Daily Spin: Show Me the Money!

The Big Picture

Hey There, Ya Cheapskate!

Hey, sorry about that. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I just figured you would be used to someone addressing you like that. I mean, you and your fellow IT managers are doling out the IT bucks as freely as Ebenezer Scrooge (pre-ghostly visitations) donates to charity right?

Hey, don't yell at me. I'm just reading the trends. And according to a survey released a few days ago, almost half of senior corporate executives believe their companies are spending too little on IT this year. Is this surprising? Maybe not to you, but it is to us. Back in September, we did our own survey and discovered that 85 percent of those polled planned to spend at least as much on IT in the coming year as they did in the past year.

Yet here were are six months later and what do we see? Data Centers without the dollars to implement effective -- or any -- risk management plans. People getting hired at entry level positions and salaries solely on their tech skills -- skills which will more than likely get outsourced to another country down the road.

Maybe it's not a question of the money not being spent, but rather where. For instance, well know compliance is a big ol' sore spot. At the rate things are going, companies can expect to go from spending over $8.8 billion this year to almost $28 Billion by 2007 for regulation conformity.

So what's going on? Do you think the survey is out of whack? Do you think your org is spending plenty on IT? Or do you agree that you could be spending more? Let us know.

NWC's Take on the News

Here's what we think of the lastest news. Read the story and leave your own comment.

Security Firm Releases Patch For Zero-Day IE Flaw There's still no patch from Microsoft for a critical security flaw in the Internet Explorer browser, but computer security firm eEye Digital Security has released a temporary patch for the zero-day vulnerability.

NWC's Take: Once again, someone comes riding in on a white horse to rescue Microsoft. Who cares if these patches aren't official -- at least someone out there is getting something out to keep things running. And the real question is, if someone is able to bang out temporary patches this quick, why does it take MS so long to get their official ones out?

Google Deletes Own BlogThe Google Blog was unavailable for a short time earlier this week, and while it was first thought that it was a hack, the culprit turned out to be simple human error. NWC's Take:Okay, as much as I want to laugh about this -- as someone who once accidentally made NWC's website go poof one day (albeit a few minutes), I will wisely keep my chuckles to myself.

From the NWC Blogs

A Modest Proposal: Kill the WebIt's time to stop letting users have access to the Web at work. Companies that take this bold (though unpopular) step will reap substantial rewards.

Read More