Ads by TechWords

See your link here
Subscribe to our e-mail newsletters
For more info on a specific newsletter, click the title. Details will be displayed in a new window.
Computerworld Daily News (First Look and Wrap-Up)
Computerworld Blogs Newsletter
The Weekly Top 10
More E-Mail Newsletters 
 

Pop by Your Service Provider in the ...

September 6, 2004 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - ... wee hours of the morning to prevent a data disaster. Good advice, especially when it comes from the CEO of a Web hosting company who thinks your mission-critical online operations are at risk if you use offshore services or even U.S.-based ones that
clock out after sunset. "Go visit your hosting company at 3:00 in the morning and see if someone answers the door," suggests Mitch Gervis, the top executive at Dallas-based NeoSpire Inc. "Do it before you have a disaster." If your Web site delivers critical business functions 24 hours a day, the last place you want it is someplace whose systems administrators are all asleep in their beds at night, says Gervis, whose company hosts sites for Lowes Cineplex Theatres Inc., United Way of America, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and other users. Gervis argues that all the sophisticated remote diagnostic and management tools in the world can't supplant a smart human on the premises. He adds that users shouldn't just demand that data be backed up and restored for free, which he says NeoSpire does. They actually should request backups to verify that the hosting company's procedures work. NeoSpire does five to 10 data restores a week at the request of users, for example. And being a Southerner steeped in the region's tradition of hospitality, Gervis invites you to drop by his data center -- anytime.
Protect Your IP From Offshore ...
... developers who slip open-source code into your applications. It's not that Indian, Chinese or other programmers based outside the U.S. have malicious undermining of your intellectual property in mind, says Sridhar Balaji, CEO of SourceSentry Inc. in Houston. It's just that it's so easy to do. "Oftentimes, developers just grab something on the Web and put it in their code," Balaji says. His company has run scans of applications and discovered open-source elements. Inserting open-source code could upset your licensing plans, particularly if you intend to distribute your software but keep the source code proprietary. SourceSentry offers its BizCentury Methodology templates for ensuring that your offshore team follows strict security, privacy and best-practices procedures that go beyond standards such as BS 7799 . Balaji claims that there are thousands of start-up outsourcing companies in India alone, most of which need better controls. So choose wisely.

Sridhar Balaji, CEO of SourceSentry Inc.
Sridhar Balaji, CEO of SourceSentry Inc.


Paying for Middleware Is Soon ...
... to be a distant memory. That's if Marc Fleury gets his way. He's the CEO of Atlanta-based JBoss Group Inc., which offers


Additional Resources

POLL RESULTS
Accelerate your knowledge of the IT world you inhabit by viewing the results of a series of polls taken by your IT peers. These polls of 100+ IT professionals each are available for full viewing. They cover key topics such as virtualization, processor performance, green IT, cloud computing and many others. Be a part of the buzz.
WHITE PAPER
Technology is complex. Keeping it running productively shouldn't be. To that end, you want to minimize the number of solutions needed in-house to simplify operations, maintenance, and support. Kodak offers a best-practices model. One company provides support for both scanner and software, for fast problem resolution without vendor finger-pointing. Download now!
WHITE PAPER
Utilizing demand intelligence improves the precision of pricing, product assortments, channel/store placement, and promotion, which are all essential for sustainable revenue management performance. Learn more, download this free whitepaper today.

White Papers & Webcasts

Differentiating With Technical Support: JBoss Customer Support Study
JBoss' expert technical support services is clearly acknowledged by its client base. The comprehensive nature by which their service is unsurpassed. Every category...  

Managing And Protecting Your Ever Increasing Mobile Assets
(Source: Absolute Software) Your users are becoming more mobile each day. This is great for productivity - yet challenging for IT control. Natalie...

The JBoss SOA Assessment Tool: Spend Less, Do More
SOA does not have to be overly complex or expensive. The JBoss SOA Assessment Tool can help you chart a course to a...  

IDC Webcast: Linux Adoption in a Global Recession
Join Al Gillen from IDC and Michael Applebaum from Novell in this on-demand webcast to see how Linux has emerged as an even...

The CIO's New Guide to Design of Global IT Infrastructure
Is it possible to eliminate the impact of distance? This paper explores the 5 key principles successful CIOs are using to redesign IT...  

Novell Opens PR Video
Is the Linux desktop for me? Customers are looking for ways to be more flexible and save money. Using Linux offers a great...

IBM Lotus Notes Performance Brief
This is a Performance Brief that illustrates how Riverbed Steelhead appliances accelerate Lotus Notes R7....  

2 Minutes to IT workload automation
Take just 2 minutes to watch this short CONTROL-M flash video. Well show you how BMC CONTROL-M can put money back into your...

Business Value of Performance IDC Whitepaper
Are you looking for a comprehensive solution that addresses insufficient or congested bandwidth, impaired application performance, slow remote backup and replication or obstacles...  

Security Configuration Management
In this web video, follow along with Jim Hansen, Senior Product Manager with Big Fix, as he explains why Security Configuration Management is...