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  • IT Best Practices - Size Matters When It Comes to IT Security

    Size Matters When It Comes to IT Security

    IT security remains a major concern, from the largest enterprise to the home office user. The recently conducted Computer Economics IT Security Study looked into a variety of issues related to IT security budgets, incidents, and management practices. This report provides a new analysis of these metrics by applying cross comparison of organizational size with IT security problems. This analysis yields useful insights that IT managers may use to more effectively manage security spending.

    March, 2005

  • Technology Trends - Software Acquisition Trends: 2002—2004

    Software Acquisition Trends: 2002—2004

    Software acquisitions rebounded in 2003 and the projection looks good for 2004 as well, according to the 2003 Information Systems Spending study conducted by Computer Economics, Inc.

    November, 2003

  • IT Best Practices - Aberdeen: New Poster Child for Sloppy Research? (1Q03)

    Aberdeen: New Poster Child for Sloppy Research? (1Q03)

    A recent study, which shows Linux and other open source software suppliers have more security problems than Microsoft, has serious flaws.

    January, 2003

  • IT Spending Benchmarks - Worldwide E-Business Technology Spending Projections 2003 to 2005 (December 2002)

    Worldwide E-Business Technology Spending Projections 2003 to 2005 (December 2002)

    Worldwide e-business spending will reach $80.5 billion in 2003. The United States will account for $33.5 billion of the worldwide total.

    December, 2002

  • IT Spending Benchmarks - B2B Online Usage by Manufacturing Companies (November 2002)

    B2B Online Usage by Manufacturing Companies (November 2002)

    Only 10 percent of the manufacturing plants surveyed were making online payments to vendors in 2000. However about 30 percent plan to be conducting business in this manner by year-end 2002.

    November, 2002

  • Outsourcing - Choosing the Right Off-Shore Outsourcing Company

    Choosing the Right Off-Shore Outsourcing Company

    During the past few years, offshore IT outsourcing has emerged as a viable and economic solution to today's crippling domestic IT worker shortage. Companies have found that offshore IT outsourcing saves them up to 50% or more in total project costs by eliminating personnel recruitment costs, sky-high IT payrolls, and the expenses associated with offering benefits and providing physical space and equipment for new hires.

    September, 2002

  • Technology Trends - Linux: Soon Appearing on a Mainframe Near Everyone?

    Linux: Soon Appearing on a Mainframe Near Everyone?

    As Linux becomes available on more computing platforms, the industry buzz regarding its characteristics, power, and appeal is inescapable and growing.

    September, 2002

  • Technology Trends - Make Knowledge Management Pay Off Through New Collaborations (Dec 2000)

    Make Knowledge Management Pay Off Through New Collaborations (Dec 2000)

    Knowledge management (otherwise known as information sharing, human capital, or intellectual property) has absorbed the efforts and money of many organizations. Unfortunately, many of these often expensive efforts have not led to positive returns. Studies of returns on these efforts frequently show that they fail to achieve their goals and sometimes are not even minimally effective. Typically three-quarters of these projects do not meet full expectations and half are total write-offs.

    August, 2002

  • IT Best Practices - IT Ergonomics Add New Element to TCO

    IT Ergonomics Add New Element to TCO

    The threat of litigation and the filing of widespread workman’s compensation claims are forcing companies to find remedies for the poor ergonomics of standardized off-the-shelf IT products. To determine how large corporations are dealing with this problem, Computer Economics conducted a focus group of 16 companies that reported they had remedies in place. We also contacted five of our associates in the legal field and asked their opinion of potential corporate liability of IT ergonomics.

    August, 2002

  • Technology Trends - Corporate Expenditure Forecasts for CRM

    Corporate Expenditure Forecasts for CRM

    Although Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are still in their technology development phase, companies have spent close to $4 billion on CRM software this year. Factoring in all surrounding expenses, CRM grew to a nearly $50 billion industry in 1999 and is expected to grow significantly through 2003.

    August, 2002

  • IT Best Practices - Trivial Online Secret Sharing: A Secret Splitting Scheme Supporting General Access Structures

    Trivial Online Secret Sharing: A Secret Splitting Scheme Supporting General Access Structures

    In our last analysis, we discussed a variety of secret sharing techniques. In this analysis, we will discuss a specific secret sharing scheme. The scheme was developed by Christian Cachin and published in 1995. It overcomes some limitations found in earlier techniques.

    August, 2002

  • Technology Trends - In Search of Data Warehousing Success (Jul 2000)

    In Search of Data Warehousing Success (Jul 2000)

    The promise of data warehousing has long outweighed the reality. We receive numerous requests from clients for advice on managing and benchmarking data warehousing projects. We have helped to develop budgets, long-range implementation plans, and determine potential return on investment for several of our clients.

    August, 2002

  • IT Best Practices - System Management 101: Crash Dumps and You (Jun 2000)

    System Management 101: Crash Dumps and You (Jun 2000)

    Few things are more important to a system manager than clean data. None of us ever wants any of our systems to crash, but they do, and we need to be prepared for that inevitability. The single best way, and sometimes the only way, to figure out what killed your system is to analyze the crash dump.

    August, 2002

  • Outsourcing - When Outsourcing, Know The Limits of Your Software Licenses (July 2002)

    When Outsourcing, Know The Limits of Your Software Licenses (July 2002)

    The decision to outsource requires careful review of the terms of the applicable software licenses. Likewise, whenever negotiating a new software license, you should seek appropriate terms to accommodate your outsourcing plans. If some or all IT operations may be outsourced at some point, the terms should be established with the vendor at the time the contract is being negotiated.

    July, 2002

  • Technology Trends - Emphasize Storage Management Over Storage Capacity (July 2002)

    Emphasize Storage Management Over Storage Capacity (July 2002)

    With disk storage only costing about 5 cents per megabyte, many IT managers fall into the trap of believing that increasing capacity is the economical way to go. These managers fail to realize that the management, operation, and maintenance of those disks will annually cost them 50 cents per megabyte or more.

    July, 2002