Baseline Issue June 2009

COVER STORY

The Future of Flight
As Los Angeles World Airports renovates both its facilities and its technology, CIO Dominic Nessi works on 30 major capital projects with a budget of around $200 million. His 10-year IT strategic plan encompasses a consolidated?and green?data center, wired and wireless networks, a new intranet site and advanced security.


FEATURES

The Cloud?s the Limit: Anything as a Service
The use of software-as-a-service applications has migrated into a strategy that has business and technology leaders considering almost every potential cloud service offering, including platforms, infrastructure, communications and even video.

Chargeback Process Deliversfor 1-800-flowers.com
To ensure that the executives in its brands and business units understand and are responsible for their own IT costs, 1-800-Flowers.com implemented a chargeback system in which both the business and IT benefit. The company is also investing heavily in Web 2.0 technology because ?online is our future,? says CIO Steve Bozzo.


VERTICAL VIEW

Making Good IT Investments
Banks and other financial institutions are relying on a variety of technology tools to increase their efficiency, cut costs and boost revenue. Three key technologies are server virtualization, service-oriented architecture, and self-service applications such as online and mobile banking and payments.


GAMEPLAN

Are You Looking for Job Security?
In today?s tough economic environment, it?s important to recession-proof your career.

Partnering for Outsourcing Success
Without a robust IT outsourcing governance framework, vendor and customer objectives can easily become misaligned.

PM: Getting Your Team on Board
You need to motivate your team and build excitement about the project management process.

Tips to Protect your Data Center
To protect your data center, follow best practices, choose the right location, get certified and test the center?s resiliency.


WORKBOOK

Business Requirements Should Drive Technology Investments
A clear understanding of business requirements dictates the business-technology plans and investments needed to execute a company?s business strategy.


JOB SITE

Intelligent Infrastructure
Converting to a virtual infrastructure helps Transplace, a third-party logistics provider, maintain world-class function-ality, hosting, availability and reliability.


TECHKNOW

Managing Virtual Storage on Your San
These best practices can help you keep your organization?s virtualized storage area network properly maintained.


OUT OF SCOPE
This issue includes stories about an IBM supercomputer that?s taking on the game show Jeopardy!, a micro-holographic storage breakthrough and mind-over-matter toys. And find out who won ?The Best Job in the World? contest.


OPINION

Starting Point by Eileen Feretic
Getting the Message
IT leaders understand the need to partner with business peers.

Tech Track by Michael Vizard
Gauging Linux Momentum
Many companies will need both Linux and Windows server stacks.