As is the case with many technology innovations compared to existing solutions, the market price starts high and the benefits taken in the context of the costs involved start low. Price and benefits move toward each other until joining at that inflection point of value where the innovation presents an affordable alternative to the existing technology. We might be quickly approaching the affordability inflection point in solid-state storage.

As is the case with many technology innovations compared to existing solutions, the market price starts high and the benefits taken in the context of the costs involved start low. Price and benefits move toward each other until joining at that inflection point of value where the innovation presents an affordable alternative to the existing technology. We might be quickly approaching the affordability inflection point in solid-state storage.

As is the case with many technology innovations compared to existing solutions, the market price starts high and the benefits taken in the context of the costs involved start low. Price and benefits move toward each other until joining at that inflection point of value where the innovation presents an affordable alternative to the existing technology. We might be quickly approaching the affordability inflection point in solid-state storage.

Looking to the future, we see a new revolution looming. The Industrial Revolution transformed life in the developed economies and is beginning to do the same for the rest of the world. However, the Industrial Revolution depends on limitless amounts of energy and supplies -- which we're (finally!) discovering that we don't have.

Looking to the future, we see a new revolution looming. The Industrial Revolution transformed life in the developed economies and is beginning to do the same for the rest of the world. However, the Industrial Revolution depends on limitless amounts of energy and supplies -- which we're (finally!) discovering that we don't have.

In this Advisor, I pick up on our conversation on the "Experience Analysis and Design" (EAD) methodology (see "EAD: The Architecture of the Customer Experience, Part 1," 2 January 2008, "EAD: The Architecture of the Customer Experience, Part 2," 23 January

A little over a year ago, I wrote an Advisor called "Should Your Architect Write Code?" (29 November 2006). In it, I gave the typical consultant's answer: "it depends." Each organization is different, and each has more or less different requirements for their architects.

Many organizations continue to underestimate end-user training requirements for their business performance management efforts. This finding comes from a recent Cutter Consortium survey conducted in January 2008 of 101 end-user organizations (based worldwide).

I recall a conference presentation titled "Software engineering? An Oxymoron?" that I attended about five years ago. The speaker was pushing the idea that the software development practice had to borrow concepts from the engineering domain, where the formal approach in design and build was a common practice consolidated over 2,000 years.

This Executive Report by Carl Pritchard uses lessons learned from three classic examples to get at the heart of risk perception and risk management.

Communication is the essence of productivity. For decades, technology professionals treated the uninitiated -- the nontechnology executives and managers -- as though they were somehow inferior to the keepers of the digitalia.

It's in our interest as technology professionals to deliver the right message to nontechnology folks in order to help them understand major technology trends, opportunities, and best practices.

Coaching is one of the fastest-growing consulting services of the 21st century. Much like the athletic coach committed to taking athletes to higher levels of performance, the business or leadership coach empowers individuals and teams to achieve their best. Coaching is increasingly being used by organizations as part of a leadership and management development strategy -- as a tool to help leaders enhance their skills and as a powerful means for people to learn and achieve their potential.

Service-level agreements (SLAs) represent formally negotiated contracts between two parties: the provider and the recipient. These are extremely important documents that provide a common understanding about the levels of availability, serviceability, performance, operations, or other attributes of a service such as billing and penalties.

Industry experts often discuss enterprise architecture (EA) in terms of the following two ideas:

As a purely business function, translating enterprise missions and visions into strategic goals, and then tracking the implementation results so that operations are optimized without immediate considerations of technology

This Executive Update is the first in a two-part series that looks at the results of a recent Cutter survey on the use of enterprise application mashups in organizations. 1 Here in Part I, we look at the different ways to define enterprise mashups, evaluate the use of and interest in mashups in organizations, and examine the use of best-of-breed resources.

This issue focuses on the management of the agile enterprise and on understanding how organizations can facilitate and foster agile practices through investments in IT infrastructure and technology practices. As such, the survey our contributors crafted tackles issues of strategy, relative positioning and competition, as well as technology infrastructure, software development methodologies, and IT architecture.

As I write this article in the spring of 2008, the need for enterprise agility is once again a topic on the minds of executives everywhere. Stock market gyrations push prices down 3% one day, up 4% the next. Firms that months before had record profits struggle to stay alive.

The term "agile," which has gained increasing popularity in today's IT and larger business world, is applied as an adjective to a variety of activities, ranging from computer programming to organizational behavior. The word agile stems from the Latin agere, an imperative form of the verb ago, meaning do or drive (or sometimes "drive back," a meaning that might resonate with harried IT practitioners).

This issue of CBR focused on a very important and timely topic: enterprise agility. It is also the third issue of CBR to center on agility; these installments looked at agility from various angles: the technical, the strategic, and now the managerial. Enterprise agility calls for structuring the unstructured, for institutionalizing improvisation. It requires that the organization become adept at reacting with speed and precision to changes in the competitive environment, customer needs, and any other change of significant magnitude.

This survey investigated enterprise agility and its relationship to IT infrastructure. Nineteen percent of the 124 respondents come from companies with more than 10,000 employees, 28% from companies with between 1,000 and 10,000 employees, 33% from companies with between 100 and 1,000 employees, and the remainder from companies with less than 100 employees.

Real-time location systems (RTLS) and wireless sensor networks (WSN) are now more practical and affordable, as they make use of existing wireless networks (such as 802.11) versus requiring proprietary networks. This Executive Report by Louis Sirico and Dann Anthony Maurno examines the state of the technology today, the practicalities of implementing wireless RTLS and WSN, and both the return on investment and cost of ownership of these technologies.

Real-time location systems (RTLS) and wireless sensor networks (WSN) are now more practical and affordable, as they make use of existing wireless networks (such as 802.11) versus requiring proprietary networks. This Executive Report by Louis Sirico and Dann Anthony Maurno examines the state of the technology today, the practicalities of implementing wireless RTLS and WSN, and both the return on investment and cost of ownership of these technologies.

Companies that have been slow to adopt asset tracking systems and wireless sensor monitoring are finding the leap to these technologies much shorter now than in years past. The biggest barrier to deploying real-time location systems (RTLS) and wireless sensor networks (WSN) was always the cost of installing a dedicated wireless network. Enterprises were understandably slow to implement proprietary networks and technologies that were neither scalable nor product-agnostic.

While we are still trying to get our heads around the concepts and terminologies surrounding the Semantic Web, hints of a "Pragmatic Web" are finding their way into conversations and exchanges as some important new idea that is lurking in the background and hasn't quite yet made it onto the IT agenda.