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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.

The Enduring Relevance of SOA October 29, 2012 There's been a resurgent role of service-oriented architecture as a practical and relevant ingredient for effective design and use of cloud, mobile and big-data technologies. The concept of "architecture is destiny," especially when it comes to hybrid services delivery and management, has become popular.

Virtualization Lets Little Bank Play on Big-Bank Turf October 22, 2012 Server virtualization can set the stage for private-cloud benefits for any company that wants to prevent hardware issues from interfering with operations. Combining several virtual machines onto one piece of hardware can maximize CPU usage and efficiency, especially in an environment that uses different operating systems under one umbrella.

Stopping the PhD Cybercriminal October 15, 2012 The concept of intelligent containment of risk is an important approach to overall IT security. In today's environment, rapid and proactive containment of problems and breaches -- in addition to just trying to keep the bad guys out of your systems -- makes sense. To find out what other approaches to data security are gaining traction, listen to today's podcast featuring Kaivan Rahbari, senior vice president of risk management at FIS Global.

The Faster, Cheaper Help Desk in the Cloud October 08, 2012 One of the trends emerging in the cloud computing space is taking on IT service desk and incident management functions "as a service." A common data architecture and fast delivery benefits combine to improve efficiency, cost and results for IT support end users. For example, intelligent energy-management solutions provider Comverge has extended its use of Salesforce.com into a self-service enabled service desk capability using BMC's Remedyforce.