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Public Council Teleconference: Application Rationalization — Hidden Costs and Smart Decisions
November 17 at 11:00 am US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Honorio Padrón, of The Hackett Group, who will share the drivers for companies to tackle application rationalization and the results of research that define the hidden cost of complexity. Additionally, we will discuss key decision milestones—to start or not, holding the course steady and fulfilling expectations.
Virtual Desktop Cost-Benefit Analysis — Michael Jacobs, Catlin Group
The analysis contained in this presentation measures the cost of everything from the machines and licenses to the infrastructure for virtual vs. traditional desktop environments.
Honor your best senior team members - Apply for the CIO Ones to Watch Award
Get well-earned public recognition for your top up-and-coming team members, your IT organization and your enterprise. Award winners will be announced, publicized and feted in May 2010, great timing to help attract new IT recruits to your company.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »October 12, 2007 — CIO —
Since this story was originally posted, it has been updated to include an additional comment from Colin Parris, vice president, Digital Convergence, IBM.
IBM and Linden Lab, creator of the popular virtual world Second Life, this week announced a partnership under which the two companies will work to develop open-standards based technologies and methodologies to enhance the Internet's various virtual worlds and build interoperability between them.
The popularity of virtual worlds like Second Life has raised awareness of the "3D Internet," and many businesses and organizations are beginning to wade into the new waters to see what benefits can be had. However, the virtual world hosts, application providers and IT vendors involved in building and expanding such worlds need to offer standards-based solutions in order to ensure interoperability in the future, according to IBM.
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| IBM in Second Life |
"As the 3D Internet becomes more integrated with the current Web, we see users demanding more from these environments and desiring virtual worlds that are fit for business," said Colin Parris, vice president, Digital Convergence, IBM, in a press release. "IBM and Linden Lab's working together can help accelerate the use and further development of common standards and tools that will contribute to this new environment."
Specifically, the companies plan to work toward integration of virtual worlds with the current Web, as well as improved interoperability between worlds, increased security for transactions and more reliable, high quality platforms.
IBM and Linden Lab will address the following five areas as part of their collaboration.
"Universal" Avatars
Universal avatars, or universal virtual world identities, would enable users of Second Life to seamlessly traverse between other worlds while maintaining the same name and appearance, as well as the same virtual assets, according to the companies
Security-Rich Transactions
IBM and Linden Lab plan to work together on requirements for standards-based software that will help secure online transactions between users in and across various virtual worlds. Such standards would help users safely buy or sell digital assets, such as media and music, from users in their own or other worlds.
Platform Stability
In order for businesses and other organizations to trust that virtual worlds are reliable, the platforms behind such sites must be strengthened and stabilized, according to IBM and Linden Lab. The user interfaces must be simplified to draw a wider base of users, and response time for interactions must also be improved.