CIO, CTO, CSO, IT Service Management, IT Job Description, Sarbanes Oxley, and IT Salary News
CIO - CTO - CSO News
Sensitive Information Policy Template released by Janco
The Sensitive Information Policy Template (Version 2.4) has just been released by Janco. This policy applies to the entire enterprise, its vendors, its suppliers (including outsourcers), co-location providers, and facilities regardless of the methods used to store and retrieve sensitive information (e.g. online processing, outsourced to a third party, Internet, Intranet or swipe terminals).
New with this version are updates that specifically define the mandates of most recent federal (Gramm-Leach-Bliley) and state (Massachusetts and California).
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Which skills are in high demand and low demand
IT salaries are determined by the skills that are required. Janco has determined the following are the skills in high demand and low demand.
Skills with a high demand
- Project Management - especially large projects with short time frame for delivery
- Security - focus on mandated compliance issues
- Network Administration - wireless and cloud administration
- Virtualization (Cloud) - new applications and management of the IT infrastructure
- Business and Operational Analysis - focus on business change
- Productivity Improvement Analysis - metrics and operational analysis
- Web 2 - interactive applications that add value
- Database Management - applications that leverage enterprise assets
- System Administration - Windows and UNIX management
- Desktop Support - standardization and change management
Skills with a declining demand
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- COBOL
- HTML
- System Network Architecture - SNA
- Siebel
- Rapid Application Development - RAD
- ColdFusion
- Wireless Application Protocol - WAP
- Visual J++
- Novell NetWare
- Asynchronous Transfer Mode - ATM
IBM outsourcing cost 2,000 US jobs
After shrinking its U.S. workforce by as many as 10,000 employees last year, IBM may be on its way to cutting another 2,000 workers.
As of last October, IBM employed 105,000 workers in the U.S., compared to 115,000 in 2008. In 2007, IBM had 121,000 U.S. employees. It employs about 400,000 globally.
IBM isn't commenting on its latest round of cuts and information about it comes from the Alliance union which gathers its data directly from IBM employees.
"IBM is clearly offshoring things where they can," said one IBM employee who received his notice and spoke on the condition of anonymity because he didn't want to jeopardize his severance. A 10-year veteran and UNIX administrator, this employee said his customer support team once had 15 U.S.-based workers. That staff was reduced over time to just three workers in the U.S., with other members of the customer support team now in Brazil, Argentina and India.
The employee said he was not given a good reason for his layoff. "Higher ups made a decision that a certain percentage had to be cut - it was not performance-based at all," he said. Although the employee said he's uncertain about the job market, "my sense is that it is not horrendous but I'll have to assume that I'll have to take a cut in pay."
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Practical Guide for IT Outsourcing Released by Janco
Practical Guide for IT Outsourcing Released - Version 3.0 of the Practical Guide for IT Outsourcing has just been released. It includes a sample Outsourcing contract, Service Level Agreement with metrics, Risk Assessment - Business and IT Impact Questionnaire, and much more.
The guide is delivered electronically and is available in MS - Word and industry standard PDF.
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CIOs are looking for more cost savings
The recession is impacting how IT is performing. Budgets for many IT organizations has been frozen for about two years, and CIO have been on this efficiency kick for about the same amount of time. IT organizations have virtualized, consolidated data centers, have cut hiring and outsourced. There is no low-hanging fruit left.
Service level agreements are set however costs need to be reduced.
The only areas where cost savings can be made are in hardware and software maintenance.
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CIO must protect critical data
CIOs need to focus on at least four areas in order to protect critical data:
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- Implement a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan. This is the traditional solution for mitigating exposure to information loss. However it has grown more complicated as 24/7, global economy, and open source have become standard business mantras. Of paramount importance is overcoming the hurdles associated with backup window requirements, application performance, reliability and consistency, and recovery time.
- Streamline IT Infrastructure and Increase Productivity. As staff and resources become overburdened, companies are refocusing on infrastructure management. Easing critical pressure points is often the catalyst to surviving a difficult fiscal climate.
- Manage Storage and Server Costs Closely. Controlling cost of operations has become a top priority for many organizations. With data growing at exponential rates, these costs can easily mushroom.
- Support IT Infrastructure Consolidation. Today's data protection architecture seems to be intrinsically broken - as characterized by slow backups, complex recoveries, compromised application performance, and difficult resource administration. IT infrastructure consolidation including server virtualization magnifies the problems and elevates the rearchitecture of storage and data protection as a priority. Finding high performing, easy-to-use, scalable data protection remains a key imperative. Further, system migration of production servers and critical applications to a virtual environment are likely to be costly and painful unless an easy and minimum-impact solution to migration is built into the rearchitecture.
CIO and CTO Changing Role
In a recent study of over 2,000 CIOs a major firm defined high-growth and low-growth CIOs who work in organizations with high Profit Before TaxProfit Before Tax growth as "High-growth CIOs" and to those working in organizations with low Profit Before Tax as "Low-growth CIOs." The characteristics of the role played in each type of firm are different.
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High Growth Companies
Low Growth Companies
Are members of most-senior management team
62%
46%
Integrate business and technology to innovate
64%
33%
Focus time on enabling the business and corporate vision
28%
15%
Focus your time on providing core technology services
23%
40%
IT team uses collaborative tools
53%
33%
IT team provide collaborative tools across the enterprise
41%
22%
Aggressively turn data into actionable information
58%
36%
Give customers excellent data integrity and transparency
68%
44%
Seek active input from your customers
87%
70%
Co-create business strategy with fellow execs
74%
61%
Co-present business strategy to senior management
66%
53%
Part of the team setting the organization's strategy
62%
46%
Business models unique and hard to imitate
63%
49%
Business models include partnering alternative sourcing
60%
52%
Create IT centers of excellence
44%
26%
Data readily available for relevant users
67%
51%
Data reliable and secure
81%
66%
Manage change successfully
61%
43%
IT Infrasturcture Policy Bundle Released
Janco has combined the policies that it has developedin concert with some of the best IT organizations around the globe into a single package. With this bundle you get a PDF file that has all of the procedures in a single document that is over 210 pages long. It would take your staff months to develop these procedures from scratch. In addition you get a separate MS-Word document for each procedure which can easily be modified.
This bundle contains the following policies:
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- Backup and Backup Retention Policy
- Blog and Personal Web Site Policy
- Internet, Email, Social Networking, Mobile Device, and Electronic Communication Policy
- Outsourcing Policy
- Record Management, Retention, and Disposition Policy
- Sensitive Information Policy
- Service Level Agreement Policy
- Telecommuting Policy
- Travel, Laptop, PDA and Off-Site Meeting Policy
Blackberrys with car chargers a key component of business continuity
Business interuptions caused by the East Coast blizzard of 2010 show that BlackBerry are a must have solution. A blizzard with whiteout conditions, warnings to stay off the roads in the Washington metropolitan area and power interruptions have proven to be no match for teleworkers with access to a BlackBerry smart phone and a car charger.
Many federal employees were 100 percent on BlackBerrys during the outage. With power losses to homes car chargers were the only way to keep the devices charged.
This is a strategy that gained attention during the one-two punch of blizzard conditions and multiple power outages in the Washington area. For three days in a row, the federal government and many local governments are closed while a second major snowstorm blew through on the heels of a historic snowfall Feb. 8. Utility companies in Washington and Baltimore reporting about 17,000 homes without power in the afternoon.
Many federal employees are relying on their BlackBerrys haven't slowed down one bit.
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Feds to increase goverment IT budgets
President Barack Obama today requested $79.4 billion in spending on information technology projects for fiscal 2011, a 1.2 percent increase from what he proposed in fiscal 2010 and a slight decrease from the $80.6 billion the 2010 budget actually allocated.
The Obama administration has proposed increasing the number of major IT projects. Last fiscal year, the administration proposed handling 781 major IT projects with $40.3 billion. In fiscal 2011, it's proposing 809 major IT projects at $40.4 billion, according to the budget proposal.
Despite modest increases in the budget request, Obama wants IT efforts related to open government and technology modernization to continue in 2011.
For example, work on the General Service Administrations Citizen Engagement Platform would continue under the 2011 request. Designed to be a resource for all federal agencies, that platform is a collaboration between GSA and the Office of Management and Budget. It is intended to increase the governments ability to interact and collaborate with the public and provide a cost-effective way for agencies to access tools and guidance related to engagement.
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IT Metrics HandiGuide Released by Janco
Janco Associates, Inc. has just released Version 4.0 of its Metrics for the Internet, Information Technology, and Service Management HandiGuide. New with this version is an indepth presentation of Service Level Agreements for outsourcing and best paractices. Janco has developed metrics for enterprises worldwide and is a leader in the field. The CEO of Janco, Victor Janulaitis said, "With these difficult times many CIOs and CEOs are asking hard questions about the value that IT is contributing to the bottom line. Metrics are once of the tools necessary to answer those questions.
The Metirics HandiGuide is delivered electronically as a PDF document that is fully bookmarked. It is over 300 pages in lenght and has detail definitions of metrics as well as example reprorts for over 240 metrics. A full table of contents and selected pages can be download at http://e-janco.com/metrics.htm.
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How companies protect laptops is an issue
More than 50% of organizations surveyed have indicated that they protected sensitive information with encryption software. A further 43% reported the use of asset tracking software. Simply knowing where all mobile computers are located is a powerful security measure, however, traditional IT asset management solutions are designed to track only those laptops that connect to a local area network (LAN) or virtual private network (VPN) connection. For a large proportion of laptop users, returning to head office is an intermittent event - allowing many laptop computers to remain below the radar of IT.
Encryption software is commonly referred to as the computer security fall back. In the event that a computer protected by organizational policy and physical deterrents is stolen, sensitive information on the laptop is made unreadable by encryption. For encryption software to be effective however, laptop users must consistently and accurately follow company encryption policy. Even more worrisome is the fact that more than 30% of companies believe employees are actively involved in the theft of company computers. Armed with the necessary passwords and encryption keys to access data, disgruntled or dishonest employees represent a threat that cannot be addressed by encryption alone.
The common failing of these laptop security measures is the fact that they are heavily reliant on the diligent action of laptop-using employees to remain effective. If a cable lock is not used, an authentication password is taped to the keyboard for convenience or a regular encryption process not completed, organizations remain unnecessarily vulnerable to public data breach. By the same token, complex, expensive and ultimately productivity-dampening security measures may be effective but greatly reduce the benefits of laptop computers. Endpoint security solutions complement other security measures by providing a final, user-independent layer of protection.
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Data breaches continine to be CIO's concern
The FBI received a record number of complaints in 2008, and the associated direct cost of the frauds carried out with stolen data was $265 million versus $235million in 2007. Adding to this is the challenge of securing personal information and intellectual property data. Companies are granting access to more systems and information - bank customers access to account balances; workers maintain their own 401k and investment accounts; web shoppers place orders and make purchases with a single click; and business partners work on projects in a collaborative manner online.
To reduce the risk of a data breach or theft, organizations must adopt new tactics. In addition, companies must address e-mail and Web security along with employing a functional data loss and prevention strategy. The application of multiple security techniques is required to reduce risk. For example, there must be a way to control spam and block the downloading of malicious software from poisoned Web sites. In today's open Web 2.0 and social networking environments, companies need a way to defend against attacks and protect secret or sensitive data. At the same time, they must maintain a flexible and responsive infrastructure to support today's business working habits.
The Janco Security Manual Template has helped over 2,000 enterprises world-wide to meet these requirements.
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Pandemic Disaster Recovery Plans At Risk
Pandemic disaster recovery planning should consider the impact the H1N1 flu virus could have on the Internet if workers and students are forced to stay home because of the pandemic. Officials at the U.S. Government Accountability Office weighed in on the potential for clogged networks in a 71 page preport.
Although the issue has been raised before by various ISPs and network carriers, recent worries have focused on securities firms that depend on third parties to clear trades and process payments over the Internet, according to the GAO.
"Internet congestion during a severe pandemic that hampers teleworkers is anticipated, but responsible government agencies have not developed plans to to address such congestion and may lack clear authority to act," the GAO warned.
Internet backbone congestion from a pandemic is not a major concern. The larger problem may be with the network "edge" or "last mile" in the residential portion of the Internet. Janco says that work-at-home strategies for organization may not work as advertized as residential Internet access may not be sufficient. This is true both from a capacity and bandwidth at work at home sites.
Often many residential DSL users could share a single DSLAM connection at the carrier's switching office to reach the backbone, contributing to congestion problems. Last-mile DSL and cable modem networks are where remote access falls apart.
While the network edge impact would vary by neighborhood, the Centers for Disease Control planning guideline that assumes 40 percent of the workforce might not be in the workplace for an extended period of time during a pandemic.
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Best Practices for CIOs and IT Departments
Business continuity is not just a good business practice - it can mean success or failure if data and applications on a production server are lost. Disaster recovery planning ensures organizations have the capability to continue essential functions across a wide range of situations that could disrupt normal operations. High availability is the cornerstone for most business continuity plans and is one of the reasons for evaluating and deploying data protection solutions. However, traditional data protection strategies focus on just the data and not the application.
CIOs and IT departments design the organization's infrastructure with continuity of business operations in mind. However, most organizations are not doing enough to protect mission-critical data, applications and systems from unexpected disruption and potential loss -- volatilities, such as viruses, power outages, natural disasters, corruption, human error and media failures can't always be prevented. Environments today are characterized by rapid data growth, complexity, stringent business requirements and the increasing government regulations, making it difficult for organizations to get their arms around their data protection strategies. In many cases, the focus is on just protecting data - not necessarily on recovering it. And when there is a focus on recovery, it usually involves just making data available to an application.
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Audit Fatigue is Setting In for Some
(Internet Research Group) - Regulation is a part of business, regardless of company size, industry, or geography. In addition, for the most part, the larger the enterprise, the larger the potential for non-compliance risk. Non-compliance can mean a number of things - sanctions, fines, legal action, market value impact, and the cost of remediation may exceed the perceived cost of prevention. Audit program is required
The results are supportive of the term audit fatigue, that unmanaged IT Audit efforts within regulated organizations have a negative business impact on IT resources and reduce IT efficiency. However, respondents are largely aware of and interested in tools to automate audit processes and controls as a means of overcoming audit fatigue and freeing up IT budget and resources for innovation rather than compliance. This results in the following:
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CIOs controlling costs in the new year
As CIOs move into the New Year they are faced with reduced budgets and rising cost. One of the first things that are doing is establishing standardized metrics to identify and control costs. Metrics are the key
As that process proceeds Janco suggests that CIO then do the following to control costs in the new year:
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- Justify hardware and applications - Underutilized or old systems should be taken out, and workloads should be shifted to more-efficient hardware. Rationalization and consolidation programs can reduce the number of servers deployed.
- Consolidate data center sites and server farms - Financial savings often follow consolidation of multiple sites into a small number of larger sites.
Manage energy and facilities cost. Tools and techniques include raising the temperature of the data center to 75 degrees Fahrenheit, using outside air when possible as an alternative to air conditioning, setting up hot aisle/cold aisle configurations and deploying server-based energy management software tools to run workloads the most energy-efficient way- Manage the employee and contractor costs - Workers remain the single largest cost element for most IT organizations, accounting for as much as 50% of overall costs.
- Eliminate or defer procurement of new assets - Servers' useful life often exceeds their amortized life, so monitor the condition of hardware carefully.
- Monitor energy consumption - Advanced monitoring, modeling, and measuring techniques and processes are essential to the adoption of many new technologies and going green.
Security Manual Template
As enterprises move more of their business transactions online, they face the challenge of defending a perimeter that grows increasingly porous. The network firewalls that once locked down the enterprise perimeter are ineffective against Web-based threats such as SQL, Cross Site Scripting, and DDoS attacks. By exploiting common Web application security flaws, the attacks are able to cause tremendous business disruption, particularly through the theft of sensitive enterprise information as well as customer and employee personal data.
Security Manual Template
ISO 27000 / HIPAA / SOX / CobiT Compliant
Includes PCI DSS Audit Program
The IT Security Manual Template provides all the essential sections of a complete security manual and walks you through the creation of each step. Detailed language addressing more than a dozen security topics is included in a 230 plus page Microsoft Word document, which you can modify as much or as little as you need to fit your business requirements. The template includes sections on critical topics like:
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- Risk analysis
- Staff member roles
- Physical security
- Electronic Communication (email / Smartphones)
- Blogs and Personal Web Sites
- Facility design, construction and operations
- Media and documentation
- Data and software security
- Network security
- Internet and IT contingency planning
- Insurance
- Outsourced services
- Waiver procedures
- Employee Termination Procedures and Forms
- Incident reporting procedures
- Access control guidelines
- PCI DSS Audit Program as a separate document
- Security Compliance Checklists
- Massachusetts 201 CMR 17 Compliance Checklist
Safety Program Updated by Janco
Effective management of worker safety and health protection is a decisive factor in reducing the extent and the severity of work-related injuries and illnesses. Effective management addresses all work-related hazards, including the potential hazards that could result from a change in worksite conditions or practices. Additionally, it addresses hazards whether or not they are regulated by government standards.
The electronic document includes proven written text and examples for the following major sections of a disaster recovery plan:
- Policy Statement
- Safety Rules - including a check list of standard proven rules
- Accident Investigation Process
- Hazard Recognition and Control
- Safety Committee including membership and procedures
- Training including guidelines for orientation, job instruction, Supervisor training as well as specialized training
- Communication including for management and employees
- Record Keeping including inspection; accident investigation; training and coordination with Safety Committee.
- Job Description for Safety Director (ADA compliant)
- Technical Appendix including definition of necessary phone numbers and contact points; and sample forms:
- First Report of Injury
- Safety Audit Checklist
- Alternate Work site Safety Checklist (i.e. work at home)
There is an extensive description that shows how a full test of the Safety Program can be conducted.
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Security Manual TemplategGives CIOs one more tool
A business-driven approach to security is differant than a technology-centric approach in that the business goals drive the requirements in securing the enterprise. Many enterprises take a bottoms-up approach to security since security solution vendors, more often than not, promote this approach to their clients. To close identified security gaps, enterprises broaden and bolster their defenses by continually building on top of or adding to their existing security investments. This technology-centric methodology often creates an excessively complex and disjointed security infrastructure. It becomes difficult to manage and prone to unseen vulnerability gaps, needlessly escalates IT costs and eventually fosters unnecessary operational inefficiencies that inhibit business growth rather than enhance it.Instead of trying to protect against every conceivable threat, organizations should understand and prioritize the security risk management activities that make the most sense for their organization. By understanding the level of risk tolerance within an organization, the IT team can more easily focus on mitigating risks that the organization cant afford to neglect. Overemphasizing certain risks leads to wasted resources and efforts, while underemphasizing others can have disastrous consequences.
The Janco Security Manual template addresses these issues and is a quick way for CIOs to overcome these issues.
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