Expert Advice

Three overarching, interrelated trends -- cloud consumption, virtualization and mobility -- present themselves as key industry themes for 2011. All have been increasing in importance over several years, and this year, all will reach a tipping point for businesses and information security providers a...

While marketers have long pursued the mobile or "third" screen, this channel is just now becoming a realistic option for most brands. Meeting consumer demand at the precise moment of that demand is not just push marketing, either. The new mobile environment empowers consumers to initiate the interac...

It may be too late to worry about how 2010 impacted us all, but it is not too late to think about how it will shape events this year. In some respects, 2010 was not a year that changed any one course dramatically. Most of 2010 was built around some familiar themes: consolidation, M&A, emerging t...

As e-commerce marketers set or adjust their strategies for 2011, there are some important trends and developments to pay attention to that can help capture new revenue streams and strengthen brand awareness this year and beyond. For many retailers, selling online is a critical component of their bus...

Think you need a SAS 70 report -- or its replacement, the SSAE No. 16 -- to demonstrate your credentials? You may... but maybe not. Service Organization Controls reports are designed to help service organizations build trust and confidence in their processes and controls through a report issued by ...

A major source of Facebook's success is its "social graph," a term coined in 2007 by company founder Mark Zuckerberg to describe the network of relationships between Facebook users. Facebook's social graph is a valuable component of the Facebook platform. The robust mapping of relationships and pref...

Though there are many benefits to bringing your company public, there are also disadvantages to be considered. Therefore, the process of deciding whether to launch an initial public offering should be a deliberate, well-thought-out process made by a team of professionals, including management, your ...

Not since Amazon started selling books more than 15 years ago has the world of e-commerce undergone such a wholesale transformation. The current online overhaul will likely be even more profound than the original dot-com boom, as it's unfolding across the entire retail sector as opposed to just a fe...

Monitoring online conversation can provide insights that are relevant to a range of functions and activities, and that drive different types of value to a company. Companies need to understand what these sources of value are and then design their social media monitoring program so that the findings ...

In the rush to Facebook, marketers are discovering that different kinds of content drive different kinds of results -- and different social networks respond in different ways. It was not that long ago that the experts warned that brands could not "sell" in social media, that the audience would rebel...

The challenges that all enterprises face today are numerous -- store more data, provide more services, control costs, and now monitor and manage energy costs and carbon impacts. Today there is mounting pressure on CIOs and CFOs to deliver improved services while curtailing costs. To transition IT or...

Communications as a Service. Cloud communications. Hosted PBX. You've heard the terms, and you've witnessed the hype. But what are these technologies? And what will they do for your business? Generally, a CaaS solution involves your business utilizing the resources, equipment and software of a servi...

With holiday online shopping numbers at an all-time high, retailers understand that the Web is a critical sales channel. What they might be overlooking, however, is just how influential social networks have become in the shopping process -- both online and off. As more consumers turn to the Web and...

Managing an IT environment can be expensive and challenging. As a result, some companies prefer to rely on service providers to assist with specific projects. Others prefer to utilize managed services for operational work and to establish better services, processes, tools and methodologies to lever...

Though evidence abounds of cloud computing moving from the hype stage to successful adoption and deployment, many enterprises are still not clear on how to adopt cloud and make it part of their enterprise IT strategies. This is in part due to a misperception about what cloud computing is and the num...