All Microsoft Sites

Get Connected Vertical line divider

The Wire

Headline news for the enterprise

Clearing up the 5 Myths About Security

Security_Bloggers_Network writes"[by Rafal Los]...In spite of the state of disarray in the Information Security world where budgets are growing, and CISO's are receiving amandate from senior management - there is still an uneasy misunderstanding of what security is really about even amongst those who practice it....1. "Secure" is achievable...2. "Enforcement" is possible...3. "Control" is a reality..." more

Are You Fighting the Future or Adapting To It?

HBR writes"[by James Allen]...Did you know that an additional 0.1 second in the time it takes a web page to load can lead to a 1% decline in customer activity?...Amazon does. In fact, the company has about 500 metrics that it tracks every day, the majority of them relating to the customer experience...measures a feedback loop in seconds — or in tenths of a second...top-performing companies typically develop repeatable models...These models reflect three fundamental design principles:..." more

Fed CIO Ordered to Create a Comprehensive Mobile Road M...

CIO writes"[by Grant Gross]...all major government agencies to make two key services available on mobile phones within a year, in an effort to embrace a growing trend toward Web surfing on mobile devices...By 2015, more U.S. residents are likely to access the Internet through mobile phones than through desktop computers, the Obama administration said in a press release. Obama has asked U.S. Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel to head up efforts to..." more

McAfee Reports Big Spike in Malware

CIO writes"[by Cameron Scott]...The McAfee report also noted a dramatic increase in malware designed to attack mobile devices that run Android. The total number of identified threats to Android devices more than quadrupled in the first quarter, reaching 8,000. However, part of the bump came from improved detection, according to the report...The report also found that most mobile malware originated in and targeted China and Russia..." more

7 Large Layoffs by Tech Companies

CIO writes"...a hack-and-slash approach to its workforce when facing economic uncertainty...Here are seven major instances in the tech industry of employees facing the brunt for their employer's misfortunes..." more

Social Media: How a Small Spark Turned into a Big Fire

Bob Ferrari writes"...there is obvious important learning from this beef industry incident. Senior business and supply chain leaders cannot afford to ignore or dismiss what occurs on social media. Whether you embrace the power of “systems of engagement” or not, what occurs in social media can and will have an impact on either the business, or the way people, and especially your employees, gather and exchange information, and make conclusions. There are both positive as well as..." more

Seeking a Tech Job? Seattle's the Place

Susan Hall writes"...If you're seeking a tech job, Seattle's the place to look. Forbes recently named the Emerald City No. 1 on its list of cities for tech job growth, citing 12 percent growth in tech jobs and 7.6 percent STEM job growth over the past two years...recruiting is fierce...Time to fill cloud-related jobs in particular in Seattle is longer than any other city — seven weeks..." more

Government CIOs Feel the Pressure - Elections Mean Chan...

Hyland Software writes"[by Terri Jones]...I attended the National Association of State CIOs midyear conference. While there were comments about budgets, broadband and mobility initiatives, the conversation took an unexpected turn – people were discussing the speed of new technology deployment...from the glimmer of a great idea to going live – has special urgency. Elections mean changes to staff and, more importantly, priorities. The effect of periodic election cycles is..." more

IT Unemployment Levels Low, Poaching Stakes High

Susan Hall writes"...raises are what IT pros want most, but close behind, they're looking for more interesting or challenging assignments, followed by a promotion or new title...companies will have to step up on the pay front to keep valued workers or face losing them to higher-paying rivals. ...workers age 20-29 with those age 50-59 found the two groups similar in wanting managers invested in their development. So if you're a manager who can't offer more money..." more

Effective Cyber Defenses are Built on Business Aims and...

Security_Bloggers_Network writes"[by Daniel Booth]...Organisations are increasingly mobile and connected. New ways of working with technology such as cloud computing, social networking...with each new technology comes an increasing number of risks to your business. Effective cyber defences can only be built upon...aims and goals of the business. There needs to be a clear link between business strategy, risks and the security mechanisms put in place. Then you can prioritise your..." more

How Tough is Your Phone? Can't Beat This One

Security_Bloggers_Network writes"[by Davi Ottenheimer]...if you want a sophisticated phone that is rugged, the Nokia Lumia 900 or N9 seems to be the clear (pun not intended) winner in the market right now. It's not only beautiful, but its physical integrity and data availability are superior to the competition.This isn't taken well by analysts, of course, who try to come up with reasons why the data is flawed. Consider this example..." more

Unified Write Filter is New Stuff in Windows Embedded S...

Alexander Wechsler writes"...In WES 8 Microsoft has spent some more development cycles on this topic to overcome the complex handling of the current filters. All functionality is now bundled in a single, Unified Write Filter. This is very good, because now you do not have to worry which filter to choose and all disk protection settings can be done in a single place. But there is more! The UWF comes with a configuration UI for..." more

At the Basic Level: Understanding Disaster Recovery St...

Lori MacVittie writes"There are two levels of reliability for an application. There’s local and there’s global. We might want to consider it more simply as “inside” and “outside” reliability. Virtualization enables local reliability – the inside kind of reliability. Whether you’re relying upon clustering or load balancing...What clustering (load balancing) can’t do is address global reliability, i.e. outside reliability...Disaster recovery strategies cannot rely on local reliability, they must be based on global reliability...." more

Stay Technical or Become a Manager? 10 Things to Consid...

ITworld writes"[by Eric Bloom]...Here are ten things to consider when deciding to accept or pass on the opportunity to become an IT/Technical Manager:...The nature of these questions was not to encourage you or discourage you from taking the IT Manager job. My goal is simply to provide you with some personal insights that will help you move forward with your career in the best possible fashion..." more

Can People Learn to be More innovative? Yes

HBS Working Knowledge writes"[by Garry Emmons, Julia Hanna, Roger Thompson]...What we found is that innovators "think different,"...thinking differently leads them to act differently. From our research, consistent patterns emerged that led us to identify five primary discovery skills that underlie innovation: associating, observing, quetioning, networking, and experimenting...Collectively, these five discovery skills constitute what we call the innovator's DNA, the code for creating innovative business ideas..." more

If You're Not Micromanaging - You're Not Leading!

HBR writes"[by Michael Schrage]...Seeing the data raw instead of analytically pre-chewed can have enormous impact on executive perceptions. That's not to minimize or marginalize the importance of analysis and interpretation... nothing creates situational awareness faster than seeing with your own eyes what your experts are trying to synthesize and summarizeare critical to success...There's both a cultural and personal difference between this kind of micromanagement and being a control freak. In the former..." more

Reward Those Who Innovate and Fail Fast - Avoid Punishi...

Successful Workplace writes"[by Jeanne Roue-Taylor]...The ability to get to a great idea can require several attempts...Get ideas out quickly and as painlessly as possible so that the good one comes to the surface sooner. The longer an idea takes to develop, the more costly and higher risk it becomes....reward those who fail fast and don’t punish willingness to try out an idea. You’d be getting rid of your innovators...What matters most is that the idea has..." more

Should Businesses Have a Single Social Platform?

Bertrand Duperrin writes"...What happened with intranets is about to happen again with social platforms...When I hear that “there’s too many existing platforms in our company...the argument is not related to functionalities or user needs but to diplomacy...we’ll have to wait until the overdose, until the moment when we’ll be forced to admit that users and usages fragmentation made them underutilized, that we can’t be happy anymore with micro-benefits, even that..." more

Integrated Collaborative Solutions is the Key to Social...

Aspect writes"[by Mike Sheridan]...when organizations can connect their customer experience efforts on social with their existing order status, customer service and technical support platforms then they’ll see the potential of collaboration in and out of the enterprise. They know more and more that their customers are engaging with them on social platforms. I agree that companies need more than just social engagement tools, they need..." more

This Decision Making Process Matches the Way Companies ...

HBR writes"[by Bob Frisch]...I've since seen this fuzzy, nine-cell matrix become an integral part of the decision-making process in a host of companies, ranging from a major media empire to a global fashion house to a German mittelstand agricultural-trading company...because it more closely matches the way companies actually run, it is a far more effective tool for aligning the various priorities of the management team..." more

Getting Hired if You Are a Computer Gamer Demonstrating...

The Chronical of Higher Ed writes"[by Katie Mangan]...Satish Menon, chief technology officer at the Apollo Group, which owns the University of Phoenix, also plugged certificates as alternatives to degrees in a tech field. “The real disruption will take place as companies say, ‘If you can demonstrate mastery, we’ll hire you. We don’t care if you have a degree,’” he said...“There are high fixed costs associated with development,” he said, “but the marginal costs of making it available to people is essentially zero..." more

The Challenge of Encrypting BYOD Devices

John Halamka writes"...The burden on IT departments to purchase and support mobile device security tools is significant. Self encrypting drive approaches hold promise because they are operating system neutral and require little support. We will continue to enhance our abilities to centrally manage encryption of mobile devices. Like many security issues, the management of personal device encryption is..." more

Beach-Town, San Diego Shines as Tech Job Market

Susan Hall writes"...San Diego No. 3 on its list of the best cities for tech jobs, after Seattle and Washington, D.C. It noted that over the past decade, tech employment has grown by almost 30 percent...San Diego as the least expensive major city in California in which to do business. It studied the business taxes and fees, economic incentives and other programs, concluding that the expense in Los Angeles County and the Bay area were detriments to..." more

How to Design a Windows 8 Metro App From an Existing Wi...

Telerik writes"...about the main similarities and differences between the design guidelines of the Windows 8 and the Windows Phone platforms and what this means to designers and developers...In this part we will take a deeper look at: Commands and actions, Touch, Orientation and views, Notifications and live tiles..." more

8 FAQ on Implementing Enterprise Content Management Sol...

Hyland Software writes"[by Troy Gross]...Researching, evaluating and selecting new software solutions are notoriously tough endeavors. They don’t teach this stuff in college and very few professionals make a career out of buying software solutions. Taking time to consider the [8] questions...will help guide your decision..." more

How to Return All-But-One Duplicate Records in CRM Usin...

Customer Effective writes"[by Scott Sewell]...Frequently when importing / scrubbing data within CRM, identifying duplicates to remove or ‘flag’ may be needed. It’s helpful to have a query that will return all the duplicates in the database – but exclude a single ‘surviving’ record...This query is one of my go-to query patterns..." more

Chief Marketing Officer - Hot Seat in the C-suite and N...

Tom Foremski writes"...The CMO job is part art, part science, and part media publisher...CMO is the by far hottest seat in the C-suite, and not in a good way. There’s a real fire being lit under every CMO’s seat to produce reliable and repeatable results. Yet we are still trying to calibrate the metrics around online marketing programs, and relate them to business performance. Asbestos underwear is recommended..." more

Business Units and Money not IT Driving Cloud Growth

ITworld writes"[by Kevin Fogarty]...Cloud computing may be the biggest thing ever to hit IT, but not for good solid technical reasons, and not because it gives IT the chance to show it really does know what their companies really need from technology to make the business shine. Unfortunately, it's finance, not technology driving the market for and implementations of cloud. It is also business units, not IT, that is driving adoption of cloud...IT is more observer than driving force..." more

Fewer US Mobile Users are Paying a Monthly Bill

CIO writes"[by Stephen Lawson]...For the first time, postpaid subscriptions fell in the first quarter at the biggest U.S. carriers...the ongoing adoption of mobile is also eating into landline voice subscriptions. One-third of U.S. consumers, more than 100 million mobile subscribers in the first quarter, don't have landline phones, according to the report..." more

IT Outsourcing: Will CIOs Reclaim Their Power?

CIO writes"[by Stephanie Overby]...IT outsourcing has always been a double-edged sword for CIOs. What starts out as a cure for IT's ills always seems to cause more headaches down the road...this "maze of outside vendors" has proven difficult to manage, says Arjun Sethi...in charge of A.T. Kearney's strategic IT practice. CIOs in multi-sourced IT organizations continue to struggle; there's no single view of processes, no automated exchange of information between vendors...all of which lead to..." more