Guest Columns

Security Myth Busting Monday BIRMINGHAM - The attacks against Google emanating from China and the subsequent speech by the US Secretary of State on Internet Freedom have exposed cyber security issues to a wider audience in recent weeks. Perhaps predictably some old ideas are creeping up that should be slapped down quickly.

Five Social Software Predictions For 2010 And Beyond: Gartner STAMFORD - A lot has happened in a year within the social software and collaboration space. And analyst firm Gartner says companies quickly need to develop best practices for embracing social networking with a maximum of safety.

Solar Panels, Tax Incentives, And Your House BLOOMFIELD HILLS - During the summer of 2008, gas prices went through the roof, and the United States refocused on renewable energy. Americans say they desire energy independence from foreign nations and environmentally sound renewable energy sources.

Putting Chinese Cyber Espionage In Perspective BIRMINGHAM - Last Tuesday Google announced that they had been hacked by sources in China. The target was email accounts of Chinese activists and bloggers. An outraged Google threatened to discontinue censoring search results at the Google China search engine google.cn. Yahoo chimed in support of Google. Yahoo of course is another Internet company with a history of bowing to Chinese requests including providing information that led to the arrest and imprisonment of Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist who still has four years of his sentence to serve.

2010 IT Budgets Shrink To 2005 Levels STAMFORD, Conn. - IT budgets will essentially be flat in 2010, increasing by a weighted global average of 1.3 percent in nominal terms, Compared with 2009 levels where IT budgets declined 8.1 percent, that's not bad at all.

Merit Network Completes Blue-Line Fiber-Optic Network ANN ARBOR - After four years and hundreds of miles of fiber-optic cable, Merit Network engineers lit the fiber-optic cable between Mount Pleasant and Big Rapids on December 12, 2009, to complete the "Blue-Line" portion of the Merit backbone network.

Auto, Sectors Need To Bridge Communication Gap to Accelerate Clean Tech SOUTHFIELD - In a newly released Cleantech Point-of-View, Airfoil Public Relations urges the automotive industry to adopt the flexible, fast-to-market strategies of the technology industry and points out that tech developers have much to learn from best manufacturing practices developed by auto companies.

Is the Cloud Ready for Main Street in 2010? ANN ARBOR - Cloud computing technology made a lot of progress in 2009 but it wasn't without its problems. Reliability and security issues surfaced as the young service struggled with the widespread media coverage and rapid growth. Reflecting on the year that was dominated by the IT buzz word, cloud computing, Online Tech CEO Yan Ness proposes a new solution, utilizing cloud computing services in combination with a trusted colocation partner.

Report: Security Concerns Mount For Cloud Computing Environment BOSTON - Concerns about the security of cloud computing environments top the list of reasons for firms not being interested in the pay-per-use hosting model of virtual servers, according to the latest Enterprise And SMB Hardware Survey, North America And Europe, Q3 2009, by Forrester Research.

Arkeia Delivers Free Virtual Appliance For Backup SAN DIEGO - Arkeia Software, which makes fast, easy-to-use and affordable network backup solutions, has announced the availability of a no-cost virtual appliance designed to back up virtual machines. The new Arkeia Virtual Appliance Free Use Edition bundles software to implement a robust backup solution that enables enterprises with VMware to extend improvements in hardware operating efficiency to data protection while saving time and money.

Employers Increasing Use Of Social Media To Reach Employees In Challenging Times WASHINGTON DC - In order to communicate messages to workers in a complex business environment, a majority of companies plan to increase their use of social media in the coming year, according to a survey by Watson Wyatt, a leading global consulting firm.

Report: Critical Issues Facing Data Center Managers Will Worsen In 2010 STAMFORD, Conn. - The energy, space and technology problems currently facing data center managers are set to worsen in 2010, according to analyst firm Gartner, Data center and IT managers need to find pragmatic ways in which to deal with them.

IT Staff Reductions Bottoming Out NEW YORK - Staffing levels in IT will remain the same in 2010 as they are now according to a recent survey conducted by Hay Group, the global management consulting firm. Sixty-nine percent of CIOs said their staffing levels will be unchanged in 2010, indicating a 'bottoming out' of staff reductions in IT.

You Think Your Grid Is So Smart BIRMINGHAM - At first glance the idea of a US Smart Grid is appealing: Update the power grid so that it is more dynamic, granular, and controllable. In practical terms it means replacing the meters on every house, apartment, restaurant, gym, plant, and business in the country with digital meters that provide a control point that the utilities can use to measure consumption.

SBA Administrator Ken Mills On President Obama's Plan To Increase Size Of SBA-Backed Loans To Small Business WASHINGTON - The U.S. Small Business Administration on Wednesday issued the following statement by SBA Administrator Karen Mills on a proposal by President Barack Obama to raise the maximum loan size for SBA-backed loans to small business.

How A Gray Army Of Baby Boomers Will Bring Back Detroit's Boom Times DETROIT - Last week, the cover of Time Magazine captured a snapshot of a ruined city. It could have been Stalingrad in the 1940s when young untrained Russian youths were thrown into desperate battle with one rifle shared between two men, to save a city that was already reduced to rubble.

Small Businesses Not Plugging Into Social Media NEW YORK - While social media has garnered enormous exposure in the business press, it has translated into very little user among small business owners and managers, according to a new Citibank / GfK Roper survey.

$250 Million Federal Grant Will Save Saturn, 13,000 Jobs DETROIT - A $250 million grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, could easily resolve the late breaking issues that prompted the unexpected, last minute collapse of the proposed Penske Automotive Group purchase of Saturn, according to Todd Ingersoll, Saturn's Retailer Council member.

Cyber Security Update From Washington DC WASHINGTON - The Internet is arguably the most significant technological development of our time. It has changed the way we communicate, the way we learn, and the way we see things. It brings previously isolated and disparate information to our fingertips, almost instantaneously, and has become the primary means by which we conduct business and share and store data. Speed and ubiquity, however, those very characteristics that endear us to the technology, leave us vulnerable to attack from hostile foreign powers, terrorist sympathizers, and criminal hackers. Indeed, the information networks that run America are under attack from adversaries around the globe.

Detroit SecureWorld Provides Discounts For InfraGard Members DETROIT - Next week SecureWorld 2009 comes again to Detroit! Mark your calendar for September 29 - 30 to come to the Ford Conference & Event Center in Dearborn to get up to speed on the rapidly changing world of security.