"The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different. ” – Aldous Huxley

 

Top Picks

Cutting Tech's Energy Bill

“Rising electricity prices, coupled with new computer servers that run hotter and require more power, has corporate technology buyers looking for ways to cut back. Power use in data centers -- the large, climate-controlled rooms that house a company's computer servers, storage devices and communications switches -- doubled from 2000 to 2006 and now accounts for about 1.5% of U.S. electricity consumption, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122090819257011743.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

 

Can America Invent Its Way Back?

“Pessimism about America's future is growing. People worry about the long-term impact of the housing crisis, global competition, and expensive energy. And the policy solutions offered by Republicans and Democrats—mainly tax cuts and government spending programs—seem insufficient.   Yet beneath the gloom, economists and business leaders across the political spectrum are slowly coming to an agreement: Innovation is the best—and maybe the only—way the U.S. can get out of its economic hole.”

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_38/b4100052741280.htm?chan=magazine+channel_special+report

 

Book and Product Recommendations

Miraculous survivors: Why they live while others die

“What do these survivors share in common? That's the question that the author Laurence Gonzales has long tried to answer. Whenever a disaster hits -- a cyclone in Myanmar; an earthquake in China; a climbing accident in Alaska -- Gonzales scans the headlines for the stories of those survivors who made it out alive when all others perished.”

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/08/survive/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Buy the book – Deep Survival – at:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393326152?ie=UTF8&tag=georgespaffor-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0393326152          

 

IT Audit / Internal Audit / Compliance

Feds finally put teeth into HIPAA enforcement

“On July 15, Providence agreed to adopt a so-called corrective action plan (CAP) and pay $100,000 to settle what HHS described as "potential violations" of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's requirements for safeguarding electronic patient data.”

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=325376&intsrc=news_ts_head

The actual corrective action plan (CAP) is online at:  http://www.dhhs.gov/ocr/privacy/enforcement/agreement.pdf

 

IT Process Improvement / Quality Management

Configuration Management, Without The Agony

“Organizations seeking to implement Configuration Management spend a great deal of time agonizing over how to begin. In fact, some organizations have spent years and millions of dollars without ever actually placing a Configuration Management database (CMDB) into production because they are stuck in the details. To avoid this, instead of going for the ultimate perfect solution, groups working on configuration management need to start simple and learn in order to be successful.”

http://www.itsmwatch.com/itil/article.php/3771261

 

Tech's looming battle against rising energy costs

“IT has gotten a bad rap when it comes to energy consumption. Walk into any datacenter, and you can almost feel the carbon emissions leaking into the atmosphere. However, research shows that the datacenter actually accounts for a very small percentage of a company's overall energy usage. And businesses are missing the other significant opportunities where they could cut energy usages -- and costs. Ironically, the same IT department that is reducing energy usage in the datacenter could lead the energy-savings initiatives across the enterprise.”

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/09/09/37FE-tech-energy-crisis_1.html

 

E-waste: A blight on the environment and a company's good name

“Cloud computing might someday cut down on electronic waste. Heck, the day may come when computers are implanted in our brains and electronic waste, or e-waste, follows us to a human grave. But for now, electronic junk -- old computers, monitors, cell phones and so on -- keeps piling up, most of it stashed in warehouses and basements.”

http://searchcio.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid182_gci1329131,00.html?track=NL-964&ad=659935&asrc=EM_NLN_4403036&uid=3121061#

 

Pulling the Processes Together

“IT consulting services company Pepperweed Consulting has released a free, downloadable version of its Process Model, its intellectual property around how to govern, manage, control, operate and secure the IT function.  It’s a detailed and in-depth guide on 21 processes, ranging from ITIL to portfolio management to asset tracking to security — and how to tie them all together — with demand and resource management expected to be added to the model this quarter and supplier management sometime following that.”

http://www.bitaplanet.com/software_services/article.php/12125_3768606_1

 

Security and Risk Management

Cloud computing could prompt government action

“Cloud computing will soon become a hot topic in Washington, with policy makers debating issues such as the privacy and security of data in the cloud, a panel of technology experts said Friday.”

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9114587&source=rss_topic17

 

Healthcare / Bio-Informatics / Care Delivery Organizations (CDOs)

CEOs urge government push for EHR adoption

“The Business Roundtable, a group of about 160 CEOs of leading U.S. companies, supports legislation that would provide incentives for electronic health record systems, citing statistics that indicate widespread adoption could result in savings of $165 billion annually.”

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=9869

 

Gingrich says anti-fraud income should pay for health IT

“To date, federal auditors have estimated that more than $60 million in fraud, theft or otherwise unaccounted for moneys occurs in the Medicare program each year--at a minimum--and note that if even a small percentage was re-collected, there'd be plenty to play with.”

http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/gingrich-says-anti-fraud-income-should-pay-health-it/2008-09-06

 

Trend: Hospitals begin to pay MDs to serve on IT committees

“For example, Legacy Health System of Portland, OR has set plans to pay 10 doctors $120 an hour for spending four to eight hours per week on its physician advisory council.  The system's CIO, Dick Gibson, says that with plans underway to roll out both inpatient and outpatient EMRs, it's critical to have dedicated help he can rely on.”

http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/trend-hospitals-begin-pay-mds-serve-it-comitttees/2008-09-06

 

Human Error / Safety / Environment

To slow global warming, install white roofs

“If the 100 biggest cities in the world installed white roofs and changed their pavement to more reflective materials -- say, concrete instead of asphalt-based material -- the global cooling effect would be massive, according to data released Tuesday at California's annual Climate Change Research Conference in Sacramento.”

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-roofs10-2008sep10,0,2205405.story

 

Interview: Wikipedia's founder on Wikia Green

“Wikipedia's founder has launched a community for all things green. Like Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales' new Wikia Green can be edited by anyone, but Wikia's built to attract people passionate about a topic rather than provide general reference.”

http://www.smartplanet.com/news/tech/10001651/interview-wikipedia-s-founder-on-wikia-green.htm

Wikia Green is online at:  http://green.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia_Green

 

Global News / Business / Economics

Kazakh Oil: A War of Nerves

“The face-off with Moscow could affect not only Georgian sovereignty but also the energy business all the way from Kazakhstan to Western Europe. For the landlocked Caspian nations, it could become difficult or even impossible to secure the financing they need to expand the oil-and-gas corridor to the Georgian Black Sea. For Europe, which receives a full third of its natural gas and oil from Russia, the danger is that Moscow becomes far more demanding on political and economic issues.”

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_38/b4100074992471.htm?campaign_id=rss_null

 

BP Concedes to Russian Partners

“The British energy giant BP and its billionaire partners in Russia's third-largest oil company said Thursday that they had resolved an ugly, high-profile battle for corporate control that had become a test of Moscow's openness to foreign investment.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/04/AR2008090403188.html?nav=rss_business/special/3

 

US News / Business / Economics

U.S. seizes Fannie and Freddie

“Federal officials on Sunday unveiled an extraordinary takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, putting the government in charge of the twin mortgage giants and the $5 trillion in home loans they back.”

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/07/news/companies/fannie_freddie/index.htm?postversion=2008090711

 

The Economy: Best- and Worst-Case Scenarios

“In highly uncertain times like these, scenario-spinning can be an excellent tool for making sense of conflicting data. It won't guide you straight to the right answer, but it will get you thinking about the right questions to ask.”

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_38/b4100022002840.htm?campaign_id=rss_null

 

Technology & Science

Scientists cheer atom smasher success

“Scientists Wednesday applauded as one of the most ambitious experiments ever conceived got successfully underway, with protons being fired around a 27-kilometer (17-mile) tunnel deep beneath the border of France and Switzerland in an attempt to unlock the secrets of the universe.”

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/09/10/lhc.collider/index.html

 

Google files patent for wave-powered floating data center

“The system Google engineers sketch out is a self-powered data center placed three to seven miles offshore, potentially operating off the grid. Standard shipping containers would house racks of computers that could be transported by truck and placed onto a boat by crane.”

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10034753-54.html

 

EMC Unveils new Application Discovery Manager(ADM) Tool

EMC has integrated their discovery tool with their Infra ITSM tool.  This auto-discovery tool is aimed at identifying what is in production and includes capabilities to reconcile detected changes.
Read more at:  http://www.emc.com/about/news/press/2008/20080908-02.htm

 

Los Alamos and Sandia: R&D Treasures

“Now, as the idea of ‘innovation economics’ gains currency in Washington, executives are once again turning to the national labs, especially those such as Sandia, Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and others that belong to the Energy Dept. These centers are still committed to national security. But at a time when U.S. industries are under pressure to address America's energy crisis while facing ever-tougher competition abroad, the labs understand they have an important role to play.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_38/b4100062751339.htm?campaign_id=rss_tech

 

35 Green IT Resources

The page lists services and technology firms with Green IT offerings.

http://www.itmanagement.com/features/35-green-it-resources-090908/

 

End Notes

The News is brought to you by George Spafford, Principal Consultant at Pepperweed Consulting, LLC.  Pepperweed is nationally recognized as a leader in IT Management Consulting.  For more information, check out our website at www.pepperweed.com or call 888-229-0145. Please let us know if you see stories you think should be included in the next issue of The News, and feel free to forward this email on to others.

 

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_____________________________________________

George Spafford
Principal Consultant
ITIL Service Manager, TOCICO Jonah, IPRC, CISA

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