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			<channel>
				<title>Computer Economics Research Bytes</title>
				<link>http://www.computereconomics.com</link>
				<description>Computer Economics: IT metrics, ratios, benchmarks, and research advisories for IT management - Computer Economics: IT metrics and best practices for the strategic and financial management of information systems. Focus on IT spending, IT staffing, IT security, and IT cost management. </description>
				<language>en-us</language> 
				<lastBuildDate>Fri, 30 Jul 2010 07:02:45 GMT</lastBuildDate>
				
				<ttl>15</ttl> 
				<copyright>Copyright (c) Computer Economics: IT metrics, ratios, benchmarks, and research advisories for IT management 2010</copyright>
				
				
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						<title><![CDATA[VoIP Adoption Surpasses Half-Way Point]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1543</link>
						<description><![CDATA[The majority of organizations now have the Voice over IP in place, the result of the strong economic case for VoIP as well as its flexibility and functionality. This Research Byte tracks the three-year trend in VoIP adoption and investment.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 31 May 2010 10:34:13 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1543&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[SMBs That Outsource Spend 6% of IT Budget on Service Providers]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1541</link>
						<description><![CDATA[While as a rule larger organizations are more likely to engage in outsourcing a wider array of functions, those SMBs that do outsource allocate a slightly higher percentage of their total IT spending to outside service providers. This Research Byte is from our report: <A class=tstext href="http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1438"><EM>Four Essential Steps Toward Outsourcing IT Functions</EM></A>.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 19 May 2010 20:23:38 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1541&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Malicious Insider Threats Greater than Most IT Executives Think]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1537</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Many organizations do not treat the threat from malicious insiders seriously. Such threats include fraud, sabotage, and theft or loss of confidential information caused by trusted insiders. These threats go beyond negligence. They represent purposeful action on the part of insiders to act in opposition to the interests of the organization, whether for financial gain, retribution, or some other motivation. This Research Byte shows that the threats from malicious insiders is greater than most IT executives believe.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 11 May 2010 20:14:44 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1537&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[DBA Staff Levels Mostly Steady]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1539</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Application integration, the explosion in rich media, the need for faster and better business intelligence, the regulatory environment, stepped-up custom development work, and even the emergence of database-driven mobile applications are all creating need for personnel skilled in developing, managing, testing, securing, and backing up databases. On the other side of the coin, outsourcing trends and automation tools are working to restrain the growth of database administration staff. This Research Byte analyzes the three-year trend in DBA staffing ratios.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:21:46 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1539&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Number of Firms Outsourcing Desktop Support Declines]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1535</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Desktop support outsourcing can be a valuable tool for keeping in-house staffing costs down, but&nbsp;keeping the right balance is key. This Research Byte presents and analyzes trend data on outsourcing of the desktop support function over the prior three years.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:01:58 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1535&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Apps Development, Maintenance Staff Shrinks]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1530</link>
						<description><![CDATA[The size of the application development and maintenance staff employed by the typical organization appears to be in decline, at least as a percentage of the IT staff. As defined in our study, this function comprises application programmers and system analysts, who design, analyze, code, test, and maintain application software. This Research Byte is abstracted from our full report.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:40:04 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1530&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Desktop Virtualization Interest High, Adoption Low]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1528</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Judging by the number of conference presentations, promotional events, free educational sessions, vendor-sponsored research, and new product announcements, you would think this is destined to be the year of the virtual desktop. Yet this Research Byte shows that while desktop virtualization may be a promising technology, adoption remains limited to a small percentage of organizations.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:37:54 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1528&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Contract Labor 5% of Typical IT Staff]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1526</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Managing a contract work force is an important task for IT organizations, and&nbsp; managers need to determine the proper balance between full-time employees and temporary help. This Research Byte presents data from our study, <A class=tstext href="http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1525"><EM>Current Trends in Use of IT Contract Workers</EM></A>, on the typical range of values for the ratio of contract workers to total IT staff and summary of the key findings. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:37:48 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1526&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Application Maintenance Outsourcing in Retreat]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1524</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Despite its general acceptance and relative popularity, application maintenance outsourcing saw a significant retreat amid the downturn in IT spending last year. This Research Byte looks at data from our <A class=tstext href="http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1523"><EM>Application Maintenance Outsourcing Trends</EM></A> study and discusses where the strategy is headed in the near future.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:25:43 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1524&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[IT Workers Getting 1.8% Pay Bump]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1521</link>
						<description><![CDATA[During two years of turmoil, the great recession of 2008-2009 brought budget cutting and layoffs across most IT organizations, large and small. But the picture is brightening for IT workers. This Research Byte shows&nbsp;that&nbsp;IT organizations are budgeting to give the typical IT worker a 1.8% boost in pay this year.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:41:16 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1521&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Social Media Adoption is Low Despite Interest]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1519</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Adoption of social media (or, social networking) is still relatively low across all industries and among organizations of all sizes. But social media is on the radar of most organizations. This Research Byte is a brief abstract of our full report, <A class=tstext href="http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1518"><EM>Social Media Adoption Trends</EM></A>. It provides a look at how many organizations have adopted and are currently investing in social media.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:45:33 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1519&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Application Development Most Widely Outsourced Function]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1517</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Application development remains the most widely outsourced IT function, despite a sharp drop last year in the number of organizations outsourcing application development. This Research Byte is a brief abstract of our full report, <A class=tstext href="http://www.computereconomics.com/admin/index.cfm"><EM>Application Development Outsourcing Status and Trends</EM></A>, and it provides at look at the three-year trend in the percentage of organizations outsourcing application development work.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sat, 23 Jan 2010 12:08:07 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1517&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Network Staffing Levels Hold Steady Despite Increasing Demands]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1515</link>
						<description><![CDATA[As a percentage of the IT staff, network support staff levels have remained remarkably constant over the past four years, despite growing demands for bandwidth and increasing complexity of converged networks. This Research Byte examines long-term trends in network support staffing.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:41:15 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1515&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Outlook Brightens for 2010 IT Spending]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1511</link>
						<description><![CDATA[After a year of budget cuts, layoffs, and delayed projects, IT executives can look forward to 2010 as a period of stabilization and rebuilding. Our annual fourth-quarter economic outlook survey shows that median IT budgets will rise about 2.0% at the median in the coming year. This Research Byte highlights the top-line findings&nbsp;for IT operational budgets from&nbsp;our full report, <EM>Outlook for IT Spending and Staffing in 2010.</EM>]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:37:34 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1511&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Recession Dampens Storage Virtualization Growth]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1510</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Our research shows organizations are having a highly positive economic experience with storage virtualization, nearly as positive as with server virtualization. The recession, however, may be putting a damper on current investment this year. This Research Byte, which is an excerpt from our full report, examines the three-year adoption trend for storage virtualization.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:25:33 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1510&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Data Warehousing as a Distinct Job Function]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1507</link>
						<description><![CDATA[As the amount of data maintained by organizations increases, the data warehousing and business intelligence function is becoming more and more central to the IT group. Yet, many organizations, especially small firms,&nbsp;do not staff this function as a distinct job position. This Research Byte is a summary of our full report on staffing ratios for data warehouse and business intelligence. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:04:52 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1507&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Desktop Support Staffing Levels Dip Slightly]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1505</link>
						<description><![CDATA[PCs still require a great deal of support to maintain high levels of user satisfaction and productivity, and the need for mobility, security, and connectivity make support needs as great as ever. This Research Byte presents data on the 3-year trend in desktop support staffing levels.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:06:54 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1505&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Help Desk Outsourcing Bucks Trend]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1503</link>
						<description><![CDATA[While the recession prompted a pull-back in the outsourcing of many IT functions over the past three years, help desk outsourcing is an exception. The percentage of companies outsourcing help desk operations has risen slightly over the past three years, an indication that organizations are profiting from the use of third-party help desk service providers, this Research Byte shows.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:55:58 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1503&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Even Small Firms Big on IT Business Analysts]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1501</link>
						<description><![CDATA[The role of the business analyst is among the most important in the IT organization, serving as a bridge between the IT organization and the users it serves. Not all organizations are large enough to have dedicated business analysts, often combining the function with other roles. Business analysts, however, account for a sizeable portion of most IT staffs. This Research Byte assesses how many IT organizations staff this important function.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:26:06 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1501&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Helping Users Help Themselves]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1491</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Over the years, IT managers have tried various ways to lower IT service desk costs, including outsourcing the entire operation. But a better way is to deploy self-support tools, as already deployed in customer service operations. This Research Byte takes a look at&nbsp;adoption trends of these self-help tools by IT organizations for the help desk.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:55:05 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1491&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Help Desk Staffing Levels Holding Up]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1496</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Because the help desk (or service desk) comprises a sizable portion of the IT staff, it is often a target for cost reduction, outsourcing, and efficiency gains through improved processes and automation tools. This Research Byte looks at the three-year trend in help desk staffing levels, which show a remarkable consistency in spite of the current climate of recession and cost-cutting.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:56:33 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1496&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Green Shoots for Green IT]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1493</link>
						<description><![CDATA[The trend toward making information technology more environmentally friendly is gaining momentum. This trend is encouraged by several factors: rising energy costs, government regulations, and a desire to be perceived as good corporate citizens. These factors are prompting organizations to adopt policies and programs designed to reduce the impact of the IT environment. Based on our full report, this Research Byte looks at our most recent adoption data for green IT initiatives.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:38:15 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1493&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Less Than Half of IT Organizations Have QA Staff]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1489</link>
						<description><![CDATA[The skills of a capable IT quality assurance group are essential to improving IT processes in general and application development processes in particular. Yet, the appropriate level of QA staffing is often difficult to determine. This Research Byte&nbsp;provides an overview of our full report and focuses on the percentage of organizations that have IT personnel dedicated to the QA function. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:12:04 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1489&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Market Matures for Help Desk Automation Tools]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1487</link>
						<description><![CDATA[IT organizations are investing at a high rate in service desk (help desk) support tools and applications. This Research Byte discusses the shape of the current market and examines current adoption rates.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:45:12 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1487&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[IT Strategic Planning is a Critical Process]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1457</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Although strategic planning is widely practiced among IT organizations, there are signs that the recession may be causing some organizations to cut their strategic planning budgets. This is unwise. Strategic planning identifies opportunities for efficiency improvements, making it invaluable during times of economic instability. This Research Byte presents adoption trends for this best practice in the context of the current economic downturn. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:28:12 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1457&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Key Features of IT Asset Management Systems]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1454</link>
						<description><![CDATA[IT asset management (ITAM) systems improve the tracking of location, configuration, and identity of computer assets and related data, while reducing the effort required to collect and maintain this information. In this Research Byte, we review key activities supported by ITAM systems.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 22 May 2009 16:32:23 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1454&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Service Desk Prime Target for Efficiency Gains]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1455</link>
						<description><![CDATA[As a labor-intensive function, the IT help desk (or service desk) is generally high on management’s list of areas targeted for productivity gains. This Research Byte considers the help desk's role within IT as a whole, and how to gauge service efficiency.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Thu, 21 May 2009 15:24:29 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1455&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Unified Communications Adoption May Be Inevitable]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1447</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Unified communications systems provide employees, business partners, and customers greatly improved communications on a global basis in real-time. Because of these benefits, adoption is likely to increase greatly in the coming years. This Research Byte is a brief summary of our full report, which analyzes current adoption levels for unified communications along with ROI and TCO experience of early adopters. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 04 May 2009 15:26:20 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1447&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Server Support Headcounts Hold Steady]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1446</link>
						<description><![CDATA[In&nbsp;our study on server support staffing ratios, we provide three benchmarking metrics: server support staff as a percentage of IT staff, users per server support staff member, and, most importantly, servers per server support staff member. We provide these metrics for small, midsize, and large organizations. We also look at other factors that can influence server support staffing, including the number of operating systems in an environment, the impact of virtualization on data center efficiency, and the amount of time support staff spends on projects and technical support. While all of these factors can and do influence server support staffing, we find that basic staffing ratios have remained fairly consistent over the past three years.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:15:14 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1446&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Swine Flu, Avian Flu, and IT Disaster Recovery Planning]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1448</link>
						<description><![CDATA[The recent outbreak of swine flu (H1N1) and ongoing concern about avian flu (H5N1) increase the risk of a full-blown influenza pandemic. However, because pandemics are fundamentally different from the disasters commonly envisioned in business continuity plans, most IT organizations are not prepared to face this threat. This Research Byte is an overview of our full report on specific actions that IT risk managers should consider to prepare for a potential flu pandemic.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:49:07 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1448&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[The Cloud Swells: SaaS Returns Encouraging]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1440</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Cloud computing can be an effective strategy for postponing or entirely avoiding capital investments in IT infrastructure and for rapidly rolling out new applications--especially when funds are limited. This Research Byte breaks down the offerings of six "cloud computing" vendors into five basic categories: applications, infrastructure, platforms, services, and storage and provides an overview of our full report, which also presents adoption trends and ROI/TCO experiences for software as a service (SaaS).]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:44:15 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1440&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Data Center Outsourcing Likely to Grow]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1441</link>
						<description><![CDATA[It is no wonder that in today’s economic climate many IT organizations are re-examining outsourcing strategies. This Research Byte is an overview of our full report, which presents data on the percentage of organizations currently outsourcing data center operations, the percentage of data center work outsourced, and the percentage of organizations increasing and decreasing data center outsourcing. It also examines customer satisfaction levels with data center outsourcing.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:43:09 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1441&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Good News and Bad in IT Equipment Discounts]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1442</link>
						<description><![CDATA[If there is a silver lining this economic recession, it is that buyers are seeing greater discounts on IT equipment than they have in a long time. On the other hand, these greater discounts show how difficult times are for IT equipment manufacturers. Lessors, who sit between buyers and sellers, see a bright side as well as a dark side in the current business climate. This Research Byte is an excerpt from our full report, <EM>Vendor Discounts on Computer Equipment (Mar. 2009)</EM>. A link at the bottom of this Research Byte provides the&nbsp;first five pages of the full report, free. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:40:49 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1442&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Security Threats in Employee Misuse of IT Resources]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1436</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Employees and other insiders are using computers and the Internet more and more in their day-to-day work. Although these resources can greatly increase worker productivity, they can also be misused, leading to serious security threats. This Research Byte is&nbsp;based on&nbsp;our full report, which analyzes 14 forms of insider misuse in detail, including: unauthorized file copying; downloading of software, music, or other media; P2P file-sharing; rogue remote access programs, modems, and wireless access points; misuse of business or personal email; instant messaging; blogging and posting to message boards; and personal web surfing. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:57:36 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1436&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[ITIL Benefits and Barriers to Success]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1433</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Large IT organizations continuing to expand ITIL initiatives at a healthy pace, but new adoption&nbsp;be slowing. This Research Byte, as summary of our full report, highlights the potential benefits of ITIL adoption along with barriers to its success. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:28:40 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1433&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Investing in Network Automation]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1431</link>
						<description><![CDATA[The rationale for automating the myriad tasks associated with network management is obvious to anyone who has attempted to perform them manually. This Research Byte defines this category of IT automation tools and provides an overview of our full report on this subject.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:38:17 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1431&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[IT Management Levels Hold Steady]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1428</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Finding the right balance between IT managers, administrative personnel, and technical staff can be difficult. This Research Byte is a summary of our full report on IT management and administrative staffing ratios.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:57:14 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1428&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[IT Salary Growth Slowing But Still Positive in 2009]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1426</link>
						<description><![CDATA[In spite of the economic recession, median base pay for IT managers and staff will increase slightly in 2009, driven mostly by annual cost-of-living raises that IT organizations will award to existing employees. This free Executive Summary of our <EM>2009 IT Salary Report</EM> provides an overview of this and other key trends in IT compensation for 2009, including the five year trend in IT base compensation, expected change in IT staffing levels for 2009 by organization size, and average pay raises and incentive pay as a percentage of salary by job group. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sun, 01 Feb 2009 12:24:20 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1426&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[SOA Adoption Surges]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1423</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Adoption of service-oriented architecture (SOA) frameworks have increased sharply over the past year, driven by increased use of Microsoft .NET in all sizes of organizations and use of Java especially in large organizations. However, cost overruns in SOA initiatives are common, although ROI experiences are generally positive. This Research Byte provides a summary of our full report on SOA adoption trends and economic experiences.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:36:15 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1423&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Server Virtualization Growth: Slow but Steady]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1424</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Server virtualization provides major opportunities to lower cost and improve productivity in the data center. The latest metrics, as shown in this Research Byte, indicate that these economic incentives continue to drive increasing use of OS virtualization.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:40:33 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1424&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Understanding the Value of Application Portfolio Management]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1422</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Application&nbsp;Portfolio Management (APM)&nbsp;is the practice of grouping together applications with similar functions, assessing their financial value, and cataloging them in a way that allows analysis at multiple levels.&nbsp;This Research Byte provides a brief overview of APM and its value to organizations. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:13:15 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1422&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[IT Spending Forecast for 2009-2010: Executive Summary]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1418</link>
						<description><![CDATA[This Research Byte provides an executive summary of our 2009-2010 IT spending forecast. Drawing on nearly 20 years of Computer Economics IT survey data, the full report analyzes how IT spending was impacted during and after the previous two recessions. Although the past is not always a precursor of the future, we find evidence that IT spending should rebound more quickly from the current recession than it did during the tech-led recession in 2001, following a pattern more akin to what occurred after the 1990-91 downturn. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 30 Dec 2008 15:32:05 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1418&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Extending the Value of Legacy Systems]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1416</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Legacy business systems continue to comprise the core of many mission-critical computing systems. These high-value systems represent years of development and investment and replacing them with new technology can be disruptive, expensive, and potentially risky. Today IT managers are finding that the safest and wisest course is to extend the life of their legacy systems through modernization projects. This Research Byte is a summary of our full report, <EM>Legacy System Renewal Adoption Trends and Economic Characteristics.</EM>]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:14:53 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1416&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Data Centers Slowing Growth of Server Counts]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1414</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Proliferation of low-end servers is a common problem in data centers today. In response, organizations are fighting server proliferation by investing in server virtualization, data center consolidation, and data center automation tools. In theory, these investments should result in slower growth of low-end servers and increasing growth in the acquisition of more powerful servers. In practice, however, organizations appear to be restraining the growth of all classes of servers and reducing overall spending on server hardware and software. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:44:55 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1414&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[IT Project Manager Staff Levels Increasing]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1412</link>
						<description><![CDATA[As a formal discipline, project management has been around since the 1950s, but its application to the unique requirements of IT is still growing and maturing. Our research indicates that over the past three years, IT shops have been relying more and more on professional project management. The number of organizations establishing Project Management Offices has been steadily increasing and experienced IT project managers are in demand. This Research Byte is a summary of our full report, <EM>IT Project Manager Staffing Ratios and PMO Adoption Rates</EM>.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:18:40 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1412&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[2009 IT Spending Forecast: No Growth]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1409</link>
						<description><![CDATA[How are IT executives responding to the current turmoil in worldwide financial markets? Are they preemptively cutting IT spending and staffing levels in anticipation of further declines in business conditions, or are they holding the line on substantial cuts in IT capabilities and personnel, knowing how hard it will be to rebuild once the economy improves? This Research Byte is a summary of our full report, which updates our forecast for 2009 IT spending and staffing levels. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:40:33 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1409&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Understanding IT Procurement Contracts]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1407</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Nearly all IT projects require some sort of procurement, whether it is for hardware, software, or services. Therefore understanding IT procurement contracts has become an important part of the job of the project manager. This Research Byte serves as a basic primer to&nbsp;identify and explain the major sections of typical IT procurement contracts.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:36:22 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1407&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Business Intelligence: Bright Spot in IT Investment]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1406</link>
						<description><![CDATA[In spite of current economic conditions, the majority of organizations this year are investing in business intelligence (BI), according to our study. This is in spite of the cost overruns frequently reported by our survey respondents for BI projects. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:10:31 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1406&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Trends in IT Incentive Pay]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1403</link>
						<description><![CDATA[The development of incentive pay plans turned into a minor industry over the past decade as business managers became enamored with the idea that paying for performance could increase productivity. While there is merit to the strategy, there has also been a growing awareness that ill-conceived incentive pay programs can have negative consequences and that money is not always the best way to motivate employees.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:44:17 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1403&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Documentation and Training Staff Headcount Declining]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1400</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Documentation and training is a bit like motherhood and apple pie--universally appreciated and well spoken of. Yet, in practice, fewer than half of all IT organizations today employ documentation and training specialists as a discrete job position. Furthermore, over the last decade the percentage of IT staff dedicated to these functions has been falling.&nbsp;If the job is so important, why is headcount declining?]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sun, 28 Sep 2008 09:39:28 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1400&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Open Source Shows Promise for Business Apps]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1397</link>
						<description><![CDATA[While open source software has established a place for itself in the IT infrastructure, many organizations have shied away from deploying open source at the applications layer, preferring to stay with vendor-supported commercial software packages. But interest in open source business applications is on the rise, among small organizations that perceive potential cost savings and among large organizations that appreciate the flexibility and extensibility of open source. For some IT managers, the time may be right to give open source serious consideration for business systems.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 22 Sep 2008 21:23:17 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1397&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Telecommuting Policies Can Lower IT Employee Turnover]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1395</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Telecommuting is a popular option among IT employees. A recent Computer Economics survey found that organizations with well-regarded telecommuting problems enjoy lower IT staff turnover. However, the advantages and disadvantages dictate that telecommuting policies should be designed carefully. This Research Byte is a summary of our full report on the impact of telecommuting policies on IT staff recruiting and retention.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:10:31 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1395&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[U.S. Economy Strengthens, but IT Decision Makers Should Remain Cautious]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1394</link>
						<description><![CDATA[In spite of strong second quarter growth in U.S. GDP, underlying economic conditions remain a cause for concern. This Research Byte is a summary of our full report, which analyzes current economic conditions from the perspective of IT decision makers and providers of IT products and services.&nbsp; ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 02 Sep 2008 20:10:47 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1394&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Laptops Displacing Desktops: Impact on Support Costs]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1393</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Computer Economics research indicates that, for the typical enterprise, the ratio of laptops to total PCs grew by 10% over the past year, and we anticipate that this trend will accelerate in the coming year. This Research Byte is a summary of our full report, which investigates these trends in detail by organization size and industry sector and analyzes the impact on PC support costs. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:46:56 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1393&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Data Center Automation Adoption Increases]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1392</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Data center automation is a broad category of tools for improving productivity of data center personnel. DCA applications have evolved from tools for provisioning servers into suites that include everything from IT process automation, to asset discovery, configuration management, and change management.This Research Byte is a summary of our full report, which analyzes adoption trends and current investment activity for this technology. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:38:56 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1392&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Data Center Consolidation Shows Overwhelmingly Positive ROI ]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1386</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Data center consolidation is one of the most fundamental ways to lower the cost of IT operations. Larger data centers are simply more cost-effective on a per-unit basis. Therefore, for many organizations, combining multiple data centers into a single facility should be a primary strategy for cutting costs while improving service levels. This Research Byte is a summary of our full report, which&nbsp;quantifies the direct cost-savings achievable from merging smaller data centers into larger single facilites. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:18:52 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1386&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[IT Employee Retention: It's Not All About the Money]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1385</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Despite the slowing economy, many IT executives today believe turnover is a growing problem.&nbsp;This Research Byte is an overview of our full study on this subject, which finds that reducing turnover is a powerful cost-saving measure. Furthermore,&nbsp;some of the most effective means of reducing turnover do not involve improving economic incentives such as salaries and bonuses. Non-financial incentives, such as enriching education and training opportunities or introducing quality-of-life factors such as flexible scheduling, can have a greater impact on retention than raising pay scales.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:04:09 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1385&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[IT Security Staff Levels Are Declining]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1384</link>
						<description><![CDATA[While security is a high priority for IT organizations today and security professionals remain in strong demand, the actual percentage of IT employees dedicated to security is relatively small--only about 1.5% of the typical IT staff--and has been declining, somewhat surprisingly, over the past three years. The implication is that organizations have fewer security professionals today to maintain the integrity of their systems than they did a few years ago. Just how many security specialists do they need? This Research Byte is an overview of our full study, which provides benchmarks for security staffing levels.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:51:06 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1384&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[IT Outsourcing Statistics 2008/2009]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1378</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Each year, Computer Economics surveys more than 200 IT decision makers regarding their current&nbsp;plans for outsourcing IT functions, including outsourcing of data center operations, help desk, desktop support, application development, application maintenance,&nbsp;database administration,&nbsp;website/e-commerce systems,&nbsp;data network operations,&nbsp;voice network operations, disaster recovery services, and IT security. This Research Byte provides a description of the full report and a link to download sample pages from the study.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:15:23 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1378&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Virtualization, Business Intelligence, Automation Top List of IT Investments]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1377</link>
						<description><![CDATA[A Computer Economics study finds that about 30% of IT spending in 2008 will go toward new initiatives. But where are those new-initiative dollars going? This Research Byte is a summary of our full report, which analyzes the top 10 IT initiatives for 2008 in terms of new investment dollars.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:39:18 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1377&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Businesses in No Rush to Adopt Vista]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1344</link>
						<description><![CDATA[While the availability of SP1 will improve Microsoft Vista adoption levels, businesses are still in no rush to migrate to this latest version of Windows. Widespread adoption of Vista could still be a year or more away, which raises the possibility that Microsoft could begin to see its dominant share of the corporate desktop market erode with this desktop upgrade cycle. IT managers, nevertheless, need to be preparing for an eventual transition to a new desktop environment.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:00:44 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1344&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Web and E-Commerce Staffing Levels Holding Steady]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1343</link>
						<description><![CDATA[While companies are clearly investing in web technology, our study on web/e-commerce&nbsp;staffing and outsourcing trends finds that they are not increasing their web-specific staff as percentage of the total IT staff. Our study also indicates that while web outsourcing is rising modestly,&nbsp;most organizations are choosing to retain a sizeable portion of their web operations in-house. This Research Byte is an executive summary of our full report on web and e-commerce staffing ratios and outsourcing trends. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:23:43 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1343&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Maximizing Help Desk Efficiency]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1335</link>
						<description><![CDATA[For many IT managers, improving service levels has become a top priority, and the question of just how large of a help desk staff is required to optimally serve the organization's IT users has become a critical issue. This Research Byte is a summary of our full report, <EM>Help Desk Staffing Ratios and Outsourcing Trends</EM>, which provides benchmarks to assist IT organizations in answering that question.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sat, 03 May 2008 14:39:07 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1335&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Virtualization: Key to a Productive Data Center]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1336</link>
						<description><![CDATA[The benefits of OS virtualization are generally well-recognized: better utilization of server hardware, reduced floorspace requirements, and lower power and cooling costs. But there is one other benefit that is potentially greater than all the others, one that is not commonly recognized: virtualization also improves the productivity of data center personnel.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sat, 03 May 2008 14:33:47 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1336&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Minimize Software Attack Surfaces for Stronger Security]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1337</link>
						<description><![CDATA[IT security professionals understand that no software program is completely secure. Too often, systems that were thought to be secure are penetrated by individuals who discover and exploit latent vulnerabilities.&nbsp;However, although there is no such thing as invulnerable code, it is possible to make systems more secure. One method of doing so is to assess and minimize a system's attack surface.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sat, 03 May 2008 14:29:59 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1337&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Ensuring Success of Data Migration]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1329</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Conversion of data from one form to another, or from one system to another, is a common task in IT organizations. Although many aspects are technical in nature, data migration should not be left to technicians. Without careful managerial oversight, failures in data migration can cause project cost and schedule overruns, as well as quality problems with far-reaching effects in the organization. This Research Byte is a summary of our full report on this important subject. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:13:35 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1329&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Factors That Affect ERP Support Staffing Levels]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1328</link>
						<description><![CDATA[For many IT organizations, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems form a large part of the application portfolio. Therefore, understanding the support requirements of these systems is important for managing overall staffing levels within IT. To better understand ERP support staffing requirements, Computer Economics conducted a special survey of ERP user organizations. Our study identifies several factors that affect the level of staffing required to support these mission-critical systems and finds several best practices to optimize the productivity of ERP support personnel. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:35:27 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1328&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Contract IT Workforce Increasing for Some Firms]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1327</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Companies that already make aggressive use of contractors appear to be increasing their use, but most organizations have maintained a relatively steady balance between full-time employees and contract workers over the past four years. While growth in contract workforces is expected during economic upswings, it remains to be seen whether this trend will continue during a downswing. This Research Byte is a summary of our full report, <A class=tstext href="http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1324"><EM>Current Trends in Use of IT Contract Workers</EM></A>.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:23:25 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1327&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Promoting Energy Conservation in the Data Center]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1320</link>
						<description><![CDATA[For all the discussions surrounding energy consumption in the data center, it appears that IT managers have not yet fully embraced energy conservation as a key component of their decision making. Perhaps this is because IT managers, in many cases, are not responsible for the cost of utilities used to power and cool their data centers.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:25:06 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1320&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Windows Server 2008 to Dominate Data Centers by 2010]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1319</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Historical evidence indicates that Windows Server 2008 will eventually take over a sizeable portion of the processing load in data centers. According to a Computer Economics survey of over 200 CIOs and senior IT managers, previous versions of Windows operating systems are now handling the majority of the load, but the 2008 version of Windows Server is likely to become the primary operating system in the typical data center within three years.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:20:18 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1319&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[IT Salaries Rising Despite Economic Slowdown]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1310</link>
						<description><![CDATA[After several years of growing investment in technology, IT managers are now coming under pressure to restrain headcount, reduce costs, and improve the efficiency of their IT operations due to the slowing economy. At the same time, there is ample evidence that investments in Web-based initiatives, database-centric business applications development, and converged voice/data networks will continue to place upward pressure on salaries for certain job functions where skills are in tight supply. This free Research Byte is an executive summary of our <A class=tstext href="http://www.computereconomics.com/page.cfm?name=IT%20Salary%20Report"><EM>2008 IT Salary Report</EM></A>, which provides an analysis of IT staffing and salary trends from 2001 through 2007, including our projections for 2008. It also provides extensive tables of salaries for 78 IT job positions in 78 U.S. metropolitan areas for small, medium, and large organizations at the median, 25th, and 75th percentiles.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:23:03 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1310&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[CMDB Benefits: No Slam Dunk]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1314</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Our study on Configuration Management Database (CMDB) systems indicates that implementing and maintaining&nbsp;these systems can be a daunting, resource-intensive process. CMDB solutions are still in their infancy, and the companies that have successfully deployed such systems are few. Still, while the tasks associated with CMDB maintenance can be significant, all IT managers must know the components of their IT systems in order to use, maintain, control, and improve them in a sensible manner. When properly implemented, the benefits can be significant. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:35:31 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1314&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Are You Spending Enough on Business Continuity?]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1313</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Business continuity planning and disaster recovery capabilities can be a tough sell because they do not contribute to the bottom line. Spending on business continuity preparedness can be an open-ended proposition--there is always more that could be done to better prepare the organization. Therefore, IT managers must assess how much spending is appropriate for the level of risk an organization is willing to accept. &nbsp;]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:29:08 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1313&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[VoIP Adoption Moves into the Mainstream]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1303</link>
						<description><![CDATA[The popularity of VoIP has steadily increased over the last few years. Our annual <EM>IT Spending, Staffing, and Technology Trends</EM> study indicates that VoIP adoption rates have risen at a 12% annualized rate from 2005-2007. This year, Computer Economics research indicates that, for the first time, the majority of businesses will have implemented some form of VoIP technology.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:52:07 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1303&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[New Initiatives Spending Is a Key Measure of Efficiency]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1304</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Over the last few years, business and governmental organizations of all sizes have been giving priority to spending for new initiatives, as is typical&nbsp;in periods of economic growth. But inevitably those will priorities shift, and shift quickly, as the business cycle turns. In today's climate of slowing economic growth, IT managers need to be ready to defend the efficiency of their ongoing operations against pressure to make cutbacks while sustaining investment in high-priority strategic initiatives. The study is based on interviews with IT executives and a Computer Economics survey conducted in October and November 2007 on IT budgeting.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:51:25 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1304&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[IT Budget Chargebacks: Making Users Pay]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1293</link>
						<description><![CDATA[The key premise of chargeback strategies--that IT expenses should be allocated as closely as possible to the business activities that create the demand--seems like a rational approach to sound business management. If business-unit decision-makers perceive IT to be "free," they will be unable to account for the true cost of business investments and activities. This Research Byte is an executive summary of our full report and survey on current&nbsp;practices in the chargeback of IT expenses to users. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:08:33 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1293&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Storage Virtualization: Benefits and Risks]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1294</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Although implementation of&nbsp;storage virtualization is limited, organizations of all sizes are showing a great deal of interest in the technology.&nbsp;This Research Byte is an executive summary of our full report on the ROI and TCO of storage virtualization, based on the experiences of early adopters as reported in our most recent annual survey.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:00:38 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1294&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[2008 IT Spending Outlook: Anemic Growth]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1289</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Although IT operational budgets increased by a healthy 5% this year over 2006 levels, Computer Economics is now detecting a slight bias toward underspending relative to budgets this year. Furthermore, IT executives are now lowering their expectations for increased IT spending in 2008.&nbsp;These trends are most pronounced among large organizations. This article presents the results of our Q4 survey of IT executives and what they mean for the IT spending outlook in 2008. (3 pp., 6 figs.)]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sun, 11 Nov 2007 23:46:53 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1289&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Application Consolidation Provides Major Payoff]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1287</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Application proliferation is the bane of many IT organizations.&nbsp;Although the difficulties of application consolidation should not be underestimated, the benefits should be appreciated as well. In fact, the trend toward application consolidation is increasing, and the majority of organizations that begin such initiatives tend to increase their efforts. This Research Byte is a summary of our full report, <A class=tstext href="http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1286"><EM>Application Consolidation: Adoption Trends and Benefits</EM></A>, which investigates this and other trends and provides recommendations based on our findings.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sun, 11 Nov 2007 22:04:30 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1287&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[DBA Staffing Ratios: Executive Summary]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1288</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Database administrators (DBAs) and support staff comprise a relatively small but vital part of most IT organizations. In addition, DBAs have maintained a surprisingly steady percentage of the total IT staff over the years.&nbsp;The composite numbers, however, mask some of the underlying sea-changes occurring as a result of all the forces impacting this aspect of the IT workforce. This Research Byte is an extract from our full report on DBA staffing ratios. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:30:10 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1288&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[The ABCs of Storage Area Networks]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1283</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Making the decision to invest in storage area networks (SANs) requires an understanding of the differences between various approaches to managing storage.&nbsp;Unfortunately, the differences are not always clearly understood outside the realm of the enterprise data center.&nbsp;SANs, network-attached storage (NAS), and direct-attached storage (DAS) are sometimes positioned as competing technologies, but in actuality all three are found in today's enterprise IT environments and have distinct applications. This Research Byte provides a primer on these three types of storage management systems and their application. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:08:37 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1283&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Application Developers Getting Largest Pay Hikes]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1282</link>
						<description><![CDATA[IT salaries will increase by over 5% in 2008, with applications developers leading the list of jobs with the greatest percentage gain. This Research Byte analyzes the factors driving these salary increases in light of current trends in application development staffing and outsourcing levels.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 26 Oct 2007 20:20:43 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1282&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Regulations: Mixed Blessing for the Security Program]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1279</link>
						<description><![CDATA[What is the proper relationship between the security program and regulatory compliance? How can an organization be compliant with all of the applicable regulations and at the same time be truly secure? To answer these questions, Computer Economics conducted a survey in the first half of 2007 to gather information from security, IT, and regulatory professionals on these questions.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 08 Oct 2007 18:21:49 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1279&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Data Center Costs Are Changing]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1278</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Over the past five years, Unix and Windows data center costs per processor have been steadily declining. But because the cost reduction is largely due to the falling cost of hardware, other costs are becoming more important in terms of data center financial management. This Research Byte is a brief summary of our full report on the shifting mix of data center costs, which analyzes the implication of these trends. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 08 Oct 2007 18:17:47 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1278&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Application Development Staffing Ratios: Executive Summary]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1280</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Application development personnel play a key role within IT organizations. Application software sits between the users of IT and the IT infrastructure, providing functionality to support business processes and serve customers.&nbsp;But how can these staff members be best utilized? This Research Byte is a brief summary of our full report on current staffing ratios for application development. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 08 Oct 2007 13:50:21 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1280&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Network Staffing and Spending Ratios: Executive Summary]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1274</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Building an in-house staff to support voice and data networks is a challenging responsibility. How large a staff is required to efficiently provide reliable network operations? How large a budget is required? Knowing the norms for these benchmarks in other organizations with IT systems of equivalent complexity can help to determine the appropriate number of network support staff and reasonable budgets for network spending. This Research Byte is an executive summary of our full report, which provides network spending and staffing benchmarks based on the number of desktops, network sites, and network devices, and by size of organization. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:12:05 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1274&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Weighing the Pros and Cons of Handheld Email Devices]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1272</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Handheld email devices, such as the Blackberry from Research in Motion (RIM) and Palm's Treo, have become must-have devices for many business professionals. Once limited to top executives and select sales personnel, these products are now in high demand by users at all levels of the organization. How deeply have these devices penetrated the enterprise? How fast is usage growing? Do the benefits of these products outweigh the costs? This Research Byte is an executive summary of our full report, which answers these questions. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sun, 02 Sep 2007 13:07:08 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1272&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Unix Beats Windows and Linux Data Centers in Economies of Scale]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1270</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Data center cost is subject to economy of scale--for example, larger data centers can enjoy greater discounts on equipment and software. They can also use automated tools to make support personnel more productive. So why are Unix data centers so much better at utilizing these economies of scale than Window and Linux data centers? This Research Byte is a summary of our full report, <A class=tstext href="http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1269"><EM>Windows and Linux Data Centers Lag Behind Unix in Realizing Economies of Scale</EM></A>.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sun, 02 Sep 2007 12:21:21 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1270&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Data Center Consolidation: Benefits and Costs]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1271</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Many organizations have multiple data centers, even though a smaller number would be sufficient.&nbsp;Such a situation is costly: a Computer Economics survey finds that organizations operating multiple data centers spend more on IT per user than those with a single data center. This Research Byte is an executive summary of our full report on the cost savings and other benefits of data center consolidation.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sun, 02 Sep 2007 12:02:32 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1271&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[The Prevalence of IT Outsourcing]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1265</link>
						<description><![CDATA[The popularity of IT outsourcing is growing. According to Chapter 5 of our latest <EM>IT Spending, Staffing, and Technology Trends</EM> study, organizations in the U.S. and Canada are increasing the amount of IT work given to outside service providers. In today's economy and tightening job market, few IT organizations can afford to adopt a "no outsourcing" strategy. On the other hand, outsourcing the entire IT organization to an outside provider is rarely justified. This Research Byte is a brief overview of our report on this subject, <EM>The State of IT Outsourcing and Guidelines for Success</EM>.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 06 Aug 2007 17:47:05 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1265&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Happy Together: Security Professionals and Project Managers]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1263</link>
						<description><![CDATA[In response to today's increasing threat levels, many companies are increasing their investments in security. Yet many of these same organizations find that their security programs are not effective, as witnessed by the many high-profile security incidents reported by commercial and governmental organizations over the past year. The reason:&nbsp;management has fully embraced security as an essential element of project management.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sun, 05 Aug 2007 17:49:23 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1263&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Desktop Support Staffing Ratios: Executive Summary]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1261</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Desktop computers, including laptops and workstations, have become essential items for most employees, who rely on these machines as their primary means of access to corporate systems. Although there is no question concerning the importance of desktop service and support, determining the number of desktop support technicians can be a difficult exercise. This Research Byte is an executive summary of our full report, which provides guidelines for staffing the desktop support function, based on our survey of over 200&nbsp;IT organizations. &nbsp;]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 30 Jul 2007 16:24:11 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1261&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Google: Your Next Enterprise Application Provider?]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1259</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Google's recent acquisition of Postini sends a signal that the company intends to be a major player in the on-demand enterprise application market. Today, Google's enterprise division accounts for less than one percent of the company's annual revenues. But Google expects enterprise applications to grow into a much larger part of its business over the next few years. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 27 Jul 2007 14:34:31 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1259&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[IBM's Newest Supercomputer Targets Commercial Users]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1256</link>
						<description><![CDATA[IBM's&nbsp;Blue Gene/P is 100,000 times more powerful than a home PC and can process more operations in one second than the combined power of a stack of laptop computers nearly 1.5 miles high. It is designed to fit in small spaces, use less power than competing systems, and--according to IBM--is at least seven times more energy efficient than any other supercomputer. This article describes features of the Blue Gene/P and its likely commercial adopters.&nbsp; ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 09 Jul 2007 18:20:30 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1256&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[ITIL Refresh Provides New Focus on Business Needs]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1255</link>
						<description><![CDATA[The new ITIL Version 3 (released in May, 2007) is designed to provide a more cohesive and better-organized description of ITIL standards, and is considerably slimmer--it contains only five volumes, compared to the original 31.&nbsp;It also&nbsp;includes a new focus on specific vertical markets and technological issues. Additionally, this release offers material that will help explain ITIL to non-IT business professionals, with an emphasis on IT and business alignment.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 02 Jul 2007 10:34:32 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1255&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Spam King Arrested, Spam Traffic...Increases!]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1226</link>
						<description><![CDATA[A week after being indicted by a federal grand jury, Robert Soloway, the so-called "Spam King," was arrested on May 30th by U.S. marshals. He has been officially charged with identity theft, money laundering, and mail, wire, and email fraud. This Research Byte examines the likely impact of such prosecutions on the volume of spam afflicting email systems today.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Thu, 07 Jun 2007 14:29:28 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1226&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Annual Worldwide Economic Damages from Malware Exceed $13 Billion]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1225</link>
						<description><![CDATA[The direct worldwide economic impact of malware fell last year for the second year in a row. While antivirus technology deserves some of the credit, this trend is also a sign that cyber-criminals have shifted their focus to financial gain, which produces smaller direct damages but larger potential indirect and secondary effects. This Research Byte is an extract from our special publication, the <EM>2007 Malware Report: The Economic Impact of Viruses, Spyware, Adware, Botnets, and Other Malicious Code</EM>.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Thu, 07 Jun 2007 14:08:37 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1225&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Benefits for IT Organizations in the Intel/AMD Battle]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1223</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Over the past year, Intel released 40 new desktop, mobile, and server processors. This is just a prelude to new lines that will emerge over the next three years--many with integrated, on-chip memory controllers and graphics processors. However, AMD is not giving up the battle, as it unleashes its Barcelona line in mid-2007, followed up with quad-core processors and lower prices. This Research Byte is a summary of our full report, which examines the features and benefits of the new technologies for IT organizations.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 30 May 2007 14:20:09 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1223&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Hot Times in the Data Center]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1222</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Data center temperatures are rising as computer manufacturers cram faster, hotter processors into smaller and smaller boxes. Many organizations respond by throwing more air conditioning at the problem, which increases energy consumption. Ultimately, many companies are forced to expand their data centers or build new facilities to deal with the excess heat, and the cycle begins again because the fundamental problems were never solved. This Research Byte is a summary of our full report, which outlines alternate solutions to solve the data center power and cooling crisis.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 30 May 2007 14:06:24 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1222&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[The Coming Wave of IT Retirements: Executive Summary]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1219</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Many IT organizations are not prepared for the coming loss of senior IT staff due to retirement of the baby-boomer generation. This Research Byte is an executive summary of our special report on this subject, based on our survey of over&nbsp;150 IT senior managers concerning their plans for dealing with this issue.&nbsp;It also analyzes their perceptions of the IT skills and business focus of younger versus older IT workers and provides recommendations for managing the transition to a new generation of IT leaders. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 22 May 2007 15:16:19 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1219&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Server Virtualization Rates Overall Are Still Low]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1217</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Server virtualization has major benefits: savings in hardware costs, reduction in floor space requirements, lower power and cooling requirements, and savings in administrative time associated with deployment of physical servers. However, in spite of these promised benefits, overall virtualization rates are still low in practice.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 30 Apr 2007 16:13:36 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1217&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Is It Time to Migrate to Microsoft Office 2007?]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1216</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Although&nbsp;Microsoft's new Office 2007 introduces many new capabilities, there are a number of factors for IT organizations to consider when deciding on the suitability of Office 2007 and the optimum time to upgrade. This Research Byte is a summary of our full report, which examines the major features of Office 2007, analyzes its ROI opportunities,&nbsp;and makes recommendations for a successful upgrade.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 13 Apr 2007 17:09:38 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1216&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Trends in IT Security Threats: Executive Summary]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1214</link>
						<description><![CDATA[In protecting their organizations' information and systems, IT security professionals face an evolving array of threats. Last year's defenses may not be adequate to counter the threats of this year's attacks. Therefore, it is important for executives to have an awareness of&nbsp;the seriousness&nbsp;of each type of computer security threat and how threat levels are changing. This Research Byte is an executive summary of our full report, Trends <EM>in IT Security Threats: 2007</EM>, which is based on a survey of over 100 IT security managers and professionals worldwide. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 04 Apr 2007 19:27:46 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1214&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Do Vista Costs Outweigh the Benefits?]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1211</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Microsoft Vista has new features for security and usability that are much improved over its previous desktop operating systems. On the other hand, organizations are likely to underestimate the amount of user training needed and the steepness of the learning curve required for Vista.&nbsp; Although organizations will enjoy improved productivity of desktop administration costs under Vista, other costs will outweigh these benefits.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 04 Apr 2007 15:15:44 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1211&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Industry Standards Drive Advances in Healthcare IT]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1209</link>
						<description><![CDATA[After many years of promises, IT is beginning to show real progress in the effort to improve the quality and lower the cost of healthcare. Moving beyond disconnected systems, isolated devices, and paper medical records, leading healthcare providers are beginning to make interoperability a reality through industry standards.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 19 Mar 2007 13:35:24 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1209&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Challenges in IT Staffing: Executive Summary]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1208</link>
						<description><![CDATA[IT staffing issues will continue to grow in complexity over the next several years and will impact the very structure of many IT organizations.&nbsp;This Research Byte is a summary of our full report on the current challenges in IT staffing, based on&nbsp;a survey of approximately 160 U.S. IT hiring managers.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Thu, 08 Mar 2007 16:33:43 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1208&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Internet and Broadband Growth Accelerates Worldwide]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1206</link>
						<description><![CDATA[The deployment of broadband technologies is driving Internet usage throughout the world--and vice-versa. Computer Economics now estimates the total number of Internet users globally to be approximately 1.25 billion. This figure represents a worldwide Internet penetration level of roughly 17%, although usage figures by country vary widely. By sometime next year, one out of every five people in the world will be a user of the Internet. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 05 Mar 2007 19:28:37 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1206&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Staffing the Business Analyst Function]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1205</link>
						<description><![CDATA[The business analyst job&nbsp;is one of the most difficult positions for IT managers to fill. The requisite combination of qualifications--technical knowledge, business perspective, and interpersonal skills--is not easily found in a single individual. Understanding the right number of business analysts required, therefore, is an important first step in planning to staff this important function. This Research Byte is an executive summary of our full report on this subject. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:09:52 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1205&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[RFID Adoption Stalls: Executive Summary]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1203</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Over the past several years, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has been promoted as the next big thing in supply chain and asset management. <SPAN class=tsText>Despite this, the adoption rate of RFID technology has stalled significantly in the last year. This Research Byte is an executive summary of our full report on the slowdown in adoption of RFID, based on&nbsp;<SPAN class=tsText>our own nationwide survey of CIOs, correspondence with RFID consultants, and <SPAN class=tsText>anecdotal evidence</SPAN>.</SPAN></SPAN>]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sat, 24 Feb 2007 11:05:58 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1203&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Three Conferences for IT Financial Managers]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1200</link>
						<description><![CDATA[The IT Financial Management Association (ITFMA) is holding three concurrent conferences on March 26-30, 2007, in Nashville, TN. If you or someone in your organization is responsible for IT financial management, these events are well worth attending. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:18:31 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1200&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[ITIL Continues to Grow and Evolve]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1201</link>
						<description><![CDATA[As we predicted nearly two years ago, 2006 was the watershed year in the U.S. for the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). Today ITIL is a hot topic for many IT organizations in the U.S. and its influence is spreading in the Asia-Pacific region. This Research Byte examines several metrics that point to the rising influence of ITIL and changes planned for&nbsp;ITIL Version 3, also known as the ITIL Refresh.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 16 Feb 2007 20:31:53 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1201&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Benchmarking Costs Per Server Instance]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1199</link>
						<description><![CDATA[With server virtualization becoming the norm in many data centers, the number of OS instances is becoming the primary metric for benchmarking many elements of data center spending. This article provides statistics on total data center spending per OS instance for Windows, Unix, and Linux servers. The average, highest, and lowest costs are shown, based on data collected from data center benchmarking exercises conducted over the past year. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 12 Feb 2007 19:24:50 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1199&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[SOA Adoption Trends: Executive Summary]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1198</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Although SOA is undoubtedly a better way to develop and implement software, widespread commercial adoption of SOA is five to seven years away. This article is a summary of our full report, which presents SOA adoption rate trends by industry sector and organization size. It also discusses the different categories of SOA adoption and the reasons why certain types of firms are deploying SOA more rapidly. It also provides recommendations for maximizing the benefits of this technology for end-user organizations and IT service providers in light of these findings.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 06 Feb 2007 19:36:29 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1198&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[QA Staffing Ratios Vary Across Organizations]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1197</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Too often, the quality assurance (QA) function is viewed within IT as an obstacle to getting work done. But as companies become more reliant on systems, and with new regulatory mandates such as Sarbanes-Oxley,&nbsp;the software QA function is becoming more important than ever. To carry out its mission, the QA group must be staffed with the right number of&nbsp;qualified and knowledgeable professionals. This article is an executive summary of our full report, which provides staffing ratios for benchmarking the size of the IT quality function. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 06 Feb 2007 19:29:34 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1197&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[IT Salary Growth is Accelerating]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1193</link>
						<description><![CDATA[In 2007, IT managers will be challenged by a tighter market for skilled IT professionals and IT salary levels that are rising across the board. While the IT job market will not be nearly as frenetic as it was in the late 1990s, we expect it to be more active this year than at any other time this decade. This Research Byte is a summary of our 2007 <A class=tstext href="http://www.computereconomics.com/page.cfm?name=IT%20Salary%20Report"><EM>IT Salary Report</EM></A>, which provides an analysis of IT staffing and salary trends as well as complete salary statistics for 81 job positions in 70 U.S. metropolitan areas.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:26:16 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1193&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Ten-Year Trends in IT Spending: Executive Summary (2007)]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1192</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Developing the appropriate level of IT spending for an organization is an important element of IT strategy. On the one hand, IT executives seek to increase IT spending in order to better serve users. On the other hand, the IT function is no different from any other--it must accomplish its mission within the budgetary constraints of the organization. Inevitably, executives seek guidance in the form of benchmarks based on the experiences of other organizations' IT spending. However, in studying IT spending benchmarks, it is easy to miss long-term trends.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 08 Jan 2007 17:43:59 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1192&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Taking Advantage of Aggressive Discounting by Dell]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1190</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Dell appears to be on the road to regain lost market share with aggressive discounting for both businesses and consumers. To date, Dell has been out-discounting both HP and IBM. Buyers should leverage such discounts to increasing competition among suppliers, even if Dell is not the preferred supplier.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 18 Dec 2006 19:08:25 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1190&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Server Support Staffing Ratios: Executive Summary]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1189</link>
						<description><![CDATA[This Research Byte is an executive summary of our full report, which provides benchmarks for server support headcount based on a survey conducted by Computer Economics with over 140 data centers. The full report provides benchmarks for the number of servers and&nbsp;the&nbsp;number of OS instances that can be&nbsp;supported by one support staff member.&nbsp;It&nbsp;also provides guidelines for adjusting the staffing ratios to account for project-related activities and any time spent performing help desk activities. Finally, the impact of server virtualization is analyzed in terms of its positive effect on server support staff productivity.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sat, 16 Dec 2006 21:48:08 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1189&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[IT Management: Does It Scale?]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1187</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Every IT organization requires management, but how many managers are really necessary? To make this decision, it is helpful to understand what drives the ratio of IT managers to technical staff. Does the number of users influence the number of IT managers required? What about the number of desktop computers?&nbsp;As organizations grow in size, are more managers required at every level? Computer Economics conducted a survey of nearly 200 CIOs and senior IT managers to find out.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 11 Dec 2006 18:27:28 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1187&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Keystroke Dynamics: A Better Biometric]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1181</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Keystroke dynamics is a detailed description of the timing of key-down and key-up events when users enter usernames, passwords, or any other string of characters. Because a user's keystroke timings are as individual as handwriting or a signature, keystroke dynamics can be used as part of a scheme to verify a user's identity. On the surface, there is much to recommend keystroke dynamics as a cost-effective method to strengthen user authentication. But how can these benefits be evaluated more precisely?]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 06 Dec 2006 16:53:21 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1181&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Computer Leasing: Plan to Get Out Before You Get In]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1183</link>
						<description><![CDATA[There are many reasons that you may need to terminate a lease agreement early. Simply hoping that your lessor will be flexible about your leasing terms is not a good idea. This Research Byte is a summary of our full report that explains in detail the terms and conditions that every lessor should consider for negotiation before entering into a binding lease agreement.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 28 Nov 2006 14:51:31 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1183&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Windows Rules the Data Center]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1178</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Our most recent IT technology trends survey shows that Windows leads in the average percentage of data center workload processing. This Research Byte is an executive summary of our full report, <EM>Data Center Operating System Trends and Economic Characteristics</EM>, which provides data on average OS workload by organization size and industry sector, and analyzes the economic characteristics of three of them: Windows, Unix, and Linux. It also makes a number of important&nbsp;recommendations and predictions regarding data center OS adoption trends and strategies for optimizing OS&nbsp;ROI and TCO.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sat, 04 Nov 2006 17:43:57 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1178&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Staffing for Project Management and the PMO]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1174</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Much of the work within IT is project-based. Therefore, the project manager position is one of the most important jobs within the IT organization, and to be most effective it must be adequately staffed and organized. This Research Byte is a brief overview of our report on this subject, <EM>IT Project Management Staffing Ratios and PMO Adoption Rates</EM>.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Thu, 19 Oct 2006 11:10:33 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1174&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[IT Change Management Still Lacking in Many Organizations]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1172</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Most problems in the data center are caused by&nbsp;changes that are introduced into the production environment. Change management, therefore, is&nbsp;arguably the most critical requirement for a successful IT organization. This article investigates the effectiveness of IT change management practices and considers the impact of staffing levels on the overall quality of this process.&nbsp;We also&nbsp;examine the issues that may arise by failing to adequately develop and staff an IT change management function. (5 pp., 3 figs.)]]></description>
						<pubDate>Thu, 05 Oct 2006 20:33:03 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1172&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Problem Management: Major Payback for the Data Center]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1168</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Twenty percent of data center personnel time is&nbsp;devoted to incident management and problem management, as those terms are defined by the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL).&nbsp; This article provides statistics for percent of data center staff time spent on these activities by platform (mainframe, Windows, UNIX, and Linux). The conclusion: organizations can enjoy significant cost savings by devoting more effort toward problem management, which will reduce the occurance of incidents in the production environment.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Thu, 28 Sep 2006 13:37:02 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1168&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Are We Winning the Battle Against Spam? ]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1167</link>
						<description><![CDATA[This article is a summary of our full report, <A class=tstext href="http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1166"><EM>The Relative Effectiveness of Spam-Blocking Solutions</EM></A>, which provides the results of our survey of over 100 IT managers, email/security professionals, and end-users. The study found that perceptions of progress against spam differ between these groups. Furthermore, experiences differ according to the choice of four types of anti-spam products: third-party spam-blocking services, server-based anti-spam software, client-based spam-filters, and antispam appliances. The survey also explored the reasons that executive management approve spam-fighting technology.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Mon, 04 Sep 2006 19:14:00 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1167&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Growth of IT Outsourcing: No End in Sight]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1161</link>
						<description><![CDATA[This article provides an executive summary of our recently published report on IT outsourcing statistics and trends. According to the report, IT outsourcing has become pervasive in North American companies. Furthermore, there are no signs of a slowdown in the use of outside service providers, with plans to outsource IT functions increasing in every one of the eight major outsourcing categories and 10 industries studied.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 02 Aug 2006 14:52:25 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1161&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[The Business Case for Software as a Service]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1159</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Software as a service (SaaS), sometimes referred to as "software on-demand," is growing in popularity as an alternative to the in-house deployment of business applications under a traditional packaged software license. Research by Computer Economics shows that the ROI/TCO characteristics of SaaS are strong, leading to increased adoption rates.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 01 Aug 2006 18:31:57 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1159&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Most Windows and UNIX Servers Are Underutilized]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1156</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Because of the declining costs of computer hardware, many organizations simply add more servers&nbsp;for each new application or service to be provided. This leads to proliferation of servers that are largely underutilized. On prime shift, nearly 80% of production UNIX servers are less than 20% utilized. Even worse:&nbsp;over 90% of Windows servers&nbsp;utilize less than 20% of their capacity.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Thu, 13 Jul 2006 11:22:57 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1156&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[IT Budgets as Percent of Revenue at Highest Level Since 1997]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1153</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Median corporate IT spending in 2006 across all industry sectors in the U.S. and Canada is 2% of revenue, according to the 17th annual <EM>Computer Economics IT Spending and Staffing Study</EM>. The most recent three year trend for this metric is provided, along with a link to the full report and executive summary. ]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 05 Jul 2006 16:41:12 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1153&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Help Desk Staffing Ratios: Executive Summary]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1131</link>
						<description><![CDATA[This Research Byte is a summary of our full report, which provides benchmarks for the typical number of users and desktops per help desk staff member (including first level tech support). In the full report, staffing ratios are provided at the median, 25th percentile, and 75th percentile for small size, mid-size, and large organizations. There is also a breakdown of these statistics for nine industry sectors: banking &amp; finance, insurance, healthcare, manufacturing, wholesale distribution, retail, utilities/energy, business services, and government.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Wed, 21 Jun 2006 18:10:36 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1131&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Managing the Risk of an Avian Flu Pandemic]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1127</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Although many IT organizations are prepared to face natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and even terrorist attacks, most IT disaster recovery plans do not take into account the special characteristics of pandemics, such as one involving&nbsp;avian flu (bird flu). This Research Byte is a summary of our special report, <EM>IT Preparedness for an Avian Flu Pandemic</EM>, which outlines the specific ways in which pandemics are different from other types of natural disasters and provides planning scenarios and specific actions that IT risk managers should consider to prepare for a potential avian flu pandemic.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Tue, 06 Jun 2006 17:22:18 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1127&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Best Practices and Benchmarks in the Data Center: Abstract]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1116</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Computer Economics is now offering for sale this comprehensive source of data center cost statistics, by one of the leading experts in data center management. For over 16 years Mark Levin has been collecting benchmarks on the performance of thousands of data centers. In this book, he now presents current metrics, ratios, costs, and statistcs for a wide range of data center processes. He also outlines the best practices that leading organizations are adopting in order to improve performance, reduce cost, and decrease risk.&nbsp;This Research Byte provides a&nbsp;chapter-by-chapter description and list of every figure contained in this authoritative publication.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sun, 16 Apr 2006 20:26:57 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1116&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[2006 IT Salary Report: Description]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1114</link>
						<description><![CDATA[The Computer Economics <STRONG><EM>2006 IT Salary Report</EM></STRONG> provides current salary ranges for 81 specific IT job positions in 70 U.S. metropolitan areas. This article&nbsp;provides the complete list of job positions and metropolitan areas covered in the IT Salary Report.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Sun, 02 Apr 2006 18:32:38 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1114&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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						<title><![CDATA[Using EVA to Justify IT Investments: Executive Summary]]></title>
						<link>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1058</link>
						<description><![CDATA[For a large new IT investment to be approved, the CIO must be able to write a business case that speaks directly to executive management in the language of shareholder value. This article is an Executive Summary of our full report, <A class="" href="http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1081"><STRONG>Using Economic Value to Justify IT Investments</STRONG></A>, which provides a basic introduction to the concept of Economic Value Added (EVA) and its use as a powerful tool for calculating the business value of an&nbsp;IT investment.]]></description>
						<pubDate>Fri, 09 Sep 2005 20:12:09 GMT</pubDate>
						<guid>http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1058&amp;CMP=OTC-RSS</guid>
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