I nterference is a fact of life in the unlicensed bands used by wireless LANs (WLANs), and is an increasing challenge in all WLAN environments – the enterprise, outdoors (including metro-scale Wi-Fi meshes), and in the residence. As the number of unli- censed devices grows and as ever more mission-critical applications are deployed on WLANs, interference represents a challenge that must be ad…
According to Gartner Research, "The retail sector has a long-standing reputation for conservative technology adoption… However, much is changing in the retail sector, which is increasingly concerned with the capabilities of the 'big-box' retailers led by Wal-Mart. Retailers of all sizes are now realizing that operational efficiency is not enough to compete. Effective IT solutions, or the lack…
Companies have devoted significant time and resources to achieve compliance with many pieces of legislation, such as HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, and Gramm-Leach-Bliley. An important element of compliance with specific regulations is achieving a compliance framework internally. Compliance with external mandates can be more easily met by first ensuring that the network is compliant with the internal s…
As companies mature their IT operations, they know more about the performance of their networks, applications, servers, databases, and mainframe systems. However, reliable information about end-user experience remains elusive. This information is vital to gauge how well IT is adding value to the business. Obtaining reliable information about the end-user experience is just the first ste…
To be competitive in today’s environment, businesses must be able to measure and report on application response times from the end-user perspective. This not only helps to validate system performance, but also provides a foundation for quantifiably managing and reporting on service level agreements (SLAs). It also enables preventive maintenance, allowing businesses to make system correc…
Client Management is the IT discipline of managing the lifecycle of end user systems (including desktops, lap- tops, and handhelds) from initial deployment, through provisioning, upgrade, and patch, to deprovisioning and decommissioning. This entails conflicting requirements from IT – which requires tight control and detailed planning – and the business – which requires flexibility and fa…
Imagine.that.you’ve.been.tasked.with.improving.the.corporate.patch.management.process..Would.you.know. what.the.ideal.patch.process.looks.like?.This.white.paper.breaks.down.the.patch.process.into.its.basic.pieces,. and.recommends.a.simple-to-use,.best.practice.approach. After.talking.with.many.IT.organizations.and.surveying.the.state-of-the-art.in.Change.Management.approaches,. we.documented…
Independent Software Vendors and Application Service Providers have become increasingly pressured by external market conditions in developing an offshore sourcing strategy, yet few succeed in designing a strategic, not just tactical cost-savings approach.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the information and communication technology (ICT) industries play a crucial role in the new economy. Most SMEs operate in a fiercely competitive environment; as such, it is important to optimize business practices. It is believed that performance measurement (PM) tools can help to identify weaknesses, clarify objectives and strategies, and improve…
The first part of this book introduces the Office object models and the Office primary interop assemblies (PIAs). You also learn how to use Visual Studio to build automation executables, add-ins, and code behind the document by using features of Visual Studio 2008 Tools for Office 2007 (VSTO 3.0). • Chapter 1, “An Introduction to Office Programming,” introduces the Office object models a…
Virtualization is a way to abstract applications and their underlying components away from the hardware supporting them and present a logical or virtual view of these re- sources. This logical view may be strikingly different from the physical view. The goal of virtualization is usually one of the following: higher levels of performance, scalability, reliability/availability, agility, or to cre…
The equipment you will be using is a personal computer or PC. Computers have transformed the way we live, as they allow us to conduct so many different activities more efficiently than before. Using one is very straight forward. Computers allow us to work with numbers and information in a way few of us could ever conceive of even 20 years ago. Computers allow us to organize al types of informa…
Impaired driving, traffic congestion, and treacherous driving conditions have caused numerous accidents every year all over the world, leading to great suffering of people in different ways such as great anguish, fatal injuries, and horrendous loss of human lives. There were nearly 6,420,000 auto accidents in the United States in 2005, where 2.9 million people were injured and 42,636 people kil…
Many people and organizations today have a new—or renewed—interest in project management. Until the 1980s, project management primarily focused on providing schedule and resource data to top management in the military, computer, and construction industries. Today’s project management involves much more, and people in every industry and every country manage projects. Project management…
Sometimes, the best way to go forwards is to go backwards. Science advances by learning how things worked in the past then improving upon them. Video games are quite the same in that they learn how things worked in the past, improve them, and then double the explosions. Although the actual improvement of games is in the eyes of the beholder, few can argue the extreme advancements that have been…
This work is intended for the enjoyment and education of individuals that are just entering the world of Information Technology. It is intended to give a brief, high-level overview of the technologies in use today, their history, and their use in the world of business. As a result of trying to cover a very large and diverse topic in under two hundred pages, as well as the author’s attempt t…
The future of many organizations depends on their ability to harness the power of information technology, and good project managers continue to be in high demand. Colleges have responded to this need by establishing courses in project management and making them part of the information technology, management, engineering, and other curriculum. Corporations are investing in continuing education t…
Ibegan working on the first edition of this book in the year 2000.As a former developer and current IT business analyst,I could see an approaching technological wave affecting my colleagues. Thanks in large part to client-server applications and the Internet, object-oriented (OO) languages like C++ and Java were taking over the development world. This had already changed the way the technical m…