Outsourcing is closely tied to an IT organization's staffing plans. Overall, our survey of IT managers suggests that outsourcing is up. In fact, the trend for outsourcing appears to have really caught on. The number of respondents who outsource work now or plan to outsource jumped to 71% in this year's survey. That's up by about 13% from the 2009 survey.

There have been a number of recent developments pertaining to the use of MapReduce1 and its open source equivalent, Hadoop.2 These developments are important because they should help spur greater use of MapReduce and Hadoop by traditional enterprises looking to take advantage of their big data assets by implementing applications that can rapidly process vast amounts of dat

IS strategy is the organizational perspective on the investment, deployment, use, and management of information systems.1 Even though each individual business and IS executive may have his or her own particular view of IS, organizational IS strategy reflects the collective view shared across the upper echelon of the organization.2 An IS strategy determines if, when, how, and the extent to which a company will innovate with IS.3 Research by Daniel Chen et al.

IS strategy is the organizational perspective on the investment, deployment, use, and management of information systems.1 Even though each individual business and IS executive may have his or her own particular view of IS, organizational IS strategy reflects the collective view shared across the upper echelon of the organization.2 An IS strategy determines if, when, how, and the extent to which a company will innovate with IS.3 Research by Daniel Chen et al.

One of the beautiful things about agile is its simplicity: Scrum consists of three roles, three artifacts, and three plus one practices; XP provides 21 practices; and FDD comes on a single sheet of paper. In fact, we have printed an overview of Scrum onto a beer mat. Sounds easy, doesn't it?

A variety of psychological tests have shown that people are bad at estimating risk.

A variety of psychological tests have shown that people are bad at estimating risk.

A variety of psychological tests have shown that people are bad at estimating risk.

During this on-demand webinar, William Ulrich helps you expand the value proposition of your business architecture to facilitate strategic planning, address executive priorities, deliver customer value, leverage investments in major initiatives and deploy horizontal solutions across business units.

During this on-demand webinar, William Ulrich helps you expand the value proposition of your business architecture to facilitate strategic planning, address executive priorities, deliver customer value, leverage investments in major initiatives and deploy horizontal solutions across business units.

In February and March 2010, Cutter Consortium conducted a survey that asked 99 end-user organizations about their various data warehousing, BI, and other analytic technologies and practices. One set of questions sought to determine corporate adoption and usage trends for high-performance analytic databases.1

Have you ever noticed a team and thought -- that's a good team? What is it that makes them good? Smart people? Dedicated people? Knowledgeable people? All of the above? Actually, the most important quality is none of the above.

Have you ever noticed a team and thought -- that's a good team? What is it that makes them good? Smart people? Dedicated people? Knowledgeable people? All of the above? Actually, the most important quality is none of the above.

As social networking and Web 2.0 applications continue to enter the workplace and rise in importance, it is crucial to be aware that they bring new risks along with new opportunities. Although relatively few companies have as yet introduced strong codes for using these applications, the risks of unrestricted access are beginning to become apparent.

As social networking and Web 2.0 applications continue to enter the workplace and rise in importance, it is crucial to be aware that they bring new risks along with new opportunities. Although relatively few companies have as yet introduced strong codes for using these applications, the risks of unrestricted access are beginning to become apparent.

This is the first Executive Update in a three-part series discussing the variety of ways in which organizations, particularly commercial firms, are leveraging virtual worlds to create and capture value. In this Update, I lay out the conceptual foundation for the discussion.

This is the first Executive Update in a three-part series discussing the variety of ways in which organizations, particularly commercial firms, are leveraging virtual worlds to create and capture value. In this Update, I lay out the conceptual foundation for the discussion.

During this on-demand webinar, William Ulrich helps you expand the value proposition of your business architecture to facilitate strategic planning, address executive priorities, deliver customer value, leverage investments in major initiatives and deploy horizontal solutions across business units.

Last month, I wrote about the difficulty IT organizations have in achieving effective integration with business (see "An Attitude Persists: Thinking Business? -- Hah!" 5 May 2010).

The recently published Information Systems Transformation: Architecture-Driven Modernization Case Studies, which I wrote with Philip H.

Several readers have contacted me asking how complex event processing (CEP) and other streaming analytics systems compare to BI and real-time analytics, such as business activity monitoring (BAM). This is a logical question, given that CEP and real-time BI and data warehousing are sometimes spoken of together.

In a bit of technological determinism, Nicholas Carr suggests that the Internet is making us dumber.

In a bit of technological determinism, Nicholas Carr suggests that the Internet is making us dumber.

Because this week is “International Green IT Awareness Week,” I thought I would take a look at how “green IT” and enterprise risk management intersect.

First, what is “green IT”?

Because this week is “International Green IT Awareness Week,” I thought I would take a look at how “green IT” and enterprise risk management intersect.

First, what is “green IT”?