it strategy - News, Features, and Slideshows

Features

• Why enterprises are embracing rogue IT

  Rogue IT, a term used to describe something as commonplace as an employee bringing a smartphone to work or using a cloud-based service to back up files, exists for many reasons. Sometimes it's because the software offered by a company doesn't offer enough features -- maybe an employee can't send an attachment to a client so they turn to Gmail or Dropbox. Other times, it's simply a result of technology's place in our everyday lives -- most people don't think twice about using their smartphone on the company Wi-Fi.

• 6 Ways CIOs Are Moving to the Digital Enterprise

  The newest buzzword in IT is digital enterprise – a company with all-digital customer interactions, processes, jobs and information that's fast and easy to access. A panel of CIOs and a CMO at the recent CIO Perspectives Chicago event to talk about how companies are becoming fully digital and addressing the challenges associated with it.

• CBS Interactive CIO Says Shadow IT Is an Opportunity

  The term "shadow IT" has become a bugbear for IT organizations in recent years, an unknown that brings to mind security vulnerabilities or even suggests IT's creeping irrelevance to the business. But CBS Interactive CIO Steve Comstock says that's the wrong way to think of shadow IT. Instead, he says, IT should view shadow IT as an opportunity to understand the business and how to be an actual partner that understands the business's needs.

• Microsoft scrambles to simplify its licensing

  Microsoft is pledging dramatic improvements to its notoriously complex enterprise licensing, but experts are skeptical about the potential impact of the plan.

• After getting star billing, Oracle's Fusion Applications take a supporting role

  Last week's OpenWorld conference made on thing clear: Oracle remains committed to its next-generation Fusion Applications but massive growth in the product line is probably not around the corner.

• With thick skin, Google CIO finds job rewarding

  When Ben Fried left his post as IT managing director at Morgan Stanley and took over as Google's CIO in May 2008, he knew what he was getting into: supporting a user base full of technology experts and computer industry stars, like co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, CEO Eric Schmidt and Vice President Vint Cerf. In a recent interview with IDG News Service, Fried spoke candidly about his job and shared tips and advice for fellow CIOs, including the urgent need for tablet device strategies. An edited transcript of the interview follows.

• Bringing IT and the Business Together

  Funny thing about the word "and." You would think it would function as a connector, a word that implies the togetherness of two entities, like "stars and stripes" or "franks and beans." Yet the phrase "IT and the business" does not work that way. Rather, it connotes separateness and difference, creating an "us and them" perception that belies the actual embedded condition of IT.