CIOIN

Cover Story

The Master Checklist

Pioneering IT leaders share the little tricks they’ve learnt in getting four new technology and technology approaches right. They also answer questions you haven’t even asked.

Indian CIOs Realize the Thrills of Telecommuting

Packing your employees home might sound easy, but it isn’t just shifting locations, it’s shifting work cultures, and demographics of an organization.

Blessing in Disguise: Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

When Sterlite Technologies wanted to set up an optical fibre plant in Shendra (near Aurangabad), its Head-IT, Md. Jawed Ahmed, was ecstatic. This was a blessing in disguise and his chance to play with a relatively new technology like virtual desktop infrastructure or VDI.

CIOs Realize The Benefits of Private Cloud

“Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World,” famously said Christopher Columbus, before he set off to discover a new continent. For CIOs, there’s a lesson here: You have to risk losing sight of the shore to discover just how far you can really go.

BYOT: My CEO Bought an iPad

BYOT, or bring your own technology, is more than code for “my CEO bought an iPad.” BYOT refers to a strategy for letting employees choose and purchase the devices they want to use to do their jobs—everything from PCs and laptops to smartphones and tablets. The machines belong to the employees, who take them along with them if they leave the company.

View from the Top

Reinventing the Brand Image with IT

Madhukar Kamath, Group CEO & MD, Mudra Group, says IT has helped the company reinvent itself and has  built a brand that’s making the competition irrelevant.

From the editor-in-chief

From the Editor-in-Chief: Make It Rain

If you want a greater voice in shaping business strategy you need to set a roadmap to greater efficiency and flexibility.

Mentor

Creating Future Leaders

Alok Kumar, VP & Global Head-Internal IT & Shared Services, TCS believes that as CIOs, it is our responsibility to groom tomorrow’s leaders and arm them with weapons to combat business challenges.

CIO Debate

Is There an Age Bias in IT?

Case Files

EMC's Journey to the Private Cloud

The story, complete with its twists and turns, its multiple phases, its successes and challenges, of EMC's journey to a private cloud.

Vijay Mahajan Helps MSLS Boost Productivity by 40 Percent

Mahindra Shubhlabh Services works with about 250 farmers who grow fruit crops such as grapes, apples, and agri input products for MSLS. This produce is then packed and exported to European companies.The company aims to be a farmer’s single point access to all the products, services, and knowledge they need to run productive farms.

Balakrishnan's Mobile Platform Opens New Channels of Revenue

Feature

Cloud Computing’s Real Costs

At a recent cloud computing conference in New York, a number of speakers pointed out that the cloud is moving past the hype stage and is beginning to deliver tangible  benefits. These improvements include increased flexibility and agility.

Dealing With Rogue IT

CIOs no longer control all of a company’s technology choices. But they still need to manage risk and save rogue users from themselves.

Column

Building A Focused IT Role Approach

Become the Mastermind Behind Insider Threat and Investigation

Our internal investigations have come a long way since the nervous nights of skulking around offices.

There is No Denying the Cloud- So Start Building the Stratergy

Trendlines

Enterprise Mobility Bulks Up for CIOs

The impressive growth of enterprise mobility will come even as its operating costs will fall, say 40 percent of Indian CIOs.

The Harvard Story of 'Bug' and 'Debug'

It's an oft-repeated tale that the grand dame of military computing, computer scientist and US Navy Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, coined the terms 'bug' and 'debug' after an incident involving Harvard University's Mark II calculator.

QUICK TAKE: The Menace of Mobile Malware

Mobile malware is increasingly beginning to dominate the security landscape. And as mobile commerce gains popularity, the platform is bound to be even more vulnerable. Will this thwart the m-commerce initiatives of the BFSI sector? Sneha Jha spoke to Faraz Ahmed, head-IS and regional IT, Reliance Life Insurance, about the mobile malware threat plaguing the financial sector.

Voices: Indian CIOs On Windows 8

Software  All the talk around Microsoft’s new operating system has got users and the enterprise taking notice of the changes Windows 8 promises to make. To find out more about what Indian CIOs think, Shweta Rao spoke to your peers. Here's what they said.

Smartphones Can't Heal Acne, Duh

Healthcare  Smartphones can help you record video clips, compose music and find the nearest Ethiopian restaurant, but they can't cure acne, says the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

BAE Designs Invisibility Cloak for Tanks

Popular Science  If you thought that invisibility cloaks were just for wizards, think again. BAE Systems is working together with the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) on an invisibility cloak system that can hide a BAE Systems CV90 tank within its surroundings.

German Govt. Doesn't Like the 'Like' Button

Internet  The German State of Schleswig-Holstein has ordered all state sites to remove Facebook's 'like' button. Sites that fail to comply could face fines of up to 50,000 euros (about Rs 32 lakh).

Window Shopping With a Wave

Retail German researchers have given a new meaning to window shopping. At the recent IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute showed a prototype that lets shoppers learn more about what's in a store display window when the store is closed.

The Real Story Behind “Bugs”

It's an oft-repeated tale that the grand dame of military computing, computer scientist and US Navy Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, coined the terms 'bug' and 'debug' after an incident involving Harvard University's Mark II calculator.

Ford’s Dream Car Uses the Cloud

Ford recently revealed its Evos concept car and it’s wowing audiences globally.

Hiring: CEOs Prefer Old-Fashioned Networking

Want top-notch hiring advice? According to several C-level executives, their peer network is their first stop when seeking top talent. And overwhelmingly, those networks are tapped the old-fashioned way—not via LinkedIn.

Tech's Place in the 9/11 Museum

It's not easy to look at the National Museum of American History's 9/11 display. Whether viewed in person or online, its contents invoke painful memories.

Essential Technology

Building a Social Collaboration Chain

Social collaboration in the enterprise is serious business and that’s why using these tools judiciously is an imperative. Only then can it provide competitive advantage.

Joining The Dots With Enterprise Collaboration Tools

Enterprise collaboration tools can foster better communication and elicit transparency from business units. Here's how Random House implemented an enterprise collaboration suite, encouraged adoption and is measuring its success.

Alert

Unparalleled Security Inside the New World Trade Centre

From an office 19 floors above the World Trade Centre site, Louis Barani, who oversees the construction and design of a security system, heeds those lessons and will take the new World Trade Center into the future.

Hacking Into Your Car

A report from McAfee says that with each passing year, cars get more and more high tech. Unfortunately, the benefits of the technology come with increased risk that hackers can find and exploit security holes and wreak havoc with your car.

Book Review