Baseline Names 50 Most Influential People in IT

October 30, 2008 Volume 3, Issue 43 Sponsored by St. Bernard Get a Free T-shirt & Chance to Win a 50" Plasma 1.Register for an iPrism online demo 2.Attend & see the #1 Web Filter in action 3.That's it! Plus you'll get a t-shirt for attending iPrism protects you with real-time anonymizer & virus blocking, & stops malware, spyware & inappropriate content. Register here. Bookmark eWeek.com. Baseline highlights the most influential people in IT today, while Microsoft looks to extend its influence to the cloud.   Baseline Names 50 Most Influential People in IT The editors of Baseline have come together to identify the people that carry the most amount of intellectual weight in IT across five different categories. Naturally, any one of them would probably be qualified to assume the mantle of a national CIO or CTO in any new administration that among other things needs to deal with RFID passports and electronic voting. And if you're not sure why we need a national CIO, click here.   Microsoft Heads for the Cloud As expected, Microsoft announced its formal entrance into the cloud computing space with a new offering, Azure, while also surprising some folks with a new implementation of Office for the Web. The implications of Microsoft's moves are many, but the most interesting might be the rapid rate at which cloud computing services will become a commodity. In fact, many of Microsoft's existing partners are already looking over their shoulders and developers will have to rethink their relationships with Microsoft. Here's an overall roundup of other events that transpired at Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference. But if you want know more about the new leader of Microsoft's cloud computing effort, you can check out what she has to say here.   Windows 7 Passes Muster On first look, the new Windows 7 offering from Microsoft sounds promising now that Microsoft has made available a prebeta version of the much discussed follow-on to Vista. As for Vista, there are lots of folk already saying that Vista doesn't matter anymore, even as Microsoft rolls out Service Pack 2. For a good analysis of many of the issues that have plagued Vista and what to expect from Windows 7, click here.   Linux Market Size Estimated at $10.9B Microsoft may still be bigger than most of its Linux rivals, but Linus Torvalds made some pointed comments recently about the value of passion when it comes to developing software. Elsewhere, it looks like open-source database adoption is on the rise.   Sun Outlines Vision for the Future of Java With the release of Version 6 of the standard edition of Java, Sun is finally starting to put a lot more emphasis on rich clients. Of course, on the hardware side Sun is trying to figure out what to do without Andy Bechtolsheim while also rolling out new hardware.   McAfee Partners with Hewlett-Packard, Intel and VMware on Virtualization Security As virtualization security becomes a bigger issue, vendors such as McAfee are starting to take on the challenge. McAfee has also refined its approach to NAC (network access control) and application whitelisting.   Dell Rolls Out New Power-Saving PCs, Thin Clients Responding to the economic pressures facing customers, Dell is giving customers the option of using PCs or thin clients in a strategy that mirrors recent moves by HP.   State of Texas Calls IBM to Task over Data Center Consolidation Project It looks like IBM is messing with Texas in a way that many would consider inadvisable. Mike Vizard's "What's Hot Now" Newsletter Management You are currently subscribed to the Mike Vizard's "What's Hot Now" newsletter as: ignoble.experiment@arconati.us If you no longer wish to receive Mike Vizard's "What's Hot Now", unsubscribe here Ziff Davis Enterprise 28 East 28th Street New York, New York 10016 Privacy Policy