Links List 12.24.09

December 24th, 2009 by Valerie Barber

Not surprisingly, given the rapid adoption of virtualization and the emergence of cloud computing,  managing the virtual environment is #2 on Denise Dubie’s list of must-have IT management technologies for 2010, behind service assurance. Despite the buzz around cloud management, without support for heterogeneous virtual systems and advanced features to manage performance and capacity, there is no cloud management.

“Virtualization and automation technologies are directly related to the cloud. Virtual servers comprise the computing environment, and automation is responsible for the cloud being monitoring, management, secured and made compliant.”

Andi Mann, research director at Enterprise Management Associates

As Julia noted in her post from the Gartner Data Center conference, virtualization has gone from emerging to mainstream at light speed and leads the way to cloud computing.

Kudos to Federal CIO Vivek Kundra, named Chief of the Year by Information Week. Since taking the post in March of this year, Kundra has led the charge to fulfill President Obama’s promise of transparency in the federal government by opening the government’s databases to the public while ensuring security, privacy, confidentiality and data quality. Download the report and read his plans for cloud computing, cybersecurity and engaging the public via the web.

It seems like December is the time to close the loop on stories we’ve been following for a while. Howard Schmidt, who worked as chief security officer at Microsoft and was chief information security officer at eBay has been named Cybersecurity Coordinator. Schmidt served as the former cybersecurity advisor in the Bush administration and served in the Air Force. It took seven months for the position to be filled, with many reportedly declining the job offer due to its lack of authority.

Here’s a great example of the power and influence of social media (think David vs. Goliath). HP has responded to a YouTube video that declares HP computers are racist. I know it sounds crazy, but watch the video – it’s pretty funny. According to “Black Desi” (as he calls himself) and “White Wanda”, the facial recognition webcam fails to follow Desi but follows Wanda. Just watch the video! HP has acknowledged the problem and is investigating. In the meantime, Tony Welch, the lead social media strategist for HP’s Personal Systems Group, suggests users visit the HP Webcam optimization center.

“We believe that the camera might have difficulty ‘seeing’ contrast in conditions where there is insufficient foreground lighting.”

Tony Welch, HP

To round out the decade, a few more lists:

Top 10 Business Stories of the Decade

• Dot-com bubble bust – NASDAQ bottoms out at 1114 in October 2002
• 9/11 terrorist attacks – the NYSE fell 14.3%
• Enron scandal, Oct. 2001 - shareholders and investors lose billions
• China’s economic strength after joining the World Trade Organization in Nov. 2001
• Federal Reserve cuts key interest rate to 1% in June 2003
• Google – went public and raised $1.67 billion in 2004
• Housing bubble burst of 2007
• Bear market of 2007
• Oil and gas prices – $147 for a barrel of crude = $4 a gallon for gas
• Wall Street Meltdown on September 15, 2008, when Lehman Brother became the largest bankruptcy in American history

Did I Do That? The Top 10 Mistakes of the Decade:

• “Nothing more than a Ponzi Scheme,” a tipster wrote about Bernard Madoff in 2000
• “Mission Accomplished” – George Bush, 2003
• The 2009 photo shoot over Manhattan of a low-flying Air Force One shadowed by a fighter plane
• Balloon Boy
• If I Did It,” O.J. Simpson’s book about the murders in 2006
• Dick Cheney shooting his hunting buddy – 2006
• S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford’s visits to Buenos Aires via the Appalachian Trail in 2009 and NY crime-fighting Gov. Eliot Spitzer dubbed “Client-9″ in a hooker’s black book (2008).
• Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction – 2004
• California’s energy crisis (helped along by Enron) 2000 – 2001
• $100 million for “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” starring Eddie Murphy – 2002

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