The top ten concerns are:

• Budgets - Budgets have never been tighter. Since the dot com bubble burst  where IT budgets were pared to the bone, organizations are striving to keep a really tight control over them, even though they still need innovative IT to keep ahead of the competition. Smart CIOs are seeing savings through standardization of the IT infrastructure so new systems can be financed without increasing budgets.
• Staffing - People are an organization's most valuable asset. For CIO they are not only the most valuable, they are causing the most headaches as well. Recruiting, managing and training staff are the most pressing concerns for CIOs
• Security - Internal and external threats are on the increase, especially as enterprises continue to increase the growth of mobile and wireless based applications.  Keeping the business operating in the face of threats, whether against the systems themselves, or against the business and the environment are a major component of CIO's role.
• Compliance - Security and compliance work together for CIOs as many governance and compliance regulations were spawned from risk management and directly affect security. For many companies regulatory compliance is now part of everything they do. This has allowed the CIO to understand exactly what resources and processes an organization has and to increase efficiency and throughput as a result.
• Resource Management - Managing time and resources are a major concern for CIOs.  Enterprise management now demands more efficient working. CIO now are now using more of their time and resources they used to spend on legacy maintenance on more produce to manage critically short supplies of resources.
• Infrastructure - Updating technology infrastructures and keeping the backbone of an organization's IT up to date is another top concern for CIOs..
• Business Alignment - Keeping IT strategy in line with business strategy is something at which CIOs have become masters but it is still one of the areas that causes a lot of work and is resource heavy.
• Managing Users - CIOs must prioritize the needs of their users and customers. Dealing with users while improving the quality of service for users is a constant for all IT departments.   More CIOs are putting metrics in place to see just how well they are doing. Excellent customer service and cost effectiveness in driving the business forward are the two overlying themes for many businesses. The aim is to lift the bar on customer service, on cost effectiveness and on the capabilities of service offerings and people.
• Managing Change - The fast moving pace of technological innovation means change is a guaranteed part of the CIO's role. But the way they manage its effect on the business is more critical. Arguably, the most significant management issue that CIOs have to face this year is change management - business process change, changes in organizational cultures and how they affect people are very high on the CIO's agenda.
• Organizational Politics - To manage change and integration effectively, CIOs need the support of their senior management team. The success of change management programs and the contribution IT can make to those depend heavily on the support and drive of senior managers. If the CIO lines of report - CEO, CFO or COO -understand the power of transformational IT investment and if a CIO can educate and communicate what is possible, IT should be a key enabler for business and process change. Many companies are going through massive change and integration programs, all of which need board support to succeed.

Overall, according to Janco's survey of college recruiters, employers plan to hire fewer college graduates in 2008-09 than they did in 2006-07 and 2007-08.

The lower demand for new graduates is a result of uncertian business conditions.  When this will turn around is anyone's guess.

A disaster recovery plan is a comprehensive statement of consistent actions to be taken before, during and after a disaster. The plan should be documented and tested to ensure the continuity of operations and availability of critical resources in the event of a disaster.
The primary objective of disaster recovery planning is to protect the enterprise in the event that all or part of its operations and/or Information Technology fuction are rendered unusable. Preparedness is the key. The planning process should minimize the disruption of operations and ensure some level of organizational stability and an orderly recovery after a disaster.

Other objectives of disaster recovery planning include:

• Providing a sense of security
• Minimizing risk of delays
• Guaranteeing the reliability of standby systems
• Providing a standard for testing the plan
• Minimizing decision-making during a disaster

IT Infrastructure and Governance are drivers in creating policies and procedures to effectively aid enterprise in improving.  Governance is infrastructure that impacts the culture, policies, processes, laws, and institutions are directed and managed. The three areas of governance which IT Infrastructure needs to be concerned are:

• Corporate Governance - The processes, customs, policies, laws, and institutions affecting the way an enterprise is directed, administered, or controlled. Certain laws such as Sarbanes-Oxley were developed to enforce corporate practices for publicly traded companies in the U.S. In the European financial services sector, and MiFID (The Market in Financial Instruments Directive) is in place to reduce barriers to cross-border exchange trading.
• IT Governance - This is a subset discipline of Corporate Governance focused on information technology (IT) systems and their performance and risk management. The rising interest in IT governance is partly due to compliance initiatives (e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley in the US and Basel II for global financial institutions), as well as the acknowledgment that IT projects can easily get out of control and profoundly affect the performance of an organization.
• Data Governance - This includes the processes, policies, standards, organization, and technologies required to manage and ensure the availability, accessibility, quality, consistency, auditability, and security of an enterprise's data.

• Test connectivity before the trip.  Have a checkup procedure that tests the connectivity of the laptop which is disconnected from the in-house network.
• Turn off ad-hoc networking features. Default settings in Microsoft Windows allow a notebook computer to look for any available wireless networks. Because you need to prevent the sharing of corporate information with strangers, you should insist that your employees disable the ad-hoc networking feature before they use a public hotspot.
• Turn off file sharing. Microsoft Windows by default enables its users to share files with strangers. You want to turn that feature off before they hit the road.
• Encrypt any folder that contains sensitive data. Securing that data that resides on a device is a safety issue any time that device leaves the office. Employees may be lax about encrypting the contents of their computers, but they need to know that sensitive data means more than financial information and social security numbers. Sensitive data includes that folder in which they store all their network passwords.
• Validate that nobody is looking over their shoulders at hotspots. Thieves can steal passwords just by watching someone type those passwords.
• Use a VPN.  A virtual private network creates a tunnel between the mobile device (SmartPhone or computer) and the corporate network. Implement a policy requiring the use of VPN software for remote access to the corporate server. A VPN virtually guarantees that nobody can intercept sensitive information on the company's server. Most commercial hotspot providers support VPNs. Public libraries often do not.
• Use a firewall. With a wireless hotspot, a group of strangers are sharing the same IP subnet. Odds are most of these strangers have no ill intentions, but they might unknowingly have malware or viruses on their computers. Thus, they might unknowingly infect the computers of those around them. Installing (and running) firewall software will help to prevent successful attacks from both on and off the subnet. A firewall should block attacks and send an alert when it detects any unwanted attempts to connect to your employee's computer.
• Install and use antivirus software. Should a virus get through, antivirus software will detect and thwart it - provided the software recognizes the virus. New viruses are created daily. For that reason, most antivirus software companies provide frequent updates to their software. It is up to the user to go to the vendor's Web site to obtain the updates. This should be done at least once a week.
• Update the computer with the latest operating system patches. Software vendors regularly send out patches to fix problems - including security problems. Typically the system alerts users to new patches with a little explanation point via a popup or in the right-hand corner of the screen. Installing these patches is generally a matter of just clicking on that exclamation point.
• Validate the device is connecting to the correct network. Employees using a hotspot should make sure that their notebooks or handheld computers actually are actually connecting to the hotspot - and not to some other Wi-Fi network.
  
• Use secure web pages.  Watch for "https" in the Web address or a logo that looks like a gold lock in the right-hand corner of the page. This means the browser is using SSL for server-side authentication. If the connection does notinclude a log-in page, it's likely that the computer is connected to the wrong network. At hotspots that charge a usage fee, avoid entering your credit card information into a site that does not employ SSL. In fact, if your employees are conducting any sensitive business transactions via the Web, they should try to use only Web sites that employ SSL.
• Turn off the radio when you do not need it. Disabling ad-hoc networking should prevent a computer from connecting to wireless networks indiscriminately. But disabling the radio will guarantee it.

The Bold has a great color screen, a processor that's twice as fast as current models, Wi-Fi, GPS, and a quad-band 3G cellular radio. It also has a sleek new interface, although the underlying software is still just the classic BlackBerry operating system. While the Storm does not feel like a good business phone, the Bold feels like a great business phone - one that extends and expands on the BlackBerry Curve, the company's current flagship Smartphone.

If a Smartphone or other mobile device with confidential data is lost or stolen, the enterprise is at risk from the loss or misuse of the information stored on the device or its removable storage card. More often than not, basic security mechanisms such as a password to power-up the device or data encryption are not utilized. As a result, the enterprises data on lost or stolen devices is exposed to potentially unauthorized viewing.

Other information that has been found on recovered Smartphones includes:

• Human resource records
• Compensation information
• Business reorganization plans
• Merger and acquisition details
• Sensitive e-mails
• Business proposals
• Financial records
• Sales reports
• Customer information
• Product release information
• Medical reports

This information could be viewed by or sent to a wide variety of unintended recipients, such as a competitor, a business associate, a journalist or an identity thief.

• Dedication - IT Clients come first.
• Integrity - CIO never does anything he would not want to see on the front page of a newspaper.
• Planning - CIO bases all decisions on sound facts, methodical research, and cost effective solutions.
• Flexibility - CIO strives to identify strategies and directions that do well in up, down, or flat markets.
• Confidence - CIO watches the pack, learns from pack, but finds own path to optimal solutions. CIOs won't necessarily travel with the pack.
• Experience - CIO has some big wins. CIO does not rest on previous successes. CIO strives to find new strategic investments to maintain, safeguard, and grow IT assets.
• Perseverance - CIO makes mistakes. CIO strives to see the problem, face it, and then find a way to correct mis-steps.

Features of a good web computing environment are:

• Ability to login from anywhere - Depeneding on a single cellular network does not guarantee connectivity - broadband plans of various vendors have "dead zones" for broadband that are serviced by voice celluar roaming.
• Process must be easy to use and administer - End users need a solution that allows them to launch online meetings in just one click.
• Tools the user has must be flexible - Web commuters need to be able to share anything from their screen with remote audiences in real time, including presentation slides, Web sites, spreadsheets and documents.
• Solution must be cost-effective – Enterprises need cost-effective solutions that enable employees to increase productivity and reduce downtime.

• Reducing call-handling time - As technology becomes more complex, walking novice customers through problem identification, recovery procedures or checking detailed settings can take time and increase customer frustration. Tools need to be implemented that ease this process.
• Increasing first-interaction closure rates - When agents are able to instantly “see” error situations without having to walk through a tedious scripts closure are speed up.
• Deflecting phone interactions - Allowing customers to communicate effectively in their channel of choice is key to building satisfaction. As Generation X and Y age into the target demographic of more industries, honoring their channel preferences means offering more online communication options. Remote support offers the same capabilities via a Web chat/collaboration session as a phone call, allowing customers to remain in their channel of choice for the entire problem-resolution session.

Issues with Server Monitoring:

• Determining what needs to be monitored
• No clear and holistic view of the data
• Too many - or too few  - "agents" for the job
• Too many manual tasks
• Too much complexity and hidden costs
• Hodgepodge of low-end tools

The Mozilla defends the new feature, saying SSL certificates not issued by a validated certificate authority -- so-called self-signed certificates (SSC) – do not provide even basic validation; and expired certificates should not be viewed as "harmless" because they open avenues for hackers.   Mozilla states that the new feature helps curb electronic eavesdropping or so-called "man in the middle" attacks.

Critics say that Firefox 3.0 is putting undue fear and confusion into everyday Web surfers, makes it difficult to set exceptions for certain Web sites, and is forcing Web site operators to do business with specific vendors of SSL certificates or risk the appearance that their Web sites are broken.

Less than 10% of all the devices have any "business unique" applications on them.

• Strategy - Items related to the strategies used by the business to complete day-to-day activities while enabling continuous operations. Examples include financial, manufacturing and disaster recovery strategies.
• Organization - Items related to the structure, skills, communications and responsibilities of your employees. Examples include human resources, training, and internal and external communications.
• Applications and data - Items related to the software necessary which enable business operations, as well as the method used to develop that software. Examples include customer relationship management (CRM) applications, enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, databases and transaction processors.
• Processes - Items related to the critical business processes necessary to run the business, as well as the IT processes used to ensure smooth operations. Examples include accounts receivable, accounts payable, change manage­ment and problem management.
• Technology - Items related to the systems, network and industry-specific technology necessary to enable your applications and data. Examples include host systems, workstations and Internet Protocol (IP) networks.
• Facilities- Items related to the buildings, factories and offices necessary to house your organization and your production or service technologies. Exam­ples include data centers, office buildings and physical security operations.

The ability to intelligently search for and retrieve those e-mails is also very important. Email archives can grow very large very quickly. You might have to search through thousands of messages to find one or two related to a specific issue. Your e-mail archiving software must be able to index all Emails by standard text fields such as To, From, CC, BCC, Subject and Date.

 Other requirements to consider are extending retention periods, taming storage growth, handling personal folders, archiving instant messages, customizing policies, operating system platforms and more sophisticated searches. You also need a compliance strategy that integrates with and complements your Email archiving solution.

Core requirements, extending retention policies for litigation hold, finding text in a document attached to an e-mail sent to 20 people, compliance strategy, all of these can seem daunting to a mid-sized business trying to keep e-mail volume and storage under control while meeting the needs of internal users and external audits.

One U.S.-based manufacturing company with global operations would like to deploy hundreds of iPhone 3Gs but has found that international data roaming costs are too high, said an IT worker at the company who asked not to be named, citing company policies.

The manufacturer's finance department has put a ban on company purchases of the iPhone 3G because the international data roaming plan for the phone's exclusive carrier in the U.S., AT&T Inc., is too expensive, he said. The company is in talks with AT&T to get a better price for the service.

Searching and restoring data from various sources - PCs, servers, and backup tapes - is not an easy process. Every time an organization faces a lawsuit or investigation, IT may be required to take the following steps:

• Issue a litigation hold notice to employees, requiring them to preserve any email relating to the legal case.
• Identify and stop routine deletion or recycling of any data source that may contain email covered by the litigation hold. This can include email servers, backup tapes, PST files on PCs and the corporate network, etc.
• Scan all data sources for relevant content by filename, type, date, custodian or other criteria. Prepare a catalog of original files for legal counsel.
• Locate and gather data requested for discovery. Restore the email, the associated metadata and attached files. (In addition to purchasing mass storage to house the data, your IT department may need to replicate both the hardware and software used to create the backup tapes, plus the email management system from which the messages were generated.)
• Convert email to a standardized format such as HTML, PDF, SMTP/MIME, or TIF. Load the restored and converted data to a review system.