Other potential problem areas - everything from thumb drives to smartphones - abound. Nevertheless, vendors today are offering encrypted USB drives and business phones with encryption features. IT executives need to make data security a requirement every step of the way.

Green IT

Can you afford to be green? Can you afford not to? Those are the questions IT executives face as they grapple with the notion of environmentally friendly computing in the midst of a crushing global economic downturn.

For many companies, going green simply means cutting data-center power expenses. By now, the basic principles of doing that are pretty well understood - consolidate servers, set up hot and cold aisles, optimize airflow, raise the ambient temperature a few degrees.

Such changes can save money, but green IT doesn't stop at the data-center door, and companies can't just pass the buck to facilities managers. IT departments can and should undertake a number of green initiatives - which won't break the bank, either.

First, persuade your company to measure its carbon footprint. This seems like an obvious place to start, but you can't address the issue in a logical, analytical manner if you don't have a starting point.

Once you have a sense of that footprint's size, you can set goals for reducing it by an achievable amount - say, 5% or 10% over a certain period of time. There are a number of actions you can take, including these:

-- Power down unused servers or desktops.

-- Use energy efficiency as a purchasing criterion when you replace older equipment, including network gear, servers and UPS.

-- Adopt recycling and reuse programs.

-- Think about alternative sources of energy.

-- Encourage videoconferencing to reduce air travel.

-- Cut back on ground travel.

-- Pressure vendors to demonstrate that they have green strategies.

Finally, don't be fooled by "green-washing." These days, every vendor claims to be green. Be sure to verify those claims.

Network access control

Network access control has been a hot, fun topic for the past couple of years.

Epic standards battles pitted Cisco against Microsoft, each having its own terminology and approaches. And who could forget the Trusted Computing Group, which, with its own architecture, acted as a wild card?

Then there was the horde of third-party vendors offering to handle a company's NAC needs if it didn't want to wait for Cisco and Microsoft to deliver on their promises.

Last year was a turning point for NAC, however. The standards battles appear to have been resolved, and everything looks like it's falling into place. Customers apparently decided to wait for Microsoft to deliver its NAC products - and that left many third-party vendors out in the cold. A lot of them went under, including Caymas Systems and Lockdown Networks.