizations and regulatory bodies have enacted e-mail archiving and retention policies and guidelines for their members or industry. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Ted Green explains how to use automated e-mail archiving in your company to achieve regulatory compliance.
Some recent attention-grabbing headlines have included how Amazon's cloud computing service had some hiccups, Google's Web-based e-mail package, Gmail, suffered an outage and RIM's BlackBerry devices stopped getting their e-mail. There's a lesson here for IT professionals: Our data centers are more critical than ever. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Rex Black explains how to assure the highest level of quality in your organization’s data center.
The continuing battle between Intel and AMD over supplying the brains of your PC continues unabated. While Intel clearly has the upper hand in client processors and AMD is playing catch-up, there is another battle brewing for PC processors, particularly in notebooks. Here, Knowledge Center analyst Jack E. Gold discusses the battle for the "secondary" processor and how this battle will not pit Intel against AMD, but rather, x86 architecture against ARM. And it's not looking good for x86.
Today, an increasing number of CIOs are reporting directly to the CEO and are being asked to contribute to long-term strategic thinking and planning. Long gone are the days when IT was responsible for managing only IT costs and security. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Ken Vernon discusses how CIOs can use enterprise collaboration software to support its critical leadership competency and increase IT's value proposition within their organizations.
With cloud computing all the rage now, it's no surprise that many software vendors are capitalizing on the momentum by releasing cloud versions of their conventional software products. Delivering software as a service from the cloud has distinct economical and technological advantages. But hosting an application in the cloud doesn't necessarily make it software as a service. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Bob Moul outlines five ways to tell whether or not the software-as-a-service application you need for your business is truly software as a service.
Continuous data protection tools fill the data protection gap left by high availability and disaster recovery tools. Continuous data protection automatically captures transaction and object changes that occur between tape saves. Yet all three technologies are vital components in any data protection strategy. By combining continuous data protection, high availability and disaster recovery, Knowledge Center contributor Bill Hammond explains how you can best protect your company’s vital business data.
The recession is dramatically changing the software industry's playing field, forcing companies to innovate and evolve to remain competitive. The CIO's role is changing too, as CIOs look to reduce software costs and employ a pay-per-use, flexible model. This shift is driving the emergence of virtual private cloud operators, which is changing infrastructure components, the product life cycle and the ecosystem as a whole. Here, Knowledge Center contributors Anand Deshpande and Ashok Korwar share tips on how CIOs can navigate through this changing landscape.
With the current shift to cloud computing, companies have a great opportunity to improve network flexibility, scalability and computing power for less money. If they correctly plan, employ and manage cloud computing applications and services, companies can also manage their networks at a much lower maintenance level. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Dave Kofflin outlines five guidelines companies need to understand before they can benefit from cloud computing.
The CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment 2009 fall trade show was held at the San Diego Convention Center Oct. 7-9. Here, Knowledge Center mobile and wireless analyst J. Gerry Purdy shares his major insights from CTIA, including his reactions to Motorola's new CLIQ Android smartphone and Motorola's MOTOBLUR software, as well as Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.5, MyPhone and Windows Mobile Marketplace announcements.
There are many VPN choices available today, but not all VPNs are created equal. Performance, scalability, compatibility and central management are just a few of the criteria enterprises should consider before selecting a secure VPN solution. Depending upon each enterprise's security and mobility requirements, every VPN choice has its advantages and disadvantages. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Jörg Hirschmann offers a technological and organizational checklist that enterprises should consider before implementing a VPN solution.
The key to guaranteeing Web 2.0 application performance under any load lies in quickly gathering performance data across the full breadth of your Web 2.0 application delivery chain, from the perspective of your users. Load Testing 2.0 delivers this performance data, enabling businesses to identify and fix the root causes of performance issues. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Imad Mouline explains how Load Testing 2.0 can help businesses ensure more satisfying Web 2.0 experiences for their users.
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