August Monthly Roundup: Top IT Industry Articles
Posted on Tue, Sep 06, 2011 @ 08:39 AM
Each month, we share a collection of articles that provide insight into the ever-evolving world of IT. August’s roundup looks at: unified communications, data management, the IT job landscape, and recent news from Hewlett-Packard and Apple.
Unified Communications
Unified communications provides the tools to make collaboration simpler than ever before and much more engrained in an organization’s processes. At MCPc, we refer to this as intuitive collaboration.
When implementing unified communications, Bob Hockman suggests developing a UC Assurance Plan to ensure a seamless experience for users. In his article, “Unified Communications: Speeding Time to Acceptance,” he outlines the key components of this plan, including pre-deployment testing, and the ongoing monitoring of user experience and network traffic.
For more on unified communications solutions, see Marty Parker’s thoughts on Gartner’s 2011 UC Magic Quadrant, over at Unified Communications Strategies.
Data Management
According to Dell’s Brandon Canaday (@wbcanaday) in his “Data Management Manifesto,” many organizations struggle to keep up with rising storage costs, as the amount of data grows exponentially in the virtual era.
To solve the problem, Canaday advocates for organizations to employ an active archiving solution that reduces static data, limits the amount of data that needs to be backed up and cuts storage spending.
For more on data management, read “Modularity Does Not Necessarily Mean Uniformity” by IBM’s Steve Sams, in which he explains that modular data centers do not have to take a one-size-fits-all approach.
IT Job Landscape
IT hiring remains strong despite economic fears. In fact, IT jobs in Cleveland grew 107 percent in the past year. So, what does it take to secure your dream job? CIO’s Meredith Levinson (@meridith) offers tips for improving your resume, including:
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Portray your personal brand.
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Provide an executive summary that highlights expertise and experience.
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Communicate your functional niche, such as healthcare, Fortune 500 or startup.
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Display concrete accomplishments, or business goals you achieved.
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Make your resume easy to read and scan.
For additional resume suggestions from MCPc, read “Your Resume Has Five Seconds to Make a Good Impression.”
August IT News
Hewlett-Packard
In conjunction with the release of its third-quarter earnings, HP announced plans for significant changes within the organization, including exploring strategic alternatives for its PC business, ending its webOS TouchPad and webOS phone business, and acquiring information management software vendor Autonomy.
For more on HP, read GigaOm’s “Without PCs, HP Must Capitalize on the Cloud” and MSPMentor’s “HP’s New Direction: Five Critical Lessons for Your Business.”
Apple
Steve Jobs resigned as Apple CEO. Learn more about how Apple unintentionally revolutionized corporate IT during his tenure, as well as how CIOs can emulate Jobs’ leadership success.
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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