Windows 8: Four big takeaways for business and IT
Yes, this is even bigger than the launch of Windows 95. Why? Because Microsoft is completely rewriting the idea of what it means to use a computer. The old file and folder metaphor is gone. The visual image of a desktop workspace is history (except for legacy apps).
Facebook Releases New Android SDK
Facebook announced Facebook SDK 3.0 Beta for Android in a blog posting this week. Facebook's Michael Marucheck calls it the biggest update ever for Android developers. The major change is in the area of native UI controls.
IBM Voices Support for PaaS at Cloud Forum
IBM spent much of the one-day event, attended by 100 customers and 200 other stakeholders including business partners, talking up PaaS. The company's PaaS offering, called SmartCloud Application Services (SCAS), is available in pre-release form for customers of IBM's existing infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offering, SmartCloud Enterprise (SCE) and it will be generally available later this quarter.
Introducing TDD With The Microsoft Fakes Framework
The big issue with TDD for most developers is, I think, the database. If your tests are driven by your data, and your data keeps changing, how do you to ensure that you get the "right" answer in your automated tests? However, that's just one example of a larger problem: If the code you're testing is dependent on something else, and that something else keep changing, how do you ensure that your test results stay constant?
Delivering Large-Scale IT Projects On Time, On Budget, and On Value
Half of all large IT projects—defined as those with initial price tags exceeding $15 million—massively blow their budgets. On average, large IT projects run 45 percent over budget and 7 percent over time, while delivering 56 percent less value than predicted. Software projects run the highest risk of cost and schedule overruns
There’s No Data Security ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ Card
Maintaining data security is no longer a when-you-get-to-it project. It’s a critical step that needs to be undertaken now, particularly as the government is formulating a final rule that toughens privacy. That was the take-home message from a session on data privacy at the Medical Group Management Association annual convention, in San Antonio.
A CEO takes on the war for talent
NetSuite's chief people officer, Marty Réaume, says he started using a talent-assessment tool called TriMetrix after executives noticed that many new hires were quitting after less than a year, Jessi Hempel writes. Also, the company's CEO, Zach Nelson, began reviewing every potential hire, a strategy that he says motivates recruiters to find better candidates.
5 Hybrid Cloud Use Cases
Microsoft Releases Hadoop On Windows
HDInsight Server for Windows includes core Hadoop (meaning the Hadoop Distributed File System and MapReduce), plus Pig for MapReduce programming, Hive data query infrastructure, Hortonworks' recently introduced HCatalog table management service for access to Hadoop data, Scoop for data movement, and the Ambari monitoring and management console.
Interview: Steve Howard, COO of Sustainability, IKEA
At yesterday’s BSR conference in New York, I had the privilege of sitting down with Steve Howard, IKEA’s COO of Sustainability to talk about IKEA’s take on sustainability and their new sustainability strategy, known as “People and Planet Positive”.
Will the cloud be the end of the IT department?
Cloud apps are, in a sense, even more problematic. With whom does responsibility for the environment reside? What happens if a user accidentally deletes important data or a user account gets broken into? Proper management of passwords, backup policies, access control strategies, and other issues is even more important.
Quotes for the day:
"Never tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon." -- Anonymous
"Most discussions of decision making assume that only senior executives make decisions. This is a dangerous mistake." -- Peter Drucker
Yes, this is even bigger than the launch of Windows 95. Why? Because Microsoft is completely rewriting the idea of what it means to use a computer. The old file and folder metaphor is gone. The visual image of a desktop workspace is history (except for legacy apps).
Facebook Releases New Android SDK
Facebook announced Facebook SDK 3.0 Beta for Android in a blog posting this week. Facebook's Michael Marucheck calls it the biggest update ever for Android developers. The major change is in the area of native UI controls.
IBM Voices Support for PaaS at Cloud Forum
IBM spent much of the one-day event, attended by 100 customers and 200 other stakeholders including business partners, talking up PaaS. The company's PaaS offering, called SmartCloud Application Services (SCAS), is available in pre-release form for customers of IBM's existing infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offering, SmartCloud Enterprise (SCE) and it will be generally available later this quarter.
Introducing TDD With The Microsoft Fakes Framework
The big issue with TDD for most developers is, I think, the database. If your tests are driven by your data, and your data keeps changing, how do you to ensure that you get the "right" answer in your automated tests? However, that's just one example of a larger problem: If the code you're testing is dependent on something else, and that something else keep changing, how do you ensure that your test results stay constant?
Delivering Large-Scale IT Projects On Time, On Budget, and On Value
Half of all large IT projects—defined as those with initial price tags exceeding $15 million—massively blow their budgets. On average, large IT projects run 45 percent over budget and 7 percent over time, while delivering 56 percent less value than predicted. Software projects run the highest risk of cost and schedule overruns
There’s No Data Security ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ Card
Maintaining data security is no longer a when-you-get-to-it project. It’s a critical step that needs to be undertaken now, particularly as the government is formulating a final rule that toughens privacy. That was the take-home message from a session on data privacy at the Medical Group Management Association annual convention, in San Antonio.
A CEO takes on the war for talent
NetSuite's chief people officer, Marty Réaume, says he started using a talent-assessment tool called TriMetrix after executives noticed that many new hires were quitting after less than a year, Jessi Hempel writes. Also, the company's CEO, Zach Nelson, began reviewing every potential hire, a strategy that he says motivates recruiters to find better candidates.
5 Hybrid Cloud Use Cases
Microsoft Releases Hadoop On Windows
HDInsight Server for Windows includes core Hadoop (meaning the Hadoop Distributed File System and MapReduce), plus Pig for MapReduce programming, Hive data query infrastructure, Hortonworks' recently introduced HCatalog table management service for access to Hadoop data, Scoop for data movement, and the Ambari monitoring and management console.
Interview: Steve Howard, COO of Sustainability, IKEA
At yesterday’s BSR conference in New York, I had the privilege of sitting down with Steve Howard, IKEA’s COO of Sustainability to talk about IKEA’s take on sustainability and their new sustainability strategy, known as “People and Planet Positive”.
Will the cloud be the end of the IT department?
Cloud apps are, in a sense, even more problematic. With whom does responsibility for the environment reside? What happens if a user accidentally deletes important data or a user account gets broken into? Proper management of passwords, backup policies, access control strategies, and other issues is even more important.
Quotes for the day:
"Never tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon." -- Anonymous
"Most discussions of decision making assume that only senior executives make decisions. This is a dangerous mistake." -- Peter Drucker
