NOTE: All story topics, and the issues they appear in, are subject to change. (Updated 11/30/98)
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Departmental applications: Buy-side software
Management: The ethics of consulting
Forecast: Mainframes in the 21st century
Briefing Book: Security
Profit & Value: Automated datamart modeling
Scalability: Voice over IP
Well, there's a possibility that best-of-breed and mixing-and-matching ERP
suite modules may be becoming more prominent. In the past year or so, more
companies have chosen different modules from different vendors. Find out if the future of ERP lies with mixing and matching modules.
Writer: Jeff Zygmont, contributing writer, jzygmont@concentric.net
Management: IT looks at Linux
There's lots of media hype about Linux, the new operating system that promises to unshackle IT managers from the tyrannies of Microsoft. Flash back two decades to the dawn of the Unix age--the new operating system was going to free IT managers from the shackles of IBM. Is this operating system déjà vu, or what?
Writer: Dan Orzech, contributing writer, orzech@well.com
Forecast: New Data warehouse modeling techniques
It's tempting to think there's a sure-fire cure to decreasing the risk and
cost of data warehouse implementations. A few companies are promising just
that, in the form of data warehouse modeling tools that use expert systems to offer a new approach to data warehouse modeling and profiling. Find out from the people who have used them to implement data warehouses whether or not these claims are justified.
Karen Watterson, contributing writer, karen_watterson@msn.com.
Departmental applications: Scaling your Intranets
Profit and Value: Networks
A host of new suppliers and surging demand for wide area network services is
confounding IT managers. A network services expert will sort through the
claims to provide a valuable overview of what's available today. His article
will include all wide-area transport services, including Internet services,
Virtual Private Networks, ISDN, T1, etc.
Paul Strauss, contributing writer, smrstrauss@aol.com.
Scalability: Virtual storage networks
Product of the Year Awards
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Servers |
Mainframes, Unix, NT boxes, SMP, OLTP, and other CPU hardware |
Barbara Depompa, bdepompa@aol.com |
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Middleware |
Software |
Alan Radding radding@mediaone.net |
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Client systems |
PCs, laptops, workstations, and palm tops |
Gerald Lazar, jl4hire@ix.netcom.com |
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Enterprise applications |
ERP, sales force automation, supply chain management |
Emily Kay, |
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Year 2000 |
Identification and remediation tools |
Emily Kay, |
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Storage systems |
Disk and tape drives |
Barbara Depompa, |
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Applications development |
Programming languages, models, etc. |
Alan Radding |
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E-commerce and extranets |
Web server software |
Dana Blankenhorn, |
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Network/systems management |
Software |
Lynn Haber |
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Network infrastructure |
Switches, hubs, routers, bridges, modems, etc. |
Gerald Lazar, jl4hire@ix.netcom.com |
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Data warehouses and marts |
Extraction, load, transform, OLAP, data mining |
Dan Richman, |
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Databases |
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Dan Richman, |
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Security |
Encryption, access controls |
Gerald Lazar |
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Intranets |
Tools, access, GUI |
Dana Blankenhorn, |
Enterprise resource planning holds out the promise of seamless integration of diverse functions throughout a company to increase profits and change corporate culture. In reality, it's a difficult proposition to pull off a successful ERP implementation. Find out what questions to ask and what actions to take from ERP expert, Larry Marion.
ROI
Return on investment is what every IT executive hopes to show at the end of a project. Jack Keen, a consultant at the forefront of the ROI field, can help. In his popular column, he illuminates the methods of making successful business cases and give managerial advice to executives in search of ROI.
Web Wars
The World Wide Web isn't just for homepages anymore. Web Wars shows how companies are using the web to further their business goals. Each column examines how successful companies are employing the Web to add profit and value to the bottom line.
Quality Quest
Quality Quest investigates the vital discipline of software quality testing and tools. As a 20-year veteran of the software industry, Linda Hayes brings an insider's perspective to the elusive quest for defect-free software.Columns
ERP Insights
Writer: Larry Marion, editor, lmarion@datamation.earthweb.com
Writer: Jack Keen, contributing editor, jkeen@decidingfactor.com
Writer: Dana Blankenhorn, contributing editor, dana.blankenhorn@att.net
Writer: Linda Hayes, contributing editor, linda@worksoft.com
The Hunt
The Hunt column examines the thorny issue of career management and staffing in the IT industry. In these days of ever-increasing salaries, The Hunt will point the way to finding, managing, retaining and retraining your valuable IT staff.
