Stories about: Exposure

It was a normal Monday batch process at a well-respected global bank - until, that is, a critical back-office system failed. At first, IT administrators took it in stride. This wasn't the only time they'd had to recover lost data. But soon it became clear something more ominous was occurring: the bank's multi-terabyte database had become corrupted.

Canberra-based knowledge economy and social computing evangelist Stephen Collins heard a quote earlier this year that perfectly describes the Enterprise 2.0 dilemma: "If you want to find out what tools your staff are finding most useful at the moment, just go and see what your IT department is blocking"

This week's eWeek contains what should be a wake up call for every CIO regarding the pervasiveness and challenge that open source represents to their jobs and organizations. In the midst of an extensive interview with Jonathan Schwartz and Rich Green, Schwartz cites this anecdote, which provides dramatic evidence of the role open source plays in today's IT landscape. Here is the anecdote in its entirety:

You'd think the words "brain drain" would strike fear into the hearts of IT managers. As the calendar has turned to 2008 -- and the oldest baby boomers are now eligible to receive Social Security -- it has become clear that growth in the number of older workers will soon surpass the growth in the number of those just starting out. In eight year's time, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, one in four workers will be 55 or older. And particularly in IT, there's not a big influx of new talent. According to the Computing Research Association, computer science enrollments dropped 14 per cent each year between 2004 and 2006.

A recent SIM International study finds that fewer CIOs are reporting directly to the CEO. Instead, they're answering to less strategic executives, such as the chief operating officer or chief financial officer.

When CompuCredit began feeling the sting of the subprime mortgage mess and resulting credit crunch toward the end of last year, CIO Guido Sacchi's IT organization was forced to absorb a 20 per cent year-over-year hit to its annual IT budget.

In all the post mortems I have read about John Howard's downfall I've seen no mention of the part IT played. Yet I believe that it was the then federal government's ignorance of IT that was the first thing Kevin Rudd exploited to paint himself as a man of the future. His ambitious proposal to roll out a high-speed broadband service was really his first big policy announcement

With the emergence of regulatory laws borne out of experience from a variety of embarrassing security breaches, today's corporate leaders face a myriad of repercussions. These range from serious fines to jail time when found not in compliance with regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLB), and Payment Card Industry (PCI), etc.

Last week's news about Howard Schultz's return to the helm of Starbucks as CEO got me thinking about second acts. They're fairly common for CEOs. A year ago, Michael Dell was called back to the executive suite to revitalize the computer maker's growth. And Charles Schwab was reinstalled as CEO in July 2004, after having stepped down from that same role just 14 months earlier, in May 2003.

The disposal of old IT assets is becoming as complicated as the acquisition of new ones. Each PC, server, storage system or IT device you retire poses a security risk and potential environmental hazard. Over the next five years, 800 MILLION PC's will be replaced. What are the odds your sensitive corporate information or customer data will end up in the wrong hands due to improper disposal? What about the environmental impact? Even 1 out of 800 million is too high a risk.

Aggressively pursuing your job search during the holidays CAN pay off, as my own personal results and research can attest.