Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
Mid-Market CIO Panel: Tips and Techniques for Improving Vendor Relationships
July 15, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM U.S./Eastern (GMT-4)
We'll highlight relationship priorities and best practices identified in a Council study, and we'll interact with a CIO panel on the approaches they've used to improve strategic vendor partnerships.
Secrets of Successful Vendor Contract Negotiations for the Mid-Market
Sept. 10, 2009, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM U.S./Eastern (GMT-4)
On this free public Council teleconference, Matthew A. Karlyn, attorney at Foley & Lardner in Boston, will share tips on negotiating tactics and new, creative contract terms to help mid-market CIOs make better deals.
Executive Competencies Assessment Tool
Assess Your Business Leadership Skills with the Council's new benchmarking tool. Rate yourself in change leadership, strategy, customer focus and more.
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September 01, 2005 — CIO —
Do you use open source as your main operating system in a mission-critical environment?
As an insurance company, we need high reliability and constant uptime. When we moved our primary data center three years ago, we consolidated servers and upgraded our systems. During the planning phase, our technical architect proposed converting our Microsoft-based operating systems to Linux. At the time, this was a radical concept because we were discussing our main production systems—not some ancillary system.
After a thorough analysis, we decided to go with Linux. After deployment, we realized that although very few of our initial assumptions were accurate, we gained additional benefits that we had not anticipated: