Industry News and Articles

Banking's big dilemma: How to stop cyberheists via customer PCs

In online banking and payments, customers' PCs have become the Achilles' heel of the financial industry as cyber-crooks remotely take control of the computers to make unauthorized funds transfers, often to faraway places.
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Healthcare Taking Computing To The Cloud

Cost, scalablity, and flexibility are reasons healthcare organizations are looking to move applications onto cloud computing models, says report.
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Google Docs "Power User" Appointed First US Gov CIO

Vivek Kundra, long expected to be appointed the first ever CTO of the US Federal Government, will instead be appointed as the country's first Chief Information Officer (CIO), according to reporting done by the Washington Post's Kim Hart.

Kundra became "web 2.0 famous" last Fall when as D.C. CTO he switched 38,000 District of Colombia government employees off of Microsoft Office and onto Google apps instead.
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IDC Says IT Cloud Services To Reach $42 Billion By 2012

Based on a survey of IT executives, CIOs, and other business leaders, IDC said this week it expects spending on IT cloud services to grow almost threefold in the next five years, reaching $42 billion by 2012.

The growth will in part be helped by the economic crisis that began in the United States, according to a statement by Frank Gens, senior VP and chief analyst at IDC. "The cloud model offers a much cheaper way for businesses to acquire and use IT -- in an economic downturn, the appeal of that cost advantage will be greatly magnified."
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Google Rewires Washington in Challenge to Microsoft

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Vivek Kundra, recruited to Washington to overhaul city computer networks plagued by cost overruns and viruses, treats his projects like stocks. The biggest ``buy'' on his trading floor is Google Inc.
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Extra storage as students go Gmail

GOOGLE has edged out some of the biggest brands in the enterprise IT services market to pick up another major contract win in Australia's education sector.
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Cloud Computing: So You Don't Have to Stand Still

In fact, cloud computing is poised to do for technology what the electrical grid did for power, says Nicholas Carr, author of "The Big Switch," which compares the rise of the cloud to the rise of electric utilities. The electrical grid streamlined operations for companies; when every home had cheap power and outlets, "you had incredible innovation in how to put all that cheap power to use," Mr. Carr says. He thinks that cloud computing will prompt a similar cycle over the next decade.
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The Ozzie Memo: Software is Dead, Long Live the Web

After a few years of trying to fill Bill Gates shoes as Microsoft's chief software architect, Ray Ozzie is starting to hit his stride. In a remarkable strategy memo to employees (embedded below), Ozzie essentially shifts Microsoft's mission from one of creating software for the PC and stand-alone servers to creating an interconnecting mesh between devices and people. He is not abandoning Windows or Office, but he is saying that the value of Microsoft's software will increasingly depend less on what it can do on its own than what it can do with others. It is not about software anymore so much as it is about Web-based services. Ray, welcome to the club.
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Where Ecological and Economical Meet

By GEORGE ANDERS
The Wall Street Journal, November 21, 2007; Page A2

Michael Dell and Mark Hurd aren't big on save-the-planet rhetoric, but the bosses of Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., respectively, are excited about their newest computers' energy savings.

Their message of focusing on lower costs and proven technology shows what big business can realistically achieve with environmental initiatives.

Instead of championing radical responses to high energy prices, their companies rely on constant tinkering with existing technology, knowing that prosaic efficiency gains add up.

Both executives talk about energy efficiency as if it were just another selling point for their customers -- which it is. They speak in terms of return on investment and payback periods.

"Whether you care about green as in the environment or green as in cash in your wallet, we've got something for you," Mr. Dell said during a visit to The Wall Street Journal last week. Some new products could pay for themselves in energy savings within a year, he said. "Customers love that. It's not a frou-frou discussion to them."
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Virtual PCs and SaaS force IT to rethink Windows desktop

For years, IT managers have struggled with trying to configure, manage and secure their sprawling population of Windows desktops. Like corporate Cinderellas, they keep it all together but dream of days without the drudgery.

It's no surprise, then, that these managers are keeping a close eye on -- and expressing great excitement about -- two potential trends that challenge the idea that each end user needs a dedicated PC, hard drive and copies of Microsoft Windows and Office.
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Web-based applications perfect for most educators

Teachers aren't like typical white collar workers, most of whom have been very slow to embrace Internet-based applications due to their general immaturity and inability to compete with Microsoft Office and other local productivity applications. Business settings often demand the latest features that are currently only available on desktop applications. Even if businesses have moved beyond Windows, a mail merge is not going to happen in Google Docs and Spreadsheets.
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