- Where will IT find its future leaders?
- What India's tax net could mean to the U.S.
- Daily news beat April 8, 2008
- Latest outsourcing region: Middle East
- A new breed of outsourcing: KPO
- Presidential candidates on H-1B visas
- East vs. West in the marketplace
- Bringing outsourcing back home to the U.S.
- A tipping point for outsourcing
- AT&T fights to export software jobs
July 08, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Where will IT find its future leaders?
What with the impact globalization is having on IT, for better or worse, some "IT execs wonder where next-generation leadership will be found among rank-and-file IT staff when rank-and-file work is no longer performed within the organization," Ephraim Schwartz writes.
Current IT workers, Schwartz explains, might not like the answer.
"The skills needed to manage outsourced projects may not have been learned when you were managing a team down the hall for the past 20 years," he continues in Withstanding globalization's impact.
Indeed, many IT pros might not like the way things are going and, in fact, may not want to spend their time working with outsourcers. But globalization is not going away.
"IT executives will be faced with a myriad of choices for every project, with 30 or 40 geographies and a 100 providers to choose from."
Therein the management challenge lies...
Posted by Tom Sullivan on July 8, 2008 10:54 AM
April 22, 2008 | Comments: (0)
What India's tax net could mean to the U.S.
The Indian parliament is deliberating tax code alterations that could impact several other countries.
"The proposed changes could cost American businesses with Indian subsidiaries or Indian outsourcing initiatives a significant amount of money," Ephraim Schwartz explains in India to trap outsourcers in tax net.
As the Indian government moves to capture move revenue via taxes, it will become increasingly expensive for American companies to conduct business there.
Included in the services tax net will be Internet-oriented and telecommunications, Schwartz explains.
"Add to this a turnover rate now being pegged at 105 percent, plus the weak dollar, and we can see that outsourcing in India is going to cost U.S. firms a great deal more going forward."
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 22, 2008 06:20 AM
April 08, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Outsourcing gets blamed for security woes, at least in a recent survey that found 90 percent of organizations that admitted to having been hacked had outsourced more than 40 percent of their applications to third parties.
Google offers to host services for free on App Engine, a new tool currently in limited testing. But the search giant thus far is treading lightly.
Nokia shows off an iPhone rival replete with touch screen, graphical displays and Java, though the company has not committed to a release date yet.
Hewlett-Packard unwraps the Compaq 2133 ultraportable with a surprise inside: a processor from Via Technologies rather than an Intel chip.
And Microsoft, after assuring customers it has fixed the problem, is engaging in the automatic distribution of an update that two months ago spun some PCs into an endless wave of reboots.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 8, 2008 10:39 AM
March 11, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Latest outsourcing region: Middle East
As globalization spreads the world, a new region is blooming as ripe for outsourcing: the Middle East.
In a suburb of Egypt’s Capital City, Dell, IBM, Microsoft, Alcatel-Lucent, and Ericsson have all set up shop within Smart Village Cairo, to tap Egypt’s “lower income and good-quality manpower.”
Egypt graduates a lot of software engineers, many of whom speak English and French, and the area primarily serves Europe.
“Someday soon, there will be a book that chronicles the mad search by corporations for the very last place on earth where they can find cheap labor -- a comedy or drama, I'm not sure,” Ephraim Schwartz writes in Outsourcing to the Middle East.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on March 11, 2008 07:32 AM
March 04, 2008 | Comments: (0)
A new breed of outsourcing: KPO
Whereas the companies practicing outsourcing have, by and large, limited the practice to tasks outside core competencies, there’s a new fashion taking hold in IT, KPO, and it’s changing that.
KPO is short for knowledge process outsourcing, which at least one report declares to be “the next generation of outsourcing.”
“We’re talking about financial services companies going outside their borders for company valuations, feasibility analysis, fraud analytics; health care facilities having doctors in India read x-rays -- you name it," Ephraim Schwartz writes in Outsourcing moves to the core.
“Let's face it. Outsourcing has gained credibility among most [of] the organizations that have employed the staffing strategy for so-called commodity skills, begging the question, how much longer before outsourcing providers gain the respectability necessary to take on core business functionality?”
No one is immune.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on March 4, 2008 06:57 AM
February 26, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Presidential candidates on H-1B visas
In the tech and business worlds the issue of H-1B visas is paramount and, with a relevant deadline fast approaching, Ephraim Schwartz thinks at least one of the three most popular candidates would say something about it.
"The premise of all three is based on the belief that there is a skills shortage in the United States," Schwartz writes.
But they are not discussing the issue with frequency.
It wasn't exactly simple to track down where each stands, but then Schwartz is not easily deterred.
"So, without further ado, and as a public service, here are the candidates statements on H-1B visas."
The three presidential candidates on H-1B.
"None talk about the H-1B visa being used as a tactic to hire workers at wages lower than the prevailing market. Rather they imply once the skills shortage of American workers is closed then they would review the H-1B program."
Hmmm.
Several readers comment with contrarian viewpoints. What do you think? Should politicians wait on H-1B or act now? Talkback below or via the above link.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on February 26, 2008 11:15 AM
January 04, 2008 | Comments: (0)
East vs. West in the marketplace
Outsourcing: The rumor mill was rampant in 2007 with speculation that one of the top three Indian services organizations -- Tata, Infosys, or Wipro -- would buy French-owned Capgemini. Ephraim Schwartz takes a Reality Check and decides Capgemini is not a likely acquisition by those three for a number of reasons. "Indian companies want to complement and penetrate into spaces where they currently don’t have the expertise but they are acquiring very selectively." Frances Karamouzis of Gartner concurs, observing "they are leery of a cultural clash that they fear would ensue if they made a huge acquisition that required a behemoth effort to integrate a large western management team." It seems in a duel between East and West, "the longer it takes [the top three Indian companies] to penetrate the global top vendor service market, the more time the current market leaders have to reassess and reevaluate their strategy."
Security: The recently released 5.5 version of Webroot AntiVirus with AntiSpyware and Firewall provides real-time and on-demand detection and remediation for virus and malware threats. "For small office, home office, or home users, Webroot provides an excellent level of protection against a wide range of digital nasties." Read the full review.
In the News: Researchers say a criminals could target unsecured wireless routers and create an attack that could piggyback across thousands of Wi-Fi networks in urban areas. The OLPC says it won't miss Intel's "half-hearted" efforts, since the chip maker contributed little to the project since joining last year. HP goes high-definition with its new Pavilion HDX notebook. The multimedia laptop has a 20.1-inch screen that plays back true 1080p HD-TV and gives users the option of an HD DVD or Blu-ray Disc drive to play high-definition movies.
Posted by Caroline Craig on January 4, 2008 06:19 AM
June 13, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Bringing outsourcing back home to the U.S.
Offshoring: Consultancy Gartner says that, due to local labor shortages in their area, Indian CIOs have to outsource -- and one of the countries they are looking for help in is the U.S.
Notes from the field: "Google is not the boogie man. At least, not yet," Cringely espouses in this post. He's responding to Privacy International's report that the search engine is the most privacy hostile Internet company in existence. Then again, Google's retort that PI is in Microsoft's pocket, according to Cringe, is "not bloody likely," either. And so the spitting match continues. Related: Google adjusts its privacy policy -- slightly.
Best of the blogs: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is taking complaints seriously, Matt Asay writes. And the likes of Red Hat, Microsoft and GE are backing the approach. "Patent reform is a universal concern, and its good to see diverse support." U.S. Patent Office experiments with open source approach.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on June 13, 2007 04:12 AM
May 29, 2007 | Comments: (0)
A tipping point for outsourcing
Editor's letter: It being just after Memorial Day and all, "many InfoWorld readers are having their patriotism tested by a topic that hits close to home: offshoring," explains Steve Fox in Is outsourcing getting too expensive? "Wouldn't it be ironic if the same economic forces that once made offshoring inevitable could someday make it impractical? It could happen."
Columnist's corner: First, a joke (sort of anyway). How many techs does it take to turn on a PC? The short answer is three can do it, but in three hours. "It was a Monday morning. A user called in unable to get his computer to boot up," writes our Off the Record author. Two hours, a pair of theories and a junior floor tech later and, "the dead PC remained dead." Next the IT support manager dispatched a senior tech to the scene. Perhaps a resurrection was in order.
Reality check: Two trends are currently unfolding that impact people's relationship with information, explains Ephraim Schwartz, in Dumbing down and smartening up via the Web. One grabs attention, the other moves it toward deeper sets of knowledge. "The scarier trend is what I call the dumbing down of information to accommodate what some are calling Digital Natives," he writes. "On the smartening up side, I see the concept of social networking creating a growing pool of people who have access to and thus are aware of far more information than ever before."
The news beat: BEA Systems tackles event-driven architecture with a product ripe for SOA in Java environments, BEA WebLogic Event Server. Toshiba says it will use an AMD chip in a low-end laptop. And Microsoft claims to have sold more than a million Zune music players.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on May 29, 2007 05:31 AM
February 23, 2007 | Comments: (0)
AT&T fights to export software jobs
GripeLine: Ed Foster finds himself in the unusual position of actually rooting for Microsoft to win a lawsuit. In today's GripeLine he examines the implications of the Microsoft vs. AT&T lawsuit now before the Supreme Court and concludes that a win for AT&T is actually a win for offshoring, since "a ruling for AT&T could make it in every company's interest to be able to say the software components of their product were not made in the USA."
The news beat: The case for offshoring received another boost with Primavera's announcement that it is outsourcing agile development of its enterprise project management software. Conventional wisdom has previously maintained that agile development requires close interaction and communication between team members, making it ill-suited to offshoring. And Turbolinux is now shipping its Wizpy handheld, which contains a version of Linux so it can be used to boot a PC into the OS, enabling users to access their files in their own working environment on almost any PC.
Security: Worries about a possible DDoS attack on your enterprise keeping you up at night? Roger Grimes' primer in today's Security Adviser lays out the inner workings of botnets and DDoS attacks, and can help you formulate a defense or outline a strategy for outlasting an attack.
Posted by Caroline Craig on February 23, 2007 05:28 AM
November 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)
India's tide not rising overnight
Columnists' corner: While some are predicting doom and gloom in which India surpasses the U.S., Steve Fox thinks otherwise. The sad truth: poverty is rampant in India, even if Bangalore has become a high-tech hub. "Somehow, I think the great leveling will take a lot longer than anyone thinks," he writes. India oversimplified.
Open source: An unforeseen consequence of the Microsoft-Novell pact is that it makes GPLv3 more attractive, reports Neil McAllister in this week's installment of Open Enterprise. "If enough [projects] switch to the new license, it would become virtually impossible for Novell to maintain the Suse Linux distribution in its current form and still comply with the terms of its agreement with Microsoft," he notes. Oh yes, and at least one open source legal expert says that Microsoft and Novell's agreement would not come close to clearing GPLv3.
Best of the blogs: There's nothing quite like Thanksgiving Day to trigger an epiphany, and that's precisely what happened to Ephraim Schwartz when he tried to get his Windows PC back up and running after he packed it away to make room for dinner guests. "I suddenly got the distinct feeling Microsoft is on its way out," Schwartz explains in To Microsoft: Hurry up, please, it's time. "The truth is Microsoft carries within itself its own seeds of destruction. Built into to the very DNA of the company and its products is the need to feed off the computer to survive."
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 27, 2006 10:52 AM
October 03, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Outsourcing to India not slowing yet
Services: While China and Russia are experiencing an influx in outsourcing work, India shows no signs of letting up. But to reach $60 billion in outsourcing exports by 2010, India will have to hurdle some obstacles, not the least of which is a potential manpower shortage.
From the feature well: Ever been trapped inside a browser? Oliver Rist has. And he spent a week in there, just to gauge the feasibility of living with only Web 2.0 apps -- and without using Microsoft Office. The matter was of survival and, short of that, to determine how close we really are to replacing desktop with Web-based applications. Think you could endure a whole week of Internet Office? Talkback here, or via the comments function below.
Best of the blogs: While the term 'Grid' currently means many things to different IT folks, one product has emerged that may prove itself to be a litmus test for SMB grids: RevStor's SWARMS. This pre-beta number builds a turnkey data grid on operating systems and commodity hardware.
The Gripe Line: Ed Foster wonders whether a manufacturer is responsible under warranty when an LCD cracks. Apparently, Apple says it's not. Are iPod LCDs made to be broken?
The news beat: Mozilla is looking into a new flaw in Firefox. Palo, Alto, California puts out an RFP for a partner to create a fiber-to-the-home network. And Microsoft buys DesktopStandard to add the acquired policy, registry and update software to its own Group Policy Management Console.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 3, 2006 04:37 AM
June 30, 2006 | Comments: (0)
From the analysts: What with the software industry's continued saga of consolidation, services are perhaps more interesting now than ever. Revenues are up and, more interesting, only 21 percent of that rise was garnered by the top 6 firms. But the real juice is that "for the first time since 2000 outsourcing services grew more slowly than project-based services and software support -- a possible sign that outsourcing is slowing," David Margulius reports in IT services keep hope alive.
Best of the blogs: Paul Venezia waves au revoir to FireFox. "I've found that FireFox is simply too much of a resource hog on my 1.67Ghz PowerBook G4 with 1.5GB RAM to be usable," he writes. "Although I never reboot the laptop, I have to quit and restart FireFox every day or so."
Q&A: Black Duck CEO Douglas Levin discusses issues pertaining to intellectual property and open source in this interview conducted by Paul Krill.
The Screening Room: Jon Udell, in episode #6, gets an education about XML for Analysis, an emerging standard for OLAP, and the potential intersection between business intelligence and Web 2.0. Think AJAX and XMLA.
Podcasts: NetApp's carefully planned entrance into the SMB storage realm came this week in the form of StoreVault S500. The company, it appears, kept a close eye on the feature sets rivals offer and, at about $5,000 for the 1TB entry level system, StoreVault should be competitive. Listen to Storage Sprawl.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on June 30, 2006 10:54 AM
May 17, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Software by any other name, such as 'process outsourcing'
SaaS: First there were ASPs. Then service providers. And now we have software-as-a-service. "I think there is an unwritten rule that you have to switch buzzwords at least every two years, else lose your market. However, as I'm thinking about what these guys are becoming, I think their purpose is changing, thus the name should change," explains Dave Linthicum in Should we begin to call SaaS, process outsourcing? "Indeed, we are not outsourcing entire applications, but outsourcing services or processes."
The news beat: While SAP is letting loose with a flurry of announcements at its Sapphire user group this week, rival Oracle aims to lure SAP customers away by adding support for R/3. Yes, that R/3, SAP's own. SAP, meanwhile, says it intends to acquire Frictionless Commerce for its on-demand supplier relationship management software, and partners with IBM to leverage Big Blue's channel network serving SMBs.
Columnists' corner: Nearly five years on, and there are still IT lessons to be learned from Sept. 11, 2001. Our Off the Record author recounts one. In this case, a financial services firm waited a mere 7 weeks to layoff the IT staff that not only escaped a nearby building, but then went on to resurrect the company and get it back online. Warms the heart.
Best of the blogs: Oliver Rist, the SMB IT blogger himself, cautions readers to beware the free blogging sites, namely MSN Spaces, Blogger, even MySpace, among others. "The word to SMB (especially SB) guerilla marketing types is: Be careful. If your free marketing ploy actually becomes successful, there's a good chance it might just disappear one day."
Posted by Tom Sullivan on May 17, 2006 11:34 AM
April 18, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Extreme outsourcing and unexpected costs
Columnists' corner: "The claim that outsourcing can reduce costs by 60 percent is highly inflated. If you add in professional fees, severance pay, and governance costs, the average savings is closer to 15 percent, TPI says," Ephraim Schwartz writes in Is extreme outsourcing and consolidation worth it? Of course, everything IT carries unexpected costs, and outsourcing is no exception. But skipping essential training is not a wise way to save money, recounts our Off the Record author. What's more, a $25,000 service call may or may not have even straightened out the CFO.
Best of the blogs: Ed Foster is on the prowl for a good international EULA. "I've recently heard from several overseas readers who were eliciting my advise on how their companies could go about creating a EULA that would be as fair and simple as possible." If you know of one, post remarks on Foster's blog (via the story link above), or in the comments section below.
Quoteworthy: In software, we're largely coming to take infrastructure for granted, thanks to exceptional middleware from JBoss, databases from PosgreSQL and MySQL, etc. We think, in other words, that 280 (California), I-80 (CA to UT and beyond), I-95 (Massachusetts), M25 (London), and other roads just happen. They're free, like much of our best software. Infrastructure is FREE! Except that it's not. -- Matt Asay. Infrastructure: You get what you pay for.
The news beat: Symantec gets slapped by the IRS with a $1 billion tax ticket for allegedly under-pricing intellectual property it transferred to Irish subsidiaries. Hewlett-Packard expands its IP licensing program. And Siemens is building compliance into Wi-Fi with a management solution that will report on regulatory requirements.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 18, 2006 05:28 AM
April 14, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Dodging the outsourcing bullet
Test Center review: Version 5.0 of the NetBeans IDE reveals a slight repositioning in which Sun is aiming to take it beyond a traditional IDE, explains Andrew Binstock. "If the company can attract greater vendor participation via the development of plug-ins and polish NetBeans' features a little further, this IDE will easily become Eclipse's principal rival."
Quoteworthy: "We've dodged the bullet. We'll be retired before the full force of this really hits." -- Michael Treacy, former MIT professor. Turning outsourcing into a plus takes time and skill.
Podcasts: In a conversation with Steve Burbeck on multicellular computing, Jon Udell and he discuss how nature's strategies for managing complexity can be applied to information technologies.
Best of the blogs: After dealing with the vagaries of McAfee's Managed Virus Scan product for far too long, Paul Venezia fired it from a network today. "Besides causing seemingly random havoc on a few servers, continuing unresolved problems with automated updates on domain controllers was the last straw."
Security: Oliver Rist weighs in on the state of spyware in the business community. "In case you're wondering, it's bad."
Notes from the field: Cringely is at it again. This time he pokes fun at Microsoft's notorious product delays, Apple fanatics that like to live dangerously and Sony BMG. Apple shakes its boot; Sony's meager loot.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 14, 2006 11:25 AM
April 11, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Quoteworthy: I can't help but think I should offshore myself. It would prevent situations like this, and allow for more leisure time. -- Dave Rosenberg. An inside look at outsourcing via oDesk.
Columnists' corner: Knowing when to duck out of that doomed IT project takes experience and, perhaps more important, an instinct for timing. Our Off the Record author explains that when that quick-hit project that is supposed to last a month results in the company placing a project manager above you and, the next thing you know, a 10-person team all focusing on said project, well, the time just might be right to discreetly slip away.
Storage: Fresh from Virginia horse country where he stumbled upon a Buffalo TeraStation, Oliver Rist spent some time with the NAS box and reports that it's "all in all, a nice piece of equipment." No bad news in this post, but the surprise is that "this isn't Buffalo's idea of small business NAS."
Best of the blogs: What happens when the product you buy from one company is -- unbeknownst to you at purchase time -- supported by another? Nothing if you're lucky; if not, like one Gripe Line reader, you might encounter "nothing in their knowledge base to shed any light on my problems. What I do find is that there's a $10 charge just to send them an e-mail with a support question." And Jon Udell on speaking, writing and editing.
The news beat: HP demos technology for developing markets, namely paper-based document authentication. Lenovo aligns with BestBuy to target SMBs, and Europe's domain registry is being hijacked.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 11, 2006 09:02 AM
March 10, 2006 | Comments: (0)
The truth, backed by data, about offshore outsourcing
From the analysts: Amid all the rhetoric and emotion, very little fact has emerged about outsourcing. A new report from the Association for Computing Machinery, however, changes that, explains David Margulius in Experts offer fresh perspective on offshoring IT. This "truly great desert island reading," provides a "snapshot of globalization is really working from a non-U.S.-centric perspective." The report emphasizes the importance of strengthening education, technical training, and R&D investment, while cutting away regulatory barriers to the free flow of talent. Is there an echo coming from the corner offices of IT's biggest companies?
Best of the blogs: Google confirms that it bought Writely for its word processor and that a Google calendar is in the works, which makes Mike Barton think that perhaps Google Office can't be far behind. Matt Asay, meanwhile, looks at the reasons why SCO's revenue slides, while Novell's Linux revenue jumps.
Storage: Mario Apicella asks Think you have backup problems? Apicella recounts the horror that one of our readers is having and offers links to help you learn about new backup solutions on the market. And Oliver Rist takes a look at the new laptop data protection service from Everdream. "The neat part is where it lets them wipe the machine of all data should you pull the trigger," Rist explains.
The news beat: Seagate partners with Secude to bring full encryption of hard drives and software for easier password management to notebook computers. F-Secure launches an e-mail security appliance. And China sets broad tech goals for 2006 and beyond.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on March 10, 2006 04:51 AM
February 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)
IT's seat at outsourcing table
Special report: When it comes to business process outsourcing there is no question that IT plays a critical role. So as companies consider whether to outsource certain business processes, IT needs to be involved at the executive level. "If IT doesn't have a seat at the table, it risks calamitous fallout from business decisions that gloss over technology implications," writes Leon Erlanger in Business Process Outsourcing: IT Makes the Call. The online package also includes a piece on handling those layoff jitters amidst outsourcing decisions, and the great business process handoff.
Search: Google's Desktop for the enterprise continues to incite concerns about privacy and security. AOL, meanwhile, jumps right back into business IM by introducing AIM Pro, software developed with WebEx that the companies hope will improve security and integration.
SOA: Software AG says it is wrapping existing products into a platform for SOA management and governance. Dave Linthicum outlines why Craigslist is akin to SaaS, in Real World SOA. Hint: they're both drawing similar complaints from rivals.
The news beat: Rumors are swirling that on March 2 Microsoft might unveil a low-cost portable device code-named Origami, and some backing evidence exists at www.origamiproject.com. MySQL buys Netfrastructure, a Web application company, and hires founder and noted database architect Jim Starkey, for an undisclosed sum. Sybase enhances its RFID Enterprise 2.0 to help companies integrate and analyze data collected via RFID.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on February 27, 2006 04:45 AM
January 12, 2006 | Comments: (0)
McNealy: Don't limit foreign workers
The news beat: Dubbed "computing's fab four" last night, the co-founders of Sun Microsystems reunited at the Computer History Museum. CEO Scott McNealy used the occasion to present a tongue-lashing against pretty much anybody in favor of restricting foreign workers from coming to Silicon Valley, to defend outsourcing, and to say that getting everyone worldwide connected to the Internet will result in "a safer and better world if we can get that done."
Best of the blogs: Acknowledging that it may not suffice for most MB's, Oliver Rist suggests that smaller companies and SOHO outfits might want to check out Thunderbird 1.5, as it just left beta testing behind. "Cool in and of itself, but one day earlier Microsoft announces that a new security problem in Outlook and Exchange will probably dwarf the problems we just weathered via WMF," Rist explains.
Applications: NetSuite details a program that enables third-parties to tap its platform and data model as a means for creating vertical applications, a day after SAP announced that partners added 30 vertical software packages tailored for SMBs. Siebel, meanwhile, exceeded sales forecasts for its fourth quarter, likely to be its last as an independent entity.
Hot review: EMC adds compliance, business processes, and more to its Documentum 5 content management system. The cadre of modules that comprise this CMS reaches beyond 100 in number, so for purposes of this review we homed in on four such pieces: EMC Documentum 5 Collaborative Edition was the core of the testbed, EMC Documentum Business Process Management for workflows, and we look at Retention Policy Services and Compliance Manager.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 12, 2006 10:16 AM
November 18, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Taking outsourcing to the extreme: Webshoring
Columnists' Corner: Buried down deep and toward the end of the article, David Margulius touches on what he calls Webshoring, a nascent practice begun by Amazon.com. This particular instance of Webshoring is known as Amazon Mechanical Turk, and it aptly put Margulius to work for less than minimum-wage at approximately $3.60 an hour, pre-taxes. "Amazon has figured out how to take the outsourcing trend to its ultimate extreme," Margulius writes. "It doesn’t have to care which country the worker is in, as long as the work gets done and there is no management overhead. Wow."
Security: In Security Adviser, Roger Grimes examines the controversy, if not chaos, surrounding Sony's DRM-related security issues and determines that it "reeks of bad decision-making," that has only "gone from bad to worse" since the vulnerabilities were discovered.
Best of the blogs: Victor Garza joins the RFID discussion with a post about the technology as a validation tool. "Did you know that RFID could be the solution to end the problem of global counterfeiting?" he asks. At the very least, it's one way to make sure those running shoes were really made by Nike.
Product preview: Call it an intellectual property leak finder. Reconnex iGuard 2.1 monitors e-mail, IM and FTP to uncover security, compliance and information risks, then presents results in a dashboard. Version 2.1 brings hardware and software improvements, as well as integration with security information management systems.
The news beat: Cisco may buy Scientific-Atlanta, a roughly $7 billion acquisition that would enable Cisco to assemble a media center offering and other consumer-oriented wares. Open source groups back India's free software program. And Sanyo reports a big first-half loss.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 18, 2005 06:00 AM
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