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April 2005 - Posts

Just what the doctor ordered...

Posted Wednesday, April 27, 2005 12:42 PM by breid
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 Read More...
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Salary Survey Released

Posted Tuesday, April 26, 2005 8:22 PM by breid
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 say they're Read More...
2 Comments

And another shoe falls...

Posted Wednesday, April 20, 2005 2:32 PM by breid
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 not Read More...
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To Outsource or Not

Posted Wednesday, April 20, 2005 2:10 PM by breid
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 Read More...
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Some favorite IT Pro blogs, part 1

Posted Tuesday, April 19, 2005 4:49 PM by breid
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 Security Read More...
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IPsec Webcast this Thursday

Posted Monday, April 18, 2005 7:19 PM by breid
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 with Read More...
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Ever been to IT Solutions Page?

Posted Monday, April 18, 2005 1:34 PM by breid
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 Read More...
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What are you worried about over the next year or two?

Posted Monday, April 18, 2005 1:22 PM by breid
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. Read More...
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Are there jobs or not?

Posted Friday, April 15, 2005 2:05 PM by breid
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. Read More...
3 Comments

Like father like son

Posted Friday, April 15, 2005 1:50 PM by breid
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 Read More...
2 Comments

Windows Server System Reference Architecture Update

Posted Thursday, April 14, 2005 1:35 PM by breid
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 world Read More...
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RFID for supply chains, Yes! For people, well....

Posted Thursday, April 14, 2005 10:44 AM by breid
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 Read More...
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My conclusion is we need federal legislation

Posted Thursday, April 14, 2005 10:14 AM by breid
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? Read More...
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Just placed my pre-order

Posted Tuesday, April 12, 2005 7:20 PM by breid
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 , Read More...
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This is getting rediculous...

Posted Tuesday, April 12, 2005 9:55 AM by breid
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 Read More...
3 Comments

More jobs going away

Posted Tuesday, April 12, 2005 9:35 AM by breid
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 Read More...
2 Comments

Can you blame them?

Posted Monday, April 11, 2005 4:51 PM by breid
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 Read More...
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More on business and IT

Posted Monday, April 11, 2005 4:46 PM by breid
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 Read More...
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Healthy way to invest in healthcare IT

Posted Friday, April 08, 2005 10:52 AM by breid
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 Read More...
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Who goes there?

Posted Friday, April 08, 2005 10:42 AM by breid
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. Read More...
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Five Stars

Posted Friday, April 08, 2005 10:32 AM by breid
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 Read More...
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Thank you Eileen

Posted Thursday, April 07, 2005 9:21 PM by breid
I forgot about this tool and Eileen reminded me of it -- good thing because my hard drive is making some wacky noises.... Read More...
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Tripped over a blog

Posted Thursday, April 07, 2005 9:12 PM by breid
Tony writes about writing for blogs -- it is good advice. I am going to follow it. Read More...
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Is outsourcing really the threat?

Posted Thursday, April 07, 2005 10:23 AM by breid
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 Read More...
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Two sides, but one coin

Posted Thursday, April 07, 2005 10:03 AM by breid
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 Read More...
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ROI for IT is misdirected -- its about what you do with it

Posted Wednesday, April 06, 2005 1:18 PM by breid
I often hear people ask for the ROI for a technology investment. This seems to me to be misdirected -- kinda like asking what is the ROI of a table saw. In the hands of a skilled carpenter, the potential return on the investment is huge, whereas in my Read More...
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Know about MOF -- the Microsoft Operations Framework?

Posted Tuesday, April 05, 2005 11:17 AM by breid
We relaunched our Microsoft Operations Framework content -- check it out at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions . The link to this as at the top of the page. This is content that really allows you to improve the reliability of your IT environment. Read More...
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Do you read at work?

Posted Tuesday, April 05, 2005 11:07 AM by breid
I used to travel a lot for work and I found that the plane time was a great opportunity for reading and catching up on journals and trade pubs. Today, I spend more time at home and find that I am reading a lot less than I once did. I find that it is hard Read More...
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What will it take to make cyber insurance work?

Posted Tuesday, April 05, 2005 10:50 AM by breid
Ever buy life insurance? Couple of years ago, I bought a new term insurance plan and noticed that the underwriter wanted answers to about 30 questions and a physicial exam. Based on these questions, and leverging a huge actuarial base, they were able Read More...
1 Comments

TechEd Birds of a Feather Wish List

Posted Monday, April 04, 2005 5:43 PM by breid
I am now putting together Birds of a Feather sessions for my team at TechEd. If you could have us set up and support any session topic around IT Professional issues - what topics would you like to see covered? What teams would you like to be able to sit Read More...
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Which of the following...

Posted Monday, April 04, 2005 5:32 PM by breid
Which of the following do you rate the highest in priority for you? RFID Storage -- SAN, NAS Virtualization Regulatory Compliance Disaster Recovery Interested in your thoughts because we are doing some planning on what to build guidance around next. Thanks Read More...
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A Rose By Any Other Name...

Posted Monday, April 04, 2005 5:28 PM by breid
Our team builds what I like to think of as guidance and automation, but we have really struggled around what to call this stuff -- so we have used terms like "prescriptive guidance", "solutions", "Solution Accelerators", "Guides". Each is close but not Read More...
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One of my favorite community sites

Posted Friday, April 01, 2005 10:57 AM by breid
I really like what Lee Lefever is doing at Common Craft -- http://www.commoncraft.com -- he has some great insights on what makes for a healthy online community. I encourage you to go check it out. Lee and I first met back in the late 90's when he first Read More...
2 Comments

Get feedback

Posted Friday, April 01, 2005 10:53 AM by breid
We have been talking a lot internally about how to get feedback on what we spend our time building. We wonder a lot about whether we are building the right guidance, at the right level, at the right time. We struggle with are we being too verbose or not Read More...
1 Comments

How do you learn?

Posted Friday, April 01, 2005 10:34 AM by breid
I spent much of the fall out observing customers do their work and seeing how you all solve problems. Here is what I found -- books are a good resource when you are first taking on a new role or job, but after that they are really social wallpaper -- Read More...
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