Stories by Carolyn Duffy Marsan

IT staff retention is shaping up to be one of the biggest challenges facing CIOs in 2012.

Louis Trebino, CIO and senior vice president at the <a href="http://www.harryfox.com/index.jsp">Harry Fox Agency</a> (HFA) in New York City, is experiencing significant turnover on his Web development team.

If you have tech skills and experience, odds are you're going to get a call from an IT recruiter in 2012. That's because IT departments are <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/100411-sim-survey-251549.html">ramping up hiring</a> at the same time that more IT professionals are ready to leave behind employers offering flat salaries, limited flexibility and aging technology.

Comcast continues to extend its leadership role in the adoption of next-generation Internet services with the news that it has expanded its production <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/073009-ipv6-guide.html">IPv6</a> deployment into four more states -- Illinois, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey -- over the past six weeks.

Here is good news for college seniors with technology skills: The entry-level job market for IT workers looks solid in 2012.

Are you underpaid, underappreciated and overworked in your IT department? Cheer up, because 2012 looks like an opportune time for IT professionals to look for new, higher-paying jobs.

Citrix CIO Paul Martine is the poster child for everything that <a href="http://www.citrix.com/lang/English/home.asp">Citrix</a> markets to other CIOs.

High school seniors are facing stiffer-than-ever competition when applying to the nation's top computer science programs this fall. But admissions officers and professors at elite tech schools can offer tips aimed at helping your child get accepted come spring.

The nation's best undergraduate computer science programs are bracing for a record number of applications this fall, as more high school seniors are lured by plentiful jobs, six-figure starting salaries and a hipster image fostered by the likes of <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/101911-steve-jobs-252167.html">Steve Jobs</a> and <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/slideshows/2010/112410-facebook-mark-zuckerberg.html">Mark Zuckerberg</a>.

When CIOs look to add talent to their staffs right now, who should they be recruiting: employees with deep technical skills or deep business skills? That's one argument raging in corporate IT departments over the benefits of hiring staff with technical certifications such as Cisco Certified Internet Expert (CCIE) or business degrees.

The U.S. Department of Energy will debut in November one of the fastest networks ever built: a 100Gbps Ethernet network that will enable researchers to create more complex, real-world simulations in climate change, particle physics, astronomy and other scientific fields.

Wondering whether you'll get a raise or bonus if you earn another IT industry certification? Odds are you won't, according to the latest IT salary data from <a href="http://www.footepartners.com/">Foote Partners</a>.

From retail chains to electric utilities to manufacturers, a growing number of U.S. corporations are harnessing the power of social networks to modernize how their employees communicate with each other, business partners and customers -- making these firms more nimble in the marketplace and leaving their less Facebook-savvy rivals trailing.

In another sign that network vendors are prepping for the near-term shift of service provider and enterprise networks to IPv6, Paessler AG has begun shipping a new version of its network monitoring tool that supports the next-generation Internet Protocol.

A new vendor-sponsored study of the 1,000 biggest websites quantifies how much better third-party managed service providers are doing at operating DNS services across the Internet cloud than enterprises that run this critical network service themselves.