Organisation
They’ll Put The UK In Your Pocket
- Details
- Created on 02 June 2015
- Written by Steve Burrows
Recently I wrote about an island software house that has built a sustainable business by serving specific local market needs, but ultimately one has to accept that the Isle of Man is a small place and to grow successfully most ICT businesses need to serve off-island markets.
Outsourcing IT, It’s Not Easy
- Details
- Created on 17 May 2015
- Written by Steve Burrows
In a previous article I wrote about outsourcing software development, in this one I’ll cover some aspects of outsourcing your IT.
So What’s IT For?
- Details
- Created on 07 April 2015
- Written by Steve Burrows
In the last article I suggested that a big part of the IT Manager’s job is to ensure people are able to work with their IT. Now I want to cover how that IT should help them in their jobs.
Pay Attention To The Wetware
- Details
- Created on 23 March 2015
- Written by Steve Burrows
The biggest influence on IT success is people; not the people in the IT department, but the users, a.k.a “victims”, of our IT. The single most important measure of whether the IT we deliver is successful is how well people use it. Network speed and stability, server uptime, security etc. pale into insignificance when considered against how well and productively our people are working in their jobs.
Open Source
- Details
- Created on 24 February 2015
- Written by Steve Burrows
Have you considered using “Open Source” software as part of your organisation’s IT systems? Chances are that if you’re an executive the answer is No. I meet many executives, both business and IT leaders, who dismiss the use of Open Source without much consideration for a variety of reasons. Common amongst these reasons are: they don’t trust the product because it is “free” and you get what you pay for, no company is accountable for warranting that the product is fit for purpose or free of bugs or malware, nobody is identifiably responsible for providing support if the product goes wrong, and there is nobody to enter into a contract with who can be sued to mitigate the risk of losses consequent to product failure.
Cyber Security Begins In The Boardroom
- Details
- Created on 13 January 2015
- Written by Steve Burrows
The festive season is behind us, and many network security professionals will be breathing a sigh of relief. The reality is that the major holidays, particularly Christmas and Easter, are prime time for hacking - who can guess whether this is because the script kiddies are out of school and have more time, or because professional hackers know that corporate IT teams will be undermanned and more relaxed, it is nevertheless a known phenomenon. As a CIO I have witnessed it myself, big serious network hacking attempts are more common at the weekend and most especially the holidays when system administrators are less likely to be working and spot unusual behaviour.
