Enterprise IT

When the U.S. government goes to the market for information technology, various contracting mechanisms come into play. In fact, as IT evolves, contracting follows, witness recent efforts at the General Services Administration to develop special procurement vehicles for both cloud technology and wire...

Competing for federal contracts is tough -- and protesting the award of a federal contract may be even tougher. But a ruling by a federal agency appears to have improved the ability of all vendors -- not just IT firms -- to utilize key legal channels for protesting the award of federal contracts. On...

There's no denying that social media is migrating from the consumer realm to the business arena. What can still be debated is how quickly this technology is making its way into the core of the enterprise, and becoming something more than marketing and sales tools. Some people -- primarily analysts,...

The mushrooming use of wireless devices by the general public has spilled over to the federal government as agencies try to match their employees' personal use of mobile equipment with similar devices for use on the job. An emerging issue in federal mobile media use is that there is no overall gover...

IBM is promising to deliver a solution that will enable companies to include information from social media platforms in their regulatory compliance reports. Compliance capability is "fundamental to reducing a barrier that many companies have encountered as they look more closely at using social medi...

Protecting sensitive information in the electronic age is a critical matter -- but the question of what the term "critical" really means has become a vexing problem for lawmakers dealing with cybersecurity issues. Equally challenging is defining the role that government should play in protecting all...

I'm still surprised by the range of companies and nonprofit organizations moving to the cloud, and pleased to hear about the business benefits they are gaining from their decisions. An illustration of this growing movement is a series of webcast interviews I recently conducted of CXOs from a variety...

Oracle's March announcement that it will discontinue developing software for Intel's Itanium platform has reportedly compelled HP to send the software company a letter demanding Oracle reverse its decision, threatening legal consequences if it doesn't comply. HP officials believe Oracle's decision v...

Thousands of federal employees will be using cloud-based email systems as government agencies take their first steps in meeting a mandate to inaugurate cloud services within their information technology systems. The White House has directed 25 large agencies to launch at least one cloud-migration pr...

HP is trolling for partners as the computer giant attempts to build an ecosystem for webOS, the operating system it acquired last summer when it bought Palm for $1.2 billion. CEO Leo Apotheker said that he sees webOS as a licensing opportunity. At All Things Digital's D9 conference on Wednesday, Apo...

It seems Microsoft doesn't want to take any chances with rollouts of future Windows tablets. The company is reportedly asking a special favor of each chip maker with which it will be working on tablets. It wants the chip suppliers to each partner with one -- or possibly two, according to some accoun...

As mobile computing has evolved from the exception to the norm, many vendors have attempted to imbue their products with a certain high-end cachet. Some succeeded beyond measure and expectation, even with devices that were initially technologically flawed. Others have developed products which initia...

Time to move over, Ballmer. Greenlight Capital President David Einhorn has reportedly called for Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, to step down. Einhorn spoke on the subject Wednesday at the Ira Sohn Investment Conference in New York City. Einhorn showed support for Microsoft in general, recommending ...

Federal chief information officers appear to be heeding the unofficial Missouri state slogan: "I'm from Missouri -- Show Me." In a challenging time for procurement of IT systems and services, CIOs are trying to adopt improved methods for acquiring and managing information resources. In a recent surv...

Vendors seeking to provide cloud-based information technology to federal agencies now have some idea of the potential market for their offerings. The General Services Administration has asked vendors to submit bid and qualification information that could lead to their selection as contractors for e...