This week’s Computer Weekly examines research that suggests CEOs want to invest in IT more than ever, but still see CIOs as technical experts and not business people. We review SQL Server 2012 and ask if Microsoft's database software is catching its competitors as well as concluding our Buyer's Guide to data security. 

Imagine the advantage your organization would have from real-time insight into your workforce? This paper outlines the three key steps to effectively managing your workforce and leveraging HR data for competitive advantage. Read to learn why visibility, alignment and optimization are critical components to any successful HR venture. 

This podcast offers recommendations for moving your virtualization project from the testing phase to production. Learn how to plan virtualization design to ensure a smooth transition to production rollout. Discover ways to align your implementation with best practices and determine which next steps to take to prepare for production. 

Industry expert Wayne Eckerson knows a thing or two about big data and how to handle it. So, it's in your best interest to view the second installment of a two-part video series as Eckerson discusses data warehouse architectures for storing big data. Learn how to evaluate whether data architectures can handle big data, amongst much more. 

Over the course of several months in 2011, IDC conducted a research study to identify the opportunities and challenges to adoption of a new technology that changes the way in which traditional business solutions are implemented and used. The results of the study are presented in this white paper. 

This edition of BI Trends and Strategies opens with a piece by Lou Agosta on the need for data warehouses to adapt to new data types, innovation and big data. Alan R. Earls also offers advice for incorporating spreadsheets into your BI programs without problems and Richard Herschel calls for universities to step up their BI and analytics programs. 

Social content is now as much a part of businesses today as their employees. Managing it is essential to your success. How organizations go about this varies. This paper offers a clearer understanding of the benefits of social business systems. Discover how best to govern your social content to exploit it for the maximum long-term benefit. 

Avoiding unscheduled downtime and equipment failure while trying to maintain quality standards is paramount. Producing high-quality goods and optimizing resources is the ultimate goal of any manufacturing organization. Predictive maintenance, fueled by predictive analytics, helps minimize downtime and saves money. Read this paper to learn more. 

Data centers are a complex and critical part of today’s business infrastructure, usually built up over a period of time. But what happens when you have to move an entire data center at once? This resource presents key points when moving a data center. 

In this first session, Wolf introduces principles of virtual infrastructure optimization and covers virtual machine placement optimization and bottleneck identification. 

In an effort to decrease maintenance costs from its legacy payroll system, full service manufacturer Wisconsin Plastics, Inc. (WPI) chose to implement the payroll and time and attendance modules offered by its enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendor. Read this case study to learn about the rapid return on investment that WPI experienced. 

New products and strategies in data storage and networking, including storage virtualization, IP and Fiber Channel hybrids and the evolution of hard disk drive storage. 

Greg begins with an introduction to storage and networking terminology, which helps to demystify complicating acronyms and other jargon used by storage and networking specialists.