Technology

Think Not Machines Systems Thinkers

June 10, 2015 Perry McLeod Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

In my last blog, I wrote that business analysts are really business-systems analysts — where business and systems are joined to make one word. Business systems are interdependent and interrelated organic and/or mechanical entities, which come together to create value for the organization and the rest of its stakeholders. Complex systems involving people and machines, mired in issues, constraints and other problems, require systems-oriented thinking to identify the true solution. To find the root cause to an issue, systems-oriented thinking requires a business-systems analyst to examine problems by breaking them into constitute elements; looking at each of them independently and again as various permutations or combinations until identified underlying patterns lead to solution options.

Security+ Question of the Week: Single Sign?On

June 10, 2015 James Michael Stewart Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

Which of the following is not a form of single sign‐on?

C-Suite and Techies: Some Essential Security Tools

June 9, 2015 James Michael Stewart Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

Not every executive is aware of all the essential security tools that every organization needs. This blog post is intended to be a quick primer for those executives, and it also serves as a talking points memo for IT security officers who need to communicate the key security elements.

How Is My T-SQL Query Executed?

June 9, 2015 Gidget Pryor Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Microsoft, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

Microsoft’s SQL Server query optimizer uses a cost-based approach by deciding on the “good enough” way — not necessarily the best way to retrieve results. This is because considering all possibilities for retrieving the data might be inefficient.

Aligning Business and IT to Deliver Results (Part 1)

June 8, 2015 Michelle Moore Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

Technology has become the driving force of business as organizations look to IT to innovate business models, improve customer intimacy and deliver superior business results in a competitive and complex environment. In order to fully leverage the benefits technology can deliver, business and technical stakeholders need to collaborate in new and different ways, which requires different skills and knowledge for both parties.