Posted 11/19/09 at 07:06:30 AM by Paul Lilly

Some CIOs worry that underpaid IT pros may be a flight risk once the economy rebounds. That's because IT workers have been asked to work more for less money, while also watching their benefits be taken away, and that's not something they'll soon forget once job opportunities open up elsewhere, suggests a new survey.

Robert Half Technologies pinged 1,400 CIOs and found that 43 percent of them plan to make retaining existing workers their top staffing priority in 2010.

"Employers need to focus on preventing burnout and keeping their best people engaged at work. This may be a challenge, given that staffing cuts and the reduction or elimination of benefits have left many employees feeling overworked and undervalued," said Dave Willmer, executive director at Robert Half Technology, in a statement.

But it's not all gloom and doom for CIOs. To prevent a mass exodus among IT staff, Robert Half Technology suggests that IT employers begin implementing training and career development programs. The firm also recommends communicating regularly with staff and encouraging team-building activities that promote a balance between work and life.

"Companies may have to work at 're-selling' themselves to existing employees in much the same way the would when promoting themselves to prospective hires," Willmer said.

But will it be enough?

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Posted 11/18/09 at 07:03:13 AM by Paul Lilly

According a new study, UK's IT workers rank as the least active professionals with the unhealthiest diets. The study, which was commissioned by weight loss and personal training agency Fat Free Fitness, pinged more than 1,700 professionals running the gamut from Taxi drivers and shop attendants, to marketing gurus and customer service reps.

It shouldn't come as any surprise that those paid to sit in front of a PC all day tend to lead sedentary lifestyles (Maximum PC notwithstanding), but what's a little shocking is that only 19 percent of those surveyed met the government's activity guidelines recommending 30 minutes of moderate exercise five times a week. That puts IT workers in last place by a wide margin. Receptionists ranked as the second unhealthiest bunch, with 26 percent meeting the government's guidelines.

Just 14 percent said they ate five portions of fruit and vegetables every day, but even more startling, the study found that the average IT worker consumes the caffeine equivalent of 10 cups of coffee every day.

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Posted 11/16/09 at 07:04:41 AM by Paul Lilly

IBM is taking virtualization security to the next level with a new product designed to safeguard enterprise virtual server infrastructures, the company said.

The product -- IBM Virtual Server Security for VMware vSphere -- purports to help growing companies stay protected as they consolidate their data centers. IBM said it has been working with clients to simplify and optimize their virtual infrastructures, and that this product allows those same businesses to put up a shield against next-gen security threats.

"Clients are asking for solutions to secure their data centers as they move from a traditional environment to virtual deployments. To that end, IBM has built this solution based on feedback of hundreds of customers looking to answer this urgent need," said Brian Truskowski, general manager, IBM Internet Security Systems (ISS).

Some of the automatic protection features of IBM's Virtual Server Security for VMware vSphere include Virtual Network Access Control (CNAC) to limit network access from a virtual server until security posture can be confirmed, rootkit detection, virtual infrastructure monitoring, and more.

The new product will be available in December 2009.

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Posted 11/16/09 at 07:04:32 AM by Paul Lilly

Ready for a shocker? Rackspace Hosting, a company which rents server space, surveyed 441 U.S. and U.K.-based IT decision makers at companies with anywhere between 100 to 500 employees and found that just over half of them -- 51 percent -- "would love to never have to buy another server again."

Rackspace's spin on the survey suggests that the time and money enterprises currently allocate to managing in-house servers would be better spent on increasing strategic initiatives within the company. This, of course, would require a shift to cloud computing services, such as those offered by Rackspace.

The survey also found that "on-site servers are causing stress for IT decision makers," with hardware issues and maintenance, after hours issues, and 24/7 availability listed as the main challenges.

But while Rackspace sees the data as overwhelmingly positive in favor of cloud computing, another way to look at it is that nearly half of IT admins remain skittish about off-site services. And understandably so, given the early-adoptance aspect and high profile data scares, like the recent glitch that caused T-Mobile Sidekick owners to lose their contacts.

Survey Details (PDF)

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Posted 11/13/09 at 07:14:07 AM by Paul Lilly

There are a lot of winners in the $1.25 billion settlement between Intel and AMD. The most obvious one is AMD, who can use the money to pay off debt and put this longstanding legal dispute behind them. As part of the settlement, AMD also benefits from a new five-year cross licensing agreement.

In some respects, Intel can also be considered a winner, in that the chip maker could have ended up paying much more than $1.25 billion had this lawsuit gone the distance. And like AMD, Intel can put this episode behind them. And with both Intel and AMD no longer distracted by a costly court case, the two chip makers can put their full attention towards R&D.

"It's really good for the industry in general," said Roger Kay, an analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates. "Both companies had devoted a lot of top management to the fight. It's pretty distracting. You really want top executives concentrating on the business at hand."

OEMs like HP and Dell also come out ahead by being able to choose whichever processors and platforms they want, rather than which ones they're being told to use. And that's good for consumers, too.

It's not often that a bitter legal dispute ends up having so many winners, but that's certainly the case here.

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Posted 11/04/09 at 08:08:18 AM by Paul Lilly

It's not been a very good year for Novell employees, who never know what the next day will bring. For 100 to 130 workers out of Novell's roughly 3,900 global employees, this week brought more pink slips, CNet reports.

CNet's sources are saying that the Workgroup division saw the most layoffs, but according to Ian Bruce, Novell's public-relations director, the cuts sliced "across the company, both geographically and productwise."

Ironically enough, Linux jobs in general are doing a smashing job and are up 6 percent ince January, according to data from Dice.com. So if there's a silver lining to all this, Novell employees that were let go might not have such a rough spot finding employment elsewhere. In the meantime, they'll have several months of severance pay to tide them over, which is based on the number of years they were with the company, plus other factors.

And what about those who still have employment at Novell? The company also announced it would suspending 401(k) matching contributions.

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Posted 11/02/09 at 08:07:18 AM by Paul Lilly

One of the biggest challenges of staying within a budget is not even knowing what you're allowed to spend. That's exactly the situation most IT managers find themselves in, suggests a new white paper by Digital Fuel.

The study the white paper is based off of pinged over 130 IT managers who were directly involved with the related costs and budgets of more than $10 million. And while 84 percent of the respondents classified detailed insight in IT costs as critical, more than half of those polled complained that their level of IT cost visibility isn't where it should be.

This type of environment presents a frustrating challenge in figuring out how to manage IT costs, as evidenced by the respondents indicating that coming up with a cost-model and breaking down the IT costs ranked as the most difficult. IT managers who took part in the study also noted a strong desire to better assess cost inefficiencies in their IT departments.

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Posted 10/30/09 at 08:04:30 AM by Paul Lilly

Security's always a hot topic in the business world, but eWeek.com's list of '10 Essential Things Companies Should Teach Employees About Security" comes particularly well timed. Why? Just recently, McAfee posted a survey suggesting that SMBs are spending less on security as the recession continues to force cuts to the budget, yet cybercrime is on the rise. That being the case, now more than ever the onus falls on employees to take certain precautions.

According to eWeek, companies need to go back to the basics when it comes to educating its staff on safe computing. No. 1 on eWeek's list is the need to remind employees to be weary of email attachments and to only open ones from trusted sources. The importance of creating strong passwords and avoiding shadier sides of the Web also made the list.

One entry that might not have existed five years ago is teaching employees the dangers of social networks. One wrong click can turn into a security nightmare for an IT staff working with a reduced security budget.

What it all boils down to is that workers need to be reminded every once in awhile of the dangers assumed to already be known.

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