it strategy - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• How to restart innovation

  Reinvest in R&D, refocus the team and target the user experience.

• Biggest ERP failures of 2010

  No year in the IT industry would be complete without a number of high-profile ERP (enterprise resource planning) project failures, ones that burn through mountains of cash, bring company operations to a standstill, generate bad publicity for vendors and toss careers in the trash.

• HP moves to improve, protect its support business

  Hewlett-Packard announced Thursday that it will roll out an improved services support program as well as a policy change that could impede the growth of third-party support providers.

• Netflix turns from Oracle, IBM to Amazon to save cash

  Netflix moved some of its most crucial IT operations over to Amazon Web Services' Elastic Compute Cloud in order to save money and gain flexibility compared to using more Oracle software and IBM iron.

• Oregon SAP project wracked by leadership woes

  An SAP implementation conducted by the city government of Portland, Oregon, went badly awry due to planning and project leadership problems, resulting in skyrocketing costs and a protracted time line, according to a report released Tuesday by the city's auditor.

• Oracle user group warns of support deadline

  The Oracle Applications Users Group is urging members running an older version of E-Business Suite to ensure they have all the necessary patches needed to qualify for extended support.

• How southern company revamped IT change management

  Think it's hard to sell new systems and processes to the business? Just try making changes to the way IT itself works.

• How to get tough with your tech vendors

  Planning a purchase from a major IT vendor? In this still-tough economy, negotiating pros recommend being aggressive and creative, as well as analyzing your requirements first so that you don't buy more than you need and know where you can compromise.

• Oracle gets cloud religion

  What a difference a year makes. Last September, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison launched into a tirade about the "nonsense" that cloud computing had become. The industry had gone haywire, he said, and slapped the buzzword on technologies that weren't really new at all.

• Oracle nemesis Rimini Street fires another salvo

  Oracle's ongoing lawsuit against Rimini Street has not deterred the latter company from announcing another addition to its lineup of lower-cost support options for Oracle's software.

• Avaya CEO: How video will change business world

  Last Wednesday, Avaya, Inc. made a splash in New York City with a portfolio of new collaboration products, including the Flare Experience multimedia conferencing system, a new tablet designed to support the Flare software and the web.alive (stet) virtual reality meeting service, among other offerings. In the latest installment of the IDG Enterprise CEO Interview Series, IDGE Chief Content Officer John Gallant talked with Avaya leader Kevin Kennedy about the company's collaboration strategy, how the new products change the competitive battle with Microsoft Corp. and Cisco Systems, Inc., and what it's going to take to make video a part of everyday life for business users.

• Hurd unveils Oracle's latest mega-machine

  Oracle co-President Mark Hurd ripped the curtain off Exadata Database Machine X2-8, the newest incarnation of the company's high-performance data processing systems, during a keynote address at the OpenWorld conference on Monday.

• Hurd unveils Oracle's latest mega-machine

  Oracle co-President Mark Hurd ripped the curtain off Exadata Database Machine X2-8, the newest incarnation of the company's high-performance data processing systems, during a keynote address at the OpenWorld conference on Monday.

• Ellison announces 'one big, honkin' cloud'

  Oracle CEO Larry Ellison unveiled his company's entry into the private cloud computing system battles on Sunday, upping the competitive stakes between Oracle and rivals like IBM and Hewlett-Packard.

• SAS rolls out predictive analytics for business users

  SAS Institute on Thursday announced a new toolset aimed at giving business users the ability to work with predictive analytics software, which has historically been the province of specialized statisticians.