Current News
Disaster recovery and business continuity still a struggle for many CIOs
Organizations of all sizes are struggling with getting some of the basics of
disaster recovery and business continuity right. They still
need support in obtaining executive buy-in, managing resources and implementing
easy to use and reliable technology. To some extent, there is still a lack of
best practices being provided by vendors, and many SMBs rely heavily on their
channel partners to be their best
practices advisors to help them make the right choices.
What has made the world more complex is the fact that organizations are now
presented with three different platforms for their disaster recovery strategies:
physical, virtual and cloud. Each platform has its own unique challenges and
benefits. Some organizations will opt to keep purely physical, others will add
virtualization while many will embrace all three.


Ultimately the success of any company's backup and DR is based on the
availability of its systems and data and the impact that downtime has in terms
of lost revenue and lost customers, regardless of the environment data and
systems are held in. Using multiple different solutions to manage data across
physical, virtual and cloud environments makes this process unnecessarily
complicated and risks wasting valuable time and resources.
For most small to medium size businesses, a service's success is underpinned
by its ability to deliver ease of use, cost effectiveness and flexibility, and
by its ability to implement measures quickly enough to affect a near immediate
positive impact. Both cloud services and virtualization can do this, so the
future is bright. Managed in the right way, from one central, easy to use
solution, they can offer businesses the ultimate backup and disaster recovery
protection, ensuring that business continuity becomes easier to manage.
For IT managers, Janco
encourages them to compare their backup and DR practices
against their counterparts.
more info
Mobile devices are the bane of many CIOs concerns
As
more companies embrace the broad usage of individually-owned mobile devices for
access to corporate applications and data, CIO are asked for guidance on the
establishment of an associated device usage policy.
Every organization needs to identify and develop mobile security policies to
be deployed which will provide adequate protection. The level of protection has
to be aligned with the level of risk that your organization is willing to
accept. These policies should ensure that the many regulatory or compliance
concerns that might be applicable are addressed.


Only by a partnership of information technology (IT), human resource (HR),
finance, and legal teams - working closely with your executive team and business
unit managers - can determine the exact corporate liable and/or individual
liable policy that best fits your company, meets its financial goals and
objectives, and takes into account security, legal, regulatory, tax, or other
requirements and considerations that may uniquely apply to your company and its
operations.
more info
Will IT spending increase in 2012
IT spending is expected to increase in 2012. After years of budgets crimped
by the economy, there is significant pent-up demand at companies around the
globe to drop some extra cash for the products and services theyÂ’ve been waiting
for to drive business forward. But weÂ’ve heard this song before. One research
fiorm that was bullish on IT spending last year, said that it could rise
somewhat significantly in 2012, yet in its latest report the research firm
acknowledges that its estimates might have been too optimistic. Global spending
on IT spending will still be up, the company says, but donÂ’t expect it to rise
too quickly.
Janco has found that consultants and contractors are starting to be hired
again.

The salary survey is updated twice a year; once in January and then again in
July. You can get a free copy of the full survey if you provide 10 valid data
points and use a corporate email address. Free email accounts like gmail or
yahoo do not qualify as we have no way to verify the accuracy of the data
provided.
The report is updated twice a year, once in January and second time in July.
The unemployment data on this page is updated at least once a month and is based
on the Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
more info
New Facts of Life For the CIO and IT Management
The world has changed and the CIO and IT managers need to face the new
realities. They include:
- iPhone and Tablet are here to stay
- CIO and IT department no longer are in control of how technology is used
by you enterprise
- There will always be some downtime
- Systems will not be 100% compliant all of the time
- The cloud will not be the solution for all problems and will case new
ones
- There will never be enough capital and staff to get what needs to be
completed done
- The network has already been compromised
- Social networking use risks all of your company's secrets
- Users will always need your support even for technology that you have not
implemented
- IT will continue to be viewed as a service
organization
more info
Compliance Best Practices
Security compliance best practices include:
- Combine written content, usage, and retention policies with a Hosted
Managed Email Archiving Service to ensure an organization's ability to
preserve, locate, and produce legally valid email evidence. Unmanaged email
and other record management solutiond can trigger financial, productivity, and
legal issues for your organization when it a finds itself in a workplace
lawsuit. The cost and time required to produce subpoenaed email, retain legal
counsel, secure expert witnesses, mount a legal battle, and cover jury awards
and settlements is ver costly. Best practices call for a proactive approach to
email and business records management.
- Utilize a proven archiving technology to ensure forensic compliance. For
example, by encrypting and archiving a copy of every business record and
internal and external email sent or received and across the organization, a
Hosted Managed Email Archiving Service solution guarantees that your email is
secure and tamperproof. Nothing in your archive can be deleted or altered.
Everything in your archive is legally compliant.
- Ensure that financial data and related documents are effectively protected
from malware, viruses, and other malicious intruders - and are preserved in a
legally compliant manner in order to maximize SOX, GLBA, SEC, FINRA, and
PCI DSS compliance. This includes having solutions in place to manage
messaging threats and compling with regulatory requirements including Email
Anti-Virus, Email Archiving, Email Continuity, and Email Content Control.
- Meet HIPAA requirements by using formal policies, employee training,
and technology including email
Archiving, Anti-Virus, Continuity, and
Content Control Services to ensure compliant use of email to transmit and
store HIPAA-regulated patient information.
- Safeguard personal or sensitive data whose transmission falls under state
encryption laws or other privacy acts by deploying proven solutions that are
designed to effectively identify personal information in any electronic
transmission and, if necessary, block or encrypt the transmission.
- Reduce business and security risks associated with electronic
communication by implementing a formal electronic communication policy
that combines a written policy with employee training.
more info