| Buyer beware: Outsourcing not economic panacea in 2009 Outsourcing vendors tend to succeed in tough economic times, but enterprise IT executives need to proceed with caution when signing service deals in the rush to lower fixed expenses. Juniper maps out 2009 plans Juniper plans to stay the course in 2009 -- stick hard and fast to its high-performance networking mantra, invest in areas where customers can lower total cost of ownership, and not be distracted by trendy markets like video, collaboration and wireless LANs. VMware wants a bigger role in your data center VMware is still the top player in the hypervisor market, but the coming year will see the company move far beyond its original focus of virtualizing x86 servers. Key to its success is Virtual Datacenter Operating System (VDC-OS), a forthcoming software platform that will aggregate virtualized servers, storage and network resources into one big computing pool that allocates resources to users and applications. Microsoft's 2009 to-do list: Deliver services, get virtualized, storm the Googleplex This year Microsoft introduced its Azure cloud operating system, released online versions of Exchange and SharePoint, and revealed plans for online Office applications. It's all a set-up for what will define Microsoft's 2009. Here's a look at five key issues and a handful of honorable mentions that will be in the spotlight over the next 12 months. How an Obama FCC will deal with major telecom issues With new leadership soon to take over at the Federal Communications Commission, observers say the FCC is likely to be more skeptical of big telecom mergers and to embrace network neutrality rules. Security vendors leaving “old school” malware detection methods behind Signature-based virus scanning has been around for years, but now some of the industry’s biggest players say this methodology will be in decline in 2009 due to the rapidly multiplying malware epidemic. The coming year is going to see a shift toward other anti-malware techniques, including behavior-based detection and reputation analysis. Could a management titan topple in 2009? Get ready for a shakeup, analysts say, when one of the big four management-software makers succumbs to acquisition by a high-tech heavyweight, such as Microsoft, Oracle or SAP. HP on a roll, but challenges await in 2009 HP has been remarkably successful in a difficult financial time, but keeping up the pace in 2009 will be tough. The vendor could see trouble if consumer spending slows down for an extended period. HP also risks alienating partners if its EDS-enhanced services division doesn't take a neutral approach to third-party products. More IT budget, staff cuts expected in first half of 2009 An increasing number of IT workers expect to see budgets and staff cuts during the first half of 2009 as earlier plans for growth give way to current economic realities. Podcast: 2009: This is the year to automate IT After a year of kicking the tires on IT process automation and seeing increasing costs in offshoring/outsourcing, many are convinced that 2009 will bring further investment in automating the manual IT processes as a way to cut costs while still extending IT services to the business. NetIQ's Chris Pick discusses the trends for 2009 with Keith Shaw, and also explains why IT process automation is like a giant universal remote control. (25:02) Slideshow: 8 management apps that justify expensing an iPhone Management vendors have gotten wise to the fact that most in IT can't sit in front of monitoring consoles to detect problems and potential failures. Now several have designed their applications to run from the graphical user interfaces of iPhones and other smartphones. Here is just a handful of iPhone-friendly management tools. Is my network healthy? Blogger Avner Izhar continues his series on assessing the health of networks by examining how he uses network assessment tools. $8M Cisco SMARTnet Scamster faces 30 years in prison Cisco Subnet blogger Brad Reese writes: The "perp" in an $8 million Cisco SMARTnet scam, Steven Edward Miller age 38, pled guilty last week before United States District Judge Michael W. Mosman in Portland, Oregon, to one count of money laundering and one count of mail fraud. Cisco blade to feature BMC technology; marriage in the air between Cisco, BMC? Cisco's upcoming blade server will feature BMC's management technology as a key ingredient. Sources say BMC is so strategic to Cisco that the network giant is considering acquiring it. How much do you know about Cisco - take this quiz Have you been paying attention to Cisco news in 2008? Go here for the quiz, which is in a slideshow format. There are 15 questions about Cisco happenings in 2008, Give yourself a point for each correct answer and check out the final slide for whether your a Cisco cub or a Cisco commander. Have fun! January giveaways from Cisco Subnet and Microsoft Subnet
Up for grabs: Two Cisco training courses from Skyline-ATS worth up to $6,990, a Microsoft training course from New Horizons worth up to $2,500, 15 copies each of the hot book titles Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration, IPv6 Security and Chained Exploits: Advanced Hacking Attacks. Get all the entry details here. | 
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