Outsourcing
ZDNet, 1/31/03: IT services find homes offshore
By Ed Frauenheim
Companies offering information technology outsourcing see lower-cost foreign labor as a key to growth in 2003, market research firm Gartner Dataquest said Thursday.
Gartner also said the number of IT infrastructure outsourcing "megadeals"--those worth $1 billion or more--rose from nine in 2001 to at least 14 in 2002.
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Gartner, 1/23/03: Offshore Contracts: From Cottage Industry to Mainstream
Application outsourcing best practices have evolved from traditional domestic contracts. Offshore external service providers must respond to these established practices to win larger and more-complex AO deals.
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IT Management
Giga, 1/30/03: Champagne Infrastructure Management on a Beer Budget
Jean-Pierre Garbani
Question
Is Ipswitch’s WhatsUp Gold ready for the large enterprise?
Answer
Return on investment (ROI) is the key phrase in many infrastructure management projects, and vendors in the space are constantly reviewing their solution model to lower deployment and support costs. In small to medium enterprises, simplicity of installation and low prices are the instruments of success, by design. In some instances, this model can be scaled up to the large enterprise level.
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Gartner, 1/30/03: Configuration Management Key Issues
Successful configuration management processes start with the ability to configure IT components and understand relationships among IT service components. These Key Issues explore this cornerstone management discipline.
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ZDNet, 1/30/03: UltraBac, Lockstep Unveil New Backup Software
By Evan Koblentz
UltraBac Software and Lockstep Systems Inc. each released new backup software this week for mid-size companies and enterprise workgroups.
UltraBac 7.0.3 is more secure, faster, and easier to configure than prior versions, said Paul Bunn, CTO of UltraBac, a Bellevue, Wash., division of BEI Corp.
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Application Management
Gartner, 1/28/03: Changing Delivery Models for Packaged Applications
Enterprises' sourcing strategies must take account of the significant changes in the way packaged application
services are delivered and of the new options for ongoing management.
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Microsoft
Fortune, 1/21/03: Q&A WITH BILL GATES: 'The Magic Continues'
In the gloom of the tech world, America's richest man sees good things ahead.
By Brent Schlender
It makes sense that Bill Gates would be tech's biggest optimist. For one, it's hard to be down when you're holding $33 billion of Microsoft stock. Then there's the fact that even in 2002's IT slump his company prospered, growing 20%-plus each quarter and posting a phenomenal 35% after-tax profit margin. Yet he has reason to worry: Last fall Microsoft revealed that outside of operating systems and Office, it can't seem to make money. Xbox, MSN, and the company's software for small businesses, set-top boxes, handheld devices, and cellphones together produce well over $1 billion in operating losses a year and generate a scant 15% of Microsoft's $28 billion in revenues. To find out what's keeping Gates so chipper, FORTUNE's Brent Schlender sat down with the Microsoft chairman for more than 90 minutes in late December. What Gates presented was an argument for hope in his industry that arises from his faith in the inexorable march of information technology--something he has come to call simply the "magic."
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Security / Microsoft
ZDNet, 1/30/03: Should Microsoft pay your security patch costs?
By Dan Farber
Bill Gates must be livid. Just after he publishes an e-mail letter to customers outlining Microsoft's progress on its Trustworthy Computing initiative, the SQL Slammer worm--376 bytes of code also known as Sapphire, w32.SQLexp.worm, and Helkern--exploits known vulnerabilities in Microsoft SQL 2000 servers. It creates a global Internet slowdown and another embarrassment for the chairman of the world's most powerful software company. And to top it off, Microsoft's own servers were Slammed.
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Reuters, 1/31/03: Microsoft security effort 'failing'
The Trustworthy Computing initiative has not suceeded in making Microsoft systems more secure, says expert
Computer security experts said on Thursday the recent "SQL Slammer" worm, the worst in more than a year, is evidence that Microsoft's year-old security push is not working.
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Newsfactor, 1/30/03: Should Enterprises Dump Outlook?
Brad Hill, www.EcommerceTimes.com
Bad things happen to good software. In particular, security transgressions happen to very popular software, more because it presents a big target than because of an inherently frail constitution. Such is the case with Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT - news) widely installed enterprise e-mail solutions, Exchange and Outlook.
Both Exchange on the back end and Outlook as the front-end client are exposed to a slew of Microsoft-targeted viruses and worms. The cost of downtime as a result of this malware plague is measured in dollars, lost productivity, disrupted communications, and massive doses of aspirin to treat IT administrators' headaches.
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Ideas
The New York Times, 1/31/03: They May Be Yakkers but a Lot of People Are Listening
By PATRICIA COHEN
Marketers never know where the quest for that coveted though elusive grail — the ideal consumer — will take them. In Calvin Trillin's charming novel "Tepper Isn't Going Out," for instance, it took them to Murray Tepper's dark blue Chevy Malibu. Tepper, who compiles lists for mail-order businesses, has a curious affinity for sitting in his parked car that captures the imagination of New Yorkers who line up outside his rolled-down window to chat or ask advice. It turns out that these Tepperites constitute a "magic list," consumers who, for some mysterious reason, will buy anything.
Now, in "The Influentials," Ed Keller and Jon Berry, the chief executive and vice president of RoperASW, present their own version of the magic list — those Americans who tell the rest of us what to buy, where to eat or whom to vote for. "The Influentials," Mr. Keller and Mr. Berry write, are the 10 percent of the population who stand out as "a thought-leader, trendsetter group." They are not only "leaders in their community" but also "pioneer consumers": it's thanks to them that the rest of us got into videocassette recorders, home computers and catalog shopping.
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Opening This Weekend
The New York Times, 3/31/03: Hard Lessons in a Devilishly Devious C.I.A.
By A. O. SCOTT
The Recruit," which opens nationwide today, takes place within the shadowy world of the Central Intelligence Agency, where, we are repeatedly told, nothing is what it seems. This is true of the movie as well: it seems like a spy thriller, but it really isn't. Sure, there are car and foot chases, some gunplay, a lot of breathless exposition and the frenetic uploading and downloading of files that is a staple of the modern high-tech Hollywood suspense film.
But for all of its slick, manufactured suspense, and a "surprise twist" that will come as a surprise to exactly no one, this movie belongs to a very special genre: the Al Pacino crazy mentor picture.
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