Outsourcing
C|net, 1/20/04: Don't mention the 'O' word!
By Charles Cooper
In a memorable episode from the English comedy series, "Fawlty Towers," the besotted hotel owner, Basil Fawlty, played by actor John Cleese, suffers a massive concussion. When a group of German tourists turns up at the inn, Fawlty explicitly warns the hired help not to reopen old wounds by making any reference to "the war."
Naturally, temptation wins out and he ultimately winds up performing a syncopated goose-step through the restaurant to the mortification of his foreign guests.
Like poor Fawlty, IBM these days finds itself forced to employ the oddest of circumlocutions to prop up the pretense that plans to shift thousands of high-paying programming jobs overseas are anything but.
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AMR Research, 1/26/04: Taking the Me out of Moving Work Offshore
CIOs moving work offshore increasingly have to overcome a backlash of negativity as people personalize the issue. Politicians and union organizers are talking about offshore workers taking U.S. jobs, and the level of jingoistic din implying that Information Technology (IT) jobs are an American right is growing. Companies competing in a global economy need effective global IT sourcing strategies that are similar to their need for effective global sales and distribution, materials sourcing, and manufacturing strategies.
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Customer Satisfaction
eWeek, 1/29/04: PC Sat Trial Testers: Are You Satisified?
By Mary Jo Foley
The Redmond software company is wrapping up trials of its hosted security technologies. What, if anything, can consumers expect next?
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Microsoft's PC Satisfaction Trial was designed to test Microsoft and third-party anti-virus, firewall, backup and PC-health-monitoring services. Sources said that Microsoft was testing whether these kinds of security services—when provided as hosted, managed services—would appeal to typically less-security-savvy small-business and consumer customers. These customers, who seldom have strong IT departments at their beck and call, are typically the ones hurt worst by worms and viruses like MyDoom, Blaster, SoBig and the like.
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Security
Gartner, 1/22/04: Big Bumps for Windows Security, but Still on Track
The worms in 2003 showed there's a long way to go before Windows is secure, and prompted Microsoft to refocus on improving security. By 2005, Microsoft's server software products will be at or above the industry security average.
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Businessweek, 1/29/04: The Useless Hysteria over Mydoom
Conspiracy theories from SCO and the open-source community over who or what is behind the nasty virus aren't helping make the Net safer
In addition to snarling networks and clogging e-mail systems around the world, the virus variously known as Mydoom and NovaRG set off a fierce and sometimes absurd argument over who was responsible for the assault, which began on Jan. 26.
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It's time for everyone to take a deep breath. The fact is that nothing is known about the perpetrator. Antivirus researcher MessageLabs says the virus first showed up in Russia, but that doesn't necessarily mean it was written there. The only clue to the writer's identity was the line "sync-1.01; andy; I'm just doing my job, nothing personal, sorry," buried in the code. The motivation was further muddied when a variant appeared on Jan. 28 that targeted Microsoft (MSFT ) Web sites as well as SCO's.
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Networking
Gartner, 1/21/04: Management Update: How to Make the Networking Organization More Effective
Network traffic is growing at a robust rate of 30 percent per year. However, network managers have kept telecom budgets fairly stable during the past few years, but significant differences exist. Gartner examines the challenges and offers advice on how to address them.
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Microsoft
Gartner, 1/22/04: Will Longhorn Really Be the Next Version of Windows?
Many users signed up for Microsoft's Enterprise Agreement primarily to get new versions of covered products. Microsoft may need an interim version of the Windows client to deliver the value its customers thought they were buying.
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