IT management - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Apple's Eddy Cue takes cue from boss, auctions off lunch date for charity

  Apple's chief of Internet software and services, Eddy Cue, has put himself up on the charity auction block.

• 10 changes CEO Nadella wants from Microsoft workers

  CEO Satya Nadella last week gave what amounted to a public tongue-lashing to Microsoft's 127,000 employees, which was followed up by an analyst's report that the company plans to announce layoffs of up to 10% of that number at its quarterly earnings report July 22.

• Nadella dumps Ballmer's 'devices and services', coins his own strategy

  Words matter. And if the words chosen by Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, for the long mission statement he issued last week were any guide, the technology firm's two-year-old "devices and services" strategy is dead.

• Oracle gives sneak peek at its plans for OpenWorld

  Oracle's massive annual OpenWorld conference isn't happening until late September, but the vendor recently unveiled details of nearly 1,800 sessions planned for the event that on balance paint a comprehensive picture of what its customers, partners and competitors can expect.

• The top 10 paying IT jobs: IT careers can prove fruitful

  IT management positions have long paid quite well, but a new survey finds that a lot of other IT jobs are providing big paychecks.

• Chekkt launches, giving enterprise software buyers another Yelp-like marketplace

  The explosive growth of public cloud services has generated a parallel problem: How can companies, especially small businesses and freelancers without the benefit of a dedicated procurement department, filter the flood of choices available for every type of business software and find the one that's best for them?

• If Office comes to Android, will anyone want it?

  The sleuths over at The Verge reported last week that Microsoft is looking for beta testers for the pre-release versions of Office for Android. Despite a slow holiday week, the news traveled pretty fast. If you have an Android tablet, you can sign up at the SharePoint website for recruiting testers.

• MMS: Back to the Basics?

  A long, long time ago, there was an event, usually held in Las Vegas, called the SMS User Conference. (For a full history of MMS, see Rod Trent's article at http://myitforum.com/myitforumwp/docs/the-history-of-mms/.) In 2002, the conference was rebranded as the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS), although that year it was still managed and maintained by Altiris. Over the years MMS grew with Microsoft's management and backing. Microsoft selected the speakers and topics, and the event became more professional as it continued to look more and more like a Microsoft conference rather than a user conference. After MMS 2013, Microsoft decided to "absorb" the Microsoft Management Summit into TechEd, an even larger event and held in Houston in 2014.

• Cisco, NetApp mark progress

  Cisco and NetApp say their FlexPod integrated IT infrastructure reference architecture has generated $US3 billion in joint sales since its launch in 2010. FlexPod unit shipments have grown 81 per cent year-over-year, with demand reaching a $US2 billion annualized run rate.

• IT spending growth to be slower than expected in 2014 due to pricing pressure, Gartner says

  IT research firm Gartner has cut its forecast for global IT spending by about one-third for this year, blaming a tougher competitive environment and subsequent pressure on vendors to lower prices.

• Advice for college students seeking a tech career: Turn to internships

  When Katie Smith interned with Capital One, she expected to spend the summer fetching beverages for her manager -- instead, she started on a career path that led to a full-time IT job at the banking and financial services company.

• The No. 1 midsize place to work in IT: LinkedIn

  The No. 1 midsize place to work in IT may be a 12-year-old company with nearly 3,500 employees, yet LinkedIn still very much has the look and feel of a laid-back and oh-so-cool Silicon Valley startup.

• Best Places spotlight: VMware encourages tech workers to explore ideas

  For Grant Nowell, it's the people that make VMware a great employer. "I work with smart, passionate individuals who share a common vision," he says, adding that the camaraderie gives him and his colleagues "energy to work through complex problems."

• The No. 1 large place to work in IT: Quicken Loans

  Look around the halls at Quicken Loans and you might figure that good times are the reason the financial services firm ranks as Computerworld's No. 1 large place to work in IT for 2014.

• Florida college applies corporate-style security to 'BYOD' campus network

  Can a college campus filled with exuberant students and free-thinking professors armed to the hilt with smartphones and tablets find a way to establish business-like network security and appropriate-use expectations without crimping everyone's style?