Stories by: Ephraim Schwartz

Wikis are deceptively easy to use and install, so are nowadays found in all sorts of IT departments, especially as quick and simple project management organizers.

While reading outsourcing horror stories may be somewhat entertaining, especially if it hasn't happened to you, it's even better to learn from the mistakes of others.

I'm writing about Aspen Technology today not because you are likely to ever need its software (unless you own an oil refinery) but because the way the company allows its customers to purchase its smorgasbord of software applications is unique -- so much so that you may want to consider putting a little pressure on your vendors to consider the same.

As companies look to economize in a weak economy worsened by rising energy costs, it may be more tempting than ever to consider outsourcing your IT -- whether to a cloud-based provider, to a shop in your town, or to a provider in some far-off land. Certainly, outsourcing has worked well for many companies, but it can also lead to business-damaging nightmares, says Larry Harding, founder and president of High Street Partners, a global consultancy that advises company on how to expand overseas. After all, if outsourcers fail, you're left holding the bag without the resources to fix the problem.

When you think of RFID, you likely think of the radio tags being used to track items in a warehouse or verify prescriptions in a hospital -- two long-time uses of the radio frequency identification tags.

Maybe Gartner Vice President of Research Benoit Lheureux can't say, "I've seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked," but he did sound a bit like the poet Allen Ginsberg when -- speaking about VAN (value-added network) service providers -- he said, "I saw these guys sink into the morass of the IT hell hole, and they were bleeding revenue."

US CIOs plan sharp reductions in contract staff, professional services, and hardware -- and almost no investment in cloud computing.

Major deals struck without competitive bidding raise eyebrows, whether they take place at a public company or a government agency. But "sole sourcing," as it is called in the enterprise, can often be the best way to go, especially for multi-year deals well upwards of $10 million.

The idea of cloud computing -- designed around an architecture whose natural state is a shared pool outside the enterprise -- has gained momentum in recent months as a way to reduce cost and improve IT flexibility. But the use of cloud computing also carries with it security risks, including perils related to compliance, availability, and data integrity.

There's an old show-business joke about a play that is failing. A potential theatergoer calls the box office to find out when the show starts, and the ticket agent responds, "How soon can you get here?"

The official rollout on Tuesday of IBM's Lotus Symphony suite of productivity applications along with the launch yesterday of the official beta version of Acrobat.com from Adobe has all the experts asking the same well-worn questions: Now that Adobe, IBM, and Google all have skin in this game, is Microsoft Office under siege yet? And which online offering comes closest to being a viable alternative?