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January 18, 2012 |
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Concerns About
Cloud First |
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| Join us for our Back To Business Schmooze & Style-O-Rama on Monday, January 30, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Hors d’oeuvres from The Galleria’s premier restaurants, an open bar and music! Find out more and register here. |
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| Federal IT managers are feeling a little rushed to get to the cloud. Find out why they’re quietly freaking out. |
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| The administration’s push to move apps and programs to the cloud may be too fast, says a recent survey of over 400 federal IT managers. Peerstone Research CEO and SafeGov.org expert Jeff Gould says agency IT managers like the idea of cloud migration but think that the rush to it might sacrifice security of what goes up there. The study also found that the majority of IT managers say that delays in the cloud migration are due to concerns about the tight timelines imposed by Cloud First. |
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| Less than half of the federal IT managers surveyed say their agency will be using a federal-only cloud in the next year. Another 40 percent said they’d be using a broader government cloud that would be open to all agency levels. Jeff says the cloud migration will happen but the survey results show that IT managers still need lots of education and guidance on the transition. SafeGov, a cloud consulting forum for federal agencies, and Ponemon, a tech-focused think tank, did the study together. |
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| Lockheed Needs No Man |
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| You know those unmanned aerial systems that make their way into the news? Lockheed Martin now owns Procerus Technologies, which makes some of the tech that goes into them. Deal terms weren't released and Lockheed says they're not material to the company’s results. (Wonder how Procerus feels about that.) Lockheed chairman Bob Stevens says small unmanned aerial vehicles are "low-cost, highly effective" tools for the military. Procerus sells its autopilot, targeting and payload technologies to the US and international governments, industry, and academic institutions. |
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Know How Much You're Worth |
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| Our sponsor Stone Harbour Partners has issued its latest executive white paper, "Recapitalization: A Strategy to Unlock Value." Managing partner Jeffrey McCandless tells us it provides an overview for middle market and small business owners who want to understand their company’s future worth. The strategies are geared toward shareholders and company execs—the folks who may not always understand that, in a normal exit strategy process, a stable financial performance doesn’t always equate to a full valuation. Stone Harbour Partners is a boutique consulting firm that specializes in partnering with entrepreneurs in vertical industries such as federal contracting, marketing and distribution, software, IT services, and more. To find out about our sponsor, click here. |
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| IT Jobs Finish '11 Strong |
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| A recent TechServe Alliance study found that the number of IT jobs was up 3.3 percent over the previous year. (Yet none of them will tell us how to access Wikipedia today.) It means the annual growth rate of IT employment is more than double in 2009. Overall job growth was a mere 1 percent year over year. TechServe CEO Mark Roberts says the biggest thing to worry about now is a shortage of IT talent in key skillsets. (Ahem, fixing Wikipedia.) Of the over 4M IT jobs that exist, 1.5M are in computer systems and design services; 1M are in management and tech consulting, and 240K are in data processing, hosting and related services. |
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| Consider Your Horn Tooted |
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| They say in public relations: “If you’re doing a good job and nobody knows it, then you’re not doing a good job.” So how do you spread the word? We asked Spire Communications co-founder Ivy Eckerman, whose clients are 70 percent federal agencies and the rest IT contractors. She says any size company can benefit from some professional PR and marketing. The question is whether to hire a freelancer or a firm. A freelancer may have limited expertise and charge less, while a firm will have broader skills that come with a bigger price tag. Her other advice: Over-communicate about your business; make sure you’re different from the pack; and make customers happy. Happy customers lead to more business from them and others. |
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| How has 2012 treated your business so far? Has 18 days felt like an eternity or are the days flying by? Tech editor Tania Anderson wants to know. |
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This newsletter is a journalistic news source which accepts no payment for featured interviews. It is supported by conventional advertisers clearly identified in the right hand column. You have been selected to receive it either through prior contact or professional association. If you have received it in error, please accept our apologies and unsubscribe below. © 2010, Bisnow on Business, Inc., 1817 M St., NW, Washington, DC 20036. All rights reserved. |
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