Showing results by author "Jim Anderson"

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is not a revolutionary new technology. Instead, it is better to think of this as being a new way of organizing computer network functionality. SDN allows the network to be virtualized. That's where the real power of SDN comes from, and that's what we'll be exploring in this book.

First off, I'm very sorry that you have an interest in this topic. I suspect that either you or someone that you know has broken a bone. This is the kind of thing that seems to bedevil children but it turns out that it can strike any of us at any age. I suspect that by this point in life you already know how to deal with having a cold, the flu, or a stomach ache. However, there is a very good chance that nobody ever told you how to deal with breaking a bone.

Every company wants to grow and become more successful. There is no magic formula to make this happen, but it is generally agreed that in order for this to happen the company cannot stand still. Instead, they always have to be trying new things and growing. In an IT team, in order to make this kind of growth occur, innovation has to be encouraged to happen. All too often the workers on the team can get too involved in their day-to-day tasks to spend any time thinking about innovation. That's where the IT manager has to step in.

Virtualization can take on many different forms: virtual memory, virtual servers, and virtualized storage. In each of these cases, we've been able to move beyond the underlying physical components that make up the system and through the use of clever virtualization techniques we've been able to get more out of the system. This is what we're going to explore in this book.

A leader in the commercial real estate field, Mike Lipsey first burst on the national scene in 1981, when his Louisiana-based firm was acquired by the commercial group of Coldwell Banker. From that time on, Mike has parlayed earlier achievements into continued success, most notably in the acquisition of office buildings, apartment complexes and shopping centers throughout the Gulf South.

After the speech has been written, the practice has been done, all that is left is for you to actually present your speech to the audience. It goes without saying that this can be one of life's biggest challenges! As long as you are taking the time to create and practice a speech, you sure want the speech to make an impact on your audience. You want to be able to deliver a great speech.

It turns out that most negotiations are over even before they begin. The purchasing team that has spent the most time planning for the negotiation, doing their homework, and collecting the data that they'll need is the one that's going to walk away from the table with the best deal. Wouldn't you want that team to be your team?

CIOs need to be able to communicate their thoughts with the rest of their department and the company in order to maintain credibility as a thought-leader. Effective communication is a set of skills that every CIO needs to develop. Learn how in this comprehensive guide.

It turns out that most negotiations are over even before they begin. The legal team that has spent the most time planning for the negotiation, doing their homework, and collecting the data that they'll need is the one that's going to walk away from the table with the best deal. Wouldn't you want that legal team to be your team?

Let's face it: giving a speech is hard work. First you have to write the speech, then you practice it, then you finally get up your courage and you deliver it. As long as you are going to do all of this, you sure want your audience to understand what you are telling them. In order to make this happen, you are going to have to organize what you tell them correctly.

The first step in creating a speech that will allow you to make your point is to determine how best to organize it. There are a lot of different ways to go about doing this, but you are going to want to make sure that you'll be able to connect with your audience. This means that you'll need to be able to determine what your emotional intelligence quotient is.

What does it really mean to be a CIO? You sure won't be writing any software any more. You won't be stringing network cables or updating firewall parameters. What does a CIO really do? I've got some bad news for you: CIOs manage.

All negotiations have to come to a close. When your next negotiation reaches this stage, you want to make sure that you are going to be able to walk away with the best deal possible. In order to make this happen, it's going to be what you've done during the negotiations that will determine what your outcome is.  

The art of negotiation depends on your ability to successfully communicate with the other side of the table. An important part of this communication is your ability to signal to the other side what your intentions are. Likewise, they will be signaling to you what they want to accomplish.

It's not easy being an IT manager. There are constant staffing issue, budget issues, project issues, and the challenge of keeping your management informed about what is going on. The one thing that too many of us end up overlooking as we try to accomplish all of these things is that we have one more management job to do: Manage our careers.

It turns out that most negotiations are over even before they begin. The legal team that has spent the most time planning for the negotiation, doing their homework, and collecting the data is the one that's going to walk away from the table with the best deal. Wouldn't you want that legal team to be your team?

All too often we find ourselves in the position of being an IT manager with little or no training on what it takes to correctly staff a team. This is a critical skill for us to have. Ultimately, the success of an IT manager rests on how his/her team preforms. You might think that staffing is all about hiring the right people to come and join your team. It turns out that there is a lot more to this. Staffing involves attracting and retaining the right people. However, it also deals with knowing when it is time to let the wrong members of your team go.

What is a product manager without a product? Nothing. That's why it's so very important that when a product is being developed that the product manager be involved. Now exactly how best to go about doing that is an entirely different question. The process from having an idea for a product to actually having a product is a long and treacherous road. So many things can go wrong that either cause the schedule to have to be extended or cause a product with the wrong features to be developed.

Isn't technology a wonderful thing? As CIO you are in charge of one of the most technologically sophisticated parts of the company. It's very easy to fill your days dealing with issues regarding servers, networks, routers, switches, firewalls, etc. However, it turns out that if you do this, then you'll be overlooking one of the most important tasks that a CIO needs to accomplish: communication. This book has been written in order to show you what you need to be doing in order to get your message out.

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus is the one who is credited with saying "The only thing that is constant is change." In the world of giving speeches this is especially true. One does not just suddenly become a great speaker. Rather, what happens is that we start to give speeches and gradually over time we get better at doing it. However, we'll never get any better at speaking in public if we don't know how to change.