IT Executive news

• Former insider’s book explores morality of offshore outsourcing

  04-05-2016 23:51
  
  In New York City, IT employees of EmblemHealth recently staged a protest over the decision to outsource their jobs. CEO Karen Ignagni told the employees the company needed to modernize its platforms and didn't have the money or expertise to do this work.Among those at this protest was Phillip Tsen, a former outsourcing project manager. It was once his job to move IT work to outsourcing firms.By joining the demonstration, Tsen wanted to show his support for EmblemHealth workers losing their jobs.
  
  Read more

• New generator can halve cost of hydrogen used to power buildings, cars

  04-05-2016 23:06
  
  California start-up H2 Energy Renaissance today announced it has built a hydrogen generator that 's inexpensive to manufacture and produces on-demand affordable hydrogen.
  "This technology shall reduce the costs of electricity and fuel transport at least by 50%," the company said in a statement.
  The company claims its H2 Energy Renaissance hydrogen generator can produce the gas for 50 cents to $1 per kilogram.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
  Read more

• May the Fourth be with you: 4 of the best & 4 of the worst Star Wars video games

  04-05-2016 23:01
  
  Star Wars video gamesStar Wars, as an enormous building block of nerd culture, and one that got popular right when home computing was really taking off, has an unsurprisingly huge number of video games set in its universe. Some of them are very good, and some are the opposite of very good. Here’s a look at four of the former, and four of the latter.RELATED: Cool ways to celebrate Star Wars DayTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
  Read more

• AMD gets back into SSDs with value Radeon R3 drives

  04-05-2016 22:04
  AMD is jumping back into the solid-state drive (SSD) market with Radeon drives for laptops and desktops.The SSD offerings are four Radeon R3 drives with storage capacities of 120GB, 240GB, 480GB, and 960GB. AMD launched Radeon R7 drives in 2014.The new drives are affordable, with the entry-level 120GB SSD priced at US $40.99. The drives will plug into a computer's 2.5-inch drive slot and are compatible with the SATA III 6GB interface. To read this article in full or to leave a comment,
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• OpenSSL patches two high-severity flaws

  04-05-2016 21:45
  
  OpenSSL has released versions 1.0.2h and 1.0.1t of its open source cryptographic library, fixing multiple security vulnerabilities that can lead to traffic being decrypted, denial-of-service attacks, and arbitrary code execution. One of the high-severity vulnerabilities is actually a hybrid of two low-risk bugs and can cause OpenSSL to crash.
  Two seemingly unrelated bugs can be chained together to create a serious security problem. The first bug in CVE-2016-2108 is an issue with the ASN.1 parse
  
  Read more

• This startup uses machine learning to turn your old enterprise apps into mobile ones

  04-05-2016 21:44
  
  There's plenty of lip service paid to the need to mobile-enable the enterprise, but actually making that happen is a little more complicated. That's where PowWow Mobile hopes to help.The startup on Wednesday launched SmartUX, a platform that taps machine learning to help companies turn their legacy Web and Windows apps into mobile-optimized ones without writing any code. Along the way, PowWow promises that it can save months of development time and more than 70 percent of development costs.To re
  
  Read more

• How AEG’s CIO plans to hit the big time

  04-05-2016 21:36
  
  Successful CIOs are masters of change management, ushering in new processes to engineer business growth. Bill Martin, new CIO of Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), which owns and/or operates several entertainment venues and professional sports teams, is building a holistic business intelligence strategy for business units that have historically managed their own data.Bill Martin, CIO of Anschutz Entertainment Group."Whether it be sports teams, or concerts tours or venues, there's lots of opport
  
  Read more

• AMD gets into SSDs with value Radeon R3 drives

  04-05-2016 21:06
  AMD is jumping into the solid-state drive (SSD) market with Radeon drives for laptops and desktops.The first SSD offerings are four Radeon R3 drives with storage capacities of 120GB, 240GB, 480GB, and 960GB.The drives are affordable, with the entry-level 120GB SSD priced at US $40.99. The drives will plug into a computer's 2.5-inch drive slot and are compatible with the SATA III 6GB interface. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Microsoft tackles .Net Framework compatibility

  04-05-2016 20:49
  
  Microsoft this week is offering developers guidance on dealing with its .Net Framework programming model and compatibility issues around it.
  Specifically, the company advises developers to target newer versions of .Net Framework, but they shouldn't retarget existing projects to the latest update unless absolutely necessary.[ The Windows 10 developer’s dilemma: Go Universal or stick with the desktop? The choice won't be easy. | Stay up on key Microsoft technologies with the Enterprise Wind
  
  Read more

• How Intel knocked itself out of the smartphone chip market

  04-05-2016 20:12
  Intel's decision to pass on making chips for Apple's iPhone back in 2007 now looks like a huge mistake.Former CEO Paul Otellini admitted as much in a 2013 interview with The Atlantic. Intel has now bailed out of the smartphone chip market while Apple is flying high with its iPhones, based on its own A-series chips.Intel has cancelled its upcoming Atom chip lines for smartphones, including Broxton and the Sofia 3GX, Sofia LTE and Sofia LTE2 commercial platforms. That decision ends
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: Looking for a job in IT? These states added the most tech jobs in 2015

  04-05-2016 20:10
  
  The U.S. technology industry saw breakthrough growth across the board in 2015. Established forces like mobility, big data and cloud computing accounted for a notable portion of these gains, along with emerging trends such as Internet of Things (IoT). This powerful combination of new and maturing technologies is injecting new life into the realms of hardware, software, business intelligence and security alike. Overall, the industry added 200,000 jobs last year, a 3 percent year-over-year increas
  
  Read more

• Google Slides makes it easier to talk back to presenters

  04-05-2016 20:00
  
  Google is trying to save presentation audiences from having to sit through long rambling questions with a new feature it added to its Slides software on Wednesday. Slides Q&A will let audiences send text questions through the Web when listening to a presentation using Google's software. As a presenter is talking, she can see the questions and respond to them, without waiting for someone to speak into a microphone.Google Google Slides Q&A's presenter view lets presenters see what peo
  
  Read more

• BrandPost: The Internet of (Every)Things: Forcing CIOs to Think Differently

  04-05-2016 19:39
  
  “Exploding.” That’s the word that comes to mind when describing the sheer scale of connected “things” — otherwise known as the Internet of Things (IoT). Think about this: Gartner estimates that by 2020, IoT will consist of 25 billion devices, from consumer applications to manufacturing, utilities and transportation. In 2016, it forecast, 5.5 million new things will get connected every single day.For the CIO, this has created massive challenges, according to a
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: How to detect if you’re in a relationship with the wrong software outsourcing company

  04-05-2016 19:36
  
  Is your software outsourcing relationship on autopilot or even worse, in danger of crashing? It might be if you have outsourced for an extended period of time with the same service provider. Being in autopilot mode can be okay if you are moving forward in the right direction and getting good results.First do your homework to see if the results you’re getting are measuring up against industry standards. If they are falling short, take corrective action and consider the benefits of switching
  
  Read more

• An inside look at Microsoft’s booming cloud business

  04-05-2016 19:34
  
  As Director of Program Management for Azure at Microsoft, Corey Sanders heads the compute team which is responsible for the VM-based offerings on Windows and Linux, the new microservices platform, and container services, among other things. Sanders joined the Azure team about six years ago, before which he was a developer in the Windows Serviceabilityteam.  Network World Editor in Chief John Dix recently visited Sanders in his Redmond, WA, office to get a better sense of how Microsoft&
  
  Read more

• LogMeIn creates CMS-like platform for IoT connected products

  04-05-2016 19:32
  
  Boston-based LogMeIn believes 2016 is a year of transition, as organizations move from exploring the Internet of Things (IoT) to the executing IoT initiatives. The company says its Xively Connected Product Management (CPM) Platform will accelerate that transition."IoT is complicated," says Ryan Lester, director of IoT at LogMeIn's Xively IoT division. "Connected product management should be easy."The next generation of the Xively CPM Platform is an application suite intended to eliminate the nee
  
  Read more

• Een ‘agile manifesto’ voor regie

  04-05-2016 19:29
  Veel organisaties worstelen met de stroperigheid van regie op outsourcing; de procesvoering slokt te veel tijd en aandacht op, waardoor het uiteindelijke resultaat dreigt onder te sneeuwen.In navolging van het agile manifesto voor software-ontwikkeling zijn er nu vier kernwaarden en negen ‘agile’... lees meer
  
  Read more

• A brief history of the humble airport cell phone lot

  04-05-2016 18:08
  
  I write a lot about mobile phones. Cell, smart, dumb, flip, landline, rotary, clamshell, Garfield, candy bar, phablet. If it's a type of phone, I've written about it over the past decade.As a former dedicated mobile and wireless beat writer, and a current editor who still regularly dons a reporter's cap, I also travel quite a bit. That means I spend a good amount of time in and around airports. During a recent business trip to San Francisco (for Samsung's annual Developer Conference), as I retur
  
  Read more

• Interop: 12 killer (and free) tools for network engineers

  04-05-2016 17:31
  
  LAS VEGAS -- Visibility is key to troubleshooting network woes, but getting such access can be expensive. To help out, a veteran networking pro shared with attendees of the Interop conference in Las Vegas his list of a dozen mostly free “killer” tools.
  Network Protocol Specialists owner Mike Pennacchi: Free tools can be customized to fit your needs
  “There are commercial tools that do most of these functions,” says Mike Pennacchi, owner and lead network analyst at Network
  
  Read more

• Google turns on HTTPS for all blogspot blogs

  04-05-2016 17:31
  
  All blogs hosted on Google's blogspot.com domain can now be accessed over an encrypted HTTPS connection. This puts more control into the hands of blog readers who value privacy.Google started offering users of its Blogger service the option to switch their blogspot.com sites to HTTPS in September, but now that setting was removed and all blogs received an HTTPS version that users can access.Instead of the "HTTPS Availability" option, blog owners can now use a setting called "HTTPS Redirect," whi
  
  Read more

• May the Fourth be with you: 4 Star Wars tech tributes you can actually use

  04-05-2016 17:20
  
  It’s not the premiere date of the original film, but the ability to say “May the Fourth be with you” cemented May 4 as the day to celebrate all things Star Wars. Usually, May 4 celebrations online are just simple tributes like pictures or a general acknowledgment of the awesomeness of Star Wars.
  But some companies and developers go above and beyond the general call to celebrate all things Force-ical and create tech tributes you can actually use. Well, “use” may be
  
  Read more

• 25% off Nextbit Robin Unlocked Android Phone - Deal Alert

  04-05-2016 16:58
  
  Currently averaging 5 out of 5 stars on Amazon (read reviews), Robin has been discounted through May 10th by 25%. With a list price of $399, this item is discounted by $100 and can be purchased via Amazon right now for $299. Robin was born from a Kickstarter campaign (over $1.3M raised from 3,611 backers), and a desire to create something that uniquely stands out. This very well designed smartphone merges 32GB of onboard storage with 100GB of cloud storage, seamlessly backing up your apps a
  
  Read more

• How to use advanced analytics to mitigate EHR data risks

  04-05-2016 16:48
  
  Over the past seven years, the federal government has established a set of incentives and fines — carrots and sticks — to promote and expand the use of healthcare information technology, particularly the meaningful use of electronic health record (EHR) systems.In a recent report, PwC's Advanced Risk & Compliance Analytics practice found that due to the government's carrot and stick, EHR implementation initiatives usually concentrated on the core challenge of meeting tight timelin
  
  Read more

• BlackBerry's BBM for Android and iOS adds video chat

  04-05-2016 16:12
  
  Facebook and Microsoft are chasing the dream of messaging apps as the future of user engagement, and now BlackBerry wants in on the action too. No, BlackBerry isn’t ready to join the bot revolution, but it is adding video calling across all platforms. BlackBerry Messenger users on Android and iOS can now try out BBM’s new video chat feature, called BBM Video, currently in beta.BBM Video on Android.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
  Read more

• Opera pulls trigger on baked-in ad blocker

  04-05-2016 15:54
  
  Opera Software today released a production version of its flagship desktop browser with an integrated ad blocker, along with a similarly armed version of its Opera Mini for Android.
  In March, Opera revealed plans to bake an ad-blocker into its browsers when it shipped a developer preview of the desktop Opera that included the technology. Rival browser makers, including Apple, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla, do not scrub pages of their ads themselves, but instead have taken a path of least resist
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: Privacy policy or privacy notice: what's the difference?

  04-05-2016 15:49
  
  Often I am asked the difference between a privacy policy and privacy notice. Some of the confusion comes from a company’s description of their privacy practices on their website being called a privacy policy. Some people ask, “Isn’t the information on the website enough?” Let’s clear up the confusion and answer the question.Defining a privacy policy and a privacy notice
  A privacy policy and a privacy notice are artifacts with two distinct purposes. To begin the
  
  Read more

• Steeds meer CEO’s nemen de leiding in digitalisering

  04-05-2016 14:44
  Pakweg de helft van de CEO's verwachten dat hun sector op zijn minst aanzienlijk of onherkenbaar zal veranderen door digitale transformatie. CEO's vinden digitalisering nu belangrijk genoeg om zelf de leiding te nemen, en kiezen bij delegeren meestal voor de CIO. Daarop duidt onderzoek van Gartner.  Ruim... lees meer
  
  Read more

• Coolest drone projects at big enterprise IT companies

  04-05-2016 14:32
  
  High flying ideas Drone-related projects by enterprise IT and networking vendors are all over the map, which isn’t surprising since unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are so useful for flying from here to there. Here’s a whirlwind tour of commercial drone-related projects discussed publicly by familiar enterprise IT and networking vendors.RELATED: Commercial drones gaining altitude with enterprise IT vendorsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
  Read more

• Critical flaws in ImageMagick library expose websites to hacking

  04-05-2016 14:28
  
  A tool used by millions of websites to process images has several critical vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to compromise Web servers. To make things worse, there's no official patch yet and exploits are already available.
  The vulnerabilities were discovered by Nikolay Ermishkin from the Mail.Ru security team and were reported to the ImageMagick developers who attempted a fix in version 6.9.3-9, released on April 30. However, the fix is incomplete and the vulnerabilities can still be
  
  Read more

• 10 things to do before, during and after your performance review

  04-05-2016 14:28
  
  While many organizations are experimenting with the notion of eliminating traditional performance reviews, most companies are still doing annual or semi-annual reviews. The process can be nerve-wracking and cause anxiety if employees don't know what to expect or aren't prepared, but it doesn't have to be like this.
  "The most important thing to remember is that these reviews are supposed to be a two-way street with communication flowing both ways, between employee and manager or supervisor. And w
  
  Read more

• iPaaS: What this cloud technology is and why it’s important

  04-05-2016 14:08
  
  GameStop operates more than 4,000 stores in the U.S. and another 2,000 abroad. Between paying monthly rent, managing leases and searching for new properties, there’s a lot to keep track of for the company’s commercial real estate team.
  A few years ago GameStop began using a real estate management software as a service (SaaS), but Vice President of Enterprise Architecture Mark Patton says there was a problem. The software needed data from many of GameStop’s other business apps:
  
  Read more

• 5 hard truths about employee engagement

  04-05-2016 14:06
  
  A2013 study from Gallup found that as much as 70 percent of U.S. workers aren't actively engaged in their jobs. Engagement hasn't gotten much better since then, with Gallup's 2015 report showing nearly identical numbers and stagnant growth from 2014, as well as mostly flat growth since 2000. And for new hires, there's an "engagement honeymoon" period, according to another recent report from Gallup -- it found that employees perform the best and are the most engaged within the first six months of
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: Community building in the service sector: Learn from the pros

  04-05-2016 14:02
  
  We have seen many online communities rise and fall in the past few years. It is always an uphill battle to get people to spend their valuable time even if they are most passionate about subjects. The immediate question for users is ‘why?’Why should they spend time on your community and not the other? What is the overall purpose of your community? What kind of people are going to be on it? Also there’s this question of brand-focused community.It is very important to establish a
  
  Read more

• 6 Google Analytics tips to boost your online sales

  04-05-2016 14:00
  
  Google Analytics (GA) is often referred to as a "gold mine" of data. Savvy GA users have learned over time how to spot opportunities to increase sales — that's where the "gold" comes in. Other clever folks use GA to address problems that prevent them from realizing all possible revenue potential. After you learn and understand the basics of GA, it's time to start digging for all that gold. Here are six tips and best practices to help you get started.1. Set up Google Analytics conversi
  
  Read more

• Windows 10 migration: At least it's not like last time

  04-05-2016 13:59
  
  Enterprises should have an easier time migrating from Windows 7 to Windows 10 than they did the last go-round when they left behind Windows XP, an analyst said, citing lessons both Microsoft and corporations learned.
  "Microsoft has provided the option to roll out [Windows 10] using most of the same processes you used with Windows 7," said Steve Kleynhans of research firm Gartner in an interview Tuesday. "For that, you get a new OS, but you don't get new capabilities. Later, you can make the dec
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: Digital businesses are shaking the foundation of traditional management

  04-05-2016 13:56
  
  The era of the digital business has arrived and it has rocked traditional business owners and executives left in its wake. Global technology and financial analysts estimate that trillions of dollars are up for grabs over the next several years. This has legacy businesses scrambling to understand the opportunity dynamics and navigate the risks presented by this tectonic shift in the marketplace. In this ever expanding, tech-centric environment -- “old-school” management thinking will
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: Why 2 + 2 does not always equal 4 on projects

  04-05-2016 13:48
  
  This article is about searching for and recognizing those things on our projects that are not always obvious. If we take the obvious for granted and assume that it is correct, we may miss many things. We may miss the full requirements of the project. We may miss the fact that our customer is not happy with our management or performance on the project. We may miss the need for other work that could have resulted in more revenue or profitability.As project managers, we can never just “phone
  
  Read more

• What is cyber insurance and why you need it

  04-05-2016 13:43
  
  Technology, social media and transactions over the Internet play key roles in how most organizations conduct business and reach out to prospective customers today. Those vehicles also serve as gateways to cyberattacks. Whether launched by run-of-the-mill hackers, criminals, insiders or even nation states, cyberattacks are likely to occur and can cause moderate to severe losses for organizations large and small. As part of a risk management plan, organizations routinely must decide which risks to
  
  Read more

• 5 videoconferencing fears (and how to overcome them)

  04-05-2016 13:37
  
  More than half (54 percent) of employees regularly take part in work-related videoconferences, but not all of them are eager participants, according to a recent report. In the survey of more than 230 full-time U.S. workers by West Unified Communications, 23 percent of the respondents said that videoconferencing makes them feel uncomfortable, and three-quarters said they still prefer audio to video. “There’s a definite fear factor among employees when it comes to using video
  
  Read more

• Data naar het hart van de business brengen

  04-05-2016 13:24
  “We staan aan de start van diepgaande veranderingen. De manier waarop we zakendoen gaat veranderen. We moeten nadenken over onze eigen verandering…” zo opent Alan Duncan, research director Data and Analytics bij Gartner, het Jaarcongres Information Management. Hij focust dan ook vooral op mensen en... lees meer
  
  Read more

• Ads mislead over broadband Internet access pricing, regulator warns

  04-05-2016 13:18
  
  Pricing in ads for broadband Internet access is too often misleading and needs tighter regulation.That's the verdict of the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority, which on Wednesday gave ISPs six months to clean up their act before it introduces new rules on how they can promote their services.The monthly cost of broadband Internet access bundled with fixed-line telephone service ought to be simple enough to determine.However, after viewing a typical ad, only 23 percent of people could correctl
  
  Read more

• The best Android apps that you probably don't know about

  04-05-2016 13:00
  
  Great apps are still out thereImage by Derek WalterIt’s easy to feel like we’ve hit peak app. There are only so many times you can feel like your smartphone is on the verge of a transformative experience thanks to a new app invention.Instead, it’s really the little things that matter. There are still plenty of gems out there that can pull off something you didn’t quite expect, like automatically split the tab at a restaurant, add some smarts to your notifications, or let
  
  Read more

• Meet Cisco's go-to guy on commercial drones

  04-05-2016 13:00
  
  Cisco’s Biren Gandhi hasn’t played around with drones as much as he’d like to, but it looks as though he’s going to have lots of chances to do so given the company’s growing interest in these high-flying Internet of Things devices. Cisco increasingly has made its presence felt within the commercial drone/unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)/unmanned aircraft system (UAS) community, with Gandhi and others speaking at and attending industry conferences such as InterDron
  
  Read more

• Infographic: Commercial drones by the numbers

  04-05-2016 13:00
  
  Here are the latest numbers on commercial drones, including FAA Section 333 exemptions and venture funding. Thanks to CB Insights for its data.
  MORE: Coolest drone projects from big enterprise IT players | Commercial drones gaining altitude with enterprise IT vendors | Meet Cisco's go-to guy on commercial dronesTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: How to customize your Mac’s hard disk icons

  04-05-2016 13:00
  If you find yourself a little bit bored with the default hard disk icons in MacOS, you can change them easily. This can help spice up your Mac’s desktop and give you a chance to have a little bit of fun.I recently did this after reading instructions on the MacStories blog, and I didn’t miss Apple’s rather bland icon after I got rid of it. I’ll share my thoughts about this in more detail below, but here’s how you can change your Mac’s hard disk icons.TJ Luoma r
  
  Read more

• Commercial drones gaining altitude with top IT vendors

  04-05-2016 13:00
  
  Google, Verizon and others are partnering with NASA on an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) traffic management scheme. Microsoft has been working with universities on drone-enabled mosquito traps in an effort to stall infectious diseases from spreading. Cisco has shown off drones whose cameras feed into the company’s collaboration technologies. And AT&T, IBM and Intel have all demonstrated advanced drone-based research.
  All of this activity by enterprise IT vendors in the commercial dron
  
  Read more

• 4 IT companies allowed to use commercial drones

  04-05-2016 13:00
  
  The Federal Aviation Administration has granted approval for more than 5,000 so-called Section 333 exemptions to operate commercial drones over the past year, and among those getting the go ahead are familiar names in the enterprise IT and networking market. 
  Apple, Microsoft, Motorola Solutions and Qualcomm are among those tech vendors we found in the approved petitions database, with stated operations/missions for commercial drones -- also known as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or unma
  
  Read more

• 5 secure habits of the paranoid PC user

  04-05-2016 12:30
  
  We know how it goes: You mean to practice safe computing habits, really you do. But when you fire up your computer, you just want to get stuff done -- and that's when even savvy users begin to cut security corners.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
  Read more

• IBM makes quantum computing available in the cloud

  04-05-2016 12:01
  
  IBM Research is making its quantum processor available to the public via IBM's cloud to any desktop or mobile device.
  "This moment represents the birth of quantum cloud computing," Arvind Krishna, senior vice president and director of IBM Research, said in a statement today. "Quantum computers are very different from today's computers, not only in what they look like and are made of, but more importantly in what they can do. Quantum computing is becoming a reality and it will extend computation
  
  Read more

• Review: HPE’s machine learning cloud overpromises, underdelivers

  04-05-2016 12:00
  
  Developers longing to build more intelligent, more proactive, more personalized apps seem to gain more options with every passing day. With Haven OnDemand, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) has joined the applied machine learning fray, competing directly with IBM Watson Services, Microsoft Cortana Analytics Suite, and several Google ML-based APIs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
  Read more

Follow @ITExecutiveNews on Twitter!