Enterprise IT

Crown Castle International is acquiring rights to operate 7,200 of T-Mobile's cellular towers in a $2.4 billion deal that will give the carrier's owner, Deutsche Telekom, cash to expand its 4G LTE network in the U.S. The deal will allow Crown Castle to operate T-Mobile's towers for 28 years. Both co...

The European Union has announced a strategy to boost the use of cloud computing among its members in the private and public sectors. This includes establishing standards for interoperability, data portability and reversibility, the development of model contracts, government spending on cloud computi...

IBM launched a major initiative on Wednesday with the goal of targeting middle-market companies via their managed service providers. Increasingly, middle market companies are turning to companies that deliver technology solutions on a pay-as-you-go-model, said Mike McClurg, IBM's VP of global mid-ma...

The U.S. government is worried about the improper release of federal information that finds its way into the electronic IT systems of all federal contractors. In a recent notice, the government said it was seeking comment from the business community on a proposal to tighten security related to the t...

Technologically inclined businesses and other organizations have long enjoyed what I call IT "trickle down": Continuing, rapid development results in the mainstreaming of hardware, software and services that were originally unthinkably expensive and specialized. This doesn't mean that higher-end ...

Oracle reported earnings for its first fiscal quarter in 2013 last week, telling a tale of two product lines: Its software operations fared respectably, while its hardware slumped dramatically. Hardware systems product revenue was down 24 percent. "These are tough times, and companies are still not ...

Last month I wrote an article for the E-Commerce Times called "Amazon Spreads its Wings." In it, I talked about the many ventures that Amazon has embarked on, including its rewriting of the rules of publishing and retail sales. I also discussed how Amazon was smart enough to realize that it could do...

As IT innovation comes in rapidly evolving cycles, continuity and consistency remain important factors in managing change. The adoption of innovative IT calls for a certain amount of management stability to transition from old to new methods in productive ways. In turn, that stability depends on an ...

Who doesn't stop twice to check out a letter from the Internal Revenue Service delivered in traditional snail mail paper form? Communications from the IRS or other federal agencies -- such as health information from the Centers for Disease Control, or consumer alerts from the Federal Trade Commissi...

Chief executive transitions in the IT industry often tend toward melodrama or at least bald quirkiness: The number of ignominious CEO departures at HP and Yahoo could qualify both companies for their own telenovelas. After successfully acquiring Sun Microsystems, Oracle unceremoniously booted CEO Jo...

Many U.S. government agencies seeking to utilize cloud-based information technology have tilted to one of the most common IT functions as a beginning step -- email systems. Converting existing email operations to cloud-based platforms became much easier for all federal agencies on Aug. 30, when GSA ...

What is the best way to market cloud IT services to the federal government? Any way you can. U.S. government agencies share the same goal: Under a White House mandate, all agencies must give priority to cloud configurations for IT projects. With all agencies pursuing the same "cloud first" goal, mar...

Time Warner Cable is investing $25 million in its fiber-optic network in certain parts of New York City. The goal is to provide faster Internet access, similar to Google's project in Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan. Unlike Google, though, Time Warner Cable is primarily interested in targeting...

Hardly a day goes by that one IT vendor or another fails to announce one "fastest/biggest/bestest" achievement or another, attempting to poke in the eye or drive straight into a ditch any and all previous claims. But it is ironic that while there is no shortage of ambition in the technology industry...

It seems so easy and so simple. Federal agencies should put most of their efforts into their missions and use management tools which enable them to meet mission goals. One such tool is cloud technology -- an "on demand" option for information technology services. In concept, the simplicity of using ...