June Monthly Roundup: Top IT Industry Articles
Posted on Thu, Jul 07, 2011 @ 09:57 AM
Each month, we share a collection of articles that provide insight into the ever-evolving world of IT. June’s roundup looks at: improving IT business strategy, virtualization management and securing mobile devices.
Business Strategy
According to a recent study by Financial Executives International and Gartner, many CFOs lack faith in CIOs and their IT teams. In fact, “only 25% see the CIO as a key player in determining the business strategy.”
This demonstrates the need for IT departments to think more strategically about the business drivers and ROI of the technologies they are advocating. But, how do you do this? Below are a few lessons from the former CIO of HP, Randy Mott:
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Demonstrate Results — At HP, Mott advocated for a cost-benefit analysis for every IT project to show both the monetary and intangible results of each.
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Get Projects Done Faster — The only way end users will understand a technology’s potential is by using it. To get technologies in employees’ hands quickly, Mott pushed for faster turnaround and refused to extend IT deadlines.
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Take Advantage of Opportunities — Technology is always in a constant state of flux. Mott recommends developing the staff and infrastructure needed to capitalize on technology improvements as they are made available.
For a complete list of Mott’s lessons, see Chris Murphy’s InformationWeek article, “10 Lessons in IT Strategy from Ex-HP CIO Randy Mott.”
Virtualization Management
Ongoing network management is key to virtualization’s success.
By hiring a managed services provider, organizations can simplify day-to-day network management responsibilities, and devote their time to more strategic initiatives. Using Carousel Industries’ whitepaper as a guide, David Sims offers some criteria to find the right managed services provider, including:
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Availability of proactive 24/7/365 support
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Vendor-agnostic expertise
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Strong industry reputation and satisfied customers
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Comprehensive reporting and communication
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Remote and full-security management
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Fair contracts and pricing
There are also technologies available to improve network management by providing greater insight into computing machines. For example, Symantec’s Veritas Operations Manager 4.0 and V-ray products provide organizations better visibility to adapt and manage their physical and virtual environments.
In addition, IT professionals can improve their virtualization results with the right amount of CPU, memory, storage, redundancy and networking. Check out this article by InfoWorld’s Paul Venezia for hardware spec guidelines.
Learn more about the benefits of IT managed services.
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
Numerous IT leaders believe the benefits of BYOD outweigh the risks; however, information security on mobile devices still remains a top concern for many. To combat this, TechJournal offers seven tips on keeping mobile devices secure, based on the Smartphone Malware Report from Spain’s National Cyber-Security Advisory Council (CNCCS). Recommendations include:
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Activate access-protection measures, such as requiring a PIN or password.
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Configure the device to lock after a specific period of being idle.
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Disable features such Bluetooth or WiFi when not in use.
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Check the reputation of apps and services prior to installation, and only install software from trusted sources.
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Regularly update the OS and applications as new versions are released.
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Be wary of files, links or numbers from unsolicited messages.
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Do not use untrusted WiFi networks.
As BYOD becomes more popular, mobile device management will become increasingly more important to safeguard company data.
What Do You Think?
What articles, blog posts, videos or podcasts did you find interesting last month? Post a comment, and we’ll be sure to keep an eye on those sources and topics for future articles like this one.
This post is an MCPc blogging team collaboration.
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