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Adobe launches hosted services, adds Flash to Acrobat 03 June, 2008 09:02:44
Adobe to launch Web site offering users free hosted services for document creation, sharing and storageAdobe this week is set to unveil the next version of its Adobe Acrobat software, which adds support for the company's Flash multimedia technology. The company also plans to launch a new Web site offering users free hosted services for document creation, sharing and storage.
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. Newsletter Subscription
Return on investment (ROI) metrics drove more IT project decisions in the past year than did total cost of ownership (TCO), an exclusive CIO survey finds. Which metric is used more often signals how the IT department is viewed inside your company.
Devising ways to show the value of corporate technology has occupied CIOs for about as long as the 25-odd years the profession has existed. While measures such as internal rate of return and economic value added are applied with mixed success, ROI and TCO remain stalwarts.
An ROI calculation quantifies both the costs and the expected benefits of a specific project over a specific timeframe, usually three to five years. TCO, on the other hand, includes just costs.
"When you think TCO you don't see IT as a business driver or an asset that can increase revenue, profit or customer value," says Anthony Giannino, a consultant at Cornerstone Solutions, a value-added reseller in Chicago. Giannino was CIO at pharmaceutical distributor Alliance Wholesale from 2002 to 2007.
In an online survey of 225 technology managers, 59 percent said that ROI influenced whether they pursued a project in the past 12 months, compared to 41 percent who reported TCO justified the decision. In the coming 12 months, the relative difference in importance between the two measurements is more pronounced: 62 percent of respondents favoured ROI compared to TCO's 38 percent.
"ROI has to be the answer. TCO only looks at one side of the equation," says Wayne Sadin, CIO at Loomis USA and a survey respondent who chose ROI.
TCO, Sadin says, works well for must-do infrastructure projects, such as upgrading an e-mail system. An IT leader might present options to other senior managers that compare the cost of adding one e-mail feature or another. But e-mail doesn't typically uncover new sources of revenue or other topline growth opportunities that ROI can measure, he says.
Ken Harris, CIO at Shaklee Corp., agrees. He chose ROI in the survey, too. Although TCO has a place, extensive use of ROI signals how sophisticated a company is about IT's strategic importance, Shaklee says. "There has been for awhile a shift going on toward more IT projects that impact topline than that are just focused on cost savings," he says. Harris has also been a CIO at Gap Inc, Nike and Pepsico
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CIO Live Podcast #79: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires Part II 05 October, 2007 06:00:00
For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders. - +
CIO Live Podcast #78: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires 28 September, 2007 17:34:25
For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders. - +
CIO Live Podcast #77: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part III 21 September, 2007 07:00:00
Part three in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance. - +
CIO Live Podcast #76: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part II 14 September, 2007 07:00:00
Part two in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance. - +
CIO Live Podcast #75: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part I 07 September, 2007 07:00:05
Part one in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance.
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Corporate security and the climate crisis 03 October, 2008 11:21:00
How to adapt security and risk management policies - including IT security - to deal with climate change.US military strategists, CIA analysts, international agency officials and Nobel Prize winning economists concur with the consensus of the world's scientific community: the Climate Crisis is a planetary security issue, as well as a national security issue for each of the one hundred ninety two countries that belong to the United Nations. But the Climate Crisis is also, by extension, a corporate security issue, as well as, yes, a cyber security issue. - +
Companies own up to virtual security blind spot 02 October, 2008 11:05:00
VMWorld attendees reveal vast majority of companies have little or no security in place for their virtual systems.The vast majority of companies have little or no security in place for their virtual systems. That is a scary statistic revealed in a survey of attendees at the recent VMWorld 2008 conference in Las Vegas. - +
How to minimize the impact of a data breach 01 October, 2008 08:54:00
ID Experts' Rick Kam describes a customer-centric action planThirty-one percent of customers--nearly one-third of a company's client base and revenue source--are terminating their relationship with organizations following a data breach, according to a recent study by the Ponemon Institute. - +
Five mistakes security pros would make again 30 September, 2008 10:18:00
Whether it's getting fired for standing up for what's right or making a network configuration mistake that leads to better security, there are some mistakes worth making. Five security pros offer personal examples.Ten years ago, Michael Riva was network administrator for a top-five American consultancy. Employees were downloading graphic pictures and videos onto the network. Riva told his boss a proxy server with content filtering might be in order; his boss laughed and suggested they put in a bigger file server instead. - +
What does the financial meltdown mean for security? 29 September, 2008 10:25:00
Bill Brenner wonders if it's irrational or appropriate to make connections between the current financial crisis and the state of securityAt first, this was going to be a column about the PR machine's hyperbolic efforts to connect the state of IT and security with the current financial crisis. Indeed, some have shamelessly sent me story pitches that try to get some bang out of the Wall Street meltdown.
Multimedia Technology & EVERKI sign exclusive distribution agreement. 06 October, 2008 14:34:00
ONCE A YEAR OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK TO THE VENDORS! 06 October, 2008 13:48:00
New IBM Cognos Analytic Application Enables Quick, Actionable Insights Into Financial Performance 03 October, 2008 14:41:00
Verizon Business Data-Breach Report Examines Industry-Specific Challenges 03 October, 2008 12:24:00
IBM Launches Cognos 8 v4 - New Business-Driven Performance Management Software 02 October, 2008 12:02:00
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Why Security SaaS Makes Sense Today
Corporate IT teams are waging a significant security battle on two fronts these days: stopping attacks via the Web and through email. Security SaaS can solves these problems and more. Read on to discover 7 reasons why security SaaS makes sense for your business.
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