IT PAY TAKES A HIT IN 2009

By D.E.Levine

The Information Technology area isn't exempt from the economic problems plaguing North America.

Although IT pay for non-certified skills was reported on the rise since 2004, non-certified pay scales have now dropped 0.5% while pay for certified skills has dropped 1.0%.

Non-certified skills included application development tools, language skills, SAP and enterprise application skills, operating system skills, Web, e-commerce, basic system and networking skills.

Certified skills seeing significant drops included Web-development skills, application-development and programming-language skills, system administration, engineering, and network operating-system skills.

VENTURE INVESTMENTS PLUMMET

By J.C.Bishope

At the end of 2008, according to Pricewaterhouse-Coopers and the National Venture Capital Association, venture capitalists dramatically reduced investment levels in network start-ups.

The $27 million given in the fourth quarter of 2008 was the lowest quarterly total seen in 14 years.

It's expected that while there's still interest in the network startups, until there's more liquidity, investments will be down.

Analysts expect the market for startup IPOs and mergers and acquisitions to be weak throughout 2009.

FEDERAL CTO TO HAVE BROAD INFLUENCE

By M.S.Welles

President Obama is about to nominate the first Federal CTO and the country is anticipating his nomination.

The President has been straight forward about looking to modern technology to help solve some of the nation's socioeconomic problems.

It's anticipated that President Obama will focus the CTO on two areas: ensuring that the government gets what it needs from the government in the form of R&D money, regulatory relief and tax incentives, and ensuring that government agencies do a better job of evaluating, deploying, integrating and supporting IT.

Until things are finalized it remains unclear how much authority the CTO will have. It isn't even certain if the position will be a cabinet-level position.

Names mentioned thus far include Google CEO Eric Schmidt, District of Columbia CTO Vivek Kundra and Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior.

OPAL SECURITY SUBSYSTEM CLASS SPECIFICATION 1.0

By D.E.Levine

The Opal Security Subsystem Class Specifications 1.0 is an industry-standards effort by the Trusted Computing Group (TCG).

Known as Opal for short, it offers a set of mechanisms and protocols for disk-drive encryption, authentication, configuration and policy management.

Once implemented in disk drives and supporting client and security-management software, Opal will provide IT managers with interoperability and flexibility in managing computers using Opal-based encryption.

The Opal initiative uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). It is supported by a number of disk-drive manufacturers including Fujitsu, Hitachi and Seagate and software vendors WinMagic, Wave, CryptoMill Technologies, Data Security, and others.

Encryption, especially where necessary to satisfy regulatory requirements, is rapidly becoming a necessity for both stored and in-transit data.

SATYAM BEING SOLD?

By M.S.Welles

On January 7, Satyam chairman Ramalinga Raju admitted falsifying the company's cash position by as much as $1 billion while overstating quarterly earnings and revenue.

Satyam is an Indian outsourcer. Since admitting his crimes Raju resigned and was arrested. The scandal is so bad that some customers like State Farm, are seeking to end their outsourcing contract.

Satyam has retained Goldman Sachs and Avendus to explore options including a possible sale of the company.

Although India's IT sector has never been known for aggressive deal making, slowing growth and low prices brought about by the downturn are creating opportunities.