Stories by Denise Dubie

To get ahead, network and data-center professionals should study up on "infrastructure as code" and capitalize on whatever cloud experience they can acquire.

Microsoft Tuesday issued two security updates detailing patches for applications in Windows and Office that the company deemed critical, because one of the vulnerabilities could sneak up on administrators via third-party software installations.

Security experts, industry analysts and even Microsoft recommend that IT departments upgrade Internet Explorer 6, yet new research shows that while there may have recently been a mock funeral for the aging browser, IE6 is still around and doing well, especially during standard business hours.

Microsoft's plans for cloud computing don't stop with infrastructure and applications. Company executives say Microsoft will also provide the heterogeneous management layer that customers will need to optimize application performance on-premises or in hosted environments.

Microsoft is betting the cloud will deliver it and its customers the most opportunities for innovation and development. And according to CEO Steve Ballmer, five key reasons are driving the company's confidence in - and technology strategy for - cloud computing in the coming years.

Many IT leaders intend to make high-tech purchases and technology projects a priority in the coming months as plans that had been put on hold during the downturn are prepped for takeoff in 2010.

CA on Wednesday announced it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire for an undisclosed sum a company called 3Tera, a move that industry watchers say will equip the management software maker with tools to offer customers a smoother transition to private and public cloud computing.

CIOs working to return to business growth have made technologies such as virtualization, cloud computing, Web 2.0, networking and mobility top priorities for 2010, according to research released Tuesday by Gartner.

IBM garnered 4914 U.S. patents in 2009, setting an all-time high for Big Blue and maintaining its lead against competitors such as Samsung with 3611 patents and Microsoft with 2906.

BMC Thursday announced it has acquired privately-held Phurnace Software in a deal that BMC says will help it deliver technology to reduce the cost and complexity of deploying Java applications into virtual and cloud environments.

Despite the economic recession that started in 2008, many IT service providers didn't see the expected boon to business in 2009. Some outsourcers struggled to a degree alongside the rest of the high-tech industry, but IT services experts say they started to see a return to growth toward the end of 2009. That means 2010 could find many outsourcing providers taking advantage of hot technology trends such as cloud computing to sell their services into smaller IT shops. Mike Slavin, partner and practice leader for Global IT Advisory Services at outsourcing industry advisory and consulting firm TPI, shares his take on the coming year and the outsourcing industry with Network World Senior Editor Denise Dubie.

Enterprise IT management technologies underwent an image makeover in 2009. No longer just the mandatory tools discussed by engineers troubleshooting problems, IT management capabilities such as automation and service delivery became central to discussions around adopting virtualization, cloud computing and other emerging technologies that high-tech executives want.

HP Wednesday announced products it says will help enterprise IT and service providers ease the adoption of internal cloud computing setups as well as public cloud services.

IT professionals asked to do more work for less pay and fewer benefits might be able to forgive their employers' financial choices, but industry watchers say high-tech workers won't soon forget being treated poorly during the most recent economic recession and will look to find other employment opportunities as soon as the recovery gets under way.

HP's news that it would lay down $US2.7 billion to acquire network switch maker 3Com not only causes industry watchers to look ahead at what could come of such a deal, but also reminds many of the IT vendor's long history of billion-dollar acquisitions.