IT Outsourcing
Gartner, 6/23/04: Sourcing Decisions Have Many Dimensions
When making sourcing decisions, balance the conflicting dimensions of key players and their different perspectives and types of services. Follow this sample decision process.
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Gartner, 6/23/04: 'Offshore' Model Will Evolve to 'Global Sourcing'
The term "offshore" is primarily associated with low-cost IT labor. "Global sourcing" more accurately describes how companies will access quality skills at the right time, from the right place and at the right price.
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Gartner, 6/17/04: Market Trends: IT Professional Services, Worldwide, 2003
In 2003, IT professional services vendors waited for an economic recovery that was always just one quarter away. Although prospects looked better by the fourth quarter of 2003 and many IT professional services vendors reported fuller pipelines, the 2003 IT professional services market will be remembered for its lazy, languid progress toward recovery.
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Gartner, 6/18/04: Integrated Infrastructure Support, United States, 2004
Integrated infrastructure support consists of intermediate support offerings that range from individual hardware support break/fix point services to fullfledged infrastructure outsourcing. This range enables an external service provider (ESP) to offer customers increased value. Each integrated offering expands the scope of accountability taken on by the ESP, although what is incorporated into this broader scope may differ significantly. According to the desktop life cycle wheel diagram popular in the late 1990s, the tasks and requirements associated with different parts of the process entail not only point services, but also interactions with vendors and very different parts of the customer's own organization, from procurement to the end user. Figure 1 presents some of the possible elements and tasks related to each segment of the PC life cycle.
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Gartner, 6/23/04: Consolidation Will Transform the Offshore ESP Landscape
Offshore delivery has highlighted differences between traditional U.S. and European external service providers and newer offshore vendors. Company buying habits will close this gap and narrow the competitive field.
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IT Management
Gartner, 6/18/04: SMB Staffing Strategy: Versatility Over Specialization
Small and midsize businesses face difficult challenges regarding the IT staff's breadth, scope and competencies. Versatility, as opposed to specialization, will help resource constrained IT groups address changing needs.
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Gartner, 6/23/04: Key Service Providers Deliver E-Mail Active Archiving
E-mail active-archiving and compliance management service providers deliver ready-to-use alternatives to internal solutions. The number of such vendors actively marketing these products will triple by 2006.
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Gartner, 6/17/04: Using PC Virtualization Technology for Lockdown
Locking down your desktops can provide better, less expensive service on a more homogeneous, known system image. PC virtualization technology should make desktop lockdown easier to achieve.
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VOIP
Gartner, 6/23/04: Managed IP, Centrex Services Will Be IP Voice Winners
Abstract: Managed IP Telephony and IP Centrex will be the most successful IP voice services for U.S. businesses. Hosted IP PBX will also have a significant presence, as will voice over IP virtual private networks.
Strategic Planning Assumption
Managed IP Telephony will be the most widely adopted service provider IP voice approach for U.S. businesses in three years, followed by softswitch-based IP Centrex, the latter predominantly for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) (0.8 probability).
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Security
Infoworld, 6/25/04: Web attack aims to steal surfers' financial details
New threat gives hackers access to Web surfers' credit card and other financial data
By Scarlet Pruitt, IDG News Service June 25, 2004
A new Internet attack discovered late Thursday was designed by an infamous group of Russian virus writers to steal credit card and other financial information from Web surfers and send it to Web sites where it can be retrieved by hackers, security experts warned Friday.
Mikko Hyppönen, director of antivirus research at Helsinki antivirus company F-Secure Corp., said his team had stayed up all night examining details of the new threat and have connected it with a known Russian virus writing group called Korgo.
According to Hyppönen, the group has hacked into Web servers of some major Internet service providers that host "huge" Web sites, such as an online auction site and banking sites, to append malicious code to their pages. This code, which security researchers are calling "Scob," connects the user's PC to Web addresses run by the hackers from which they can silently download and install a Trojan horse. This then uses a keystroke logger to collect Web surfers' passwords, logins, PayPal payment data and other sensitive information, Hyppönen said, and then send them to Web sites where the hackers can retrieve them.
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Computerworld, 6/24/04: Practice safe resets: How to securely use a password self-service solution
Opinion by Indy Chakrabarti, NetIQ
Organizations are discovering an easy way to reduce the workload of IT and help desk administrators -- password self-service.
According to Gartner Inc., password-reset and user-identification problems represent 15% to 35% of help desk call volume -- with a typical cost per call of $10 to $31. Even this humble author, looking through his recent trouble tickets, must sheepishly admit to four requests for resets over the past nine months.
By enabling end users to reset their own passwords and unlock their Windows accounts, businesses can free up time for administrators to concentrate on more valuable pursuits.
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