Offshoring
Gartner, 5/3/04: Weigh These Eight Factors Before Deciding to Go Offshore
Assess the pros and cons before making what may be a controversial move to offshore outsourcing. Consider the eight key factors in Gartner's framework when structuring your internal debate.
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IT Management
Gartner, 4/28/04: Last Stop For Today’s IT Orgs
Today’s IT is approaching its last stop on the technology management journey. Major societal, business, and technological forces will stomp today’s internally focused, technology-monopolizing IT organization. IT will give way to a new organization that is able to deal with a technology-familiar population, doing business in and with highly interconnected firms via ubiquitous technologies.
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SME
Release 1.0, 4/28/04: Triumph of the Ants: Small Business Online
The small-business market is tough to define. Some vendors go by company size – under 100, under 50 employees. But what’s small in one industry may be mid-sized in another. Others say it’s anyone without an IT department, or a company not worth selling to directly because its budget is too small. The best definition – but one not readily usable by a market-research firm – is any company where the owner still manages directly: When he decides whether to sit down with the salesman who invites him to play golf or to search for a cheaper alternative online, he knows he can use the money saved to pay for a family vacation. . .and choose his own golf partner.
Whatever the answer, most small businesses don’t worry about the question. They are too busy running the business. Over the last few years, many of them have discovered the IT tools they need for themselves, as consumers. They get e-mail from their airlines; they start to send mail to their own customers and prospects. They keep their checking accounts with Quicken; they start to use it for their business books, sometimes upgrading to QuickBooks. They buy a used lawnmower or sell an unused exercise machine on eBay; they start to procure and sell online. They respond to ads on Yahoo! And now, with the advent of consumer-style almost-one-click-purchase advertising, they are advertising on the Web with Google’s AdWords and Overture.
In short, the small-business market is a producer-side version of the consumer market, rather than a mini version of the big-business market.
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Networking
eWeek, 5/3/04: 10-Gbit Ethernet Adapter Debuts at Intel
By Mark Hachman
Intel Corp. introduced a new 10-Gbit Ethernet adapter for data centers on Monday that should cost about 40 percent less than a previous model.
The Intel PRO/10GbE SR Server Adapter is available now for $4,770. The "SR" prefix means that the adapter is designed for short-range distances of less than 300 meters; Intel will launch a long-range version later this summer allowing devices to talk to each other across a range of as many as 10 kilometers.
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Security
Computerworld, 5/3/04: Shameless
Opinion by Frank Hayes
It's your fault. Yeah you, Mr. or Ms. Corporate IT Person. Microsoft says it's your fault, and the fault of your users, that there are so many security problems with Microsoft software. Oh, sure, there are security holes in Microsoft products. But Microsoft does patch them -- eventually. And unless corporate IT does a better job of promptly applying those patches, as well as training users in safe computing practices -- well, there's only so much Microsoft can do.
Yes, at Microsoft irony is dead. And so, apparently, is shame.
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Optimism
Gartner, 4/28/04: IT Execs Raise Their 2004 Budget Outlook
A recent survey of IT decision-makers shows that North American enterprise-class companies will, on average, increase their 2004 IT spending 2.4% over 2003 — up from the 1.7% growth they projected at the end of 2003. The boost will come from business services and finance and insurance firms, and new dollars will focus on information management technologies like portals and content management, as well as mobile networking and security.
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