How to manage IT in a growing business: Appointing a CIO

Although vendor-written, this contributed piece does not promote a product or service and has been edited and approved by Network World editors.

Timing is everything when hiring a CIO. The primary function of a CIO is to be forward-looking for developing and implementing IT initiatives, but it can be difficult for a CIO to fulfill this duty if he or she is brought in too late and provided with inadequate technologies and processes. The earlier a company invests in a CIO, the earlier everyone can be in tune with what will make the business most efficient. But most companies don’t know when it’s too early and when it’s too late.

In the first article of this three-part series on the IT Lifecycle, I discussed recommendations for when to hire an IT consultant, and what to consider when doing so. During this process, it’s important to recognize when a CIO will be a valuable addition. In this second part of the series, I will continue to follow Joe’s Widget Shop, a hypothetical software development company, as they move onto the next stage in the IT lifecycle. I’ll provide you with insight on what to look for when appointing a CIO Continue reading

DARPA moves toward spacecraft that can fly 10X in 10-days

DARPA this month will explain what it wants in the next development phase of its reusable Mach 10 satellite taxi capable of carrying and deploying a 3,000- 5,000 lb. satellite into low earth orbit (LEO) at a target cost of less than $5M per launch.+More on Network World: DARPA: Show us how to weaponize benign technologies+DARPA’s Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) system would have a reusable first stage that would fly to hypersonic speeds at a suborbital altitude. At that point, one or more expendable upper stages would separate and deploy a satellite LEO. The reusable first stage would then return to earth, land and be prepared for the next flight. Modular components, durable thermal protection systems and automatic launch, flight and recovery systems should significantly reduce logistical needs, enabling rapid turnaround between flights.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to manage IT in a growing business: Using consultants

Although vendor-written, this contributed piece does not promote a product or service and has been edited and approved by Network World editors. Few companies are founded with a CIO. For many, the first IT “hire” is the company’s founder, whose job description may include activities like IT purchasing, networking and IT support, alongside planning, marketing and business development. Eventually, that changes. But when? And how? In my role as a chief operations officer, I’ve helped many companies build out their IT operations as they grow from startups to SMBs and beyond. In this three-part series, I’ll explain the IT life cycle of a hypothetical startup called Joe’s Widget Shop, a software development company.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DARPA moves toward spacecraft that can fly 10X in 10-days

DARPA this month will explain what it wants in the next development phase of its reusable Mach 10 satellite taxi capable of carrying and deploying a 3,000- 5,000 lb. satellite into low earth orbit (LEO) at a target cost of less than $5M per launch.+More on Network World: DARPA: Show us how to weaponize benign technologies+DARPA’s Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) system would have a reusable first stage that would fly to hypersonic speeds at a suborbital altitude. At that point, one or more expendable upper stages would separate and deploy a satellite LEO. The reusable first stage would then return to earth, land and be prepared for the next flight. Modular components, durable thermal protection systems and automatic launch, flight and recovery systems should significantly reduce logistical needs, enabling rapid turnaround between flights.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to manage IT in a growing business: Using consultants

Although vendor-written, this contributed piece does not promote a product or service and has been edited and approved by Network World editors.

Few companies are founded with a CIO. For many, the first IT “hire” is the company’s founder, whose job description may include activities like IT purchasing, networking and IT support, alongside planning, marketing and business development. Eventually, that changes. But when? And how?

In my role as a chief operations officer, I’ve helped many companies build out their IT operations as they grow from startups to SMBs and beyond. In this three-part series, I’ll explain the IT life cycle of a hypothetical startup called Joe’s Widget Shop, a software development company.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FishNet: Single Page Resources for all Things Fishy on the Net

Introducing to Networking with Fish a new page —- “FishNet”.  :)

What is FishNet? Imagine “casting a net” out on the Internet for all “Fishy IPv6” – in other words… for all the stuff I’ve written, taught (CiscoLive), or YouTube’d that is IPv6 that is somewhere out on the internet.

Topics thus far that I’ve cast a net out hauled in thus far are BGP, DMVPN, IPv6, IWAN, Multicast, and Troubleshooting.  :)    I’ll be keeping them current as a “single source” for all things “Fishy” out on the internet for those topics.

Happy nerding!

fishnet_menu

This little robot wants to help you shop

SoftBank's Pepper robot may still be the better-known contender, but a new humanoid device from Hitachi aims to be the in-store sales rep of the future.Called EMIEW3, the roughly 3-foot-tall unit can determine when customers need help and then approach them autonomously, Hitachi said on Friday. Using what it calls "remote brain" technology, the company developed the robot with customer service in mind for use in stores and other public venues.EMIEW3 is actually the latest iteration in a series following Hitachi's introduction of the original EMIEW back in 2005. EMIEW2, announced in 2007, featured capabilities such as the ability to move at a brisk human walking pace and to distinguish the human voice from background noise.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft ships first Windows 10 upgrade to corporate PCs

Microsoft last week promoted Windows 10's November 2015 upgrade to the Current Branch for Business release track, the first time since the operating system's debut it has approved a build for corporate customers."The Windows 10 version 1511 feature update (build 10586), released in November 2015, has been officially declared as Current Branch for Business (CBB), ready for organizations to begin deploying broadly," said Michael Niehaus, a director of product marketing, in a post to a company blog Friday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Free Google Fiber is not in Kansas anymore

The free ride is over for new Google Fiber subscribers in Kansas, as Google drops the free “Basic Internet” option from its plans.Google has offered the free plan since Fiber first launched in July 2012. Compared to Google’s $70 per month Gigabit Internet offering, the free plan was considerably slower, with just 5 Mbps download speeds and 1 Mbps upload speeds. It also required a hefty $300 construction fee, which Google waived for paying customers who signed on for at least a year of service.According to Recode, that plan is now going away for new subscribers, suggesting that existing customers can hang onto their service for now. Google still offers free Basic Internet plans in Austin, Texas, and Provo, Utah, and is collaborating with the U.S. government on free broadband connections for public housing residents.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Free Google Fiber is not in Kansas anymore

The free ride is over for new Google Fiber subscribers in Kansas, as Google drops the free “Basic Internet” option from its plans.Google has offered the free plan since Fiber first launched in July 2012. Compared to Google’s $70 per month Gigabit Internet offering, the free plan was considerably slower, with just 5 Mbps download speeds and 1 Mbps upload speeds. It also required a hefty $300 construction fee, which Google waived for paying customers who signed on for at least a year of service.According to Recode, that plan is now going away for new subscribers, suggesting that existing customers can hang onto their service for now. Google still offers free Basic Internet plans in Austin, Texas, and Provo, Utah, and is collaborating with the U.S. government on free broadband connections for public housing residents.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

6 cloud services for growing your small business

Most startups don’t have the budget, or the need, for enterprise software – or an elaborate website. But as your business grows, adding products or services, as well as customers and employees, it makes sense to invest in technology to help manage that growth. Does that mean you need to invest in an ERP or supply chain management system? Probably not. At least not right away. But these six cloud services, all targeted at SMBs, can make scaling your small ecommerce or bricks-and-mortar business a lot easier.[ Related: 7 ways small businesses can leverage customer data ]To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Global construction company uses analytics to make pricing local

Dayton Superior is a global B2B company that has turned to analytics and optimization to align its prices with local markets.You may not be familiar with Dayton Superior, but you know its work. Headquartered in Miamisburg, Ohio, the 115-year-old global nonresidential concrete construction company has supplied the concrete and other materials for bridges, canals, buildings and stadiums around the world, including the Panama Canal, new World Trade Center Towers and Trump Ocean Club.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 15 big data and analytics companies to watch "We're very much involved in all the big, cool buildings going up," says Dayton Superior CEO James McRickard, noting that the company has been heavily involved in the Hudson Yards project on Manhattan's West Side — a 26-to-28 acre mixed-use real estate development over the West Side Rail Yard that will consist of 16 skyscrapers, a school and more than 14 acres of public open space. "We make the stuff that holds it all together."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

BlackBerry 10 devices are probably dead

While the BlackBerry 10 operating system will live on for at least a couple more years, we’ve likely seen the last of its hardware.Speaking to Gulf News and The National—two English-language newspapers published in United Arab Emirates—BlackBerry CEO and Executive Chairman John Chen said the company has stopped producing BlackBerry 10 smartphones. The company is now focusing on its Android phones, with the goal of being the “most secure Android smartphone for the enterprise,” Chen told Gulf News.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Design Mindset (5)

So far, in our investigation of the design mindset, we’ve—

We also considered the problem of interaction surfaces in some detail along the way. This week I want to wrap this little series up by considering the final step in design, act. Yes, you finally get to actually buy some stuff, rack it up, cable it, and then get to the fine joys of configuring it all up to see if it works. But before you do… A couple of points to consider.

It’s important, when acting, to do more than just, well, act. It’s right at this point that it’s important to be metacongnitive—to think about what we’re thinking about. Or, perhaps, to consider the process of what we’re doing as much as actually doing it. To give you two specific instances…

ooda-complexityFirst, when you’re out there Continue reading

Empowering Windows Deployment Pipelines with Ansible Tower

We love stories about how Ansible Tower has solved problems and made work easier. When we heard that CareerBuilder was using Tower in a Windows environment, we had to know more. Special thanks to Cody Rucks from CareerBuilder for sharing his story about Ansible Tower.

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At CareerBuilder we are focused on building out a full stack solution that will allow developers to continuously deploy their applications. Not only do we want them to be able to deploy quickly, but we want consistency and automation throughout the entire process. Ansible Tower has become a huge part of our final end solution. In this post we will discuss how we are using Ansible Tower to connect our various products and steps and truly be able to deploy applications in the cloud utilizing DevOps methodologies.

Why Ansible Tower?

In November 2015, our team set out to find the best solution for our needs. We tested several different products and vendors ranging from the most buzz-worthy to the most obscure and ended up selecting Ansible Tower at the end. Ansible Tower seemed to provide all the things that we needed it to do. They key takeaways we had that made us select Ansible Continue reading

How to get Bash running on Windows

Unix command line users around the world rejoiced when Microsoft announced recently it would be bringing the popular Bash shell to Windows 10 with a forthcoming update. Last Wednesday, the company released a beta build of its operating system that finally had support for the new functionality.To get it working, users have to jump through a few hoops. First, the system is only available right now for users who have build 14316 of Windows 10. To get it, a PC has to be a part of the Windows Insider Program's Fast ring. After installing the beta, users have to toggle Developer Mode on in Settings > Updates and Security > For Developers. From there, they have to open up another settings pane, check the "Windows Subsystem for Linux (Beta)," restart their computer, and open a DOS command prompt and run the bash command.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft offers insight into upcoming Windows 10 features

The new features for Windows 10 keep on coming, and it can be hard to keep track of them all, especially for enterprises that want to decide whether to allow the update that installs these new features on their PCs.Credit Microsoft for keeping people well-informed as to what is coming because between all the preview builds of Windows 10 and individual feature additions, it can get really confusing. So, the company has published a roadmap of upcoming features for Windows 10.The list is broken down by Recently Available, In Public Preview and In Development. Recently Available and In Public Preview are features that users have access to through the Production ring or the Insider Program, respectively.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Experts crack Petya ransomware, enable hard drive decryption for free

Security experts have devised a method that allows users to recover data from computers infected with the Petya ransomware program without paying money to cybercriminals.Petya appeared on researchers' radar last month when criminals distributed it to companies through spam emails that masqueraded as job applications. It stood out from other file-encrypting ransomware programs because it overwrites a hard disk drive's master boot record (MBR), leaving infected computers unable to boot into the operating system.The program replaces the drive's legitimate MBR code, which normally starts the operating system, with code that encrypts the master file table (MFT) and shows a ransom note. The MFT is a special file on NTFS volumes that contains information about all other files: their name, size and mapping to hard disk sectors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Experts crack Petya ransomware, enable hard drive decryption for free

Security experts have devised a method that allows users to recover data from computers infected with the Petya ransomware program without paying money to cybercriminals.Petya appeared on researchers' radar last month when criminals distributed it to companies through spam emails that masqueraded as job applications. It stood out from other file-encrypting ransomware programs because it overwrites a hard disk drive's master boot record (MBR), leaving infected computers unable to boot into the operating system.The program replaces the drive's legitimate MBR code, which normally starts the operating system, with code that encrypts the master file table (MFT) and shows a ransom note. The MFT is a special file on NTFS volumes that contains information about all other files: their name, size and mapping to hard disk sectors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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