What You Missed: the Top Sleeper Tech Stories of 2010

Apple's quiet enterprise ascendance, looming ERP-like disasters in health care, the solution to a big security hole, and more didn't get the media attention they deserved -- until now

By Bill Snyder
Fri, December 31, 2010

InfoWorld — The worst of the recession is over, but don't think the challenges facing IT are going to get any easier. The long budget drought has left a software and hardware deficit estimated at $500 million, and server virtualization is stalling, despite having been long seen as the solution to out-of-control power costs and underutilized data centers. IT will step into the breach as health care and publicly traded companies struggle to meet mandated deadlines for the deployment of electronic health care records and XBRL-based financial reports. As if that weren't enough, users will force IT to cope with the manifold security risks of Web-based email and social networking tools in the enterprise, as well as the easy-to-miss risk of URL-shortening services. 

Of course, it's not all bad news. On the positive side, Apple has quietly become a key enterprise technology provider, a major Internet security hole has been plugged, and a new Ethernet standard promises to save money through greater energy efficiency.

Those are the nine top technology stories of 2010 you probably haven't heard about -- but should have. Our writers, editors, and contributors have scoured the landscape, pinged their sources, and sorted through all the hype and noise to uncover the underreported critical developments in the information technology industry.

The IT industry always moves at lightning speed, and in a year when Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), and Facebook seemed to be in the news nearly every single hour, it's no wonder that some key developments slipped under the radar screen. We think you'll find these stories interesting and, above all, useful. Happy New Year!

The top underreported tech stories of 2010:

>> Read the first story

Read the top sleeper tech stories from previous years:

This article, "What you missed: The top sleeper tech stories of 2010," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the latest insights in business technology issues and trends at InfoWorld.com.

Originally published on www.infoworld.com. Click here to read the original story.

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