James Maguire

As the platform architect for the city of Chicago, Amy Niersbach had a decision to make. The city’s IT infrastructure needed some refreshing. Chicago wanted to rid itself of its vintage mainframes, and its aging Sun Solaris servers were costly to maintain. The Windy City needed a major migration. But to what? An obvious choice […]

Over the last couple years, businesses have enthusiastically embraced Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). The Aberdeen Group reports that 90% of large enterprises have adopted or will move to adopt SOA by the end of 2006. The attraction is obvious. SOA enables a remarkable degree of flexibility, and of integration of applications. This new enterprise architecture […]

**For the most recent data, see the 2008 IT Salary Guide. Or take a look at IT Salaries, 2003-2008. The 2007 IT Salary Guide incorporates data from thousands of full-time job placements to extrapolate IT salary levels from now until the fall of 2007. Based on these numbers and extensive analysis of hiring trends by […]

As noted in Part One of this article, today’s improved tech hiring has brought a resurgence of IT headhunters. These job recruiters know that in the great tug of war between tech workers and tech employers, workers now hold the upper hand – qualified staffers are in great demand these days. “After three years of […]

The publication you’re now reading, Datamation, has been around – believe it or not – for almost 50 years. Before it was a Web site, Datamation was a magazine. The first issue was published in 1957. To understand how far back that was, our premiere issue launched one year before Frank Rosenblatt built his famed […]

In the fierce battle for market share between Linux and Windows, neither side will be vanquished. But long term, Windows will maintain its dominant position. That’s the chief conclusion of a study authored by two professors at the Harvard Business School, Pankaj Ghemawat and Ramon Casadesus-Masanell. Entitled “Dynamic Mixed Duopoly: A Model Motivated by Linux […]

When it comes to deciding whether to earn an IT certification, many tech professionals have decidedly mixed feelings. Some just groan and say no. Their options are considerable – from Microsoft’s MCP to Novell’s CLP – but so is the workload. Certification takes plenty of time and effort, and sometimes plenty of money. The long […]

The U.S. federal government lags far behind private industry in its adoption of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Indeed, of the federal SOA projects that have been completed, most government IT staffers describe the results as “partially or not successful” – including 14% that describe their SOA project as a “fiasco.” These conclusions come from a […]

Dick Federle is a highly experienced IT systems manager and architect, having designed and supervised many custom development jobs. Currently working for OTB Solutions, a consultancy based in Seattle, he previously managed Ernst & Young’s Business Architecture practice. Along the way, Federle has noticed an odd phenomenon in the world of IT. He’s seen many […]

The 2006 IT Salary Guide lists average salaries for a wide array of tech jobs, from Database Manager to Senior Web Developer to Business Systems Analyst. The Guide also provides data about pay levels for cities and regions across the U.S., as well as information about the value of various tech skills. Clearly, 2006 is […]