Stories by Stacy Collett

Wide-Open Search

Twitter, Facebook, the Library of Congress -- all of these institutions have mind-numbing amounts of structured and unstructured data that must be indexed and searched quickly. In Twitter's case, that's about 300 million new pieces of information to index every day.

Techies work harder as benefits go bust

"Richard," a 40-year-old IT architect, felt like his career path had reached its end at the financial services company where he'd worked for seven years. In a shaky economy, he was grateful to have a job at all, but when his employer eliminated matching funds in his 401(k) plan, as well as its profit-sharing program -- which usually put an extra $1,000 in his pocket each year -- he knew he had to go.

Who Holds the Keys?

Encryption can make up for a litany of security snafus -- from a bad firewall to an unrelenting hacker to a lost laptop. Once data is encrypted, criminals can't use or sell it. Plus, if encrypted data goes missing, companies are protected from disclosure requirements in most states. No wonder 38% of companies surveyed by Forrester Research have already adopted full-disk encryption technology. But data protection doesn't stop there. Encryption keys and digital rights also must be well orchestrated and secured, or else encryption protection goes out the window.

Premier 100 IT Leader profile: Puneet Bhasin

Waste Management may be in the business of managing and reducing waste, but it's really a transportation and logistics company with 20,000 trucks driving 100,000 routes daily, according to Puneet Bhasin, 49, senior vice president and CIO.

Premier 100 IT Leader profile: Mario Leone

Technology departments prefer to handle projects one at a time.

Premier 100 IT Leader profile: James Robertson

In today's 24/7 news cycle, reporters at media outlets use all kinds of wireless gadgets to gather and report news and communicate with the newsroom.

Premier 100 IT Leader profile: Sanjay Mirchandani

When touting their company's products, EMC sales reps often get this question from prospective customers: "Do you guys use your own stuff?"

Premier 100 IT Leader profile: Dan Traynor

Overhauling an IT infrastructure is never easy, but winning over IT staff and business units with an ambitious plan can be nearly impossible.

IT staffers shed 1,500 pounds

With his 50th birthday looming at the end of July in 2010, Frederick Curiel knew he had to lose weight. But as with many IT professionals, the demands of his job had put diet and exercise on the back burner.

Six job-hunting tricks for a Web 2.0 world

If you're sitting in your office right now, take a glance at the co-worker on your left and then at the co-worker on your right. Chances are one of them is looking to leave the company. Or perhaps it's you.

Securing the daisy chain

It's 2 p.m. Do you know where your cloud data is? Really? Executives at one large Fortune 500 company thought they knew, but a routine audit of the cloud provider uncovered a serious problem.

Big data goes mainstream

We've all heard the predictions: By 2020, the quantity of electronically stored data will reach 35 trillion gigabytes, a forty-four-fold increase from 2009. We had already reached 1.2 million petabytes, or 1.2 zettabytes, by the end of 2010, according to IDC. That's enough data to fill a stack of DVDs reaching from the Earth to the moon and back -- about 240,000 miles each way.

Storage vexations of server virtualization

Server virtualization offers a host of efficiencies, but storage administrators say it may open a can of worms on the storage side. Resulting headaches can include huge I/O bottlenecks for primary and backup storage, as well as complicated disaster and recovery efforts, among other things.

Five signs your IT career is stuck in a rut

In December 2007, a 49-year-old senior database administrator at a Chicago investment firm decided he couldn't take it anymore. Excessive hours and oppressive management had taken their toll; he was also worn down by the fear and uncertainty of a financial crisis that threatened even the most revered institutions. His career was officially in a rut.

11 hot skills for 2011

Christmas came in midsummer for Nicole Thompson, IS director of applications at HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley.