Google Pins Hopes on Calendar

The company hopes to better the record on Apr. 13 when it launches Google Calendar — a free, Internet-based calendar that helps users keep track of important dates, events, and information.

Early indications are promising. Several analysts who have tried the product believe Google (GOOG) may be on to something. Google Calendar differs from most other online calendar services because it lets users publish and share the information, as well as overlay events from other calendars.

SYNCED SCHEDULES.  Google Calendar users, for example, could sync their own calendars with those of a spouse and children to more efficiently plan a summer vacation. “Our goal is to reduce the burden of running a calendar,” says Google Product Manager Carl Sjogreen.

That may be just the start. Google’s goal is to make this not just an end product, but rather a platform for organizing events and sharing information, analysts say. “Google has rethought the entire role of a calendar,” says Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li. “It recognizes you have several calendars to manage and that you have to interact between them.”

Calendar could thrust Google into other new areas, including territory occupied by the likes of Evite, owned by Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI). Google Calendar lets users plan events, including sending out invitations and reminders, keeping track of RSVPs, and interacting with potential guests.

ADS FOR EVENTS.  Although Google has not announced how it plans to make money from the calendar offering, event planning could provide prime real estate for advertisers. A local costume store could advertise in conjunction with an invitation for a Halloween party, for instance. “Events are highly monetizable,” says Li.

Google will initially integrate its beta calendar product with its two-year-old e-mail service, Gmail (see BW Online, 10/26/05, “Gmail: Just a Bit Too Quirky”). The fledgling e-mail service could use the shot in the arm that may accompany added features. Despite a sleek interface and free, jumbo-size accounts, analysts estimate that Gmail has attracted about 10 million users. Not bad, but it’s less than 10% of the amount of e-mail users at Yahoo or Microsoft’s Hotmail, say the analysts.

 

Tech Spending Forecast Continues to Climb

CIOs report expected increases in IT budget growth again this month. According to the latest CIO Magazine Tech Poll, IT budgets will increase 8.6 percent in the coming 12 months, up from 7.8 percent reported in December, 2005. IT spending projections have been climbing steadily after dropping to 5.2 percent in October of last year. While many CIOs say they’re boosting investment in infrastructure, companies are also moving ahead with new technologies such as VoIP and mobile solutions.

The Tech Future Growth Index (TFGI), which projects IT activity over the next 12 months, improved this quarter as well, climbing to 3.8 in March—up from 3.1 in the December Poll.

When asked about spending on eight specific IT categories, the average number of panelists who plan to increase spending in the coming year was 44.8 percent in January, up from 40.7 percent in the previous Poll. Spending on Storage Systems showed the greatest potential with 56.7 percent of respondents planning to increase investment in this category, up from 49.7 percent reported in December. Close to half (49 percent) will increase spending in telecom equipment while 42 percent will increase investment in data networking equipment.

When asked about new technologies, half (51 percent) reported that their companies are making significant investments in mobile technologies (52 percent) server virtualization/consolidation (51 percent) and VoIP (41 percent).

Labor Market Continues to Tighten

Concerns about IT labor scarcity are growing. One quarter (26 percent) of CIOs surveyed described IT labor as “hard to find”, a significant jump compared to one year ago (13 percent). Additionally, 66 percent said IT labor was “available” in our latest poll (versus 74 percent) and five percent said “hard to find” compared with 13 percent reported in March 2005. In a recent survey conducted by the Society of Information Management (SIM) , nearly 80 percent of respondents indicated that they would be hiring to fill entry and mid-level IT positions in the coming year. However, the confluence of global sourcing, retiring baby boomers and declining enrollment in IT programs in U.S. universities is creating a staffing challenge. SIM suggests that CIOs consider structural changes in the IT function and rethink the role of the IT professional to train and retain key IT staff.

Each quarter, CIO magazine, in partnership with Deutsche Bank Securities and Ed Yardeni, chief investment strategist, Oak Associates, surveys a panel of senior executives on current and future IT spending as well as other IT issues. In March, 180 executives responded to the survey. Companies with 1,000 to 5,000 employees represented 30 percent of the responses.

CIO’s Tech Poll represented a broad range of industries, including finance (19 percent), non-computer/communications manufacturing (11 percent ), state or local government (9 percent), technology services (9 percent), education (8 percent) and health care (8 percent).

Recent Reports:

February 2006
Tech Spending Forecast Continues to Climb
Companies Prepare for Growth by Investing in Infrastructure

December 2005
CIOs Upbeat on IT Budgets Again this Month
IT Executives Say IT Spending to Increase in 2006

November 2005
IT Spending Outlook Perks Up
CIOs Adjust Budget Growth Forecasts Up Slightly

 

A New IT Value Vocabulary

In fall 2004, at one of the initial meetings of the CIO Executive Council, members prioritized their professional challenges and chose several to collectively tackle to drive positive change. One was the need to clearly explain the value that IT brings to the enterprise. In most companies, there is no institutional understanding of why IT is essential. This gap in understanding places CIOs in the position of having to defend IT to the rest of the enterprise, a situation the Council CIOs were determined to change.

Seven Keys to IT Leadership
The CIOs who created the IT Value Matrix wanted it to be timeless. "We needed a way to discuss what we do in terms that would never change," says Kevin Humphries, FedEx’s senior VP of technology services.

The leadership principles that accompany the matrix form the strategic foundation to which all matrix components are tied. The principles were articulated with input from a panel of industry veterans, including retired CIOs Patricia Wallington and Darwin John.

The principles are as follows:

1] The primary goal of IT is to align with major enterprise objectives. Every initiative must be clearly tied in a provable way to business value.

2] Because all major business initiatives are dependent upon technology, the CIO must have a voice at the table at which key business decisions are made.

3] The CIO is responsible for understanding a business’s complexities, influencing peers and presenting tech-nology strategy in terms the business can understand.

4] Technology leaders are agents of change. Transition is our stable state.

5] Communication and relationship building are as important to IT leadership as technology skills are.

6] Successful technology leadership must strike a balance between competing forces: short-term versus long-term, technology versus business focus, leading versus enabling.

7] The CIO is responsible for cultivating technology leadership at all levels.

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The Shift to SOA

The metaphor of IT being part of an organization’s foundation is no longer apt; the 21st century enterprise is built with information, and the technology that enables its flow, embedded in every beam of the structure. And there are important changes taking place within that core IT framework.

Computerworld and CIO have joined forces to explore some of those shifts and what they mean for today’s organizations and IT leaders. We’ll tell you what is happening, why, and what you should do about it.

In this first issue of what we envision as an ongoing series, we cover one of the most profound developments in the history of IT: the shift to a service-oriented architecture.

SOA is the logical conclusion (and the tangible expression) of where IT has been heading for the past 20 years. It integrates business and technology in a truly meaningful way.

It makes it possible for humans to execute technology-enabled innovation much more quickly and iteratively. It helps organizations be responsive and flexible, even if they’re big, at lower cost.

This is particularly critical now, as CEOs turn their attention to top-line growth and innovation while continuing to emphasize efficiency and productivity. SOA serves both the entrepreneur and the bean counter.

To give you a well-rounded view of SOA, we’ve included a piece on “The Strategic Imperatives of SOA” and another on “The SOA Toolbox.” We wrap it up with Computerworld columnist Mark Hall’s take on “An SOA State of Mind.” In future issues, we’ll look at other parts of the corpus IT: subjects like “Rearchitecting the Data Center, Extending the IT Supply Chain,” and “Security for the Next-Gen IT Infrastructure.”

더 배워보기..링크 for SOA 

http://www.itnextgeneration.com/

http://www.eaijournal.com/PDF/SOAPallos.pdf

http://www.networkworld.com/buzz/2003/0929soa.html

http://www.networkworld.com/topics/webservices.html

http://www.idevnews.com/IntegrationNews.asp?ID=26

http://www.infoworld.com/reports/45SRsoa.html

 

Google steps up its search technology

Google has acquired the rights to a new search technology that offers instant answers to queries without the need to go to another website.

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The leading search engine is reported to have won against rival bids from Yahoo and Microsoft for the technology, developed at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

The Orion search engine is the work of Ori Allon, a 26-year-old PhD student, inspired by an idea a year ago from his supervisor Dr Eric Martin. Mr Allon is understood to have moved to Google's headquarters in Silicon Valley to develop the algorithm further.

Google has made no formal announcement about the acquisition but the university, in a press release last year, said the technology could revolutionise search engines.

Mr Allon said results to queries were displayed in the form of expanded text extracts "giving you the relevant information without having to go to the web-site".

The University of New South Wales will retain ownership of the technology as it was developed within its research facilities.

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