Articles by Alison Diana

Understanding that retailers prefer to focus on the business of selling their wares rather than becoming experts in the technological guts of an e-commerce site, Demandware recently launched an on-demand, customizable e-commerce solution designed to eliminate the technical headaches often associated with outsourcing e-commerce functions or maintaining a site internally...

It plays in two of the most competitive markets -- technology and online merchandising -- but HPshopping.com continues to garner accolades from industry groups. Most recently, the e-commerce site was the sole computer manufacturer and marketer to place in the top 10 of the seventh annual Mystery Shopping Study in both 2004 and 2003 Although HP cont...

When it comes to developing a presence on the Internet, it takes far more than a catchy or easy-to-remember domain name. While it claims to be the first and largest registrar of domain names on the Internet, Network Solutions is expanding its range of services to meet the demands of both enterprise and small-business customers Recently, the Herndon...

As more corporate users add instant messaging to their arsenal of communications tools, IT and security experts face the challenge of managing, securing and archiving this data More than one-quarter of the 4,510 people polled use instant messaging in the office, according to a survey conducted over the summer by Opinion Research for America Online....

Global competition, legal issues, technological advances, changes in manufacturing and tracking their constantly evolving target markets are more than enough challenges for many companies to deal with. Add to them internal requirements -- human resources, accounting, information technology -- and the headaches only expand For years, there have been...

When it comes to investing in virtualization solutions, the hurdles might have to do more with organizational policies than technology. Since these solutions frequently meld disparate entities within an enterprise -- human resources, sales and marketing, manufacturing -- each of which often have their own infrastructure, policies and personnel, a virtualization program could turn ugly...

Instant messaging, a staple of teenage life, is growing up and entering the workplace. Yet companies whose employees arbitrarily install commercial IM solutions are opening themselves up to a potential Pandora's Box of viruses, worms and network degradation Today, 50 percent of people polled use IM at work, according to The Radicati Group's Instant...

In retrospect, it seems obvious to match the capabilities of Windows with secure messaging software. However, in 1995, when Windows NT first burst into the marketplace, IT managers at first did not have many -- if any -- options to help their users easily and safely communicate with each other This was the challenge facing John Davies. Having devel...

Security's ongoing movement from a technology-dominated discipline to one that falls under the bailiwick of a company's CEO, CFO and COO is good news for Solutionary, a managed security service provider that views security as part of an overall business problem, rather than a gee-whiz technology. The Omaha, Nebraska-based company has an array of offerings, including assessment, managed services, professional services and security monitoring...

With their bottom lines and corporate reputations at risk, many securityprofessionals, tired of being able only to react to viruses and worms, are looking for ways to prevent degradation and infection Worms and viruses cost organizations billions of dollars and hundreds ofman-hours. Spam has grown to represent between 60 percent and 70 percentof al...

Using the Internet to ease access to government services seems obvious today. When Ed Trimble founded EzGov five years ago, however, he had to play the role of evangelist, touting the security and capabilities of the Web A few months after EzGov was incorporated, it sold its first application -- a property tax payment system -- to Dekalb County, Ge...

The hosting industry has come a long way since Affinity Internet entered the market in 1996. Hundreds of dot-com companies have disappeared or been reinvented. Clients are more sophisticated, with even the smallest operation demanding better products and more personalized service Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Affinity focuses exclusively on the va...

Today's corporations -- both large and midsize -- increasingly are turning over the operation and support of network- and Web-based applications to managed-hosting companies. These businesses specialize in providing high levels of uptime, protecting their clients' data from malware and intrusion and freeing up internal IT departments to pursue other initiatives...

At a time when the Internet represents a notable percentage of many organizations' revenue and market presence, it is becoming increasingly crucial for businesses to ensure their Web sites are performing well. Uptime is no longer enough. Today, organizations must make sure customers enjoy their online experience -- or run the risk of them visiting a competitor's site instead...

Whether they have just graduated from college or business school, or already have spent years climbing the corporate ladder, ambitious individuals with their eye on the corner office can take several steps to improve their chances of success For years, corporations have sought leadership skills, functional and technical expertise and industry exper...

Companies jostling for top billing in the crowded Internet search space are spending more and more money on pay-per-click sites. In addition to investing in search engine advertising, many companies are delving into search engine optimization to build the volume of traffic to their sites By 2005, about 35 percent of all online advertising spending ...

In an effort to further expand the breadth of its offerings, Web performance measurement firm Keynote Systems recently acquired NetRaker, a developer of customer experience management software. In other words, NetRaker's software is designed to help e-business managers measure and improve the navigability of their Web sites Most of NetRaker's emplo...

Trend Micro began 2004 with a bang, reporting revenue of US$126 million, a 25 percent increase in sales in both North America and Europe -- and $11 million more than the antivirus and Internet security software and services company originally estimated That growth came on the heels of some well-publicized malware, a growing awareness of security is...

In the first installment of this two-part exclusive interview, the E-Commerce Times spoke with Gomez CEO Dr. Alex Stein about the Internet performance management industry -- a field that is booming as more companies see a need for this sort of technology. In today's edition, Stein discusses the nature of competition versus coexistence, the evoluti...

In an era when downtime can mean loss of revenue, floods of expensive calls to contact centers and a reduction in customer loyalty, more and more organizations are seeking the expertise of Internet performance management firms. Waltham, Massachusetts-based Gomez is one such company, providing software and services that capture performance data from tens of thousands of collection points behind the corporate firewall, on the backbone and from users' connection sites...