Interesting report today in the News-Record in North Carolina. Seems that High Point Regional Healthcare System is now hosting patient blogs on its website -- partly as a means to help drive traffic to their site, but also because it seems to be therapeutic...

Information Week released their recent salary survey . Seems that people in general in this field are more satisfied this year than a year ago. But what was interesting is this finding: "While the majority of the 12,158 IT professionals surveyed...

This must be a millipede -- the other shoes just keep dropping... MSNBC reports today that Ameritrade is the latest to lose customer data. This includes data of former customers! The article reports that information on the missing back up tapes was...

Interesting study from Deloitte in InformationWeek on the generally poor experiences companies have had with outsourcing. Twenty five companies were surveyed and 70% expressed tthat they had significantly negative experiences with outsourcing. The article...

Go check out these: Tony Bailey's Security Guidance Blog -- will post all the lastest security solutions released by Microsoft. Bill Canning's Blog -- he's in the security solutions team and is focused on regulatory compliance Jeff Newfeld's...

Saw this announcement and would encourage you to attend: Webcast on Apr 21 st (this Thursday) at 0800 Pacific on the topic “Server and Domain Isolation Using IPsec and Group Policy”. This is an overview of the MSS guide of the same name, coupled...

I am doing some work around what we need to modify, add, change on the user experience on our IT Solutions page on TechNet. If you have been there, could you post a comment about what works for you and what is missing. For example, for me, there are no...

I am in the middle of some planning for content development. I have been asking IT professionals what they worry about so I'll ask here. O f the following, what is the most most important issue for you next year. Let me know in a comment field. Thanks...

So earlier this week I wrote about reports of large declines in the IT employment sector. The today on TechWeb , I see a report that students should see a growth in recruitment of 8-15% -- the best market in years for engineering grads. So I am confused...

Now wasn't it George H.W. Bush that had the infamous scene in the super market where he looked totally befuddled by the bar code scanner at the check out? So today I see this from Reuters about how George W. doesn't use email. At one point he is quoted...

Windows Server System Reference Architecture (WSSRA) Update We are pleased to announce updated WSSRA materials and an enhanced online navigation experience for delivering core IT service guidance, which integrates Microsoft server products into real...

At the Computers Freedom and Privacy Conference here in Seattle, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced its Policy Laundering Project. What was most interesting to me was one of the examples of what they used to illustrate the need for their...

That is the quote from Senator Arlen Spector yesterday in federal hearings with LexisNexis and the other data brokers. What is described over and over is the relative unsophistication of the attacks -- how about the unsophistication of the data protections...

For those of you that have not had the pleasure of hearing Steve Riley present on security -- I encourage you to look up his sessions at TechEd and other conferences. If you cannot make a conference, you are in luck because he has a forthcoming book ...

A report this morning on CNet describes the possible theft of data on 310,000 US citizens from LexisNexis. The database was breached 59 times using stolen passwords leading to the possible theft of addresses and social security numbers. Too frequently...

I have been tracking what various firms are saying about IT job trends and on TechRepublic today they are reporting huge cuts in IT jobs in the first quarter. These cuts are not due to outsourcing -- but driven by telecom and software mergers and what...

InformationWeek also had an article about an IDC study on the slow growth of IT -- that IT spending is plagued by "good enough" computing. Seems that business managers are asking why they need new IT spend if they can get the same business result from...

Interesting article on InformationWeek site covering many of the same issues I have been talking about over the last week. Really goes at the issue of marrying up IT with the business value it is driving and how often it is disconnected. He offers a five...

There is a great thread that Robert Scoble has created over on Channel 9 about the healthcare industry. I spent much of my career in the healthcare sector and it has always struck me that the technology advances all occur in the revenue producing parts...

Lawrence gives good coverage of our Identity and Access Mangement work. This is work that our security solutions team has been working on over the last two years. Check out the MIIS demo he links to -- what he calls the best ever. Period.

It influences what movies I pick on Netflix, what books I buy on Amazon, and what restaurants I eat at. What I am referring to is the little five star rating system you see so often these days. That little signal from each of us to the other -- hey this...

I forgot about this tool and Eileen reminded me of it -- good thing because my hard drive is making some wacky noises....

Tony writes about writing for blogs -- it is good advice. I am going to follow it.

Last night I got my latest copy of Information Week and on page 16 there was a article that lead with the headline "30% Of Tech Jobs At Risk From Offshoring, Gartner Says." As I was reading it further, down toward the bottom of the page, it stated, "Yet...

Tony Soper posted an article today on Gartner's study of MidMarket IT. It really highlights the point I made in yesterday's post on ROI -- we continue to think IT is something apart from the business rather than a piece of the overall strategy for the...