Firms urged to delete data

Irish organisations need to implement robust data deletion practices in order to fully protect themselves from security breaches. That's according to data recovery specialists Kroll Ontrack Ireland, which says that only 3 percent of the total demand for its software in 2008 came from the need to permanently delete data, compared with over 90 percent for data recovery. The company says this trend suggests that Irish organisations are placing low emphasis on protecting end-of-life or deleted data, and are unaware that deleting a file does not permanently remove the information from the drive or device. The firm says companies need to increase their awareness of proper data deletion strategies. For more on this story see ENN.ie.

IT to gain strategic importance

Forty-two percent of Irish IT departments say IT is likely to become more strategic to their business in the current belt-tightening environment. That's according to a survey conducted by IT consulting firm Clarion Consulting, which also found that 37 percent of respondents are facing increasing pressure to demonstrate the value that IT is adding to their business. When it comes to spending, 38 percent of companies are forecasting a decrease in IT budgets over the next 12 months. Meanwhile, just 58 percent of companies have a fully documented and defined IT strategy in place, compared to the 2007 figure of 70 percent. A free copy of the report, titled 'The Evolving Role of the IT Function in Irish Organisations', is available on request from info@clarionconsulting.ie.

Security spend set to rise

Worldwide IT budgets may be coming down, but IT security spending is likely to hold steady - and even increase - in 2009, according to the results of a survey by Finjan, a provider of web gateway solutions. The survey found that while total IT budgets for 2009 will be reduced compared to 2008, organisations intend to dedicate a larger part of their total IT budgets to security. Thirty-four percent of respondents said that their IT security budgets for 2009 will rise, indicating a general trend that organisations will allocate a larger part of their overall IT budget to security. Meanwhile, 43 percent of respondents expect their IT security budget for 2009 to remain the same. For more on this story see ENN.ie.

Videoconferencing helps cut travel costs

Current economic conditions are putting pressure on company travel budgets, prompting many to use collaboration technologies such as videoconferencing to cut costs and boost productivity, according to service provider Easynet Global Services. Four out of five European businesses see travel as a major drain on time and budget, according to an Easynet survey, while business travellers reckon that only just over half of the time spent on a trip is productive. As well as saving time, six out of 10 managers said videoconferencing is a way to slash travel budgets, with one in four calculating the savings at over 30 percent. However, many are careful not to disregard the value of face-to-face meetings with clients and colleagues. Two-thirds of respondents said that a mixture of physical and virtual meetings would offer the best of both worlds. For more on this story see VNUnet.com.

Here are some of the issues our forum members have been discussing in the last fortnight:

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Efficient infrastructure

Defending IT in 2009

Case study: Instore

Back up your data

Westpark, Shannon, January 23
Work Area Recovery Solutions (WARS) is facilitating this inaugural Virtualisation User Group event, which brings together expert speakers from companies including VMware and Microsoft. The event will address topics such as best practice, site recovery and other applications of virtualisation technology.

This free app from Google is probably one of the most convenient ways to search your computer's files, folders, email and web history. After you download the application, it runs in the background, indexing your entire hard drive. Once that's done, searching for something on your PC becomes as easy as using Google to search the web. Simply input key words or phrases, and every web page you've visited, email you've sent, or file you've created that's relevant to your search will be presented as a list of clickable links. The program also features a 'Sidebar' - a widget that you can choose to display at the side of your screen containing a number of 'Google Gadgets', such as news headlines, weather reports, and RSS feeds.