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Marc Hebert, executive vice president of marketing at Sierra Atlantic Inc.

... the cost of IT work heading to India. So claims Marc Hebert, executive vice president of marketing at Sierra Atlantic Inc., an offshore outsourcer in Fremont, Calif. Despite annual wage increases of 15% to 20% for IT staffers in India, the cost of technology operations there won't edge upward, Hebert argues. He says that those pay increases are being compensated for by better productivity from India-based IT workers, with the subcontinent's improved technology infrastructure contributing to the productivity boost. Hebert adds that India's universities today produce four engineers for every one graduating from a U.S. school -- a ratio that he predicts will reach 10-1 by 2015. The prevalence of graduates in India means that Sierra Atlantic can hire well-trained entry-level programmers and IT administrators, which helps keep its costs down, Hebert says. To keep up with demand, Sierra Atlantic added 400 jobs last year, increasing its total workforce to about 900 employees. About 50 of those new jobs were in the U.S. Hebert claims that during the last presidential election, the opposition to offshoring voiced by many Democrats backfired and gave the practice some "good PR." Similarly, he suggests that television commentator Lou Dobbs, who regularly criticizes offshoring on his show, "does more to help the industry than anybody." The offshore phenomenon is spreading, Hebert says, noting that some companies in Canada -- which itself is considered a "nearshore" alternative for U.S. businesses -- have begun moving IT jobs to India through Sierra Atlantic.

Steven Sprague, CEO of Wave Systems Corp.

Trust your PC to protect your ...
... network. No, not Windows, but the PC hardware itself. In March, Dell Inc. became the last of the major PC makers to begin shipping systems with Trusted Platform Module (TPM) security devices, which are based on specifications developed by Trusted Computing Group Inc. in Portland, Ore. Steven Sprague, CEO of IT security vendor Wave Systems Corp. in Lee, Mass., says that in four or five years, as companies replace their older PCs, all corporate desktops and laptops should be TPM-ready. TPM chips can be used to encrypt e-mail messages and data on hard drives. Most important, says Sprague, the technology can authenticate users before letting them on corporate networks, making it more difficult for unauthorized people to access systems. He adds that once all your PCs are TPM-enabled, it may be possible to ditch your single sign-on plans because you'll be able to use the initial authentication to