December, 2005

Wow, great things happen while your away. As you know, I've been offline for the last week and when I came back it was to some great news! My friend and co-blogger Stephen Ibaraki was announced as the recipient of the "2005 IT Leadership: Lifetime Achievement Award. Now that is really great news!! Congratulations Stephen, it nice to see someone that gives so much get recognized. The official...

I had a wonderful conversation with Dr. Maria Klawe . She is a World Renowned Computer Scientist, past Dean of Science at UBC and current Dean of Engineering at Princeton. Talk about a prominent Canadian; her ideas are so important that this summer Maria was the moderator at the world computer science faculty summit where she fielded questions with Bill Gates. In fact we talked about this important...

Anticipating market shifts and their severe impact on IT careers and their evolution are a definite passion of mine. This stems from my days as a college teacher as I always wanted to make sure my students were best prepared for the industry today and for the longer term. You don't want to be in a situation where BOOM! - no job or you are experiencing unsettling career uncertainty; sweating the changes...

Everywhere I go, security is a top issue. In every interview, when I ask for the top five concerns, invariably security comes up. Plus in surveys of IT managers, it’s a consistent hot item. So what does it take to be a good CISO (Chief Information Security Officer)? Where should you be heading in your security plans? I found this article hits the bulls-eye and it’s worth a quick scan. I have taken...

There are good arguments for moving to x64 or at least strategically have it on your upgrade plans for 2006. These 4 questions provide a starter: Is the industry moving in this direction so I don’t get caught unprepared? According to IDC reports, x64 servers now out-ship 32-bit servers. Prices are essentially identical between x86 and x64 for server and workstation-class computers. The prices...

Have you checked out the Microsoft IT Showcase? I think it pretty cool and shows how we use and test our technology in our IT enviroment. It gives IT professionals a unique, insider view into Microsoft's process of developing, deploying, and managing its own enterprise solutions. Here you will find technical case studies, white papers, presentations and more, direct from Microsoft IT, that highlight...

Last night I had the honour to be included a panel about blogging at the Canadian public relations society. The enthusiastic feedback and questions from the attendees really highlighted the growing interest in blogging. Michael O Connor Clarke lead a great conversation with Rick Segal , Mark Evans , Jack Kapica , Geoffrey Rockwell , and myself fielding some wonderful and challenging questions. You...

John did a great blog on RSS that is very useful, but let us step back and talk about corporate Blogs which drive RSS. I believe Blogs are the richest form of current information available and if you don’t tap into them extensively as IT Managers/Professionals, you are missing a great resource. And, they represent a real opportunity for you to stay ahead of your clientele if you initiate one for your...

I love seeing this, especially when it's recognized throughout the technical community. Being a manager that is not in Redmond; sometimes it's hard to see the impact of how we have evolved our development cycle. For us to ship this on time is another example that we are getting better at being predictable. I know that there will be some challenges along the way and lessons to be learned, yet from a...

After feeling the pinch of the IT slowdown for the last six years, I'm glad to hear some good news. This means better times for you IT managers. IT hiring is up 4% across the country with demand as high as 100% in Montreal, 79% in Edmonton and 60% in Vancouver and the strongest 3rd quarter in the past 3 years. And as you have seen in the blog posts here, the market is hot for combined business...

You are too busy! You don't have time to search! You must be thinking, “What’s the one best site for the new product launch information.” I just finished interviewing Ilya Bukshteyn for CIPS on Monday, so I put the question to him Monday night. “As the resident guru at Microsoft Redmond, what is the one *best* site for this information.” Ilya, recommended: http://www.microsoft.com/launch2005 ...

Today I'm off for a few weeks as my wife is about to give birth to our new child on monday. It all seems so planned and matter of fact as she is having a Ceserian bith. I'm looking forward to the time spent with my family yet I know as a manager nobody does my job while I'm away. I think I have a good plan in place and I've delegated different roles to my team and my boss as well as my peers are handling...

Dave stepped down as our president this past Friday. Over the past year, in parallel with his successes at Microsoft he has had some family challenges. He felt it was best for his family to be together under the circumstances. In a company meeting on Friday Dave showed by his actions once again why's he's a great leader. You could tell from his comments and expressions, that it was not easy decision...

As per my previous post we have a new president at MS Canada.... Phil Sorgen! We had a chance to meet Phil on Friday and it was good to see how our Canadian leadership team spoke so highly of him. Phil comes at a busy time for us as we go through our mid year planning. The good thing is he is no stranger to many of our leadership team as they have already worked together on many activities. Phil...

Today, We streamed a webcast featuring Bob Muglia to kick off the launch of Windows Server 2003 R2. The webcast included key R2 news announcements, product messages, customer testimonials, product demonstration and supporting videos from key OEM partners. On demand viewing of the launch webcast, along with other product demonstrations, is available on the public Windows Server 2003 R2 launch site...

Our holiday break is upon us…time flies so fast doesn’t it. I want to thank John for his leadership in providing a special forum to connect and collaborate with you. I’m very much enjoying this experience and I look forward to 2006 where we can connect even more. We started this partnership on November 28th and we are continuing to learn from each other and from you. Through this forum, instant...

It’s great to see Bill and Melinda Gates along with Bono be named Time persons of 2005. They have approached similar problems in a different manner and I feel that each have been a great role model to all of us. I know from my conversations with many of you. You have been involved in donating your time or money and giving what you can. I have only done a little with giving my time and some money yet...

It’s been almost a month since we’ve started this endeavour and I’m really happy with the comments from everyone and the progress that we’ve made. Partnering with CIPS and Stephen has been a wonderful experience and I look forward to what more we can do in the future! Thanks to everyone that has commented, emailed and taken the time to talk to us. For each of you I hope that this forum is a useful...

Wireless must be driving some of you to distraction! I find it so liberating but also troublesome too. Here are essential good practices and guidelines for IT Managers that I have found useful. They come from an interview I did with top wireless security expert, Sumit Deshpande, VP of the Wireless Solutions Group for Computer Associates. Look at this sampling of questions I pose to Sumit....

Good News I just finished a post on security since it consistently ranks amongst the top three IT concerns. I found this news released today compelling since it gives assurances that there is a strong commitment to security. This means less headaches for you. According to Charles Kolodgy, research director of Security Products at IDC, “ Microsoft continues to build on its Trustworthy Computing...

Interesting interview on Steve Balmers Speech writer at channel 9. Check out http://channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?postid=143212 "Did you know that Steve Ballmer gives between 125 and 150 talks a year? Do you know what it’s like to write, coordinate, organize, compose, direct and manage those 125+ speeches a year for one of the busiest CEO’s in the world? Watch this video with Katy Hunter who...

As a long-time educator, this is my hot button—funding: through software donations, support for research, teacher and curriculum development. I applaud this move by Microsoft to provide $4.5M for partnerships with Canadian schools and community organizations through the Microsoft Programs: Partners in Learning and Unlimited Potential. Ballmer also spoke on another topic that I believe in, using...

This forum is about connecting and engaging with you as IT Managers and I thought it would be great to bring that to another level. I have a passion about doing interviews with the top experts in IT from business, industry, education, and government and I’m going to bring this connection to you, in this forum. Let us work together in creating an environment where they can share their work, views...

I just finished putting my son down for the night and while I was waiting to make sure he was asleep, I took advantage of the time to tale a look at other MS blogs. I'm always on the look for good productivity tips that help me day to day and I thought that I'd share what I found at John Howard blog. He shows us how to display multiple timezones in your Outlook Calendar. For me this is really useful...

I thought this was a great internal microsoft perspective on how we are using a dual CIO role. This past July Stuart Scott joined Microsoft to serve alongside Ron Markezich as one of two CIOs, in the interview he discusses his views on the role and the increasing importance of IT to the organization. I thought this was timely and relevant given our recent posts. As well it highlight what could potentially...