Project Management

Security companies are warning Internet users about a new Trojan horse program spreading via spam e-mail and masquerading as a Windows XP software update from Microsoft Corp.

Ever since the economy began to stumble in mid-2000 and companies began trimming IT spending, industry watchers have wondered how long organizations would stretch the lives of their desktop hardware before beginning widescale upgrades.

Veritas Software Corp. on Wednesday agreed to acquire privately-held Ejasent Inc.

Novell Inc. on Wednesday took the wraps off the latest version of its Nterprise Branch Office software, which lets customers deploy the offering in Linux and Windows environments, as well as in NetWare shops.

Trumpeting their support for XML and Web services standards, leading enterprise application vendors spoke at great lengths in 2003 about playing well with others. In the end, however, they proffered their own way of doing things. IT watched as IBM Corp.'s WebSphere Integration WorkBench, Microsoft Corp.'s BizTalk, SAP AG's NetWeaver, and Siebel Systems Inc.'s UAN (Universal Application Network) went head-to-head-to-head-to-head, as each vendor offers its own custom integration solution.

Delivering value to the organization is the mandate of every CIO and IT department, yet it's long been a difficult goal to achieve, and perhaps an even harder one to quantify. At Bank of Montreal Financial Group, five key steps are being taken to ensure that IT pulls its weight, and then some. Technology head Lloyd Darlington gives CIO Canada readers an inside look at how it's being done.

You get what you pay for. And sometimes, when there's extra goods and services bundled into a contract, you get more than you bargained for - and a bigger bill to boot.

Each time I come back to present an IT Focus issue about security, I find more horrors to write about. For example, I detest rats. I applaud Albertans for safeguarding their borders to keep those rodents out. Now I find an equivalent action is required for our computer systems as these rodents are among the pests that can infiltrate our computer provinces.