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October Roundup: Top IT Industry Articles

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Each month we read tons of industry articles, then choose some of the highlights and favorite headlines to share with our readers—keeping you up-to-date in today’s tech. October’s articles featured below focus on: 2012 IT planning, the ever-changing roles of CIOs, managing BYOD and mobile, and recent industry (and vertical market IT) headlines to note.

Start Planning 2012’s IT & Business Goals

The evolution of virtualization was named No. 1 in Gartner’s 10 Key Trends for 2012. The Network World article by Michael Cooney (@NWWlayer8) notes that overall, Gartner’s trends include items that have traditionally fallen outside the regular scope of IT—like energy efficiency and social media influence—which helps illustrate the converging IT landscape.

Some of the other top trends identified in the article include: consumerization and app development, compute per square foot, and staff retention and retraining.

As your organization moves to a more virtualized environment, note the impacts of virtualization on network topology and demand, as emphasized by Josh Stephens (@sw_headgeek) in the Computerworld article, Virtualization’s Slow Creep Into Your Network, Becoming a Flood?

The Ever-Evolving Role of CIO

Is IT Facing a Leadership Crisis? That’s what Meredith Levinson (@meridith) asks in her CIO article, and she brings valid insight to the continually discussed topic with the profile of David Reynolds, a current sales manager and aspiring CIO.

While traditional CIOs managed network systems and IT troubleshooting, advances in technology—and the direct business impact potentials of that technology—calls for CIOs to develop more a more business-minded focus. In the case of David Reynolds, a background with finance and the IT help desk positions this systems manager as a business-minded professional that can speak the languages of both business and IT—necessary requirements for evolving CIOs.

Read more on the topic in the MCPc blog post: The Evolving Role of CIO.

Managing BYOD and Mobile

Forrester’s July 2011 survey noted that 60% of companies already enable BYOD. Rethinking Enterprise Infrastructure in the BYOD Era, written by Arthur Cole of IT Business Edge, reminds IT pros that BYOD doesn’t have to be a threat to the network, as long as it prompts IT to rethink basic roles and responsibilities of the organization’s IT infrastructure, such as secure access and device management.

“But after that, what? Well, securing and managing those devices, aka mobile device management, aka MDM, is necessary, of course,” says ZDNet’s Eric Lai (@ericylai) in the article, After BYOD, What’s Next? It's the Apps, Stupid.

For tips on How to Create the Best Mobile Device Management Policy, check out this ReadWriteMobile article from Mark Gentile.

Industry Headlines to Note... 

• The world lost an industry leader and visionary. Steve Jobs passed away on October 5, and the world paid tribute. Read MCPc’s tribute and take on the Steve Jobs effect.
• Forrester urged IT to support the Mac, as it finds Mac users to be more productive.
• Citrix acquired ShareFile and App-DNA, making strides toward more efficient cloud-based solutions. Read about the implications for IT pros in our blog post on the topic.
• In healthcare: The American Medical Journal discussed the impact of health technology assessments on the decision-making processes in public versus not-for-profit private hospitals.
• In education: iPads are making their way into classrooms, while smartphones are revamping campus tours. 

Your Top Picks

What were your favorite reads from October? Feel free to post additional articles, topics of interest or questions in the comments below.

This post is an MCPc blogging team collaboration.

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