InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology

Top 10 Cloud Stories Of 2010

Everybody's head was in the cloud, or so it seemed in 2010. Both well established and startup vendors developed solutions and strategies designed to extend their reach or provide entry into this booming market. After all, IDC estimated the cloud market will be worth $55 billion by 2014; Gartner predicted the cloud world could be valued at $148 billion at that time, in part because Gartner included Google AdWords advertising revenue in its figures, said Gregor Petri, adviser, lean IT and cloud computing, at CA Technologies. Whether cloud computing reaches $55 billion, $148 billion, or a completely different figure, all research firms appear to agree that public and private sector organizations increasingly are adopting the technology. With each proven test site, cloud implementations also are expanding in scope and complexity, as businesses depend on the technology to support their multi-national operations.

Top 10 Security Stories Of 2010

As smartphones and tablets complement and battle with notebooks and PCs as routes to the connected world, as corporate users and consumers turn to both traditional Web sites and newer social networking sites to communicate, share ideas, trade business concepts, and shop, corporate IT professionals and the government organizations overseeing the nation's cybersecurity are all-too aware they must do more. And they must do it fast. Recognizing this, the federal government hopes to create a new wave of cybersecurity educational and certification programs in order to form the next, much-needed workforce. And law enforcement agencies around the world are becoming more adept at working cooperatively to combat the growing number, complexity, and sophistication of cyber criminals that pursue money and power through their creation of malware and network destruction. This teamwork already has brought down some botnet gangs in different nations.

Top 10 Hardware Stories Of 2010

Partnerships and new technologies dominated the hardware landscape, as vendors battled for market share and dollars from customers slowly shedding budgetary shackles. Buyers -- from IT executives to home-office users and gamers -- had plenty of choices, ranging from the iPad and new competing wares, to the latest in IBM mainframes, and practically everything in between. Not surprisingly, several vendors have followed Apple's lead, quickly offering tablets designed to tap into the iPad's momentum. But so far, analysts agree that Apple has a large lead, with little signs of abatement. Everyone did not focus all their efforts on smaller, consumer-oriented products. IBM took the wraps off a new mainframe, the most notable update to this part of its extensive portfolio in five decades. For its part, HP extended its exploration of a new memory format through a partnership with a memory manufacturer that can make the esoteric world of engineering into the reality of mass production.

Top 10 Microsoft Stories Of 2010

Odds are, almost every household in the United States bought or used at least one Microsoft-related product in 2010. From smartphones to game consoles, entertainment software to applications, cloud computing infrastructure to expanded search engine agreements, the developer increased its footprint across earth and cyberspace. This year marked one of new beginnings and some endings for Microsoft, which released its long-awaited Windows Phone 7 operating system, the software giant's answer to Apple's iPhone and Google's Android. In plenty of time for this year's healthier holiday season, Microsoft also unwrapped Kinect, a much-lauded new sensor for its already popular Xbox gaming hardware -- and saw it receive rave reviews from technophiles and, more importantly, the kids, tweens, and gamers for whom it was designed. Likewise, the developer rolled out the third leg of its Halo trilogy, a move almost guaranteed to appeal to the game's legion of followers around the world.

Top 10 Government Stories Of 2010

In 2010, the government turned to technology as a way to cut costs and improve efficiencies, an approach that worked in some cases but backfired in others. Like their associates in the public sector, government executives and IT professionals saw some big wins -- and headaches -- over the past 12 months. In some cases, cities or agencies were able to save money and boost productivity by adopting technologies such as cloud computing, by centralizing contracts, and reducing energy consumption through consolidated data centers. In other cases, contracts-run-amok or a malfunctioning component led to headlines, hand wringing, and late night scrambling to recover data and operations.

Top 10 Google Stories Of 2010

Google may be the company of the decade -- the previous one, if not the next one. As such, its actions are closely scrutinized, and its steps and missteps make news. What started as a search engine is now a company that's shaping our technological future, with initiatives in mobile phones, tablet and netbook computing, telephony, and TV. Unburdened by decades of legacy tech and customer expectations, it's proven more nimble at exploiting new niches than its competitors. From successful forays into mobile devices to embarrassing breaches of people's privacy, Google was in the news a lot in 2010, most often for its steps but sometimes for its missteps. Here are the ten top news stories involving Google this year.

17 Leading EHR Vendors

Electronic Health Records can help healthcare providers in the delivery and management of care to patients, including those with chronic conditions. The systems can also bolster decision making by providing clinicians with more comprehensive patient data, as well as help eliminate medical errors and reduce costs associated with unnecessary or redundant tests. Health care providers can access real-time clinical information, such as immediate access to test results, which allows them to initiate appropriate treatment or follow-up, and to anticipate and mitigate potential problems, more easily and much earlier that without access to EHR data. This potential to improve patient care has contributed to more than half of physicians utilizing EHR systems according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics preliminary 2010 estimates. The cost of implementing these systems is significant, however; a CDW Healthcare survey pegged it upwards of $100,000 per physicians. These costs make vendor selection a crucial step in EHR adoption. In this directory, you'll find 17 of the leading vendors along with information about the products they provide and the value to doctors.

Flock Browses All Your Social Connections

Years before the social networking oriented RockMelt browser there was Flock. Now Flock 3.5 shows that the original social networking browser still has strong features that should interest users looking to integrate social networking into their Web browser. Flock works with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, newsfeeds and, new in this release, LinkedIn. The newest Flock browser is also now based on the Google Chromium engine, providing a faster and more streamlined browsing experience. A social networking sidebar in Flock makes it possible to view status updates from all of your connections on all of your networks and lets users post status updates to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn with a single click.

40 Tech Gifts For The Holiday Season

When it seems like the techie in your life already has every next-generation gadget and gizmo on earth, just the thought of finding them a good gift can make you wince with expectant agony. But no one actually has everything, and there's bound to be something out there that will tickle their tech fancy. From TVs to smartphones, green gadgets to slightly goofy gadgets, jaw-dropping sound to peaceful wake-up calls, here are 40 ideas for the holidays or any other gift-giving occasion. Prices are rounded to nearest whole dollar and are suggested retail unless otherwise noted. In some cases, there's no wiggle on the price tag; in others, it pays to shop around for the best deal.

Google Chrome OS Promises Computing Without Pain

Before a crowd of reporters and guests, Google provided an update on its forthcoming browser-based operating system, Chrome OS, and invited attendees and select early adopters to try Chrome OS running on an unbranded netbook through a pilot program. Chrome OS aims to be speedy, simple and secure: all the things that the typical PC is not. It achieves these goals by limiting the user to Web apps, running in the Chrome browser. But Google doesn't see this as a limitation; it sees it as a way to prevent the user from mucking up the works by installing bloated or malicious software. Google sees the Web and cloud computing as a better user experience.

Clicking Through Opera 11 Browser Beta

The Opera web browser, from Opera Software, has long been one of the most innovative browsers available, and has been the first to introduce many features that became common in all browsers, such as tabbed windows. With the recent released beta of Opera 11, the browser continues this tradition with several interesting new capabilities, including the ability to load plugins on demand within web pages. The Opera 11 beta also includes some features already found in other browsers, such as competing betas Microsoft IE 9 and Firefox 4, and has adopted some of the interface characteristics of Google's Chrome web browser.

5 Airport Body Scanner Patents Stripped Down

Here's a deep dive on five patents applying X-ray backscatter technology to airport contraband detection. These screening machines have been much in the news recently, amid controversy regarding both their effectiveness and the amount of radiation exposure to which travelers are subjected. The patents we'll look at are from prime players in the airport body scanner field. This list is led by Rapiscan Systems Inc. , of Torrance, Calif., which in 2009 won the TSA contract to supply whole-body imaging scanners to U.S. airports. Also included is Martin Annis, a pioneer in body scanning who founded American Science and Engineering Inc. (ASAE) of Billerica, Mass. in 1958. In 1980, Annis was awarded one of the first personnel scanner patents. Finally, L-3 Communications Security and Detection Systems Inc., of Woburn, Mass., has sold numerous explosives detection devices to the military and vied for the TSA contract. Selected diagrams from five patents are included to illustrate inventors' efforts at enhanced privacy, through which explicit body part imagery is replaced by a mannequin-like view, as well as to show attempts to reduce traveler exposure to x-rays through more sophisticated radiation source arrays.

Top 20 Apps For Managing Social Media

Social media from Twitter to Facebook, LinkedIn to YouTube creates opportunities for building relationships, cultivating customers and promoting business, but the sea of updates and input awash with data both important and consequential can drown all but the most dogged of users. Fortunately, app developers have created more than a few devices to make keeping afloat in the social media waters manageable, sane and even productive. Yet even the tools intended to help users navigate social media are so numerous that culling through them can be overwhelming. That's why we've plucked out 20 of the best third-party apps to power up your social networking. Many are fee and many of the pay-to-play options offer free trials or stripped down versions at no charge so you can try them before you buy.

Desktop Twitter Programs Revealed

Desktop Twitter clients offer some advantages over browser-based options for the more than 175 million registered Twitter users navigating the tens of millions of daily Tweets. Desktop clients free user from the limited range of controls and UT metaphors found in the browser, and there's less chance of being bitten by a web-based exploit. Moreover, third-party browser-based clients, such as HootSuite and Slipstre.am, hint at different ways of interacting with Twitter. It's no wonder that third-party applications have emerged as a significant means of accessing Twitter, with almost 15% of unique users coming through one of the leading clients. Based upon ease of use, the number of services supporting, interfaces to additional services such as URL shortening and filter management, here are five Twitter clients worth a look.

Top 20 Government Cloud Service Providers

Nearly a dozen teams of technology vendors have been approved to provide IT infrastructure as a service to government agencies through Apps.gov, the General Services Administration's cloud computing portal. The new blanket service agreement makes it possible for federal, state and local government agencies to order on-demand virtual servers, cloud storage and web hosting as needed from GSA-approved service providers. Cloud vendors must satisfy FISMA's "moderate impact" data security level to participate in the program. A total of 20 companies made it through GSA's vetting process. They comprise a broad cross-section of IT service and infrastructure providers, from industry leaders such as AT&T, Dell and Microsoft to smaller vendors that specialize in doing business with Uncle Sam.

RockMelt Social Web Browser Revealed

RockMelt, a new browser backed by Mosaic and Netscape web pioneer Marc Andreessen, tightly integrates web browsing with social networking, letting users easily track their Facebook friends, Twitter feeds and changing news feeds, while surfing the web. RockMelt is not the first attempt to reimagine the web browser as a social tool. Back in 2005, the Flock browser was released with similar ambitions. Initially based on Mozilla's Gecko rendering engine, the forthcoming 3.0 version of Flock will, like RockMelt, be based on Google's Chromium browser engine. Despite being just an early preview release, RockMelt offers some of the best social networking features we've seen in a browser and could already be considered one of the best browser choices for heavy Facebook users. And with its Chrome heritage, it is already strong as a standard web browser. Here's a look at some of the key features of the recently released early preview of RockMelt.

9 Ways Health IT Improves Patient Care

The HITECH legislation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is allocating more than $20 billion to push for the adoption of health IT nationwide, including e-health records and e-prescription systems. Health IT can boost patient's quality of care by reducing medical errors, improving clinical decision making and helping to eliminate redundant and unnecessary tests and costs. Health IT, including automated systems that check for adverse drug interactions, allergies, and confirm patient IDs, can help patients avoid being victim to medication and other errors. Meanwhile, as more aging and chronically ill patients are cared for at home, health IT deployments can help keep those individuals out of the hospital, while mobile apps and other tech deployments aid in wellness programs to keep the healthy active. Here are a few examples of health IT helping to bring those benefits.

15 Mobile Apps For Better Health

From helping you monitor your condition to making suggestions for improving it, today's smartphones can become valuable healthcare partners -- with the right apps. The iPhone App Store, the Android Market and the BlackBerry App World are chock full of applications that can help keep you in the pink. The Health, Wellness, and Fitness categories in the various mobile app stores are full of applications that promise to help keep you healthy. Some of them are backed by major pharmaceutical firms, while others are the brainchild of a single person who thinks they've found the solution to a health issue. We've sifted through them to bring you 15 of the best.