Tag: business productivity

As IT organizations face increasing demands from business, their IT systems have become increasingly complex. Today’s applications are typically a heterogeneous web of systems and software from an array of vendors and custom development.

During last week’s webinar on IT Transformation featuring Marc Cecere, vice president and principal analyst for Forrester Research, many questions presented by participants went unanswered due to time constraints. Because these questions are likely being asked by many in the IT arena, we asked Marc’s webinar co-host, Pete Pizzutillo of CAST to provide answers to the three most frequently asked questions.

Recently, as I sat on the Northeast corridor train, the ticket-taker informed us that we would be delayed 15 minutes. As I thought about the impact on my day, a flutter of activity rippled through the cabin. Passengers called bosses, colleagues, wives and customers spreading the news. What was interesting was that the relayed news was different: some people doubled the time, others bumped it up to solid hour and, shockingly, no one made it shorter.

I cannot believe how much our education system has changed. When I went to kindergarten, most of curriculum revolved around getting along with others (a lesson some will argue never took with me) and some basic verbal skills. I learned at my daughter's kindergarten orientation that blocks and finger painting have been replaced by geography, math, science and civics.

As you may know from my bio here, I’m a big fan of Boston sports. So you can understand how thrilled I was a few weeks ago when “my” Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup for the first time since I was my daughter’s age!

It wasn’t easy for them, though. Through the first round of the playoffs, they looked like they could be a “one-and-done” team and everybody – including some alleged diehard fans – were already calling for the dismissal of their head coach because of their anemic performance. Nevertheless, they made the necessary adjustments, got some stellar work out of key individuals, overcame a few adversities and in the end proved to be the best team in the National Hockey League this year.

From the earthquake and tsunami in Japan back in March to the tornadoes that have ripped through the Midwestern United States over the last two months, we have been witness to the violence and destruction Mother Nature can inflict without warning.

As we begin to move on from the shock of the destruction wrought by these natural disasters, we turn our attention to the recovery, both in human terms and in terms of business.

Discussions in the industry about technical debt have been focused on the IT costs involved in remediation and the potential risk to the company if applications deployed with poor structural integrity fail to perform optimally, or fail completely.