The ease of using technologies like virtualization, collaboration, analytics, and mobile provisioned through lightweight, modular services are gaining more importance among CIOs as companies come out of slowdown. According to a report by research firm Gartner, this is in contrast to the 1990s, when large-scale enterprise deployments were the main priorities.

The report states that IT itself – especially the CIO – will become more focused on strategic activities, not just cost-cutting, both within IT and for the business as a whole, reports InfoWorld. These are based on the findings of a survey conducted by Gartner on 1,568 CIOs in medium to large enterprises around the globe. The survey revealed that the top 10 tech priorities this year are virtualization, cloud computing, "Web 2.0" collaborative technologies, networking and VoIP, analytics and business intelligence, mobile, data and document storage and management, services and service-oriented architecture, security technologies, and IT management.
Gartner predicts IT budgets to remain mainly flat this year, and the bulk of spending to remain on traditional and existing efforts. The lightweight, modular technologies that have risen to the top of the technology priority list won’t account for a huge amount of spending – yet, notes Dave Aaron, a Research Director at Gartner Executive Programs. One reason for this trend is that these technologies are cheaper to deploy than traditional enterprise apps, costing only thousands of dollars. Another is that CIOs are still figuring out the implications of the technologies, their potential risks and benefits, and the appropriate structures and methodologies that need to be in place to effectively use them.

The top 10 business priorities for the year are business process improvement, cost reduction, increased use of analytics, improved workforce effectiveness, attracting and retaining new customers, managing change initiatives, creating new products and services, better targeting of customers, business operations consolidation, and expanding current customer relationships.

Bangalore: Vishal Dubey (name changed) is delighted at his luck. An oracle database expert, he has just landed a job at Accenture for double the salary he was getting from Wipro, where he was working as a contract employee.
Only six months ago, Vishal like many other IT sector employees couldn’t have dreamt of such a situation. At that time, due to the global economic downturn, he had no choice but to patiently wait, even as his employer cut all his benefits and acted pricey. But now, the tables have turned. Employees are once again in demand, and to top that, companies are poaching the experienced and specialized professionals from their rival firms by offering a 100 percent hike.

For instance, Vishal was being offered around Rs.6 lakh per annum, as a contract employee working for Wipro. Although he was offered a hike of around 40 percent by Wipro, he still left the firm as he was offered a 100 percent hike at its rival, Accenture. With the economy reviving, companies are willing to pay double the salary as they compete to hire the best.
At this point it might seem like Accenture has scored a point over Wipro. But, while Accenture may have gained with this hiring, the truth remains that the attrition rate at this firm is also very high. According to a top official at Accenture who wished to remain anonymous, the firm recently standardized the salaries of all its employees, over which it is offering a 40 percent hike. Yet the IT firm is losing its employees, as other IT biggies offer a 100 percent hike.
The ‘Hiring Outlook’ survey conducted by job portal Naukri.com among over 800 recruiters, revealed that over 70 percent recruiters in IT, ITeS, auto, telecom, banking and pharma predicted robust hiring in 2010, while 82 percent recruiters said that professionals with one to eight years experience would be in demand.
But this hike is not for all. It is especially being offered to mid level executives with around three to six years experience, in demand for their specialized skill sets like Java, Dot Net and Oracle Database. According to Tuhin Chatterjee, a former Project Manager at Satyam Computers, while there are enough engineers with such specialized skills, not all are employable.
Neelabh Shukla, who manages the mid level hiring at CareerNet Consulting agrees. "What is lacking in these ‘could be potential employees’ is the conceptual clarity. So although they may have done a course in Java, companies prefer to go for experienced professionals, as they are looking to build a matured workforce," says Shukla. In fact, with U.S. firms continuing to outsource most of their work, it is the Java programmers who are in top demand.
Another reason for the hikes being offered is that, most employees did not receive their appraisals last year due to recession. Now that the demand supply equation is changing, employees feel more comfortable in demanding a double digit hike, says Shukla.
Employees also prefer to opt for lateral hiring instead of a contract based hiring. While contract based hiring was never a very popular trend in India, companies during recession mainly benefited through this mode of hiring. But now that the employment situation is reversing, it is the turn of the employees to act pricey.

Bangalore: Vishal Dubey (name changed) is delighted at his luck. An oracle database expert, he has just landed a job at Accenture for double the salary he was getting from Wipro, where he was working as a contract employee.
Only six months ago, Vishal like many other IT sector employees couldn’t have dreamt of such a situation. At that time, due to the global economic downturn, he had no choice but to patiently wait, even as his employer cut all his benefits and acted pricey. But now, the tables have turned. Employees are once again in demand, and to top that, companies are poaching the experienced and specialized professionals from their rival firms by offering a 100 percent hike.

For instance, Vishal was being offered around Rs.6 lakh per annum, as a contract employee working for Wipro. Although he was offered a hike of around 40 percent by Wipro, he still left the firm as he was offered a 100 percent hike at its rival, Accenture. With the economy reviving, companies are willing to pay double the salary as they compete to hire the best.
At this point it might seem like Accenture has scored a point over Wipro. But, while Accenture may have gained with this hiring, the truth remains that the attrition rate at this firm is also very high. According to a top official at Accenture who wished to remain anonymous, the firm recently standardized the salaries of all its employees, over which it is offering a 40 percent hike. Yet the IT firm is losing its employees, as other IT biggies offer a 100 percent hike.
The ‘Hiring Outlook’ survey conducted by job portal Naukri.com among over 800 recruiters, revealed that over 70 percent recruiters in IT, ITeS, auto, telecom, banking and pharma predicted robust hiring in 2010, while 82 percent recruiters said that professionals with one to eight years experience would be in demand.
But this hike is not for all. It is especially being offered to mid level executives with around three to six years experience, in demand for their specialized skill sets like Java, Dot Net and Oracle Database. According to Tuhin Chatterjee, a former Project Manager at Satyam Computers, while there are enough engineers with such specialized skills, not all are employable.
Neelabh Shukla, who manages the mid level hiring at CareerNet Consulting agrees. "What is lacking in these ‘could be potential employees’ is the conceptual clarity. So although they may have done a course in Java, companies prefer to go for experienced professionals, as they are looking to build a matured workforce," says Shukla. In fact, with U.S. firms continuing to outsource most of their work, it is the Java programmers who are in top demand.
Another reason for the hikes being offered is that, most employees did not receive their appraisals last year due to recession. Now that the demand supply equation is changing, employees feel more comfortable in demanding a double digit hike, says Shukla.
Employees also prefer to opt for lateral hiring instead of a contract based hiring. While contract based hiring was never a very popular trend in India, companies during recession mainly benefited through this mode of hiring. But now that the employment situation is reversing, it is the turn of the employees to act pricey.

Everyone collects utilities, and most folks have a list of a few that they feel are indispensable.  Here’s Scott’s list:

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ScottHanselmans2009UltimateDeveloperAndPowerUsersToolListForWindows.aspx

Some of my favorites are:

1. ZoomIt

2. CodeRush

3. Fiddler

4. SharedView

5. Storm

6. .NET Reflector

7. HippoEdit..

So do visit Scott’s list – It’s a good consolidation… Enjoy.!!!

Utilize these self paced trainings @channel9 at your leisure:

http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/Office2010/#

http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/SharePoint2010Developer/

http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/WindowsServer2008R2/

Today, I installed VS2010 Ultimate and tried my hands on the first ASP.NET MVC2 application.

My Application Name was “My Performance”, Here is how the solution looks:

Now started the interesting part. As I did in ASP.NET MVC1, I just clicked “Run”…

And here is what I got:

The error list looks like below:

Oho…

So – I see that the Test project doesn’t contain the reference to my web application.  So I added  it:

And now the application works like charm.

Enjoy!!!

New Delhi: IT major Wipro has developed a new product, which it claims will help its clients migrate to the newly-launched Windows 7 platform in a cost-efficient manner. The Wipro Desktop Deployment solution would help companies migrate their tools and applications to the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system.
"Microsoft has worked closely with Wipro to ensure that the Wipro Desktop Deployment solution is ready to help businesses migrate to Windows 7," said Microsoft Director for Windows Product Management, Scott Woodgate.

The solution provides the functionality like inventory analysis, validation and remediation. Wipro has deployed this desktop deployment solution to over 20 large and mid-sized enterprises and the company said that it has seen more than 20 percent cost benefits for the customers, reports PTI.

New Delhi: Two undergraduate students, one each from the Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) and St. Stephen’s of Delhi University (DU) have been offered jobs with a salary package of Rs.32 lakh ($69,000) per annum each. The offers have been made by Germany based Deutsche Bank.
Both Adit Mathur and Sukrit are final year students of SRCC and St. Stephen’s college respectively. The size of the offer made to a student from DU is what has made the cheerful difference to the ritual of foreign banks picking up students from Indian institutions; as such handsome offers are the perquisite of Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management. The highest that a DU student has got in the past is Rs.14 lakh from Lehman Brothers in 2007.

Following the placement, in an interview to Economic Times, Mathur said, "It was completely unexpected. I couldn’t prepare much in advance, but brushing up the basics helped a lot." Both these students will be flying off to London next July for the Graduate Analyst Training Programme, where they will interact with several other students from across the globe.
This year, the placement scenario in Indian universities is much better than what it was last year. Last year, around 25 companies came with jobs but this year the college is expecting more than 35 companies. In the current session, DU has also introduced online registration system for those who desire to be placed. More than 8,000 students have registered with Central Placement Cell (CPC) so far.
Apart from this, SRCC has placed 40 undergrads and 14 post graduate students from its Global Business Operations course. At SRCC, where last year the minimum salary an undergraduate student was expecting was Rs.2.2 lakh per year and a post-graduate student could look at Rs.4 lakh, this year, the figure has doubled. About 20 students from the college have already been hired by several companies. Similarly, 20 final year students of St. Stephen’s College have received job offers from reputed multinational financial companies like McKenzie and Bain Capital. Four students have got offers of Rs.11.5 lakh per annum each at McKenzie, while four were absorbed by Bain Capital at a salary of Rs.7.5 lakh per annum each.
Dr. PC Jain, Principal, SRCC, said, "We are not entertaining companies that are not offering good salaries. In this regard, we have already rejected the offer of two very good companies. It is expected that every student of SSRC will get two job offers before January."
Meanwhile, students from other colleges of the DU are also hoping for good placement offers this year. While 11 undergraduate Commerce students of Hans Raj College were hired by VKS, an affiliate of the United Bank of Switzerland, with salaries of about Rs.4.5 lakh per annum each, 81 students have been shortlisted for interviews by Google. Institutes like Kirori Mal College (KMC), Daulat Ram, Hindu and Ramjas too have good companies lined up with jobs for students.

Bangalore: Kanak Gogoi, a 12th passed entrepreneur from Guwahati, has over a dozen innovations, from gravity-operated bicycle to a car which can run on air. But he regrets the government’s negligence towards scientific innovations, and refuses to commercialize any of his creations.
Gogoi said, "Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offered to build a fully furnished lab for me in Guwahati. The Chief Minister had granted me about 1.6 acres of land in 2007, but the file is still lying untouched at the local administrative office."

Talking about slow moving files, another of Gogoi’s invention is the speed breaker that can generate electricity simply when vehicles pass over it. Gogoi explains that a ramp under the speed breaker would absorb the static energy produced by the sheer mass of the vehicle and convert it into kinetic energy. This is, in turn, transferred into electricity and stored in a battery cell. A vehicle weighing one tonne can create electricity equivalent to one kilowatt.
When Gogoi started the journey, he had two options; pay up his children’s school fees or spend the money for his scientific innovations. He opted for the latter. In the past 13 years, he has spent Rs.1.5 crore (Rs.15 million) of his own money to satisfy his scientific and engineering curiosities, but steadfastly refuses to commercialize any of them and blames the government for not promoting scientific innovations, although only a few years ago he was making a hand-to-mouth existence.
Felicitated by the President of India last week for his achievements, 47-year old Gogoi is a celebrity in Guwahati’s scientific and engineering circles. He has developed his penchant for creating extraordinary things from ordinary materials used for day-to-day activities during his younger days.
"However, I have never received a single rupee in profit for any of my work and I will never venture to commercialize them on my own. But if anybody is willing, he is free to make use of my innovations for the greater good of the society," Gogoi told PTI.
Among his innovations are a solar hybrid car, whose 320 watt battery is charged by solar panels and is powered by a 100cc engine. Another car that Gogoi made from integration of motorcycle and Maruti 800 engines, runs on air energy powered by a hand glider and can reach a maximum speed of 120 km per hour.
Gogoi, however, has not bothered to apply for intellectual property rights (IPR) for any of his innovations, although they have cost Rs.1.5 crore of his own money. "When anybody talks about things like IPR or patents, it is generally assumed that the person must be a Ph.D or DLitt. Who will think of an undergraduate as a genuine and worthy innovator? Besides, paperwork of the kind that is required for patent filing has always been an anathema for me," said Gogoi.
In fact it is the National Innovation Foundation, headed by noted scientist Raghunath A Mashelkar that applied for a patent on Gogoi’s behalf for his gravity operated cycle, which converts gravitational force released by pedaling of the cycle into kinetic energy.
"I have a successful real estate business, which affords me the luxury of having enough spare money and spare time to concentrate on my engineering activities. I don’t expect and nor do I wish for any monetary returns," said Gogoi, who had refused an invitation from a North Carolina-based organization to shift to their campus with a daily stipend of $1,000.

Dear Reader,

How are you? Well, I have posted this question on our site – wanted to know your views on this. I think it will be interesting to see the battle. Google’s Chrome OS is built on the basis of Linux – the software, free open-source that powers many netbooks.

Question: Will Chrome Operating System be able to challenge Windows? Post your reply as comments.