Where the Jobs Are
A poll of 1,400 chief information officers projects little change in first-quarter trends over Q4 02. Security professionals are among the most-sought candidates, says survey-taker Robert Half International.
Tech Budgets Increase! Ok, Not Really.
After a year that seemed to bring fresh market woes with each quarter, analysts have found the outlook on technology budgets not as dark as it was at the beginning of 2002. But while most of the companies surveyed by these five research firms do not foresee a decrease in spending, budgets aren’t exactly growing—particularly when you take into account standard deviation, says Gartner Inc. Senior Vice President Albert Case.
Losing Funds but Seeking Security
Meta Group is one firm that anticipates the economy will remain sluggish a little longer, predicting that worldwide technology spending could decrease by as much as 25% in 2003. But of the money that’s left, companies will spend more on security: 55% of survey respondents plan to devote 5% or more of their 2003 technology budgets on such hardware, software and services.
Numbers Crunch
The y2k “crisis” is long over. But another would-be disaster is looming: a shortage of the Internet Protocol (I.P.) addresses that give URLs and web devices a home. Cccording to Uri Rahamim, vice president of Hitachi Internetworking, if today’s numbering scheme doesn’t expand fourfold, we will run out of I.P. addresses by 2005. Oh. So maybe my new Microsoft wristwatch won’t be as intrusive as I thought.
You’ve Got Mail— and Spam, Spam, Spam
By the end of 2002, unsolicited spam was hitting servers at a rate of one message every half-second, says a recent report, an increase of 300% from 2001. E-mails—spam and otherwise—carrying viruses nearly doubled in that time. At only 0.47% of all e-mails sent, however, viruses may be less of a tangible headache than spam, which is expected to surpass non-spam e-mail by July 2003.
In This Market, Linux Is Priced Right
The low price of servers running the Linux operating system seems to have enticed many a technology manager last year, says Evans Data analyst Joe McKendrick. Since April 2002, the number of corporate servers running Linux jumped 20 percentage points. Support from major vendors, such as IBM, was also a key factor, he says. “It makes Linux a safer bet for cautious managers.”
But safe is as safe does: Deployments are mainly confined to peripheral functions, says McKendrick. “Only 3% of companies say they rely on Linux for most of their processing.”
