11 smart career tips for 2011

By Kathryn Ullrich

Takeaway: A Silicon Valley-based executive search consultant and author offers her tips for handling your career in 2011.

Today we have some advice from Kathryn Ullrich, a Silicon Valley-based executive search consultant and author.

Andy Warhol said, "Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art."

As a passionate executive recruiter, I couldn't agree more, particularly when it comes to professionals being good in managing their careers. Here, for the New Year, are 11 career tips for 2011:

1.   Look out for #1. Take responsibility for your own career development. Many large organizations have scaled back on training and development-a common outcome of the economic downturn-and small companies can rarely provide significant support. Simply put, your career rests in one set of hands: yours.

2.   Be strategic. Have a long-term career strategy or, at the very least, a sense for where you're headed. Ask yourself, "What do I really want to do?" or "Where do I see myself in five to ten years?" Seek people in similar roles and ask for their advice.

3.   Work in step with your company's goals. Connect the dots from your role to your company's vision and key objectives. How does your work align with the organization's goals? What can you do to maximize your contributions?

4.   Be customer-centric. Whether your customers are internal or external, know their wants and needs, and be fervent about meeting them. Bring the voice of the customer into your day-to-day work and let it enhance your decisions and deliverables.

5.   Collaborate. Working with and through others is requisite to innovating, creating, and producing business results. Adopt a mindset for teaming and collaborating, and put it into daily practice.

6.   Hone your communication skills. Communication skills can make or break careers. Pick one area that needs your attention-considering skills such as listening, presenting, influencing, persuading, or distilling messages-and commit to improvement. Take a class, practice with a trusted friend or colleague, or join a group such as Toastmasters.

7.   Cross over functionally. Many successful executives have risen through the ranks by taking cross-functional roles, such as moving from finance to sales or from marketing to IT. Follow their lead and you can grow your skills, your network, and your political capital.

8.   Expand your experience. Volunteer for special projects or assignments that are outside your everyday role. Discuss your goals with your boss, an HR representative, or a senior leader, and ask for help in finding opportunities to broaden your experience base.

9.   Find a guide. Mentors can serve as influential role models and provide important guidance for your career. Reach out to a potential mentor within your company or industry and see if he or she would be open to mentoring you for a specific purpose and timeframe.

10. Network-now. The best time to increase your network is today. Starting now, get involved in groups such as professional associations, charitable organizations, or even sports leagues. Step into leadership roles and make your expertise known.

11. Specialize. Today, companies look for specialists, not generalists. Develop a personal brand, distinguish your skills and strengths, and determine how to best market yourself.

Kathryn Ullrich is a Silicon Valley-based executive search consultant and author of the award-winning book Getting to the Top: Strategies for Career Success (Silicon Valley Press, 2010, $19.95). She also leads Alumni Career Services at UCLA Anderson School of Management. Contact her at info@ullrichassociates.com.

10 hot areas of expertise for IT specialists

By Debra Littlejohn Shinder

Takeaway: Success in the IT field is increasingly tied to specialization — but what particular tech niches are most in demand? Deb Shinder runs through the IT specialties that top the list.

My recent article 10 Ways to become an IT superstar generated a lot of feedback. Quite a few IT pros out there apparently want to increase their visibility (and paychecks). One thing that drew a lot of attention in the piece was the advice to specialize. Okay, readers replied, but what area should I specialize in? They wanted to know which subsets of skills are the easiest to master and/or which ones will deliver the most bang for the buck. So in this follow-up, I'll look at some of the IT specialties that are likely to be in demand in the near future.

Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.

1: To the cloud

You saw this one coming, didn't you? All the major technology companies seem to be "all in" with cloud computing — Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Dell, CA Technologies, and more. According to recent surveys, at least 50% of organizations are already using some form of cloud computing, and Gartner says the adoption rate is increasing by about 17% per year. According to Dice.com, the number of ads for cloud computing jobs has grown by 344% over the last two years.

2: Virtually speaking

Virtualization has been hot for a while, as companies jumped in to reap the cost and management benefits of consolidating their servers and delivering virtualized desktops and applications to their users. Virtualization is also the foundation of cloud computing, so those with expertise in deploying virtualized IT environments will be in demand both in the public cloud arena and with those organizations that plan to stick with private clouds for now. Dice.com's data showed a 78% growth in the number of jobs related to server virtualization.

3: Mobile computing and consumerization integration

Everyone knows mobile computing is hot. Smartphones and tablets, along with laptops and netbooks, are the driving forces behind the increasing consumerization of enterprise IT. There are plenty of advantages for the company: Because employees are willing to buy their own devices, the organization saves money. Because those employees can stay in touch with work, read and respond to email, view attachments, and create documents no matter where they are, they become more productive.

But when employees purchase their own equipment, the downside is that you lose the standardization that comes with company-issued devices. You end up with many types of devices, made by different hardware vendors, running different operating systems and different apps, configured differently. Getting them to seamlessly connect to the company network can be a challenge. Getting them all connected to the company network without putting the network at risk is even more of a challenge. IT pros who have expertise in integrating these new devices into the network and managing them once they're connected are likely to be in demand by many companies.

Application lifecycle management (ALM) will become increasingly important as the environment becomes more complex with some functions in the cloud and some onsite. Bob Aiello believes configuration management (CM) will evolve into ALM, and the outlook is bright for those with these expanded skills.

4: It's all about the apps

As Toni Bowers reported in a recent blog post, the hottest job category for 2011 (according to CareerCast.com) is that of software engineer. But it's a position that's a bit different from the programmer of yesteryear. On the programming side of the fence, it's all about apps these days. As smartphones and tablets become ubiquitous, companies will need to develop their own specialized apps for those devices — just as they've needed to develop proprietary software for desktop systems.

In addition, cloud-based applications will be big in the coming years, and that means software engineers will need new skills to design, develop, and implement programs that run in the cloud environment. Those who are familiar with Windows Azure, Google App Engine, VMware's Spring Framework, Force.com, and other cloud development platforms will be a step ahead of the game.

5: Security and compliance

With cybercrime on the rise and increasing concern over the possibility of cyber terrorism and/or cyber warfare, security specialists are likely to continue to be in demand for the foreseeable future. There is a saying in the law enforcement community regarding job security: Thanks to human nature, there will always be criminals — and thus, there will always be a need for the police. That same dark side of human nature ensures that there will always be those who misuse computer technology to attack, intrude, and otherwise attempt to do harm to computer systems. That means there will always be a need for computer and network security specialists.

In addition, more and more government regulation of the Internet and networks, as well as regulatory provisions concerning data privacy, mean security is no longer optional for most organizations. Those who specialize in regulatory compliance are likely to see their job prospects increase as more industries come under the regulatory umbrella.

6: Four to six

When the IPv4 address pool was created in the 1980s, it was thought that the more than 4.2 billion unique addresses possible under the system would be enough. However, the creators didn't foresee the Internet boom or the possibility that one day, we would be connecting not just multiple computers per person, but printers, phones, and even household appliances to the Internet. This month (February 2011), IANA announced that it has allocated the last batch of remaining IPv4 addresses.

The solution to the problem has been around for a while: IPv6. The new version of the Internet Protocol supports a whopping 340 undecillion (2 to the 128th power) addresses. But IPv6 deployment is not an easy task; working with it requires learning a whole new IP language. IPv6 addresses don't even look like their IPv4 counterparts; they're notated in hexadecimal instead of dotted quad. IPv6 is also much more sophisticated than IPv4, with many new features (including built-in security mechanisms). Most important, IPv6 does not interoperate with IPv4, so transition technologies are required to get IPv4 networks to communicate with IPv6 networks.

Obviously, now that we've reached the end of the available IPv4 addresses, more and more organizations will be forced to migrate to IPv6. Because of the complexity, there is a shortage of IT personnel who have mastered and really understand IPv6. If you're one of the few, the proud, who specializes in this area, you're likely to have plenty of business in the upcoming years.

7: Business intelligence

Business intelligence (BI) refers to technologies that are used for reporting and analyzing data, including recognizing trends and patterns, to make better strategic business decisions. BI uses techniques such as data mining to extract and identify patterns and correlations in large amounts of data.

According to a recent study of midsize organizations that was done by IBM, BI/analytics is the second most popular IT investment (after infrastructure) that companies have planned for 2011. This indicates that specializing in the BI field can be a lucrative strategy and a good investment in your future.

8: The social network

Social networking started as a consumer-driven technology, but the use of social media is now being embraced in a big way by businesses. It can be used to connect with customers, colleagues, and partners to build solid business relationships. That doesn't mean you'll automatically be a hot property on the job market just because you tweet and update your Facebook page regularly. But it does mean organizations are looking for people who know how to integrate social media into the business environment in a way that furthers the goals of the organization.

Many companies are looking to develop their own social sites that give them more control and let them target their audiences more precisely. Specialists in social media are sure to find many opportunities as more and more companies stop seeing social sites as just time-wasters that should be blocked and start to recognize the potential for business use. This article offers more information about exactly what a social media specialist does.

9: Public sector computing

On the one hand, many state and local governments are cutting back on their budgets and laying off personnel. On the other hand, governmental agencies are depending more and more on technology to perform their functions more efficiently with fewer personnel. That means specialists in public sector computing can likely find a home in one of the many thousands of town, city, county, state, or federal government agencies that exist in the United States alone.

Although salaries for government jobs are often smaller than those in the private sector, they sometimes offer better benefits, more time off, and a less pressured work environment. There are a number of IT subspecialties in the public sector, as well. These include computer forensics investigators, criminalistics analysts, and personnel who specialize in secure mobile communications technologies for public service agencies.

10: To your health

The healthcare industry is in a state of flux in the United States. Government mandates are predicted to result in cost reduction measures that may result in personnel cuts and/or discourage young people from entering medicine. At the same time, the baby boomer generation is aging and requiring health care. Technology may be one way to fill the gap.

An IDC report published late last year showed that the U.S. healthcare market for IT was valued at $34 billion and was predicted to increase by 24% over the next three years. That translates into a demand for software developers and IT professionals who understand the healthcare industry and its special needs and who know how to integrate technology into the caregiver's world without dumping a steep learning curve onto people already working in an understaffed and overworked environment.

Tips to Avoid Having Your Google AdSense Account Banned

by Steven Papas

Google's AdSense program is a fantastic way to earn extra money on your website or blog, but unless you're extra careful, you may risk being banned from participating. In this article we will outline several tips which can help you avoid being banned from Google AdSense, including some which may surprise you.

Tips to Avoid Being Banned from Google AdSense

In terms of the rules set forth by Google for their AdSense program, the company is very fair and makes it extremely easy to participate. There are, however, a few surefire ways to have your account banned—ways that you may want to avoid at all costs. Here are just a few of those ways:

· Clicking on Your Own Ads. This may seem like a no-brainer, but according to the good folks at Google, it is the number one reason people have their AdSense account banned. Now this doesn't mean that if you occasionally and accidentally click on your own ad your account will be banned, but it does mean that if you try to trick Google by persistently clicking on your ads, you will quickly find yourself on the outside looking in.

· Signing up for more than one account. Some of the veterans of Google's AdSense will tell you there's a few ways around this rule, but if you want to be safe from the threat of being banned, you'll probably want to stick to just the one account.

· AdSense clicking rings. Getting together with friends or colleagues and conspiring to click on each other's ads may sound like a profitable idea, but if you think you're going to fool Google you have another thing coming. This is a "deal breaker" and can quickly result in having your account banned permanently.

· Questionable or Illegal Content. Sites which feature illegal or questionable content—sites such as gambling sites, porn sites and even hacker sites—are not eligible for Google AdSense. Attempting to include Google AdSense on these types of sites is a no-no and will get you banned.

· Images or Pictures Adjacent to your AdSense blocks. Google will afford you a lot of freedom with regard to the placement of your ads, but if you feature pictures or images which are relative to your AdSense blocks they cannot appear next to your ads or you will eventually be banned. Why? Because Google feels this practice is akin to tricking your visitors into clicking on your ads.

· Avoid putting AdSense on Pop-Up Ads. Placing Google AdSense material on pop-ups, especially those pop-ups which generate other pop-ups when users try to close them, is not acceptable in the eyes of Google and can have your account banned until you correct the violation.

· Disclosing your potential earnings. According to Google's terms of service, any information concerning your click-through rates or earnings per impressions or clicks is not allowed on the same site where you will feature any AdSense blocks.

· Having Blank or AdSense-Only Pages. Sites which have no content or those sites featuring nothing but Google AdSense ads are not allowed and can get you banned from the program.



Of course these are just a few of the ways to get your account banned, and while you may not completely agree with all of them, failing to comply can be a one-way ticket to having your account banned, either temporarily or permanently. To ensure that your ads remain up and running, simply follow the rules outlined in Google's terms of service for the AdSense program and avoid questionable conduct altogether.

Five tips for building a successful global IT workforce

By Jay Patel

Takeaway: By harnessing the IT talent that's available around the world, you can build a high-performing global workforce that meets your organization's needs. These tips will help you develop and grow a flexible, effective IT group.

Successful managers agree: The strength of an organization's IT talent pool is a critical component to building and growing a successful company. And today's global environment makes it possible for an organization to build its workforce without restrictive geographical boundaries. An organization can pull talent and resources from around the world to build the strongest and most efficient team possible.

As a result, it is important for organizations to develop a systematic approach for recruiting and maintaining talent on a global level. In addition, organizations must implement strategies to optimize and harness the global IT service talent that best meets their IT service business requirements.

The following five tips will help CIOs and executives recruit global IT talent more effectively to ensure their organization's workforce is built for success.

1: Set objectives but allow for flexibility in roles

Setting goals and objectives is necessary when determining roles and responsibilities in an organization; however, it is also important to maintain flexibility to make room for individuals' unique skills and experiences. Maintaining a capable IT workforce is most effective when role requirements are clearly defined while still being flexible enough to incorporate the broad range and the scope of skills and talents available. For example, executives may consider redesigning service technicians' roles so an employee's unique skill set can shine through. By remaining flexible, it is easier to ensure organizational culture will support a diverse group of employees who thrive by playing up their strengths and following their instincts.

2: Recruit and promote from within

Companies should work to identify internal resources to develop and grow their workforce. Many managers have found that their company's most valuable resources lie inside the organization. Given the right training and support, internal candidates are put in a position to perform a broader variety of tasks, a particularly vital capability within the IT service industry where technologies and processes are constantly evolving.

3: Hire for innate talents and be willing to invest in training

Most executives trying to build a successful organization understand that it's important to find a balance between innate abilities and specific experience or qualifications when looking for IT talent. Often, hiring managers find a candidate who may have the right personality, experience, and problem-solving skills but may lack a particular certification or technical skill set.

When it comes to pooling talent and building an IT workforce, decision makers need to understand that even though certain skills can be taught, the innate abilities and attitude of a prospective hire can't be instilled with training. When a candidate with the right personality becomes available — even if he or she lacks a certain skill set — it helps to define the skills required for the position and determine whether certification gaps can be successfully achieved through training.

4: Build a candidate pipeline

To maintain the most efficient and well-balanced IT workforce, it's essential to be consistently on the lookout for talent. This is even more important as talent pools continue to globalize, resulting in larger and more diverse candidate pools. Having a candidate pipeline will reduce the likelihood an organization will be caught off guard or unprepared when a position opens up. Managers should ensure that they are never making hasty decisions or missing opportunities for talent. Examine your organization's business plan and try to anticipate future needs, including geographical expansions or relocations. Network and nurture relationships in an effort to recruit talent that aligns with your organization's future needs and direction.

5: Diversify

The most diverse organizations tend to be those that are flexible and strategic about recruiting and maintaining IT talent. Executives at these organizations understand the value of diversity in experience, perspective, and skill when building a workforce. This is even more important when building a global IT workforce, as there is a greater opportunity to connect with individuals with a wide variety of skill sets. By leveraging the existing talent pool, nurturing global networks, and investing in diversity, organizations can effectively mine new IT service talent sources, build multicultural talent, and be well positioned for market success.

Summary

In today's global environment, decision makers must consider business goals and the direction of the organization when mining talent and managing an IT workforce. By prioritizing company needs, being open to diversity and unique skill sets, and valuing the talent that already exists internally, executives are more apt to employ a workforce aligned with company values — one that plays a strategic role in a company's ability to develop new services and expand into new markets. By focusing on having the right resources to identify new sources of talent, optimizing the IT talent pool, and building a strong talent pipeline, organizations can gain access to skills that support business goals, build bench strength, and recruit effectively to enhance competitive advantage.

Jay Patel is Director of Professional Services for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), Worldwide TechServices.

Development trends to watch in 2011

By Justin James

Takeaway: Justin James considers Silverlight, Windows Phone 7, mainstream development alternatives, Web development maturity, and the economy topics worth watching in 2011.

2011 is here! While I don't like to make predictions per se, I do like to explore what topics I think may be important to developers for the next twelve months. Let's jump right into my look ahead for 2011.

Silverlight

2010 was the year that Silverlight (and with it, WPF for apps that need access to local resources) gained real momentum. The more I play with Silverlight, the less it frustrates me, though lots of aspects of the technology still rub me the wrong way. In my opinion, the "patterns and practices" people pollute Silverlight's ecosystem; they waste a lot of time and effort on a million frameworks to do things that address a couple of stylistic and academic concerns at the expense of increased complexity, indirectness of code, and significantly raising barriers to entry.

Fortunately, I learned that you don't need to do things the way these folks push. In fact, the default, out of the box Silverlight development experience is very similar to WinForms (for better or for worse), and the learning curve is not nearly as bad as it appears when you first survey the landscape. This is particularly good news because, in 2011, enough development is moving to Silverlight and WPF that folks who don't have the time and energy to learn new development paradigms will be moving to it.

Windows Phone 7

In my TechRepublic columns about Windows Phone 7 development, I note that the experience hasn't always been pleasant. While aspects of Windows Phone 7 development still frustrate me, it is a much better experience than its competition in terms of writing applications.

I don't know if Windows Phone 7 will be a big hit, but if it's a success, it will be a late bloomer like Android. Remember, Android was anemic until the Droid 1 was released just over a year ago, and now it's a big hit. That said, I think that Android is the odd man out right now. The development experience is tough because of the fragmentation. You never know what resolutions to expect, for example, or baseline phone functionality. Even on a particular model, you can't expect a particular version of Android. With iPhone, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone 7, you do.

RIM has lost an incredible amount of momentum, and none of its recent attempts at regaining it have looked promising. Palm's WebOS is on ice until HP figures out what it wants to do with it. Symbian has huge worldwide success except for the United States. iPhone continues to move crazy unit numbers. If Windows Phone 7 becomes a hit, it will be at the expense of RIM and Android. I think Android has enough problems, and Windows Phone 7 has both enough potential to pull it off. Windows Phone 7 is already quite good in ways that Android isn't, both to developers and users. If I were an Android developer, I would be watching Windows Phone 7 to see where it goes.

Related: My first Windows Phone 7 app development project, The Windows Phone 7 App Hub experience, and Optimize data access for mobile phone apps.

Mainstream development alternatives

The more I see of Java and .NET, the less I am happy with them. Java and .NET work really well for some things; however, both have a lot of problems, not the least of which is the ecosystems. The Java ecosystem isn't sure if it wants to be some open source haven or the next COBOL. The .NET folks are going insane replicating development patterns that were pioneered 30 years ago, but instead of studying the literature and figuring out how to do it right, they get hung up in replicating what was done ages ago, including the workarounds that were needed due to technical limitations at the time. Meanwhile, neither ecosystem is doing much of anything to deliver products that allow typical developers to produce better applications quicker with fewer bugs and security problems.

Frameworks that enable developers to use the latest pattern fads cover up the fundamental problems with both platforms, which is the amount of complexity in the typical application is overwhelming. I hope that the alternatives to these mainstream development platforms get more traction in the future. I haven't talked to anyone who left Java or .NET and was eager to go back, particularly around Web development. If you think there has to be a better way to get apps out the door, 2011 is a great year to check out your choices!

Web development maturity

In the last decade, Web development has really taken off, and there has been a ton of innovation in the space. Going forward, we are going to see a lot more maturity in the market. For better or for worse, HTML5 continues its progress toward being a universal standard for building Web applications. Web browsers are following suit, and even Internet Explorer is trying hard to comply with the HTML5 standard. This means that developers can spend more time getting stuff done and less time figuring out one-off workarounds and clever hacks for problems that shouldn't even exist.

The economy

In 2010, the economy picked up steam for tech workers, but the momentum seems to be more for specialists than generalists. "Plain vanilla" developers are watching their wages remain steady, and entry-level developers are in tough competition with more experienced overseas workers within the same salary range. It seems like not many companies want to make a long-term investment in less-experienced developers who show promise, and even fewer want to put anything into their existing staff.

The trend of hiring to fill knowledge gaps instead of training will only increase. The really bright spots are for people with in-demand, specialized skills, such as Silverlight and mobile developers. It looks like Ruby and Rails will also have more demand as time goes on.

I also think this is a great opportunity for independent consultants. Companies have learned to be choosy enough about projects that their overall need for workers may stay the same in terms of total developers needed, but they are much more likely to need certain skill sets for limited periods of time.

What development topics will you follow in 2011? Let us know in the discussion.

J.Ja

IT compensation and hiring trends for 2011

By Toni Bowers

Takeaway: A new CareerBuilder survey indicates that IT hiring and compensation is on the uptick for 2011.

CareerBuilder conducted its national annual IT hiring poll among more than 170 IT employers between November 15 and December 2, 2010. The results were that two in five (42 percent) of IT employers plan to increase the number of full-time, permanent employees this year (this is up from 32 percent who said the same last year).

Here are some other employment trends to follow in 2011, according to the survey:

• Sixty-six percent of those polled said they will increase compensation for their existing staff in 2011. The good news is that 13 percent expect the average increase will be five percent or more. The bad news is that most estimate the average raise will be 3 percent or less.
• One-third (33 percent) state that they currently have open positions for which they can't find qualified candidates. Thirteen percent said they will be hiring outside the U.S. for workers to work in their U.S. offices. This is an interesting disconnect: Employers are saying they can't find qualified workers, but there are a ton of IT pros out of work.
• Nearly half (49 percent) of IT employers are hiring contract or freelance workers in 2011, up from 47 percent in 2010. Forty-six percent of IT employers plan to hire temporary workers on a permanent basis in 2011.
• More than one-third of IT employers (38 percent) voiced concern over worker burnout within their organizations, as heftier workloads and longer hours take their toll on worker morale. Nearly the same amount (34 percent) reported that maintaining productivity levels is one of the top staffing challenges for the new year. The first part of this paragraph sounded kind of nice until you saw the concern was linked to almost the same percentage of employers looking to maintain productivity, didn't it?
• Forty-four percent of IT employers stated that they will be placing a greater emphasis on social media in 2011.

10 things you can do to move up the IT career ladder

By Matt Eventoff

Takeaway: IT pros who aspire to a higher position need to lay the groundwork by developing the right relationships, refining their communications skills, and expanding their breadth of knowledge.

Even in difficult economic times, the opportunity for advancement exists. Whether you're a front-line associate aiming for the next level or a senior vice president looking toward the CIO role, certain strategies will help you reach your goals. These steps can't guarantee that you will move up within your organization, but they'll definitely give you a leg up on the competition.

Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.

1: Develop relationships within your organization — outside IT

It seems like common sense, but this often gets pushed to the side in favor of day-to-day responsibilities that yield immediate results. It is much easier to communicate what you do and why it is important to someone who is used to hearing from you regularly. Make a habit of trying to develop a relationship within a different business division at least once a month.

2: Develop a message

How does what you do, or what your team does, further the efforts of the organization? How does it help the business achieve its bottom-line objectives? You must be able to articulate the value of your position to the organization clearly. This often takes time and effort, but it's crucial. Make the investment.

3: Be open… be available… talk to people

IT can often breed a solo or small team atmosphere. If you are a leader in your organization, be seen. Nothing is worse than a CIO, CTO, EVP, AVP, or even a director who stays behind closed doors and remains silent.

4: Treat your top talent as you treat your boss

If you think you have talked to them enough, go back and talk to them one more time. Trust me: If your top talent is nervous (and they are) and you're not communicating with them, they are looking elsewhere. As times get more challenging, your top talent becomes more valuable. This rings true at every organizational level, from the front lines up. Replacing superstars is not easy.

5: Understand your audience

IT has a language all its own, and those outside IT may have trouble understanding it. In fact, it's never a given that even those within IT, but in a different division, will understand the lingo associated with your specialty. Communicate with your audience in mind.

6: Be consistent

Nothing deflates an organization or a team more than perceived inconsistency in communication or communication style.

7: Be open with Information

The expression "Information is power" holds some truth; however, the idea that hoarding that information will result in more personal power does not. Controlling the flow of information is a losing proposition. Everything you do sends a message, and communications, or lack thereof, sends a clear message. (Hint: not a positive one.)

8: Develop partnerships with other IT divisions

The tendency to end up in silos and spend precious little time networking with other divisions can cost opportunity. It happens in many divisions outside IT as well. Just like in sports, rising stars in different positions often end up leading the entire team because they developed those relationships along the way.

9: Master other domains

When commenting on professionals who are looking to ascend internally, I often hear IT executives cite the need to have experience in more than one space. While "master" might be a strong term, a well-balanced portfolio should not be limited to your 401k.

10: Get a mentor

Mentors are crucial in any business, and in a business where networking is not as common as in other lines of work (sales, marketing), mentoring is a great way to learn. It's also a great way to develop a relationship with an executive you would not normally get to interact or spend significant time with.

Matt Eventoff is the president of Princeton Public Speaking. For more than 15 years, he has served as a communications and messaging strategist for C-level executives in organizations ranging in size from startups to Fortune 100 firms.

10 tips for boosting your career in 2011

By Kathryn Ullrich

Takeaway: From developing cross-functional skills to aligning your contributions with company goals, these tips will help you map out a plan for advancing your career in 2011.

The start of a new year offers a prime opportunity for charting a course for career advancement. Executive recruiter Kathryn Ullrich shares her advice for managing your career in the months to come.

Note: This article originally appeared as an entry in techrepublic Career Management blog. It's also available as a PDF download.

1: Look out for number 1

Take responsibility for your own career development. Many large organizations have scaled back on training and development — a common outcome of the economic downturn — and small companies can rarely provide significant support. Simply put, your career rests in one set of hands: yours.

2: Be strategic

Have a long-term career strategy, or at the very least, a sense of where you're headed. Ask yourself, "What do I really want to do?" or "Where do I see myself in five to 10 years?" Seek people in similar roles and ask for their advice.

3: Work in step with your company's goals

Connect the dots from your role to your company's vision and key objectives. How does your work align with the organization's goals? What can you do to maximize your contributions?

4: Be customer-centric

Whether your customers are internal or external, know their wants and needs and be fervent about meeting them. Bring the voice of the customer into your day-to-day work and let it enhance your decisions and deliverables.

5: Collaborate

Working with and through others is requisite to innovating, creating, and producing business results. Adopt a mindset for teaming and collaborating and put it into daily practice.

6: Hone your communication skills

Communication skills can make or break careers. Pick one area that needs your attention — considering skills such as listening, presenting, influencing, persuading, or distilling messages — and commit to improvement. Take a class, practice with a trusted friend or colleague, or join a group such as Toastmasters.

7: Cross over functionally

Many successful executives have risen through the ranks by taking cross-functional roles, such as moving from finance to sales or from marketing to IT. Follow their lead and you can grow your skills, your network, and your political capital.

8: Expand your experience

Volunteer for special projects or assignments that are outside your everyday role. Discuss your goals with your boss, an HR representative, or a senior leader and ask for help in finding opportunities to broaden your experience base.

9: Find a guide

Mentors can serve as influential role models and provide important guidance for your career. Reach out to a potential mentor within your company or industry and see if he or she would be open to mentoring you for a specific purpose and timeframe.

10: Network — now

The best time to increase your network is… today. Starting now, get involved in groups such as professional associations, charitable organizations, or even sports leagues. Step into leadership roles and make your expertise known.

Bonus tip: Specialize

Today, companies look for specialists, not generalists. Develop a personal brand, distinguish your skills and strengths, and determine how to best market yourself.

10 things to look for in a data center

By Erik Eckel

Takeaway: Going to the cloud might make a lot of sense for your organization — but only if you choose a secure, reliable data center that can handle your needs. Erik Eckel runs through 10 essential criteria for data center evaluation.

Everyone's going to the cloud. The cloud's all the rage. Almost no IT discussion is complete without mentioning "the cloud." But when it comes down to it, the cloud is nothing more than systems hosting information in a data center somewhere "out there."

Organizations have discovered the benefits of offloading infrastructure development, automatic failover engineering, and multiple coordinated power feeds, not to mention backups, OS maintenance, and physical security, to third-party data centers. That's why "going to the cloud" ultimately makes sense.

Unfortunately, not every data center is ready for prime time. Some have sprung up as part of a cloud-based land grab. Review these 10 factors to ensure that your organization's data center is up to the task.

Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.

1: Data capacity

Data centers are typically engineered to support mind-boggling data transmission capacities. Some feature multiple OCx and SONET connections that can manage Amazon.com-like Web site demands. Other less sophisticated entities might try getting by using redundant T-3s. Don't find out the hard way that your data center provider failed to adequately forecast capacity and can't quickly scale.

2: Redundant power

Many data centers have online electrical backups. UPSes, in other words. If your organization maintains business-critical systems that simply can't go down, be sure that the data center has a second electrical backbone connection. Only N+1 power grid connectivity, to a secondary electrical source, can help protect against catastrophe.

3: Backup Internet

Just as any quality data center will maintain redundant power sources, so too must it maintain secondary and tertiary Internet connectivity. Buried cables get cut. Overhead cables fall when trucks strike poles. Vendors experience network-wide outages. Only by making sure that multiple tier-1 Internet provider circuits feed a facility via fully meshed backbones can IT managers rest assured they've done what they can to eliminate potential downtime.

4: Automatic hardware failover

Redundant power, Internet, and even heating and cooling systems are great, but if they're not configured as hot online spares, downtime can still occur. It's critical that data centers employ redundant online switches, routers, UPSes, and HVAC equipment that automatically fail over when trouble arises.

5: Access control

The importance of physical security can't be understated. Commerce could be significantly affected if just one unstable individual were able to drive a large vehicle into a busy and sensitive data center. That's why it's important that a data center's physical perimeter be properly protected. In addition to physical access controls (keys, scanner cards, biometric devices, etc.), care must be taken to ensure that, should someone gain access to a data center, individually leased sections remain secure (thanks to additional physical access controls, locks, cages, rooms, etc.).

6: 24×7x365 support

Data centers must be staffed and monitored by properly trained technicians and engineers at all times. It's an unfortunate byproduct of today's pressurized business environment but a fact nevertheless. Systems can't fail. Constant monitoring and maintenance is a must. Certainly, many data centers will run leaner shifts during off hours, but telephone support and onsite assistance must be always available. Further, data center services must include customer reporting tools that assist clients in understanding a center's network status.

7: Independent power

Data centers must have redundant electrical grid connections. That's a given. And facilities must also maintain their own independent power supply. Most turn to onsite diesel generators, which need to be periodically tested to ensure that they can fulfill a data center's electrical requirements in case of a natural disaster or episode that disrupts the site's other electrical sources.

8: In-house break/fix service

One of the benefits of delegating services to the cloud is eliminating the need to maintain physical and virtualized servers. OS maintenance, security patching, and hardware support all become the responsibility of the data center. Even if an organization chooses to co-locate its own servers within a data center, the data center should provide in-house staff capable of maintaining software and responding to hardware crises.

9: Written SLAs

Any data center contract should come complete with a specifically worded service level agreement (SLA). The SLA should guarantee specific uptime, service response, bandwidth, and physical access protections, among other elements. Ensure, too, that the SLA or terms of service state what happens if a data center fails to provide uptime as stated, maintenance or service as scheduled, or crisis response within stated timeframes.

10: Financial stability

All the promises in the world, and even an incredibly compelling price, mean nothing if the data center fails. Before moving large amounts of data and equipment into a facility, do some homework on the company that owns the site. Confirm that it's free and clear of lawsuits, has adequate operating capital, and isn't in financial straits. The last thing you want to do is have to repeat the process because a center fails financially or must cut costs (and subsequently service and capacity) to stay afloat.

10 things network administrators need to know about Windows Phone 7

By Brien Posey

Takeaway: If your organization is planning its mobile device strategy and Windows Phone 7 is an option, you'll want to take these factors into account.

Microsoft has spent a fortune on marketing Windows Phone 7, but there are some areas in which the system just doesn't measure up. In all fairness, Microsoft redesigned the Windows Mobile operating system from scratch, so this could be considered a 1.0 release — and like any 1.0 release, there is bound to be room for improvement. In addition, a number of features that previously existed in Windows Mobile 6.x have been removed. All of this adds up to some headaches for admins. This list outlines what you need to know before adopting Windows Phone 7.

Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.

1: The interface takes a little getting used to

Windows Phone 7 uses a new interface that is completely different from anything Microsoft has ever created before. This new interface requires you to use several touch gestures and can take a bit of getting used to. While some areas of the interface are completely intuitive, others may leave you scratching your head.

2: Some of the hardware is optional

Although Microsoft made phone manufacturers adhere to a strict set of hardware requirements, some components are optional. In other words, the Windows Phone 7 OS will support these components, but the manufacturers are not obligated to include them in the phone. Some of the optional hardware components include:

• Wi-Fi (802.11g and 802.11n)
• Bluetooth
• Expandable storage
• A hardware keyboard

3: Some ActiveSync policy settings are missing

Unlike Windows Mobile 6.1, Windows Phone 7 supports only some of the ActiveSync policy settings that are offered by Exchange Server. These Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) policies include:

• Password Required (applicable only to Exchange 2003 SP2)
• Minimum Password Length
• Idle Timeout Frequency Value
• Device Wipe Threshold
• Allow Simple Password
• Password Expiration
• Password History

There are a few other EAS policy settings that are technically enabled, but that will always return a value of True. These include:

• Disable Removable Storage
• Disable IrDA
• Disable Desktop Sync
• Block Remote Desktop
• Block Internet Sharing

All other EAS policy settings always return a value of False.

4: Managing certificates is more difficult

Windows Mobile 6.x had a built-in applet for managing certificates. Microsoft has done away with this applet in Windows Phone 7. Windows Phone 7 devices have built- in trusts for well-known commercial certificate authorities, but there is no interface for managing certificates that were issued by an in-house enterprise certificate authority.

In spite of the fact that the Certificates applet is gone, all is not lost. I have found that you can install a certificate by emailing it to yourself and then opening the attached certificate through the phone. When you do, the mobile operating system will install the certificate.

5: There's no access to the file system

For as long as I can remember, Windows Mobile operating systems have included an applet called File Explorer that allows you to navigate the device's file system. This applet has been removed from Windows Mobile 7, and the underlying file system is no longer directly exposed. Unfortunately, it seems that navigating the device's file system through a PC when the device is connected to a USB port is not an option either.

6: The initial build is incomplete

Less than a month after the Windows Phone 7 launch, Microsoft announced that an update would soon add copy and paste functionality to Windows Phone 7. Since that time, there have been rumors that a much larger update is on the horizon that may add support for HTML 5 and app multitasking.

7: It won't work with all mobile networks

I have used Sprint as a cellular carrier since the mid-90s, and my last several phones have had Windows Mobile operating systems. Imagine my shock and disappointment when I learned that the only carriers in the United States that support Windows Phone 7 are AT&T and T-Mobile. It is worth noting, however, that there are rumors circulating about an upcoming CDMA version of Windows Phone 7 that will work on Sprint and Verizon networks. In fact, I recently discovered a Web site that allegedly shows a picture of a soon-to-be-released HTC device from Sprint running Windows Phone 7.

8: It's really a consumer device

When you read about the missing ActiveSync policies, you might have wondered why so many policy settings aren't supported by Microsoft's latest mobile operating system. Microsoft's official answer to this question is that Windows Phone 7 was developed primarily as a consumer device, not an enterprise device. However, Microsoft hints that more enterprise features may show up in future phone updates.

9: Cell providers can block updates

Many of the smartphones on the market can technically be updated, but many of the mobile carriers have a history of taking measures to block updates. After all, it is in a mobile carrier's best interest to sell you a new phone, not to extend the life of your existing phone.

When Windows Phone 7 was introduced, Microsoft decided to follow in Apple's footsteps and provide updates to the phone. However, it has recently been revealed that mobile carriers will have the right to block Microsoft updates for their customers, at least for a while. Microsoft's corporate vice president and director of Windows Phone Program Management, Joe Belifore, was recently quoted as saying, "We build updates for all Windows Phone users but must certify them with the carriers. They'll happen on a regular cadence like they do on the PC. If a carrier wants to stop an update, they can. But they will get it out on the next release."

10: The emulator is broken

In recent years, Microsoft has provided an emulator as a part of the Software Development Kit for Windows Mobile. In the case of Windows Mobile 5 and 6.x, the emulator was an exact replica of a physical Windows Mobile device.

Although Microsoft has released an emulator for Windows Phone 7, it has locked the emulator so that most of the operating system's features are hidden. Almost immediately, someone hacked the emulator and released a patch that will unlock it. Even so, some areas of the emulator are still inaccessible. For example, the options to set up email accounts and social networking accounts do not seem to do anything.