In Part 1 (seen here on Tuesday April 4th), we begin our Q&A with Soma and profile his background. Soma also discusses his main current challenges and how he is solving them. In Part 2 (seen here on Wednesday April 5th), we examine Soma's views on the biggest issues facing the IT industry and business. Here's Part 3 of the Q&A series with Soma where Soma discusses future trends, AJAX/ATLAS...

In Part 1 (seen here in CIM on Tuesday April 4th), we begin our Q&A with Soma and profile his background. Soma also discusses his major current challenges and how he is solving them. Here is Part 2 of the Q&A series with Soma where he discusses the major issues facing the IT industry and businesses. I encourage you to make comments here or send me an e-mail at sibaraki@cips.ca . Discussion...

I believe there is a lot of value in getting information direct from the source and especially an acknowledged authority in software development. Here is Part 1 in the Q&A series with Soma. I encourage you to make comments here or send me an e-mail at sibaraki@cips.ca . Profile: S. "Soma" Somasegar is corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft Corporation . The Developer...

Recently I wrote about an opportunity to work with a company called JDQ and their 3Spheres of Reciprosity program ( www.jdq.com/3spheres ). After being approached by Jon Morris (JDQ President) I was able to help find 2 volunteer developers for an upcoming community IT project for the Surrey Food Bank in BC. Last Friday I attended JDQ's quarterly progress meeting (breakfast was generously supplied...

Today I had the opportunity to talk with Ron Roy, the IT Services manager for the City of Stratford . Ron and his team have recently gone through a migration from Windows NT 4.0 to Windows Server 2003 as well as upgrading from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003. Additionally, Ron’s team have been able to use Virtual Server 2005 to consolidate some older servers and help to reduce both costs and...

Virtualisation takes a number of steps forward... In an announcement today at LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in Boston , Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition will now be available as a free download. What this means is that everyone will be able to make use of the Virtualisation platform for server consolidation, OS and application compatibility, deploying test networks and a huge number...

Margaret's March 20 th and March 28 th blogs, " Global IT Skills shortage fact, or fiction? " triggered discussions both inside and outside the CIM forum: - Most Wanted: a Multi-Specialist with Business Acumen or I.S.P. - What’s a Versatilist - Multi-IT Specialist with Business Acumen=A Versatilist . In part 3, Margaret discusses several practical solutions. I encourage CIM readers to make...

I read Graham's blog " What's a Versatilist " where he rather eloquently expresses his thoughts about the meaning of the term. This was originally going to be a comment to his post however due to it's length, I'm responding as a blog post. What we have now: IT Specialists and Generalists A "Specialist" has deep skills but their range is narrow. Their peers recognize their skills but outside of...

"Take a fling on a startup. Experience will be invaluable. If it fails, you will have gotten valuable training for your next job." Dr. Mike Stonebraker, Founder and CTO, StreamBase Systems Professor at MIT World’s foremost pioneer on RDBMS; founder of INGRES, POSTGRES, Mariposa, Illustra 2005 IEEE John Von Neumann Medal Winner Computer Reseller News Top Five Software Developers...

The term "versatilist" was first mentioned to me by Stephen Ibaraki and we had a very interesting discussion over coffee one day about what it means. For some reason, perhaps peculiar to me, I have difficulty in getting the word to roll of my tongue. Every time I try and think of "versatilist", "virtualist" comes into my head instead. At first I found this quite frustrating and put it down to some...

In an effort to provide you a central location to help keep you up to date on Microsoft news, I'm trying a new feature: Microsoft Newswire. Take a look below… Let me know if this is something that you find useful. Barnaby Daily Newswire Microsoft Business Solutions Gains Stability, Strength CNET - 3/29/2006 Stability and a focused, long-term strategy from Microsoft...

This is the final podcast in a series that is running in the Globe and Mail. These podcasts address some great topics dealing with Productivity in the Canadian market. The previous podcast addressed Collaboration , this final discussion is around IT Security and ROI . The series is available to both read and download at www.globeandmail.com/productivity . Additionally, I will be posting links...

As a UG Leader I know only too well the "volunteer" world. It is definitely not all "sweetness and light" but overall it provides an opportunity for personal satisfaction which is often hard to find in other ways. It may be cliche to say it is about "giving something back" but for those of us who have been given the opportunity to do that, it is certainly part of the story. What better satisfaction...

Margaret's March 20 th blog, "Global IT Skills shortage fact, or fiction?" has been generating discussion outside the CIM forum. I encourage you to make comments here too. Let your views and voice be heard. Part 2 of the series from Margaret Evered: ___________________________________ American actress Billie Burke (1885 - 1970) quoted, " Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese...

I have been following Margaret's March 20 th blog, "Global IT Skills shortage fact, or fiction?' with interest and reading the comments. CIM co-host John and I had a recent discussion on it today, and I just finished an hour with a researcher for the US department of labour O*NET program where they called for input and we discussed these issues and the profile of IT workers in the future. I find Margaret...

I encourage you to obtain a copy of the Financial Post Business April 2006 magazine on news stands ONLY on April 7, 2006 as an insert in the National Post newspaper . For the article on IT security threats, Microsoft security expert Derek Wong provides his valued insights. Derek will also be speaking about the top 10 security threats at INFORMATICS 2006 held in Victoria May 28 th to 30 th . CIPS...

So I was having lunch with this guy from Mainframe ( www.mainframe.ca ) and we were talking about stuff: What Creo was like in the good old days, what's up with the local high-tech scene, and of course, the topic of project management, especially in the field of software development. I of course had a bit to say about managing software development projects but I held back for the most part so as to...

As part of the ongoing IT Manager Interview series , Stephen Ibaraki had the opportunity to interview Karen Ormerod, president and CEO of Osteoporosis Canada. Karen has recently taken Osteoporosis Canada through the process of migrating from a Novell Groupwise environment to a Microsoft Exchange environment. Listen to the interview to get Karen's view on managing the process and the benefits that...

A question I often get is, "How can I progress career-wise and stay ahead?" Invariably, a good strategy is to keep informed. To help you, I am sharing an interview I did this week with Computing Canada (CC) Editor Patricia MacInnis, a leading and respected voice in the Canadian computing scene. Patricia provides insights into these topic areas: Top news items for IT managers in 2005...

By now you can't have failed to have heard of Vista, the desktop portion of the Longhorn project and the next generation of Windows desktop. How much thought have you given to or how much knowledge do you have about the implications as an IT Manager? Well, 3D here we come! It may not be apparent but every screen object in Vista is a 3D object even if it appears as 2D. Have you heard of WinFX? WinFX...

As part of the new IT Manager Interview series , I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Ian Collins, IT Co-ordinator for Lutherwood Child and Family Foundation. Ian has recently gone through the process of migrating from a Novell based environment to a Windows Server based environment. In the interview Ian talks about some of the benefits that they have seen after doing the migration. In...

You may have seen some of Graham’s comments previously on the Canadian IT Managers blog. Having read through them, I decided to invite Graham to become a regular feature here. Enjoy, Barnaby ----------------------------------------------- As IT Managers are you encouraging your employees to go to Code Camps. If not, why not? Sure they are "geek fests" but they are also valuable learning...

There's a new editorial feature, Blogged Down (BD) , in Computing Canada (CC) where editor Patricia MacInnis features an upcoming interview that appears here in the Canadian IT Managers forum (CIM) . Computing Canada (CC) is the oldest, largest, most influential bi-weekly business/technology print publication with an audience that includes more than 42,000 IT decision makers in medium to large enterprises...

I was talking with Margaret Evered recently and she has a lot to say that needs to be heard. Margaret has an impressive 20+ years in IT management and fully appreciates the challenges IT managers have in finding qualified staff and retaining them. I invited Margaret to blog her views in Canada’s only premier forum for IT managers and pros. Margaret brings an impressive background so take the...

Oh my heavens, you're a bright shiny new manager, you've been given a glorious new project to lead and what's this? You can't even go to the can without the janitor giving you advice on what you are doing wrong and how to fix it. How ever did the world turn into such a cruel, callous place? Just wait, it gets better. There was never a product launched nor a project completed if only the person-in-change...