Outsourcing
Infoworld, 10/3/03: Outsourcing to transform IT, Gartner says
IT department will need fewer technical skills, more business skills
By Gillian Law, IDG News Service
LONDON -- The average IT department will look radically different by 2010, full of relationship managers and "touchpoints" between the company and its outsourced suppliers.
Speaking at a roundtable here Wednesday, Ian Marriott, vice president of Gartner Inc., said that the trend towards outsourcing, including the outsourcing of business processes as well as more standard IT services, will involve a complete change of mindset for the IT manager.
"The IT department will need fewer technical skills and more business skills," Marriott said. Persuading management of the need for outsourcing is going to be hard if a company plans to do it properly because of the huge investment in staff needed, he said.
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C|net, 10/6/03: An argument for outsourcing
By Gordon Brooks
We've all heard about technology outsourcing, or "offshoring," as some have started to call it. It's been one of the biggest technology topics this summer.
The image the term immediately brings to some minds is of information technology workers being laid off. That's where most thoughts about outsourcing begin and end--with the idea of it being all about U.S. jobs versus foreign jobs. But there is much more to it than that. This becomes visible as you take a step back and look at the larger issues.
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Mobile Computing
C|net, 10/7/03: The story behind Wi-Fi
By Richard Shim
When he hears some people fret over the future of wireless networking and hot-spot service, NetGear CEO Patrick Lo can't understand all the fuss.
Some of the details may have been different, but Lo recalls that similar concerns surfaced when automatic teller machines debuted. In his mind, it's just a matter of time before all the pieces fall into place for Wi-Fi.
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IT Management
Computerworld, 10/6/03: IT Spending: The CFOs Strike Back
Opinion by Paul A. Strassmann
In 2000, the CIO Magazine Tech Poll reported a 22% annual growth rate in IT budgets. The same poll has recorded growth rates below 2% from January 2002 to the present. For the past two years, CIOs have persistently predicted a resurgence in IT spending. But the harsh reality is that chief financial officers now dictate IT spending, and they will throttle IT budgets until there's hard evidence that IT delivers profits.
How CFOs can extract proof of IT profitability is a source of puzzlement. During the years of easy IT money, the established procedures for capital budgeting couldn't cope with a growing appetite for computerization. Now that companies have slammed on the brakes, CFOs are searching for new ways to harness IT.
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Security
C|net, 10/3/03: Circling the PCs
By Steven Musil
Conceding that its strategy of patching Windows holes as they emerge is not effective, Microsoft is working on a new security effort focused on what the company calls "securing the perimeter."
Although Microsoft will continue to devise ways to improve the means by which Windows users apply upgrades, or patches, to their software, the company realized that too many customers don't upgrade quickly enough to thwart hackers.
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Computerworld, 10/6/03: Mop-up Continues in Worm Aftermath
Without automated tools in place, patch and virus signature update compliance become increasingly difficult to manage.
Security Manager's Journal by Mathias Thurman
It has been more than a month since the Blaster worm hit, and my company is still having problems. The main one is that we have thousands of desktops and my security team and I don't have a strong and fully automated way to identify and track updates on them.
This situation is a nuisance, if not a crisis. We know what to do, and we've communicated the need to keep updates current to all employees, but things don't always happen the way we'd like.
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The Guardian, 10/7/03: Hacker attack left port in chaos
Busiest US port hit after Dorset teenager allegedly launched electronic sabotage against chatroom user
Rebecca Allison
A lovesick hacker brought chaos to America's busiest seaport after launching a computer attack on an internet chatroom user who had made anti-American comments, a court heard yesterday.
Aaron Caffrey, 19, is alleged to have brought computer systems to a halt at the Port of Houston, in Texas, from his bedroom in Shaftesbury, Dorset, in what police believe to be the first electronic attack to disable a critical part of a country's infrastructure.
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Microsoft
Microsoft Watch, 10/6/03: Seven Things To Keep In Mind About Longhorn
By Mary Jo Foley
As the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) countdown clock ticks down —at this writing, we're 19 days, 14 hours and 36 minutes away from the Longhorn stampede, according to one enthusiast's Web site — it's a good time to start separating Longhorn fact from fiction. Busiest US port hit after Dorset teenager allegedly launched electronic sabotage against chatroom user
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