IT Management
Forrestor, 4/26/04: Managing The Business Service Model
by Mike Gilpin
Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is hitting a wall in the companies that are most aggressive in its pursuit. Why? The profusion of service interfaces and their design artifacts, such as XML Schemas and Web Services Definition Language (WSDL), is out of control. Although some development or integration tools support limited storage and searching of this metadata, none are complete enough. The result: reduced reuse and a maintenance nightmare. Vendors are responding slowly to this need, so interim strategies are needed to increase the chances of SOA success. Key best practices: virtual teams; integrated review milestones that reflect SOA; metadata maintenance; and incremental implementation.
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SMB Outlook
Forrestor Press Release, 4/27/04: SMBs See Largest Growth In IT Budgets For 2004, According To Forrester
Inaugural Report Finds SMBs More Optimistic Than Larger Businesses Are
Cambridge, Mass., April 27, 2004 . . . Small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) plan to increase their IT spending for 2004 by 6.6 percent over 2003, compared with a 1.7 percent increase among larger companies, according to new research from Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR). Overall, SMBs are more optimistic about the future than their enterprise counterparts are, with 81 percent describing their current business climate as being at least moderately strong and 78 percent expecting more improvement by the end of the year.
For its inaugural assessment of the state of IT in the SMB market, Forrester surveyed more than 1,000 IT decision-makers at North American SMBs, which are defined as firms with fewer than 1,000 employees. Manufacturing was the most optimistic sector, with 86 percent of SMBs expecting their industry to perform at least slightly better three quarters from now. IT decision-makers at financial services SMBs were also confident; more than half described their business climate as strong or very strong, and 72 percent felt it is still improving.
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Health Care IT Market
The White House, 4/27/04: Transforming Health Care: The President’s Health Information Technology Plan
The President called for the completion and adoption of standards that will allow medical information to be stored and shared electronically while assuring privacy and security. The necessary work is already well underway and much of it has already been completed.
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C|net, 4/27, 04: Bush unveils national health care IT plan
He's pushing for the development of electronic medical records
News Story by Bob Brewin
President Bush yesterday unveiled a national health care IT plan focused on the development of personal electronic medical records for every American within 10 years and the appointment of a sub-Cabinet-level health care IT czar to oversee the process.
In a speech to the American Association of Community Colleges annual convention in Minneapolis, Bush called the current paper-based U.S. medical record system antiquated and said "medicine ought to be using modern technologies in order to better share information, in order to reduce medical errors, in order to reduce cost to our health care system by billions of dollars."
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Gartner, 4/24/04: North American Healthcare IT Spending Forecasts to 2007
North American healthcare spending for IT will continue to grow through 2007. Healthcare software and IT service investments will show the largest growth.
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Utility Computing
Gartner, 4/23/04: Gartner Updates Its Definition of IT Infrastructure Utility
Our new definition of IT infrastructure utility clears away some of the hype about the future of the IT services market. The model defines what's needed for on-demand, low-cost services that are flexible yet secure.
A strong trend toward standardization and industrialization is transforming the IT services market — particularly at the infrastructure layer (see "IT Service Market: Will the Giant Mature?" and "The 2001-2010 Reshaping of the IT Service Market"). This trend is clearly represented by concepts and offerings like EDS's Agile Enterprise, HP's Adaptive Enterprise and IBM's On Demand. But it is also a significant source of marketing hype and a reality check is needed, starting with the infrastructure layer.
Gartner's Definition of IT Infrastructure Utility
A shared IT infrastructure architecture provided through ondemand services, with pricing based on service usage, and proven, ongoing reductions in both fixed baseline (or subscription fees) and unit costs. The IU is open, flexible, pre-designed and standardized, virtualized and highly automated, highly secure and reliable. IU services are accessible through pre-defined methods, standards, and terms and conditions.
Security
eWeek, 4/27/04: Signs Point to Worm Attack on SSL Vulnerability
By Dennis Fisher
Security experts on Tuesday said they are seeing evidence of what appears to be a worm exploiting the recently announced vulnerability in the Windows implementation of the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol.
During the morning and early afternoon Tuesday, specialists at VeriSign Inc.'s security operations center observed a large-scale exploitation of the vulnerability. While there are a number of software tools available on the Internet to attack the vulnerability, experts said the volume of activity is too great for the attacks to be manual.
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Offshoring
Computerworld, 4/27/04: Offshoring foes protest at IBM annual meeting
Picketers chanted 'Offshore the CEO!' at the meeting
News Story by Elizabeth Heichler
Sporadic chants of "Offshore the CEO!" punctuated a gray morning in Providence, R.I., as about two dozen picketers representing a group of current and former IBM employees welcomed attendees to the company's annual meeting.
Bearing signs that read, "America's future is not offshore," "Retrain for what?" and "Offshore CEO Sam Palmisano," the demonstrators raised notice that the politically controversial issue of offshoring would be on the table at the meeting, where several shareholder proposals centered on employee concern with IBM's labor and executive compensation practices.
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