IT professionals asked to do more work for less pay and fewer benefits might be able to forgive their employers' financial choices, but industry watchers say high-tech workers won't soon forget being treated poorly during the most recent economic recession and will look to find other employment opportunities as soon as the recovery gets under way.
Robert Half Technology this week released findings of a survey of 1,400 American CIOs that showed 43 per cent said retaining existing workers will be their top staffing priority in 2010. The IT staffing and consultancy firm also reported that 21 per cent of CIOs polled said they would offer more training and professional development opportunities to employers in 2010.
[In Canada, 44 per cent of the 270 CIOs questioned said retaining existing staff will be the top priority next year.]
"Employers need to focus on preventing burnout and keeping their best people engaged at work. This may be a challenge, given that staffing cuts and the reduction or elimination of benefits have left many employees feeling overworked and undervalued," said Dave Willmer, executive director at Robert Half Technology, in a statement.
Robert Half Technology suggested a few retention efforts IT employers must begin now, including training and career development programs and career advancement opportunities. CIOs should re-recruit their best employees, which essentially means they must start working to convince them to stay on board.
Other suggestions include recognizing excellence and providing project support. Robert Half Technology also suggests managers communicate regularly with staff, encourage team-building activities and promote work/life balance. Lastly, the firm says CIOs need to consider the compensation packages they offer as well as re-evaluate the workloads employees are carrying.
Effort such as these will be important in reducing turnover, according to the firm."Companies may have to work at 're-selling' themselves to existing employees in much the same way they would when promoting themselves to prospective hires," Willmer added.
Yet it may be too late for some employees to be convinced to stay, suggests other research, which points to data collected after previous recessions and shows employees will seek other employment during the recovery. According to the September 2009 "Managing talent in a turbulent economy: Keeping your team intact" report from Deloitte Consulting, "a resume tsunami may threaten unprepared companies as key employees who held on to their jobs in tough times seek out better opportunities when economic fears recede."
Jeff Schwartz, principal of human capital at Deloitte Consulting, says there isn't much evidence to suggest that the recovery following the most recent economic recession will be any different in terms of employee turnover than previous downturns."There are some lessons that many in IT learned from the last recession that occurs about 12 to 24 months after the end of the recession: very critical workers leave," Schwartz says.
Source
Monday, December 28, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Managed service offers customized recovery for Data Domain systems
Recovery service provider (RSP) Simply Continuous is set to release a new version of its managed data recovery service with a new software tool that lets customers define their own service level agreement (SLA) for data recovery on EMC Data Domain appliances.
The Data Recovery Vault 2.0 managed service, available next month free of charge to Simply Continuous customers, includes a new piece of recovery management software called RecoverNOW with customizable SLAs and support for the latest set of Data Domain deduplicating disk-based backup systems.
The RecoverNOW software uses rules-based filtering and analytics to identify and prioritize which data sets should be recovered first in the event of an outage. Once a recovery scenario and the associated data set for recovery are determined, RecoverNOW automatically calculates the estimated time it will take to replicate the data onto an EMC Data Domain emergency recovery appliance and be "ready-to-ship" to the customer's location.
Tom Frangione, Simply Continuous co-founder and CEO, says typical recovery operations for virtual tape libraries (VTLs) and disk-based backup appliances include recovery of entire data sets, which can be a time-consuming process.
The company has found that customers do not need to recover their entire data set right away. Using RecoverNOW to identify smaller, more important data sets, Simply Continuous can prepare and ship the data up to 10X faster than shipping the entire data set.
"The software enables a 'what if' analysis of the data set. Users can look at their data by age, file type and size to determine what kind of data they would need for a recovery. They can essentially design their own recovery time objective [RTO], and we commit to an SLA," Frangione says. "It gives users more control over how they recover data."
Simply Continuous currently offers its recovery services for Data Domain appliances. In addition to the release of Data Recovery Vault 2.0 and RecoverNOW, the company has upgraded its Universal Recovery Platform to support the newest EMC Data Domain deduplication appliances and operating systems, including the DD140, DD610, DD630 and DD880.
Source
The Data Recovery Vault 2.0 managed service, available next month free of charge to Simply Continuous customers, includes a new piece of recovery management software called RecoverNOW with customizable SLAs and support for the latest set of Data Domain deduplicating disk-based backup systems.
The RecoverNOW software uses rules-based filtering and analytics to identify and prioritize which data sets should be recovered first in the event of an outage. Once a recovery scenario and the associated data set for recovery are determined, RecoverNOW automatically calculates the estimated time it will take to replicate the data onto an EMC Data Domain emergency recovery appliance and be "ready-to-ship" to the customer's location.
Tom Frangione, Simply Continuous co-founder and CEO, says typical recovery operations for virtual tape libraries (VTLs) and disk-based backup appliances include recovery of entire data sets, which can be a time-consuming process.
The company has found that customers do not need to recover their entire data set right away. Using RecoverNOW to identify smaller, more important data sets, Simply Continuous can prepare and ship the data up to 10X faster than shipping the entire data set.
"The software enables a 'what if' analysis of the data set. Users can look at their data by age, file type and size to determine what kind of data they would need for a recovery. They can essentially design their own recovery time objective [RTO], and we commit to an SLA," Frangione says. "It gives users more control over how they recover data."
Simply Continuous currently offers its recovery services for Data Domain appliances. In addition to the release of Data Recovery Vault 2.0 and RecoverNOW, the company has upgraded its Universal Recovery Platform to support the newest EMC Data Domain deduplication appliances and operating systems, including the DD140, DD610, DD630 and DD880.
Source
Monday, September 28, 2009
DTI Data is the Hard Drive Recovery Solution
Our computer has become one of the most valuable things for our daily life. It is very useful by helping us write our jobs, helping us store the important data, receiving and sending the email, and giving us an entertainment from the music which played by winamp and the movie from the PowerDVD. But, our computer is quite fragile. It can get crash if it has been used for a long time because of the heat on the hard drive and it can lose the data that it stored when the viruses enter the software unexpectedly. When it happens, we will get annoyed in the maximum level. We might feel like dying because all of the important data are there and we have no back up for that while we really need them immediately.
Well, that is horrible. It seems like nothing we can do, but it is not right. You should visit Dtidata.com if you doubt it. In this website you will find a miracle to save the data from the hard drive when it gets crashed. Hard drive recovery is the solution that they offer for us. Whenever the hard drive start to click, not work well or does not want to spin, or even died in a sudden, we can visit their page. While the computer software for data storage is increasing in quality and quantity, and RAID technology also reaches its peak for some of these years. It becomes the most important part in computer operating system because of its tough application, countless graphic, and the sound storage requirements. When there is a trouble in the RAID system, it means that more troubles are ready for us. Get the solution immediately by visiting their RAID data recovery page and do not ever rune chkdsk if you do not want to lose any data pointers or raw data. Don’t need to worry about the legality and quality of the services. It is absolutely perfect and reliable. Even PC World calls DTI Data Hard Drive Gurus because of their precise and flawless data recovery services. You can visit Blogs.Pcworld.com to find more reason why DTI Data is the best one for our computer problems.
Source
Well, that is horrible. It seems like nothing we can do, but it is not right. You should visit Dtidata.com if you doubt it. In this website you will find a miracle to save the data from the hard drive when it gets crashed. Hard drive recovery is the solution that they offer for us. Whenever the hard drive start to click, not work well or does not want to spin, or even died in a sudden, we can visit their page. While the computer software for data storage is increasing in quality and quantity, and RAID technology also reaches its peak for some of these years. It becomes the most important part in computer operating system because of its tough application, countless graphic, and the sound storage requirements. When there is a trouble in the RAID system, it means that more troubles are ready for us. Get the solution immediately by visiting their RAID data recovery page and do not ever rune chkdsk if you do not want to lose any data pointers or raw data. Don’t need to worry about the legality and quality of the services. It is absolutely perfect and reliable. Even PC World calls DTI Data Hard Drive Gurus because of their precise and flawless data recovery services. You can visit Blogs.Pcworld.com to find more reason why DTI Data is the best one for our computer problems.
Source
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Latest factory, construction data points to recovery
The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index revealed an improving manufacturing sector in July, while the U.S. Commerce Department announced that construction spending rose on signs of housing sector stabilization in June.
The ISM manufacturing index rose to 48.9 percent in July from 44.8 in June -- the index's seventh consecutive monthly increase. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected the index to total 46.5 in July. The index totaled 42.8 in May. It hit a low of 32.9 in December 2008.
Readings above 50 indicate an expansion; under 50, a contraction. The ISM index has been below 50 for about 2 years.
Also, the new orders index, a measure of future demand, increased to 55.3 in July from 49.2 in June; the production index rose to 57.9 percent from 52.5 percent in June; the employment index increased to 45.6 percent from 40.7 percent in June.
Meanwhile, construction spending rose 0.3 percent in June to $965.7 billion, the Commerce Department announced, as spending on housing and public works projects increased. However, construction spending is still down 10.2 percent compared to a year ago -- a reading that underscores both the depth and length of the U.S. recession.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected June construction spending to decline 0.5 percent. Construction spending decreased a revised 0.8 percent in May and rose 0.6 percent in April.
Source
The ISM manufacturing index rose to 48.9 percent in July from 44.8 in June -- the index's seventh consecutive monthly increase. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected the index to total 46.5 in July. The index totaled 42.8 in May. It hit a low of 32.9 in December 2008.
Readings above 50 indicate an expansion; under 50, a contraction. The ISM index has been below 50 for about 2 years.
Also, the new orders index, a measure of future demand, increased to 55.3 in July from 49.2 in June; the production index rose to 57.9 percent from 52.5 percent in June; the employment index increased to 45.6 percent from 40.7 percent in June.
Meanwhile, construction spending rose 0.3 percent in June to $965.7 billion, the Commerce Department announced, as spending on housing and public works projects increased. However, construction spending is still down 10.2 percent compared to a year ago -- a reading that underscores both the depth and length of the U.S. recession.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected June construction spending to decline 0.5 percent. Construction spending decreased a revised 0.8 percent in May and rose 0.6 percent in April.
Source
Friday, August 28, 2009
New Orleans tech vendor elaborates on being sued by City Hall
Mark Lewis, president of the Louisiana Technology Council, issued the following statement today to elaborate on his response to a civil lawsuit filed Monday by the city claiming that the LTC breached a confidentiality agreement related to its work at City Hall.
The lawsuit revealed that Chris Reade, an LTC subcontractor, received a subpoena July 22 commanding him to testify before the grand jury on July 24 and demanding that he turn over "any and all recovered e-mails involving C. Ray Nagin, Gregory Meffert, Anthony Jones, Mark St. Pierre and/or Harrison Boyd from May 2002 to the present."
Here is Lewis' statement in its entirety:
"In our last meeting with the city on July 28, the LTC returned all copies of the data obtained in our data recovery analysis. We never shared any of the content of the data to any third party or to any other entity other than what was requested in a federal subpoena.
"The LTC has not violated our non-disclosure agreement with the city as we have not shared the content of any of the data recovered to anyone. In addition, we have never admitted that our analysis and recovery has been flawed in any way. The LTC still stands firmly behind the results contained in our July 6 report to the city, which speaks for itself.
"The LTC has from the beginning, worked in cooperation with the city of New Orleans, and has tried to resolve this situation amicably by providing the city exactly with what they asked for in our most recent meeting, which included all copies of the recovered data and assurance that no additional copies remained, other than what was request by subpoena.
"We fully complied with their request and felt no additional action was necessary. The LTC was disappointed that the city of New Orleans initiated this needless and baseless litigation. The LTC will defend itself vigorously and intends to prevail on all merits."
The Nagin administration hired the nonprofit LTC in May to try to retrieve the mayor's appointment calendar entries and e-mail messages, sought by WWL-TV through a public records request. The firm was fired last month after it announced that it had uncovered evidence that Nagin's missing e-mail messages were intentionally removed by someone with high-level access to the computer system.
Source
The lawsuit revealed that Chris Reade, an LTC subcontractor, received a subpoena July 22 commanding him to testify before the grand jury on July 24 and demanding that he turn over "any and all recovered e-mails involving C. Ray Nagin, Gregory Meffert, Anthony Jones, Mark St. Pierre and/or Harrison Boyd from May 2002 to the present."
Here is Lewis' statement in its entirety:
"In our last meeting with the city on July 28, the LTC returned all copies of the data obtained in our data recovery analysis. We never shared any of the content of the data to any third party or to any other entity other than what was requested in a federal subpoena.
"The LTC has not violated our non-disclosure agreement with the city as we have not shared the content of any of the data recovered to anyone. In addition, we have never admitted that our analysis and recovery has been flawed in any way. The LTC still stands firmly behind the results contained in our July 6 report to the city, which speaks for itself.
"The LTC has from the beginning, worked in cooperation with the city of New Orleans, and has tried to resolve this situation amicably by providing the city exactly with what they asked for in our most recent meeting, which included all copies of the recovered data and assurance that no additional copies remained, other than what was request by subpoena.
"We fully complied with their request and felt no additional action was necessary. The LTC was disappointed that the city of New Orleans initiated this needless and baseless litigation. The LTC will defend itself vigorously and intends to prevail on all merits."
The Nagin administration hired the nonprofit LTC in May to try to retrieve the mayor's appointment calendar entries and e-mail messages, sought by WWL-TV through a public records request. The firm was fired last month after it announced that it had uncovered evidence that Nagin's missing e-mail messages were intentionally removed by someone with high-level access to the computer system.
Source
Monday, August 10, 2009
GLOBAL MARKETS: European Stocks Dn; Signs Of Recovery In Focus
LONDON (Dow Jones)--European stocks were a tad lower Thursday, with weaker oil and basic resources stocks reining in any upward momentum and as investors weighed up the tentative signs of global economic recovery.
"Signs of recovery continue to emerge, but question marks remain over their breadth and depth," said Kenneth Broux, economist at Lloyds Banking Group. For example, while U.S. durable goods orders on Wednesday cheered markes, new home sales disappointed. "Not surprising then, that policy makers continue to sound only a cautious note of optimism," Broux added.
At 0800 GMT, the pan European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.3% at 205.7. In London, the FTSE 100 ticked up and down in a tight range, and was last seen flat at 4278.2. Frankfurt's DAX declined 0.5% to 4812.5, and Paris's CAC-40 was 0.3% lower at 3174.5.
Corporate news dominated sentiment in the absence of any euro zone macro data. In Sweden, shares in L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co. fell 0.7% after the company announced its chief executive Carl-Henric Svanberg is to leave his position to join BP as its chairman. There were concerns over the lack of an immediate replacemen for its chief financial officer, who is moving into the top job. Shares BP crept up 0.4%. However, most energy companies were down overall as investors weighed up the bearish overall tone on the crude oil market.
This was not the only movement amongst the senior ranks of European blue-chips. Shares in UBS fell 2.4% after its chairman and chief executive Rory Tapner of the bank's Asia-Pacific business stepped down, with immediate effect. This is not the first high-profile departure for the Swiss bank who has been one of the major victims in Europe of the credit crunch.
Meanwhile in corporate news which reflected the mood of consumers on the high street, shares in DSG International increased 3.2% despite posting a 78% drop in fiscal '09 profit. Swedish retailer Hennes & Mauritz gained 1.1%. Its growth in quarterly earnings beat expectations, but May sales in comparable stores fell as much as anticipated.
Earlier, U.S. stocks ended mixed Wednesday, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average marked its fourth straight loss Wednesday.
The DJIA fell 0.3% to 8299.9, the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rose 0.7%, to 900.9 and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 1.6%, to 1792.3, its biggest point and percent gain since June began.
The Federal Reserve concluded a two-day meeting Wednesday, leaving interest rates unchanged as expected, but shifting some of its post-decision sentiment. "The Fed's statement downgraded the risk of deflation and provided a modest upgrade in its assessment of the economy," said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist with RDM Financial Group. "But the Fed also said that overall the economy remains weak, although the pace of contraction has been slowing."
Still, Asian share markets shrugged off the mixed finish from Wall Street to post some solid gains Thursday.
Japan's Nikkei 225 closed up 2.1% and South Korea's Kospi Composite also ended 2.1% higher. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was 1.8% higher.
The crude oil futures market were little changed as the market digested the Fed's statement from the U.S. and the weekly EIA inventory data.
"The economy may no longer be getting worse, but there are no clear signs that it is actually improving, yet. And, in oil, traders are wondering whether to follow the dollar, equities or oil demand," says Peter Beutel at Cameron Hanover
At 0815 GMT, the August crude contract on Globex stood at $69.10 per barrel, up 41 cents, having settled Wednesday at $68.67 per barrel, down 57 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Spot gold stood at $935.20/oz, around $4 higher.
Source
"Signs of recovery continue to emerge, but question marks remain over their breadth and depth," said Kenneth Broux, economist at Lloyds Banking Group. For example, while U.S. durable goods orders on Wednesday cheered markes, new home sales disappointed. "Not surprising then, that policy makers continue to sound only a cautious note of optimism," Broux added.
At 0800 GMT, the pan European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.3% at 205.7. In London, the FTSE 100 ticked up and down in a tight range, and was last seen flat at 4278.2. Frankfurt's DAX declined 0.5% to 4812.5, and Paris's CAC-40 was 0.3% lower at 3174.5.
Corporate news dominated sentiment in the absence of any euro zone macro data. In Sweden, shares in L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co. fell 0.7% after the company announced its chief executive Carl-Henric Svanberg is to leave his position to join BP as its chairman. There were concerns over the lack of an immediate replacemen for its chief financial officer, who is moving into the top job. Shares BP crept up 0.4%. However, most energy companies were down overall as investors weighed up the bearish overall tone on the crude oil market.
This was not the only movement amongst the senior ranks of European blue-chips. Shares in UBS fell 2.4% after its chairman and chief executive Rory Tapner of the bank's Asia-Pacific business stepped down, with immediate effect. This is not the first high-profile departure for the Swiss bank who has been one of the major victims in Europe of the credit crunch.
Meanwhile in corporate news which reflected the mood of consumers on the high street, shares in DSG International increased 3.2% despite posting a 78% drop in fiscal '09 profit. Swedish retailer Hennes & Mauritz gained 1.1%. Its growth in quarterly earnings beat expectations, but May sales in comparable stores fell as much as anticipated.
Earlier, U.S. stocks ended mixed Wednesday, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average marked its fourth straight loss Wednesday.
The DJIA fell 0.3% to 8299.9, the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rose 0.7%, to 900.9 and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 1.6%, to 1792.3, its biggest point and percent gain since June began.
The Federal Reserve concluded a two-day meeting Wednesday, leaving interest rates unchanged as expected, but shifting some of its post-decision sentiment. "The Fed's statement downgraded the risk of deflation and provided a modest upgrade in its assessment of the economy," said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist with RDM Financial Group. "But the Fed also said that overall the economy remains weak, although the pace of contraction has been slowing."
Still, Asian share markets shrugged off the mixed finish from Wall Street to post some solid gains Thursday.
Japan's Nikkei 225 closed up 2.1% and South Korea's Kospi Composite also ended 2.1% higher. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was 1.8% higher.
The crude oil futures market were little changed as the market digested the Fed's statement from the U.S. and the weekly EIA inventory data.
"The economy may no longer be getting worse, but there are no clear signs that it is actually improving, yet. And, in oil, traders are wondering whether to follow the dollar, equities or oil demand," says Peter Beutel at Cameron Hanover
At 0815 GMT, the August crude contract on Globex stood at $69.10 per barrel, up 41 cents, having settled Wednesday at $68.67 per barrel, down 57 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Spot gold stood at $935.20/oz, around $4 higher.
Source
Monday, July 27, 2009
U.S. Economy Shows Sign Of Recovery As Q1 GDP Contracts By 5.5%
Mayur Pahilajani - AHN News Writer
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - An official report showed Thursday that the U.S.'s economy continued to contract in the first three months of 2009 as the gross domestic product shrank, during the worst recession in over 60 years, but was not as steep as expected, which could be a positive sign.The first quarter's real gross domestic product contracted by 5.5 on annualized seasonally adjusted rate, from the previous quarter's drop of 6.3 percent, according to the final estimate released by the Commerce Department on Thursday.
Real gross domestic product (GDP) is the measure of the value of goods and services produced in the world's largest economy. The final estimate of quarterly growth today reflected negative contributions from exports, equipment and software, private inventory investment, nonresidential structures, and residential fixed investment.
These factors partly offset by a positive contribution from personal consumption expenditures (PCE). Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased
The market analysts had expected the U.S. economy for the January to March quarter to decline on annualized basis by 5.7 percent.
The economists expect the U.S. economy to fall in second quarter ending June 30 by 1.5 percent on annual rate, but it would be less then the current estimation.
In April, they were expecting the second quarter GDP to contract by 1.9 percent, while in the quarter starting
One feature of economic data releases has been the revisions to the previous month's data. Today's report showed an upward revision, indicating an improving situation. This is expected to boost traders' confidence in data.
In the last four quarters, the U.S. economy has slipped by 2.5 percent, which is considered to be the largest year-over-year drop since 1982. The GDP index had increased by 1.1 percent in 2008 on an annual basis, compared with an increase of 2.0 percent in 2007.
Excluding food and energy prices, the price index for gross domestic purchases was unrevised at 1.4 percent in the first quarter, after moving up by 0.9 percent in the fourth quarter, the report noted.
Spending by consumers, or real personal consumption expenditures, in the quarter increased by 1.4 percent rate, compared with a decrease of 4.3 percent in the fourth quarter.
Real nonresidential fixed investment decreased by 37.3 percent, followed by investment in housing slipped by 38.8 percent amid already declining real estate sales.
The report showed that exports of goods and services were down by 30.6 percent in the first quarter, compared with a decrease of 23.6 percent in the fourth.
Imports of goods and services in the quarter decreased by 36.4 percent, compared with a decline of 17.5 percent.
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