Stories by: Howard Dahdah

The tasks in Laef Olson’s working hours can be rather varied. Olson, who is the CIO at Software-as-a-Service vendor RightNow Technologies is on the one hand responsible for IT security and the organisation’s information systems, while on the other he spruiks the strategy and vision for the company's on-demand hosting platform. On many occasions Olson gets a direct audience with company CIOs. What makes it easier for Olson to get traction to the upper levels of management is his past. He has been group vice president of global technology operations of Travelport and Orbitz Worldwide. And before that CTO of cars.com. In these roles he was also a consumer of SaaS products. It is that experience that he uses to relate to customers when on the road. Olson briefly stopped over in Australia last month where CIO Magazine asked him about the maturity of SaaS.

With Microsoft increasingly talking up cloud computing it is not unexpected that Avanade, the consultancy dedicated to using the Microsoft platform, and which was co-founded by Microsoft, is starting to talk up the benefits of running services in the cloud. To get a little more of a local insight where he thinks the market is positioned and what Avanade can offer organisations, we spoke to Craig Dower, managing director, Avanade Australia.

If employee headcount is any indicator, security is one industry which the recession is having no impact on. In fact, according to several vendors in Australia, the need for organisations to stay secure, regardless of the economic climate, is leading to an increase in staff numbers.

Its CEO told his staff that it was akin to giving someone a heart and lung transplant while they are in the middle of a marathon -- without stopping. And that pretty much was what it was like for Jetstar last weekend as the low cost airline embarked on its largest IT overhaul since it took flight in 2004.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has admitted that the National Broadband Network has taken much longer than the government expected, but says the outcome will be worth it.

When the makers of The Dish -- the Australian film about how the radio telescope in Parkes, NSW played it’s part in beaming live pictures of NASA’s moon landing in 1969 -- came to Max Burnet of the Australian Computer Museum Society asking for a PDP-9 as part of their prop, Burnet was happy to assist.

Max Burnet has turned his home in the leafy suburbs of Sydney into arguably Australia’s largest private computer museum. Since retiring as director of Digital Equipment Corporation a decade ago, Burnet has converted his interest in the computing industry into an invaluable snapshot of computer history. Every available space from his basement to the top floor of his two-storey home is covered with relics from the past. His collection is vast, from a 1920s Julius Totalisator, the first UNIX PDP-7, a classic DEC PDP-8, the original IBM PC, Apple’s Lisa, MITS Altair 8800, numerous punch cards and over 6000 computer reference books. And more. He happily opened his doors for CIO to take a look.

Federal Communications minister Senator Stephen Conroy has dodged a question by the Greens, who claimed he said in an October Senate estimates hearing that countries such as Sweden and Canada had mandatory Internet filtering systems similar to those now being trialled in Australia, when in fact they don’t.

If you want to start an argument in a utility you ask them what is the boundary between their engineering systems and IT systems, according to a Gartner analyst.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has issued a practical guide to businesses and government agencies showing them how best to respond in the event of a personal information security breach.