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 »
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 »March 01, 2003 — CIO —
The new economy is creating a huge headache for the newly minted U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The spending downturn has affected both users and manufacturers of information technology products. CIOs respond by cutting budgets and putting pressure on tech vendors to lower their profit margins. Vendors, in kind, respond by pulling out all the stops to lower costs. Often this means offshore manufacturing.
It’s yesterday’s news that the only thing "Dell" or "HP" about those vendors’ machines is the logo glued on the computer casement. What is becoming news?and it should be a serious concern for Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge?is that U.S. software giants are following suit by increasingly delegating important software development and quality assurance work to offices in foreign countries.
It’s one thing to assemble the component parts that go into a PC. Not much opportunity to change the product there. But software development is a horse of a different color. Foreign nationals who work as software engineers for Cisco, Intel, Microsoft and Oracle in Bangalore, India, personally build?or corrupt?the software products that make up the foundation of the global digital economy and infrastructure.
In this post-9/11 environment, it’s tough for end user companies and technology manufacturers to strike a balance between the security concerns and worker privacy rights, respectively. While Secretary Ridge can mandate strict privacy and security measures in Boston?if Congress goes along with it?what can he do about such policies in software development shops in Bangalore? Not much. And all it takes is one errant line of code written by a terrorist posing as a software engineer to create global chaos.
I am convinced that offshore software development is the soft underbelly of this nation’s future technology infrastructure. True, offshore development offers CIOs and technology vendors a short-term gain by lowering costs, but it creates potential for long-term and catastrophic pain by making it easier for bad guys to get jobs building American software.
The answer? We need to dramatically improve our country’s math and science curriculums.
If you’re concerned about offshore software development, drop me a note.