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Chief Technology Officer
The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is responsible
for overall direction of all technology functions associated within the
enterprise. This includes Information Technology applications, communications
(voice, data, and wireless), and computing services within the enterprise that
impact the both the enterprise, its products and its customers. As the top
technical architect of the enterprise he or she provides a vision of how
technology can be applied. These areas include product design, customer
interactions with the enterprise, IT operating systems, communications (voice,
data, and wireless), transaction processing and database administration,
compliance with all mandated requirements, the information center, personal
computers, electronic and optical storage, and multimedia applications.
This site is dedicated to supporting the goals of
the Chief Technology Officer and includes links to tools and toolkits that meet
those needs.
Toolkits
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Latest News
Hurrican Earl will test many Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plans
08/31/2010 -
When Hurricane
Earl, now a major hurricane, hits the East Coast of the U.S. later this week
many enterprises will find that their Business continuity plans were not
adequately tested.
Critical data centers, with backup generators, facilities and fuel supplies,
are now built to continue operating during storms. The same can't be said for
the computing setups that telecommuters maintain in their homes, and they may be
put to the test this year.
Disaster Planning Base for Business Continuity
 
Last year there were only three hurricanes in U.S. waters last year, and none
of them brought hurricane force winds over land in this country. In 2009, there
were an average of 236 power outages a month in the U.S. Through July of 2010,
the average had increased to 273 a month.
The need for teleworkers to be self-sufficient (and less dependent on coffee
shops and local libraries for wireless access) is growing. In a report released
last month, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments estimated that
there as may be as many as 600,000 workers, or about 25% of the region's
workforce, who telework at least one day a week. The council also discovered,
via a telephone survey of more than 6,000 area workers, that the number of
teleworkers could rise by 500,000 over the next few years.
When blizzards early this year prompted a multiday shutdown of federal
offices, many federal employees rose to the challenge and continued to work,
making good use of telework and other work flexibilities. The question is
will Hurricane Earl be as easy on existing Disaster Recovery and Business
Continuity Plans.
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more information
Cloud computing capacity planning is complex
08/25/2010 -
The cloud computing model reduces the need for capacity planning at an
application level. An application can simply request resources from the cloud
and obtain them in less than an hour in accordance with dynamic demand. Thus, it
is far less important to correctly predict the capacity requirements for an
application than it is in traditional data centers, for which as many as six
months might be needed to order and install hardware dedicated to the
application.
 On the other
hand, virtualization makes it harder and more important to plan capacity from
the data centerÂ’s perspective. In the past, data center managers could use the
projections from applications, take into account the hardware on order, and thus
avoid having to dynamically adjust the capacity of deployed hardware.
Traditionally, a data center would just need to make sure that it had the
capability to support the hardware planned by individual applications. In a
cloud environment, however, many different applications will be installed. It
becomes the data center managerÂ’s responsibility to predict the average or total
resource requirement of all the applications and to order enough hardware in
advance independently of the input from application owners.
The basis for capacity planning, then, lies in monitoring existing usage and
keeping track over historical time periods. Long-term trends can be projected
based on previous activity and adjusted without any knowledge of business plans.
In a data center-driven cloud, typical capacity planning techniques can be
applied for the most part. Since clouds use virtualized resources that share the
same physical resources, this makes capacity planning somewhat more complex. In
contrast, the capacity planning does not need to consider each individual
application, and can simply track and project the overall summation of all
applications on the cloud.
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more information
Cloud computing gone wrong
08/23/2010 -
A leading software company in the application development and governance
market, made headlines in 2008 when it decided to migrate all of their 600 employees from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps. After months
of user dissatisfaction, content loss and poor support, the company decided to
make a full migration off of Google Apps to Microsoft's Business Productivity
Online Suite. Since then, user confidence has returned, IT has once again become
a trusted partner, and the company can increase their focus on their core
business.
The Practical Guided for Cloud Outsourcing Template includes --
Sample Cloud Outsourcing Contract along with a
Service Level Agreement and other tools to facilitate
the cloud outsourcing process. The template includes Janco's exclusive
Business and IT Impact Questionnaire.
 
The template is delivered electronically in WORD and/or PDF format.
Included are two 3 page t job descriptions - Cloud Application Manager and
Cloud Computing Architect. Sarbanes-Oxley issues are addressed directly, alond
with an ISO 27001 and ISO 27002 audit program.
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more information
Google Desktop is in a World of Hurt
08/18/2010 -
Janco has just released its Browser and Operating System Market Share White
Paper. The study shows that in the last 12 months Microsoft's browser
market share has continued to erode – Microsoft lost over 4% in the last 12
months; Firefox's market share is unchanged for the last 12 months; and
Google Desktop and Chrome now have just under 6%. On the operating systems
side, Windows 7 is being accepted at a pace is parallel to the way Window XP was
in the 90's. The CEO of Janco Associates, Victor Janulaitis said, "The
last six months have been a mixed bag for Microsoft. Their browser market
share has fallen to level that they back in 1998 with no end in sight. At
the same time Windows 7 now has 17% of the OS market in less than 13 months
since its availability."
Google Desktop is going the way of Netscape
 
Google Desktop has not taken off as the emphasis seems to be on Chrome. Based
on these trends we belive that unless Google places more emphasis on Desktop, in
short order Desktop will no longer be a force in browser
market.
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more information
Security Breach Impacts 3,000 Bank Accounts
08/13/2010 -
Consumers and businesses in Great Britain have lost more than $1 million so
far this summer from a Trojan that is infecting their computers, prompting them
to log into their bank accounts, and then is surreptitiously transferring money
to scammers in other countries.
About 3,000 bank accounts were found to be compromised at one financial
institution, which was not identified, according to a white paper released by
M86 Security.
The multilevel scheme uses a combination of a new version of the Zeus
keylogger and password stealer Trojan, which targets Windows-based computers and
runs on major browsers, and exploit toolkits to get around anti-fraud systems
used at bank Web sites, the report found.
Bank sites that offer two-factor authentication, such as one-time passcodes
and ID tokens, are ineffective because the malware has taken over the browser
after the victim has logged into the banking site.
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more information
Layers of Disaster Recovery Defined
08/09/2010 -
Business
continuity can mean success or failure if data and applications on a production
server are lost. Disaster recovery
planning ensures organizations have the capability to continue essential
functions across a wide range of situations that could disrupt normal
operations. However, traditional data protection strategies focus on just the
data and not the application. Read this white paper for a discussion on how
layers of protection not only mitigate the risk of data loss, but also maintain
the health and uptime of systems and applications.
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more information
Security is poor at many companies
08/02/2010 -
Social engineering hackers -- people who trick employees into doing and
saying things that they shouldn't -- took their best shot at the Fortune 500
during a contest at Defcon and showed how easy it is to get people to talk, if
only you tell the right lie.
Contestants got IT staffers at major corporations, including Microsoft, Cisco
Systems, Apple, and Shell, to give up all sorts of information that could be
used in a computer attack, including what browser and version number they were
using (the first two companies called were using IE6), what software they use to
open pdf documents, their operating system and service pack number, their mail
client, the antivirus software they use, and even the name of their local
wireless network.
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more information
Basics for business continuity planning
07/31/2010 -
(IBM) - Planning for inevitable disruptions requires an understanding of the
essentials of each of these five elements:
 Keep people busy with business as usual
- Planning for employees, business partners and customers makes up the most
critical aspect of business recovery planning. Depending on the nature of the
outage, you may need to figure out how and where people can continue working.
For a brief period of time, everyone may need to work remotely, but youÂ’ll
need to have these contingency plans ready, along with automatic notification
to tell employees to work at home.- Make accommodations for facilities - Facilities
make up an important part of business recovery planning. According to the U.S.
National Fire Protection Agency, 35 percent of businesses that experience a
major fire are out of business within three years. So, if having everyone work
at home is not the best option for your business, recovery vendors can provide
interim workplaces such as prefabricated mobile offices or buildings designed
specifically for use in times of crisis.
- Secure information before the storm hits - Data
can make or break a business - According to the U.S. National Archives and
Records Administration, 80 percent of companies without well-conceived data
protection and recovery strategies go out of business within two years of a
major disaster. Backup tape and storage testing services can help ensure that
critical data will be available after a major outage. Ideally backups should
be performed offsite, preferably at a facility far away from everyday
operations. The best way to protect the information for a small business is to
use a remote data backup facility, which actually transmits the data either
overnight or at scheduled times to a remote site where it is stored.
- Prepare alternate networking routes - Can you keep
networks open - or restore them quickly? What happens if you don't have local
area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN) connectivity for an extended
period of time? Or phone connections and e-mail? In the worst-case scenario,
your business may not have access to any of these vital services. LAN and WAN
contingency plans can include services such as remote data access so critical
information can be managed and administered from any location. A failover
system for e-mail is also highly recommended by Sirota, who notes that keeping
in touch with partners and customers can make all the difference in remaining
in business. These solutions can be activated in seconds, but keep in mind
that these systems need to be in place prior to an outage.
- Keep technology up-to-date and aligned with recovery
plans Keep tabs on how technology is applied within your
organization - This can be as simple as making sure a security patch has been
correctly applied. Otherwise, recovery plans can be easily derailed when new
software and hardware is added or upgraded without testing the potential
consequences of changes to business technology. That's why experts recommend
routine system checkups, as well as longer-term business continuity and
resilience planning services. Resilience is the ability to take a blow and
keep on going.
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more information
Social networking policy is a must
07/26/2010 -
Social networks are
about radically transforming the traditional battlefield of marketing and PR.
Your social networking policy, in turn, is the rule book that defines the
guidelines used to wage and win this war of the new media. While beginners new
to the scene might mistake the presence of a policy for social networking as
nothing more than a protective mechanism, the truth is that it exists not to
limit but really to liberate participants.
Applied properly, the strategic use of social networks will allow a David to
outmaneuver and outrun Goliaths, or for heavyweights to propel their reputation
and brand awareness to greater heights. As social media
gurus have said, “The unique characteristics of disembodied
identities in the virtual world can radically transform rules that traditionally
govern social groups.”
This is evidenced in the way large corporations are hiring digital or social
media managers, or incorporating such roles into the primary job
responsibilities of existing PR or marketing executives. As companies strive to
cash in the rewards of successfully engaging social media, guidelines are
required to formalize a company's strategy in this new, uncharted terrain. In
addition, there is a need to recognize and protect social media practitioners
within the company.
Taken together, it is clear that there is a need to craft a proper social
networking policy so as to maintain a degree of consistency in your
organization's engagement of social media. So what does a social networking
policy consist of? The quick answer might be to point you toward a sample of a
simple social networking policy on www.e-janco.com.
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more information
Focus of CIOs shifting
07/24/2010 -
As the economy moves towards recovery, CIOs need to develop new strategies to
be successful in the every changing business environment. This new
strategy need to be structured around the following business imperatives.
- Technology solutions need to be flexible and focused on IT Service Management and Service Oriented
Architecture. Businesses must be able to respond to opportunities and
challenges faster than ever before. Businesses are battling other
well-resourced organizations that may be based where the opportunity
originated, lower cost market, or another company that is reaching out for new
opportunities. In order to compete, businesses have to be able to rapidly
deliver products or service as good, or better, than that of any other
company.
- Complexity should be avoided - infrastructure is key.
Simplicity has always been rewarded, as the scope of technology increased this
has led to increased complexity and risk. While per unit costs of technology
typically are decreasing, in aggregate IT and technology cost are increasing.
With the pressure on IT to act less as a cost center and more as a way to
increase the profitability of business units, just adding more storage, more
bandwidth, or additional technologies throughout the organization is no longer
viable. Instead, successful CIOs are investing in technologies like continuous
data protection, virtualization, and wireless connectivity to help IT slim
down its footprint while increasing their businessÂ’s competitive advantages.
- Mandated requirements have moved
security to be a top priority. With the growing importance of digital
applications and data, the sources of threats to enterprise data have
multiplied dramatically. Everything from natural disasters to criminals to
corrupt sources within the company might try to steal or corrupt data. While
businesses do everything that they can to stop these threats in the first
place, they still must be prepared to recover from these threats as quickly as
possible.
- Business Continuity and
Disaster Recovery plans are no longer optional. As businesses have
expanded the need for anytime, anywhere application access has become a
requirement. At the same time, global 24/7 operations have shrinking
maintenance windows and a need for applications to be running at all times.
Delay or loss of data for any reason – system failure, natural disasters – has
a domino-like effect across the entire organization, at any time of the day or
night.
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more information
Steps to Take Before Disaster Strikes
07/13/2010 -
Business continuity and disaster
preparedness tips that businesses need to implement immediately.
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Validate  that
police and other first responders can contact the right people in your
business - Research the Reverse 911 program for your area and
register your business cell phones, voice over IP numbers or pagers. In an
emergency situation, Reverse 911 enables emergency officials to send out an
automated call to everyone registered in a specific area with important
information.
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Program emergency
numbers into business cell phones - Save emergency phone numbers for
local police and fire departments into your cell phones.
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Create a business
phone tree - Each office should have a plan for contacting employees
during emergencies through a designated phone tree. Designated staff should
have copies of the phone tree and be trained on who they should call.
Management should review and update the phone tree quarterly and conduct
regular training sessions. Management should also have back-up copies of
employee phone numbers and their emergency contacts. This information should
be regularly updated.
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Register your
employee's business cell phone number - Individual employees should
make sure family; friends and co-workers have their business mobile or
BlackBerry numbers.
Each person should register their business cell phone on
http://www.WhitePages.com/. This will give colleagues and family members the
ability to quickly find the information should they not have it on hand.
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 Enable texting - Sometimes cell phone signals
can become congested during emergencies, and it can be difficult to make or
receive calls. Short text messages might be easier to get through. Plus,
texting helps to conserve battery power. -
Have emergency kits
accessible - Companies should organize and maintain emergency kits in
several places. There should be designated staff responsible for grabbing
these in the event of an emergency. Make sure it contains a minimum of
provisions for at least three days. Include fresh water, non-perishable food,
a manual can opener, blankets, extra clothing, a first-aid kit, matches, a
flashlight, a battery-operated radio and extra batteries. Test or replace the
batteries at least once a year, especially for smoke alarms.
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Create back-up copies
of documents, data files, and software - At work, keep back-up copies
of your important personal and financial statements, and health and property
records. Be sure to store important original paperwork in a safe and secure location. This
way, you can grab it all quickly in the event of an emergency.
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Have cash
available - Set aside an emergency fund of cash or traveler's checks
or both. Keep them in a safe, accessible spot in case of the need for
evacuation. Banks and ATMs are often inaccessible during catastrophes.
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After the disaster
have employees register with the American Red Cross - Register with
the Red Cross's Safe and Well Web site. If you have been affected by a
disaster, this Web site provides a way for you to register yourself as "safe
and well."
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more information
Fed IT Spending is on an uptick
06/22/2010 -
Even if the national economy remains sluggish, federal spending for information technology
will continue to accelerate at least through 2015, according to a new report
from federal marketing analysis firm Input.
Federal IT spending will grow from $86 billion in 2010 to $112 billion in
2015, for a compound annual growth rate of 5.4 percent, according to InputÂ’s new
report "Federal Information Technology Market, 2010–2015."
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more information
The IT job market is looking up
06/20/2010 -
Some IT job market trends from
recent surveys include:
- Expect more churn in IT staff as CIOs accelerate their move to more
flexibile staffing models. CIOs are outsourcing more technical work, including
managed IP services such as VoIP and VPNs. They're hiring more contractors for
desktop and security services, and they're putting more applications such as
remote backup in the cloud. At the same time, they're looking to hire IT
people with business and analytical skills, such as risk management and
project management. Indeed, CIOs report that they're having trouble hiring IT
people because either they can't find IT professionals with the right business
skills or they can't afford them. All of this means more turnover in IT
departments.
- IT hiring will grow in the second half of 2010. A Web site, which lists
tech job openings, conducted a survey of IT hiring managers and recruiters,
and nearly half of them said they plan to add 10% more employees in the next
six months than they did in the first half of the year. Another 28% of
respondents plan to increase hiring by 11% to 20%. Survey respondents are
getting more optimistic about salaries, too. A quarter of survey respondents
predicted that IT salaries will rise in 2010, compared to 10% of survey
respondents making this prediction six months ago. Another good sign: 69% of
survey respondents said layoffs are not likely at their companies during the
next six months.
- Banks are starting to hire IT staff, but they are in no hurry to fill open
jobs. Banks are looking for IT professionals who can manage new technology or
integration projects, but that they are taking from six to eight months to
fill open jobs. This compares to three or four months to fill jobs prior to
the recession. Banks are being "really selective" and are looking for "exact
matches" for their detailed job descriptions.
- IT pros are getting paid slightly more than last year, says Janco
Associates' mid-year IT salary
survey. Total mean compensation for IT pros has increased to $78,210 from
$77,690 a year ago - a rise of less than 1%. However, most of the
additional money is going to CIOs, and not their staffs. Compensation of CIOs
in large enterprises rose 7.5% to $181,533, and in midsized enterprises it
rose 3.7% to $169,303, Janco found. Lower-level IT pros, on the other hand,
are experiencing reduced bonuses, frozen salaries and in some cases they are
being asked to pay a greater portion of their healthcare costs, Janco said.
One positive sign: companies are more willing to consider flexible hours and
work schedules as a low-cost benefit for IT workers.
- CIO confidence is up. 10% of CIOs plan to expand their IT departments in
the third quarter of 2010, while 4% plan to reduce staffing. The states with
the most active IT hiring are expected to include New Jersey, New York,
Pennsylvania and Texas. Overall, 81% of CIOs said they are confident in their
companies' growth prospects in the third quarter, while 40% said their firms
are likely to invest in new IT projects in the next three months.
- Job hopping is on the rise, prompting CIOs to worry more about IT staff
retention. A recent report found that more Americans quit their jobs in the
last three months than were fired. The rise in voluntary departures is
prompting CIOs to worry about retaining their best IT staff. 34% of technology
executives are concerned about losing top IT performers in the next year, up
three percentage points from last month. Similarly, 43% of CIOs say it is
challenging to find skilled IT professionals today.
- CIOs say networking and security top their list of hot IT skills. CIOs say
they had the hardest time filling jobs in networking, applications development
and security. Other hot skills include software development, database
management and help desk/technical support. Similarly, a recent survey of 400
U.K. recruitment consultants found that IT security skills were most in demand
for permanent hires. Another survey found that full-time staff with enterprise
software and developer skills were in short supply.
- Government, usually the safest sector of the economy in a downturn, has
announced more job cuts this year than any other employer. Government agencies
and nonprofits announced more job cuts than any other industry segment in May.
The sector shed 16,697 jobs in May, 12% more than the job cuts announced in
April. All total, the sector has shed 93,470 jobs in 2010.
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more information
Disasters That All Businesses Face
06/18/2010 -
 Every business faces the risk of natural disaster and no
plan to protect property can be complete without insurance coverage against
potential damage and loss. It is important to know exactly what coverage
you may need and what coverage is available to protect your property against all
of the natural hazards it may be exposed to so that you are not underinsured or
not insured at all.
Janco strongly encourages business
owners, CIOs, CSOs, and line managers to fully explore their insurance
needs and obtain adequate coverage before a disaster strikes.
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more information
Disaster Recovery and Business Contunity Back-up Requirements Defined by Janco
06/10/2010 -
Disaster Recovery
and Business Continuity require data consistency with the synchronous
replication of data over long-distances and / or journal replication to protect
against local and wide-area disasters. This technology provides other benefits,
including:
Maintaining more efficient data currency. Using synchronous
replication over a short distance in a campus or metropolitan area cluster
provides the highest level of data currency without undue impact to application
performance.
Permitting swift recovery. A campus/metropolitan cluster
implementation allows for fast automated failovers after a local area disaster
with minimal to no transaction loss.
Permitting recovery even when a disaster exceeds traditional
regional boundaries. A wide-area disaster could disable both data centers 1 and
2, but with some manual interaction, operations can be shifted to data center 3
and continue after the disaster.
Shifting to staffing outside the disaster area. A wide-area
disaster also affects people located within the disaster area, both
professionally and personally. By moving operations out of the region to a
remotely located recovery data center, operational responsibilities shift to
people not directly affected by the disaster.
Janco has defined a Template with a Backup and Backup
Retention policy that is a complete policy which can be implemented
immediately.
The document is provided in both Word 2003 and Word 2007 format
and is easily modified. This policy is included in the Disaster
Recovery / Business Continuity Template.
Below is a table from the policy.
|
Type of
Data |
Minimal Backup
Policy |
Backup Retention
Policy |
|
System
software |
Latest
Version plus patches
At Least Weekly |
Annual
(verified) Backup
Monthly Generations
Weekly
Generations |
|
Application
software |
Latest
Version plus patches
At Least Weekly |
Annual
(verified) Backup
Monthly Generations
Weekly
Generations |
|
System
data |
Daily |
Annual
(verified) Backup
Monthly Generations
Weekly Generations
Daily
Generations |
|
Application
Data |
Daily
with real time transaction files |
Annual
(verified) Backup
Monthly Generations
Weekly Generations
Daily
Generations |
|
Software
licenses, encryption keys, & Protocol Data |
Weekly |
Annual
(verified) Backup
Monthly Generations
Weekly
Generations |
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more information
87% of all enterprises now have disaster recovery plans
06/03/2010 -
Businesses across the US are responding more to the need for business
continuity planning according to a AT&TÂ’s latest annual Business Continuity
Study, in which 83 percent of respondents stated that they have a business
continuity plan in place. This was up 14 percent in the past five years.
For its ninth annual study, AT&T surveyed IT executives throughout the
United States that have at least $10 million in annual revenue to get their
views on disaster planning and business continuity trends; 87 percent of
respondents have revenue in excess of $25 million. Sixty-one percent of the
companies surveyed this year have locations outside of the US.
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more information
CIO Success is Based on Business Alignment
05/27/2010 -
What success CIOs and companies have in common is that IT doesn't just
support the business; it enables and continually transforms the business, often
creating new revenue and profit streams.
CIOs and everyone else in IT at these companies know precisely how their
businesses make money and lose money. Infrastructure is the key.
In fact, it's not at all unusual for employees to rotate through several jobs,
moving in and out of IT and business roles.
Customers of these successful companies are king, and customer service, both
internal and external, is supreme. For example, dedicated client service teams
from a shared services group (which encompasses IT) meet with business unit
presidents to discuss the terms of their IT supplier-customer relationship.
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more information
IT Policy Templates - Ready to download and customize
05/19/2010 -
Documenting
a clear set of IT policies
is a resource-intensive process for IT managers, due to the research and
writing time involved. And once policies are created, the next step is to
communicate and gain acceptance for those policies throughout the organization.
Wouldn't it be nice to start with boiler- plate templates that require only
minor customization?
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more information
Disaster Recovery Business Continuity backup options
05/12/2010 -
Disaster Recovery and
Business
Continuity planners need to include online backup and recovery service
providers in the mix of resources that they will apply. These providers can be
grouped into three categories:
- Service providers leveraging existing core business resources to expand
into adjacent markets to look for new revenue opportunities
- Service providers concentrating on server backup in niche markets: backup
and recovery only, single verticals, regional boundaries
- Service providers whose backup and recovery service forms an integral part
of a broader spectrum of information management and data protection
services
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more information
Recent Backup Critical For Disaster Recovery
05/04/2010 -
It has been proven over time that most data recovery requests are for
relatively recent data, and that there is a direct correlation between the age
of data and the possibility that it would be required for restore purposes. Most restore
requests are driven by issues such as an inadvertently deleted file or data
corruption that is introduced by a virus or a hacker.
Typically these problems are discovered within several hours or at most a few
days from when they first occur, resulting in restore requests for more recent
data. In general, the only time you may need to restore data that has already
been archived would be in the event of a disaster that physically destroys
computer equipment and facilities, such as an earthquake or a tornado. While it
pays to be prepared against these occurrences, they are very rare.
The Backup and Backup Retention Policy Template has been used to create
customized policies for well over 2,000 enterprises world wide. This policy in
concert with the Record Mangement Policy Template are must have Best Practices
Tools for CIOs and IT professionals.
For example, factors that CIOs and IT professionals need to consider for
backup retention include:
- Business and regulatory requirements – regulatory compliance and data
preservation
- Economic and budgetary concerns – doing more with less
- Data loss prevention and information protection – protect, preserve and
serve
- Environmental and business sustainment – green and economically
efficient
- Maximize IT resource effectiveness and return on investment (ROI)
- Reduce total cost ownership (TCO) of IT resources and service
delivery
With the ever changing economic climate and security threats,
downtime and data loss pose intolerable risks to every business today. From CIOs to the Executive Suite,
managers have seen the importance of business uptime and data protection to
continued success, productivity and profitability. The Disaster Planning
Template provides a road map to the most effective strategies and
technologies to protect data and provide fast recovery should data be lost or
corrupted due to accident or malicious action.
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more information
Mobile workforce needs rules - security is an issue
04/27/2010 -
Mobile work is
no longer just about the sales force. More than ever, employees in a variety of
roles are expected to be - always on, and always connected, even when they travel
and are away from the office. To enable the fast response they want to
provide, they need the ability to access information from more places and on
more devices. Taking action on the go can be difficult, especially if workers
cannot connect to the business network or access the right information for their
jobs. And while telecommuting and working on the go can reduce costs and
increase productivity, it potentially opens up access and security
concerns.
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more information
Metrics are key to CIO cost control
04/23/2010 -
IT management needs are being driven by a number of major economic and
organizational factors. Chief among these factors is the ongoing cost squeeze on
IT budgets. Operating costs have grown to the point where they now consume the
lion's share of IT budgets, leaving little room for funding innovative new
projects. As a consequence, IT management is continually looking for ways to
recover and redirect operational spending by increasing staff productivity and
efficiency. Productivity enhancing measures include the use of metrics (see Metrics HandiGuide) as well as the
introduction of technologies to enable server consolidation and boost server
utilization.
At the heart of an effective Service Level Agreement (SLA) are performance
metrics and they
- Measure the right performance characteristics to ensure that the client is
receiving its required level of service and the service provider is achieving
an acceptable level of profitability
- Can be easily collected with an appropriate level of detail but without
costly overhead, and
- Tie all commitments to reasonable, attainable performance levels so that
"good" service can be easily differentiated from "bad" service, and giving the
service provider a fair opportunity to satisfy its
client.
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more information
Sensitive Infromation Management Is a Major Issue for CIOs
04/22/2010 -
Many CIOs and IT organizations are overwhelmed when it comes to
managing requests
for access to sensitive data. Two of the primary reasons  are that sensitive
information management depends on manual systems to manage the process and
many CIOs do not really know who in the organization should have access to what
type of information. When it comes to security breaches, everyone likes to
bemoan the state of IT security. But most breaches occur because some employee
either accidentally or on purpose divulged some information that he or she
shouldn't have. And in most cases, the employee should never have had access to
that information in the first place.
You can download the Table of Contents and some sample pages by clicking on
the link below.
General Policy Statement
The Chief Security Officer or delegate must approve all processing
activities at ENTERPRISE associated with sensitive information. This
information includes but is not limited to social security numbers, credit card
numbers, credit card expiration dates, security codes, passwords, customer
names, customer numbers, ENTERPRISE proprietary data, and any other data (i.e.
California Personal ID number) that is deemed to be confidential by ENTERPRISE,
its external auditors, any governmental agency, or other body that has
jurisdiction over ENTERPRISE or its industry.
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more information
Backup verus Archive definition
04/20/2010 -
Backup systems should be
used only for disaster recovery and business continuity. That means backups
should be kept only long enough to enable specific recovery point objectives -
that is, how many hoursÂ’ or days'worth of data a company wants to be able to
restore. Some companies may require as little as 14 days of retention, while
others may need six months or longer.
By contrast, an archive is designed for the retention of critical information
- business records, contracts,e-mail - that companies may need to preserve
for significantly longer periods.Archives tend to live on disk and often have
built-in features such as classification and search that make it easy to
identify and produce information that may be relevant to discovery or other
investigations. Archives also provide IT with the tools to retain information
long enough to meet rules and regulations and then dispose of that information
once it reaches the end of its retention period.
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more information
Google vs Microsoft Office
04/17/2010 -
Google has refreshed its online word processing (Google Documents) and
spreadsheet (Google Spreadsheets) applications. In the process, it has put
Microsoft on notice: realtime collaboration and online-only software are here to
stay.
Realtime collaboration for Spreadsheets users was already a done deal, so
Google's rewrite of the application focused on and tinkering under the hood to
add more muscle to features and performance. .
So, who will reign in this battle for the collaborative backbone of business
computing? No one knows, of course, but a collateral winners are already
emerging. CIOs and other IT decision makers, like the Los Angeles City Council,
are finding reasons to switch.
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more information
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