Stories by Stacy Collett

Storage systems get supersized

Old storage architectures with general-purpose controllers that service all the new functions along with the normal I/O workload won't be able to scale. Here's why storage systems will need to become full-scale storage computers. Insider (registration required)

Wide-Open Search

Twitter, Facebook, the Library of Congress -- all of these institutions have mind-numbing amounts of structured and unstructured data that must be indexed and searched quickly. In Twitter's case, that's about 300 million new pieces of information to index every day.

Techies work harder as benefits go bust

"Richard," a 40-year-old IT architect, felt like his career path had reached its end at the financial services company where he'd worked for seven years. In a shaky economy, he was grateful to have a job at all, but when his employer eliminated matching funds in his 401(k) plan, as well as its profit-sharing program -- which usually put an extra $1,000 in his pocket each year -- he knew he had to go.

Who Holds the Keys?

Encryption can make up for a litany of security snafus -- from a bad firewall to an unrelenting hacker to a lost laptop. Once data is encrypted, criminals can't use or sell it. Plus, if encrypted data goes missing, companies are protected from disclosure requirements in most states. No wonder 38% of companies surveyed by Forrester Research have already adopted full-disk encryption technology. But data protection doesn't stop there. Encryption keys and digital rights also must be well orchestrated and secured, or else encryption protection goes out the window.

Premier 100 IT Leader profile: Puneet Bhasin

Waste Management may be in the business of managing and reducing waste, but it's really a transportation and logistics company with 20,000 trucks driving 100,000 routes daily, according to Puneet Bhasin, 49, senior vice president and CIO.

IT staffers shed 1,500 pounds

With his 50th birthday looming at the end of July in 2010, Frederick Curiel knew he had to lose weight. But as with many IT professionals, the demands of his job had put diet and exercise on the back burner.

Six job-hunting tricks for a Web 2.0 world

If you're sitting in your office right now, take a glance at the co-worker on your left and then at the co-worker on your right. Chances are one of them is looking to leave the company. Or perhaps it's you.

Securing the daisy chain

It's 2 p.m. Do you know where your cloud data is? Really? Executives at one large Fortune 500 company thought they knew, but a routine audit of the cloud provider uncovered a serious problem.

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