Podcasts

Virtual Testing Trims Real World Costs and Delivery Times
May 20, 2013

When you're a top Internet service provider in Turkey, and you deploy scores of applications each year, you have to find an efficient testing method that ensures the apps are working properly across all infrastructures. TTNET, with six million subscribers, found that service virtualization was the best solution.

New IT Tools Untie Tangled Webs of Business Data
May 06, 2013

Information may indeed be power, but organizations large and small are finding that they have to expend more energy than ever just to keep up with the data streams flooding their infrastructures. It's not just the internal data that provides intelligence about their businesses. Organizations are also having to manage all that external Big Data that can help them land new customers.

Transforming an Enterprise From Sluggish to Sleek
April 22, 2013

When it comes to the enterprise, thin is in -- as in slimming down business processes and reducing the level of complexity that comes with running organizations in the 21st century. That goal would be challenging enough without the arrival of trends like Big Data and mobility. There are also the continuing struggles to secure company data, manage risk and meet compliance deadlines.

Virtualization: An IT Prescription for Healthcare Providers
April 08, 2013

Healthcare providers know that technology can provide an answer to higher operating costs and ailing efficiencies within their organizations, but strict regulatory issues and other compliance matters have always proved to be tough obstacles. The security of patient health data, after all, must never be compromised in pursuit of greater efficiencies.

Rebooting IT to Run Like a Business
March 25, 2013

It's one thing to employ enterprise resource planning to streamline an entire organization's business processes -- to use software and data to create a more efficient flow of information between different departments. However, what about applying ERP to an individual information technology department within that organization? What benefits could be achieved?

Locking Up Big Data to Unlock Its Value
March 18, 2013

The bad news about Big Data: This business trend means enterprises now have more valuable information within their systems that must be protected. The good news about Big Data: The analytics and business intelligence that come along with the trend can also be used to improve risk management within organizations.

How to Drink from the Big Data Firehose Without Drowning
March 11, 2013

The arrival of big data means the end of the status quo for the enterprise. It means more than just sorting the sheer volume and velocity of information now available to companies. To be able to derive the most value from big data, large enterprises now have to consider its impact on issues such as security, risk and governance.

With Business Foundations Shaking, Good Enterprise Architects Are Hard to Find
March 04, 2013

Enterprise architects are looking at several trends impacting their roles in the business world -- the growth of cloud computing, the arrival of big data, more security challenges, the overall rate of technological advances. These are the topics discussed at conferences.

AT&T's Take on Shifting Cloud Challenges and Opportunities
February 25, 2013

Migrating to the cloud is all the rage, but companies large and small are finding that they need to move a wider variety of their daily operations to network-delivered services -- if they are available, and within their budgets. One of the world's largest service providers, global telecommunications giant AT&T, has created advanced cloud services for its business customers.

Auto Biz Game-Changers: Big Data Mashups
February 04, 2013

Ford has exploited the strengths of big data analytics by directing them internally to improve business results. In doing so, they scour the metrics from the company's best processes across myriad manufacturing efforts and through detailed outputs from in-use automobiles -- all to improve and help transform its business, says Ford researcher Michael Cavaretta.

Enterprise Security: No Perimeter Is Perfect
January 21, 2013

Enterprises of all types are increasingly under attack by advanced persistent threats, which pose much greater danger than the lone hacker who just wants to use brute force to get in and deface their website. They are exploiting the disconnect between application security and perimeter security. The growing sophistication of intruders means they can gain access to an organization's entire infrastructure.

Letting the Customer Experience Drive Innovation
January 14, 2013

By acting as a performance center of excellence, American International Group's Global Performance Architecture Group has improved performance of the company's services to deliver better experiences and payoffs for businesses and end users alike. The group looks at the user experience and tailors the company's technology to maximize customer satisfaction and utility.

Bringing Order to Data Backup Chaos
January 07, 2013

Enterprise backup is broken, but there are methods being developed to fix it. Nowadays, methods for backing up and protecting enterprise data are fragmented, complex and inefficient. However, some new approaches are helping to simplify the process, keep costs in check, and improve recovery speed and confidence.

Healthcare Data Has to Be Both Secure and Right
December 17, 2012

Lake Health, a regional healthcare system in northeast Ohio, has been examining its information-security practices with a maturing approach. It is shifting from deploying security technologies to becoming more of a comprehensive risk-reduction practice provider internally for its own consumers. This has caused Lake Health to look at the quality of its data.

The Cloud: No Longer Distrusted and Misunderstood
December 10, 2012

A recent survey on cloud computing explored the business growth opportunities for buyers and consumers of cloud services alike, and its findings about confidence are surprising. Businesses are experimenting with the technologies and services that are available. The multi-year annual survey on the cloud market provides a springboard to examine some of the implications for where the growth opportunities and inhibitors may be.

The Rationale for Building Your Own Cloud
December 03, 2012

Many businesses know the benefits of taking their business to the cloud, but Australian IT services provider Thomas Duryea Consulting made the transition to cloud computing its business. The company is using a cloud-of-clouds approach to provide new types of IT services to customers in the Asia-Pacific region. Thomas Duryea designed, built, and commercialized a vast cloud infrastructure.

Savings in the Unlikeliest of Places: Accounts Payable
November 26, 2012

Accounts payable has been one of the last bastions of paper processing in many organizations, but now businesses are looking for efficiencies and money-saving opportunities anywhere they can be found. When the bottom line needs to grow -- even when the top line isn't growing -- many businesses choose to use automation and analysis in procurement and finance to find and take advantage of these opportunities.

Preventing a BYOD Free-for-All
November 19, 2012

The growing acceptance of bring-your-own-device use in the enterprise comes with promise and perils. Allowing users to own and maintain and work on computing and mobile devices of their choosing is starting to make sense for more organizations. The experiences of one company, Quest Software, which has begun supporting BYOD with the full blessing of IT, serve as an example.

Security Policy Begins With 'Can It Happen Here?'
November 12, 2012

For a Fortune 100 company such as Liberty Mutual Insurance, security involves much more than preventing hacks and phishing attacks. The introduction of personal devices has created an array of new potential attack vectors. Security must now be introduced at the conception of a project, not as an afterthought. It needs to start with the board and work its way through the organization to every employee.

After the Breach: Culture of Honesty Restores Confidence
November 05, 2012

The culture of security -- and the openness and responsiveness that make security systems work properly -- can have a huge beneficial impact on organizations. This is illustrated by the example of Heartland Payment Systems, which moved rapidly after allowing a massive security breach.