Articles by Andrew K. Burger

The daily need to tap into knowledge relevant to their field is driving tech workers in all types of organizations to scour the Web for timely, up-to-date information, but making sure it's accurate can prove a challenge A recent survey asked tech workers how they search for information, to what degree they use and share it with others, how it affec...

Part 1 of this two-part series outlines concerns about the privacy of personal health information more than five years after medical and health care organizations covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Part 2 examines some of the myths and misconceptions surrounding HIPAA, as well as the ramifications of the act and its effectiveness...

Enterprise application integration (EAI) services will emerge as the biggest opportunity in the Asia-Pacific IT marketplace, excluding Japan, between now and 2011, according to a forecast by Springboard Research Defined as "the integration (typically across varied platforms and applications) of an enterprise's applications, such as finance and acco...

Intel and Grameen Trust are joining forces in an effort to bridge the financial and digital divides separating many of the world's most wanting from basic services and economic opportunities. Joined via video link by Grameen Trust founder and 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, Intel Chairman Craig Barrett announced that Intel Capital an...

Part 1 of this two-part series introduced the potential perils of selecting an enterprise software vendor. Part 2 looks at the choices businesses make as they go through the selection process The going is tough and the competition fierce, but opportunities are out there for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) looking to build businesses more g...

Globalization, adoption of more open, capitalist economies in developing countries, and technological advances have made building a small or medium-sized business (SMB) as tough as it's ever been. The potential rewards are substantial, however. Thanks to developments in the IT and telecommunications industries, SMBs -- like their larger counterp...

Botnet operators intent on duping Internet users out of their savings have proved adept at social engineering, taking advantage of breaking news events and direct marketing -- as well as audio and video files and PDF attachments -- to lure people into downloading a variety of malware and visiting spoofed Web sites aimed at capturing personally identifiable information. The government's economic stimulus tax rebate program is giving them another excellent opportunity...

Globalization, adoption of more open, capitalist economies in developing countries, and technological advances have made building a small or medium-sized business (SMB) as tough as it's ever been. The potential rewards are substantial, however. Thanks to developments in the IT and telecommunications industries, SMBs -- like their larger counterp...

Globalization, adoption of more open, capitalist economies in developing countries, and technological advances have made building a small or medium-sized business (SMB) as tough as it's ever been. The potential rewards are substantial, however. Thanks to developments in the IT and telecommunications industries, SMBs -- like their larger counterp...

Looking to remodel your own little castle in Spain? Perhaps just design a modest little country cottage or addition to your current abode? As in many areas, software tools and expertise up until relatively recently accessible only to professionals are now available to just about anyone that cares to invest a little time and money acquiring and learning how to use them.

Part 1 of this two-part series enumerates the ways in which the guest-worker visa program fails to meet the needs of American workers and the high-tech industry. Part 2 digs further into the arguments for and against the H-1B visa program, as well as the trends and motivations underlying them "Google and other American companies are in a fierce com...

The disconnect has never been more pronounced between the supply and demand of H-1B visas, the visa program that allows guest workers in the United States The technology industry has been at the forefront of the H-1B visa debate, lobbying for the government to allow more foreign workers into the U.S. each year....

No less true today than it has been since the notion of private property became one of the main pillars of Western society, investing in real estate is one of the most popular means of amassing wealth. Now, a new breed of "virtual" real estate investors and developers is emerging. Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) and vir...

Part 1 of this two-part series introduces a group of entrepreneurial business intelligence (BI) software providers that are emerging following a year of industry consolidation Combining in-memory data management, visual analytics, social networking and rich Internet applications, Software as a Service (SaaS) and open source software development, co...

While Wikipedia may be the best known example, wikis are not only becoming the first place people turn when conducting online research, but also when they're looking to build specialist online communities It's not surprising, then, that wikis dedicated to real estate are emerging. InmanWiki -- part of the Inman media group -- the aptly named Real E...

Law firms stand to gain as much as anyone from the advances being made when it comes to CRM systems, and CRM software providers are keen to fill this potentially lucrative market niche LexisNexis, Microsoft and Salesforce.com are among the firms out there offering CRM systems specifically geared for professional services organizations, but are law ...

Malware creators are taking advantage of the controversy over the upcoming Olympic Games to spread their wares for illicit financial gain. Latching onto the Free Tibet political demonstrations that have spread around the world, would-be thieves have embedded a piece of rootkit malware that logs keystrokes in an executable Flash movie file called "RaceForTibet."

In a year of consolidation in a hot business intelligence (BI) marketplace, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP secured leading positions in 2007. This has cleared the way for a new generation of BI specialists to emerge and take root "We like to compare the massive consolidation we saw in 2007 to a forest clearing. As the older, taller trees are choppe...

The potential to increase server utilization is the primary reason virtualization has been gaining traction in the enterprise. Cost reductions -- through greater data center efficiency, flexibility, lower energy usage and space needs -- are others Though it does not directly impact the functional footprint of IT systems, virtualization can enable o...

Retailers in Japan and South Korea have been using image capture technology for several years now, and with the growing base of smartphones, companies in the U.S. are rolling out a wide range of new mobile applications, including some that use interactive digital symbols captured in photos to provide customers with product information, prices and incentives on the spot...