By The Book

There may be plenty of grumbling around water coolers about recent changes in the government regulatory environments but, like it or not, those compliance dictates are here to stay. Last week's poll shows that regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, and FISMA have affected the majority of companies. Seventy-seven percent of the survey respondents have made an investment, whether it is personnel resources or compliance monitoring software to ensure they meet government regulations.One-third of the poll respondents have made a substantial investment in additional personnel to track their compliance with government regulations. Another third of the respondents have purchased software to help them meet federal or state requirements. And eleven percent said they have brought in a third party to help them stay in compliance with government regulations.So where are you with regard to compliance? Have you had to make substantial changes in your personnel or other IT resource investments or do you fit in with the 22 percent who have not felt the impact of the government regulations (yet). And take a minute to read up on the ways Sarbanes-Oxley is impacting IT departments in an intriguing Systems Management Pipeline feature article written by Pipeline contributor Phil Britt.