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The next evolution of storage

The last 15 years was the era of the controller-based storage array. As organisations built ever large storage networks the storage array grew in both capacity and functionality. These devices are now extremely powerful, but for many organisations they are overly complex and the unit cost of storage is very high compared to low end storage. As the controller-based storage array reaches its plateau of maturity it is ripe for displacement by a disruptive innovation. While no clear product has yet emerged there are four interesting candidates that should be examined to see how storage technology will evolve over the next five years.
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Content and records management: Changing principles

Electronic documents and records management solutions (EDRMS) from yesteryear are failing to provide the flexibility and collaborative experiences that today’s organisations require. In most organisations, less than 10% of content has been placed in existing EDRMSs. However, investing in a new EDRMS will not result in greater satisfaction levels if new principles are not first adopted.
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My e- Government

Web delivered applications, along with specific Web 2.0 tools, have created new, and possibly higher expectations of online interaction from users. As government, at all levels except local, continues to examine ways to deploy these tools and raise its interactive capabilities, it will have to develop customer-centric techniques and possibly behaviour too, or else stumble in the attempt. In evolving customised government channels the planning process will need greater attention than has hitherto been given to government channels and website content management. In addition, considerations of technology deployment will require a deeper level of strategic priorities and future proofing.
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Failure to launch? Count down to project success

Failed projects are newsworthy again. The most recent report from the Standish Group, which has studied over 70,000 IT-based projects since 1985, indicates that project failure levels reached new heights during the GFC. Prima facie, this is counterintuitive. Additional controls (such as closer scrutiny and reduced tolerance levels on spending) and cautionary approaches have typified executive responses to the GFC. However, cost-cutting to meet agreed targets and attempting to hasten project delivery in an already resource-lean environment will have contributed to this result. IBRS believes the seeds of project failure are planted early. Above and beyond the requirements dictated by a project management methodology, six principal factors need to be considered before launching mission-critical projects.
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Getting value out of value chain analysis

Value chain analysis is one of the fastest ways to understand the essence of a business or an organisation, provided appropriate techniques are used in the analysis. The only concepts needed for recording value chains are roles, systems, artefacts, the links between these concepts, and a distinction between artefacts that are exchanged with other organisations and artefacts that are only relevant within the organisation. One of the biggest pitfalls in value chain analysis is to lose track of the big picture, and to get lost in the details – which can easily be avoided by following a small set of best practices to avoid work that does not add value.
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Enterprise Governance of IT – A Synopsis

The need for an overarching framework to drive business value from IT through value management processes, supported by mature delivery service processes has prompted the need for an enterprise-wide approach to IT governance1
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Harnessing the power of an IT security professional

Security professionals are valuable not only for what they know, but also for how they think. However, this style of thinking can often result in them being alienated for “being too negative”. An alienated security professional is a waste of resources, so CIOs should adopt DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats, a thinking exercise based on role-play, to ensure that they get the most value out of their security people.
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Sourcing Monthly - May 2010 - June 2010

This month has been very surreal in terms of IT industry news. The ICT industry in general is starting to look like a TV drama series, with law suits (public and private), regulatory investigations, compliance investigations, law enforcement investigations, complaints against IT companies, suspicions of regulatory breaches, you name it! Lawyers have been very busy this month. Seems like tight economic conditions, increased awareness of weaknesses in both company and public protocols when it comes to ICT has made institutions more aggressive (and defensive) when breaches or suspected breaches (of anything) occur, giving these types of things a much higher profile in IT news.