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Month: January 2004
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Flexible IT, better strategy
Introducing a new product or service, adding a new channel partner, or targeting a new customer segment–any of these can present unforeseen costs, complexities, and delays in a business that runs enterprise applications. The expense and difficulty can be so great that some companies abandon new business initiatives rather than attempt one more change to their enterprise applications.
The good news is that just as the limitations of the current generation of IT architectures are becoming painfully apparent, new methods of organizing technology resources are appearing. IT is on the verge of a shift to a new generation of “service oriented” architectures that promise to go a long way toward reducing, if not removing, current obstacles to new operational initiatives.
Service-oriented architectures will enable companies to introduce new business practices and processes more rapidly and at lower cost. Companies that follow suit will break free from the constraints of today’s architectures and become capable of leveraging IT–mostly for the first time–to gain strategic advantage.
More info: [url=http://news.com.com/2030-1069_3-5144911.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news]http://news.com.com/2030-1069_3-5144911.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news[/url]
Better security means lower TCO for Win 2003 – MS
Stuart Okin, Chief Security Officer at Microsoft UK, said that the cost of supporting earlier Microsoft platforms has gone up because of the expense in applying security updates.
But if customers invest to modernise their systems and move on XP and Windows Server 2003 then their support costs will eventually fall to a level lower than they ever had with earlier versions of Windows, according to Okin. Okin said any decision to move operating system platform should based on a solid business case; security is only one of the elements to be considered.
Windows Servers 2003 comes with many services turned off by default to the impact of any security vulnerability tends to be less serious on that platform. Security depends more on people and process than OS platform but upgrading technology can improve an organisation’s security stance.
More info: [url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/53/35088.html]http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/53/35088.html[/url]
Inverting the IT pyramid
Whether it is IT outsourcing, business process outsourcing, managed services or utility computing services, any IT service that helps enterprises increase productivity and reduce costs is in demand.
The IT industry has been turned upside down, or inverted, as former technology leaders transform themselves into services leaders, and other companies seek to follow their lead. For instance, IBM and Hewlett-Packard have won the greatest recognition and most significant customer contracts in the utility computing market to date on the strength of their outsourcing and integration capabilities, more than the technical features of their utility computing products.
Technology-centric companies such as EMC and Sun Microsystems are struggling to keep pace in the utility computing market, and have recently begun to shift their business models to emphasize their services as much as their products.
Many organizations are frustrated with the inefficiencies of their current IT operations and concerned about buying more technology and adding more staff to satisfy their business requirements. For many hardware and software technology companies this shift in demand represents a significant challenge.
Even harder than changing the operational processes for many long-standing technology companies is changing the corporate cultures of these places. Many IT companies attempting to restructure their organizations so they can deliver more of their technical capabilities via services are learning how hard it is to invert their business models.
Part of Big Blue’s success has come from internal organizational and cultural changes, and part by acquiring consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Putting services out in front is a dramatic change for the IT industry. Gone are the days when IT installation and maintenance services were slaves to the product side of vendor shops.
As the demand for new technology continues to languish and product differentiation continues to fade, IT services has become a key strategic competitive weapon as well as an essential vehicle for delivering meaningful business solutions.
More info: [url=http://news.com.com/2010-7343_3-5144562.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news]http://news.com.com/2010-7343_3-5144562.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news[/url]
Issues to address in your incident management policy
This article provides tips on what to include in your policy is excerpted from an article on incident management published by their sister publication Information Security magazine.
An effective incident management program must assign responsibilities and specify routine procedures in the event of an incident.
Next, getting down to brass tacks, your computer incident response team (CIRT) policy should specify first responders, responsibility for management of the response to a specific incident, and follow-up and reporting responsibilities.
That’s the mostly-technical first part of a more detailed and comprehensive IMP. Besides the MIS and network technical staff who are first responders, who should be part of the IMP?
At the very least: risk management, corporate legal, corporate security, public relations, human resources and labor relations, the office responsible for regulatory compliance, and all major business units with oversight and advisory responsibility. Further, while initial response in many cases will be technical, IT staff can’t make decisions in a vacuum.
California’s Database Security Breach Notification Act (SB 1386), which went into effect last July, requires companies to inform California customers of incidents involving the compromise of their names in combination with their Social Security, driver’s license or credit card numbers.
More info: [url=http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid14_gci945247,00.html]http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid14_gci945247,00.html[/url]