News

• iPhone, Android account for 82% of smartphones shipped

  By Matt Hamblen | 24 May, 2012 14:16

  Android and iPhone smartphones together made up 82% of all such devices shipped to retailers in the first quarter of 2012, IDC said Thursday.

• BYOD is driving IT 'crazy': Gartner

  By Matt Hamblen | 22 May, 2012 01:01

  IT managers grappling with bring-your-own-device policies can expect to see an explosion in the number of smartphones and tablets used by employees in the next few years.

• Consumerization trends hit IT service management

  By Robert L. Mitchell | 17 May, 2012 02:49

  NEW ORLEANS

• Can a new analyst firm take down Gartner?

  By Rob Enderle | 12 May, 2012 02:42

  Gartner is a major power in the IT advisory firm space. There is constant contention between Gartner and the vendors who think, right or wrong, that the company charges them way too much—sometimes upwards of $100 million—for positive reviews. IT buyers often complain that Gartner, like any large company serving lots of people, doesn't get down to their unique needs and often sends them analysts who are inexperienced. Furthermore, there has always been a concern with every vendor-funded firm in the segment that the difference between reviews and marketing collateral is negligible. With Gartner, the issue generally isn't corruption but, rather, timeliness and relevance.

• Cloud exit strategy 101

  By Hamish Barwick | 08 May, 2012 10:00

  Cloud computing has been touted by vendors and bean counters as a cost effective way to reduce overheads and the need for physical IT infrastructure, but having a Cloud exit strategy is also essential if it all turns dark and stormy.

• How to fight back against privacy pirates

  By Julie Sartain | 07 May, 2012 21:27

  Have you Googled yourself lately? Is the information about you accurate or full of inconsistencies, both of which can be devastating?

• Wide-Open Search

  By Stacy Collett | 07 May, 2012 20:11

  Twitter, Facebook, the Library of Congress -- all of these institutions have mind-numbing amounts of structured and unstructured data that must be indexed and searched quickly. In Twitter's case, that's about 300 million new pieces of information to index every day.

• Gartner says half of enterprises are wasting money on social media

  By Brandon Butler | 05 May, 2012 00:30

  Getting a positive return on investment from a social media campaign is about more than tracking the number of your Facebook fans and Twitter followers. It's about linking the social strategy to measurable business objectives, according to Gartner, which says most businesses aren't doing this.

• VMware ups its collaboration offering with Lithium integration

  By Brandon Butler | 04 May, 2012 07:42

  VMware Thursday announced that its SocialCast sharing tool will now work with Lithium Technologies tools to capture and integrate external customer data.

• Gartner: Multi-device wireless plans on the way

  By Brad Reed | 04 May, 2012 04:30

  The days of having to pay for two separate data plans for your smartphone and tablet may soon be at an end, says Gartner analyst Hughes De La Vergne.

• Consumerization trend driving IT shops 'crazy,' Gartner analyst says

  By Matt Hamblen | 02 May, 2012 20:08

  IT managers who grapple with Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies can expect to see an explosion of different smartphones and tablets used by their workers in the next few years.

• Protocol wars: Can Fibre Channel survive Ethernet's assault?

  By Lucas Mearian | 02 May, 2012 20:08

  Fibre Channel, the high-speed data transport protocol for storage area networks (SAN), is under increasing pressure as data centers move toward Ethernet for all data network traffic and SAS for hardware interconnects.

• CIOs see Cisco gaining, Juniper in trials

  By Jim Duffy | 29 April, 2012 22:30

  The top three priorities for CIOs in 2012 are security, wireless LAN and Ethernet switching, according to a survey conducted by investment firm UBS.

• With Google Drive, 'personal cloud' will soon overshadow the PC

  By Lucas Mearian | 25 April, 2012 07:17

  With the launch of Google Drive, the new cloud storage service unveiled today by Google, mainstream tech users will soon find themselves engaging in cloud storage and file synchronization among mobile, laptop and desktop systems.

• Help for the Help Desk

  By John Brandon | 24 April, 2012 00:24

  A help desk can be a real lifesaver for employees, not to mention a productivity boost. If a keyboard stops working or Outlook keeps crashing, a technician is just a phone call away. Even complex problems can usually be resolved internally, and relatively quickly, without the need for an outside vendor.