Microsoft last week pulled an update for Outlook 2007 issued just two days earlier, citing connection and performance problems for the unusual move.

The update was issued mid-day on December 14 as part of the monthly Patch Tuesday. Within hours, users reported trouble with retrieving e-mail and major delays when switching folders.

“This latest update results in Outlook 2007 being very slow in changing folders and the archiving functionality appears to have been removed,” said someone identified as “alspar” on a Microsoft support forum early Wednesday morning. “Is this an error or by design?”

Others said they couldn’t send or receive e-mail, including Gmail messages, through Outlook after installing the update.

Ironically, Microsoft had billed the update, which didn’t patch any security vulnerabilities, as one that contained “stability and performance improvements.”

By Thursday, support forum moderators were telling users to uninstall the update.

Microsoft made that official late Friday in a post on the Outlook team’s blog . “We have discovered several issues with the update and … as of December 16, this Outlook 2007 update has been removed from Microsoft Update,”

According to Microsoft, the Tuesday update contained three flaws related to Secure Password Authentication (SPA), a Microsoft protocol used to authenticate mail clients like Outlook to a mail server; sluggish folder switching when Outlook wasn’t configured to grab mail from an Exchange server; and a broken AutoArchive feature.

Microsoft urged users who had installed update during its three days of availability to remove it, and spelled out the necessary steps.

The company also issued a mea culpa.

“We apologize to our customers for not discovering these issues before releasing the update and for any inconvenience we have caused,” the Outlook team wrote on its blog. “We failed to meet our own and our customers’ expectation for quality with this update release. We are working to fix these issues and will post a release date for those fixes, and link to download them, as soon as that information is available.”

Microsoft has yanked updates before. In April, it pulled a patch for Windows 2000 — which at the time was still being supported — over what it called “quality issues.”

In early 2008, Microsoft retracted an update designed to prep Windows Vista for Service Pack 1 (SP1) after users flooded support forums with tales of endless reboots.

Microsoft has not set a timetable for releasing a re-patch for Outlook 2007.

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The United States government is falling behind in making critical and productive investments in research related to networking and information technology (NIT), a government panel reported Thursday.

Federal agencies have used funds designated for direct pioneering research and development in NIT for alternative purposes, such as the creation of information technology products and infrastructure expansion in support of research in other fields, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) noted.

This failure to properly prioritize NIT research and development “could seriously jeopardize America’s national security and economic competitiveness,” the Council cautioned.

“We’re investing less than we think and less than we need,” said PCAST member David Shaw, chief scientist at D.E. Shaw Research. “If America is to retain its historical position of international leadership, its funding priorities must include high risk, high reward research with the potential for producing unanticipated, truly transformative advances.”

More Transparency

The report was based on the performance of a coalition of 14 agencies participating in the federal Networking and Information Technology Research and Development program (NITRD). These agencies target US$4 billion annually for NIT research and development. However, much of that spending goes to NIT-related projects that support research and development in other fields.

One example cited by PCAST is the National Institutes of Health (NIH): Less than 12 percent of its top 100 funding awards totaling $600 million was spent directly on NIT research and development. The remainder went to NIT components of biomedical research projects.

The panel concluded that the absolute level of federal NIT research should be boosted by at least $1 billion per year over the current level on a variety of initiatives that would benefit such sectors as energy, healthcare, transportation and national security. Some of that funding could come from redirecting the current pattern of investment to more cutting-edge purposes, both in hardware and software, according to the report.

One reason for the imbalance in research funding is that the agencies themselves have flawed systems for properly tracking expenditures. However, a program is under way to monitor funds better.

“We committed in February of this year to improving the transparency of these programs, and we will have that up and running by next February,” Aneesh Chopra, the federal government’s chief technology officer, told TechNewsWorld at a briefing on the report.

The improved transparency will lead to better analysis and better investment decisions, he said.

Public and Private Sector Roles

The report triggered a discussion about the role of the public and private sectors in IT research. Several panelists at the briefing stressed that federal-level spending for NIT research is essential for the future development of appropriate technologies. While private sector firms can contribute somewhat in the research effort, they are not geared to investing in pioneering research and are interested in more practical research investment in NIT, they contended.

The crossover between public and private sector investments in IT research actually involves more of a balance between the two, according to one business observer.

“There is a constant challenge in finding the synergies between government and private sector research. Private companies invest a lot in IT research and most of it is related to applications whereas government has the ability to go beyond that,” Mark White, chief technology officer at Deloitte Services, told TechNewsWorld.

“But there is a connection between the two in that the private sector can utilize the results of government research, which enhances the return on investment,” he said. “The value of the NITRD program and the report is that helps to create an awareness of the roles of each sector for the greatest benefit.”

Another close observer of the federal IT research program agreed that government investments have an impact far beyond the government agencies that direct those investments.

“The private sector benefits from these investments,” Peter Harsha, director of government affairs for the Computing Research Association, told TechNewsWorld. “First, the research helps to advance technology generally — and the support to academia helps to develop the workforce needed by the IT businesses.”

Whatever the direct role is for the private sector in funding IT research, the government values the contributions that business can make in shaping the direction of research, Chopra said.

“There is a significant role for the private sector here, just as there is for the reforms the administration is initiating in information technology and procurement across the federal government,” he said. “We will be conducting outreach and seeking feedback from the private sector on the future direction of NIT research.”

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1) Writing in all capitals can convey that you are shouting in your message, and nobody likes to be yelled at. Consider other ways to get your message across while conveying its importance. Using all capitals can be annoying and trigger an unintended response.

2) When sending a mailing, some people place all the e-mail addresses in the To: field. If the recipient list is large, that means that all your readers will have to scroll through the list of those on the e-mail to read the message. In the case of viewing e-mail on a smartphone, this can be extra irritating. You also have to consider that others may not want their e-mail address published for everyone to see. You can avoid both these issues by using the BCC field, or using a program like Outlook to do a mail merge that sends a unique message to each person on your list.

3) E-mail messages are easy to copy, print and forward. If you don’t want anything getting out, don’t e-mail it. Plus, remember that even if that e-mail isn’t forwarded on to someone else, company management can easily intercept inappropriate mail.

4) Save abbreviations like LOL (laugh out loud) or IDK (I don’t know) for text messages among friends. Some may not understand your abbreviations. And while emoticons are fun, they just aren’t professional and you don’t know how the recipient will take them. Just like abbreviations, readers may not know what they mean. It’s better to spell it out and write what you mean.

5) This will almost always annoy your recipient before he or she has even read your message. Besides, it usually does not work anyway since the recipient could have blocked that function, or his/her software might not support it. If you want to know whether an e-mail was received, it is better to ask the recipient directly to let you know.

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It’s no wonder IT leaders are focusing concern on IT infrastructure and operations costs when it accounts for 60 per cent of total IT spend. Since things are still uncertain despite the economy showing signs of improvement, this area of IT “strikes a resonant cord,” said Jay Pultz, vice-president and distinguished analyst with Gartner Inc. (IT)

“It has such a high interest among CIOs because they’re not going to meet their budget goals if (infrastructure and operations) doesn’t meet its (budget),” said Pultz during a recent Webinar discussing ways enterprises can cut costs in their IT infrastructure and operations (I&O). Gartner defines I&O as everything in IT except business applications.

There are 10 ways to cut costs in I&O that, if done completely, will reduce spend by 10 per cent within 12 months and 25 per cent in three years, said Pultz.

1. Defer those I&O initiatives that don’t meet business needs. “Look at your key initiatives and focus on those that help you meet the business needs, help you reduce costs and help you keep to uptime requirements for crucial systems,” said Pultz. Preferred initiatives include data centre modernization and consolidation, virtualization, improving processes with ITIL, upgrading PCs, unified communications, and a mobile enterprise strategy.

2. Re-examine networking costs. “These tend to be the largest contracts that you have if you’re not doing a significant amount of outsourcing,” said Pultz. By reviewing current telco contracts, enterprises can renegotiate a lower rate, identify billing errors and things they should no longer be paying for. Pultz also suggests revisiting the network architecture and refining uptime requirements.

3. Consolidate I&O. “You must ask yourself if you have consolidated all that you can,” said Pultz. Most data centre managers understand the benefit of replacing distributed and standalone servers with new form factors in the data centre such as rack and blade. Yet less than 10 per cent have consolidated their servers, said Pultz.

4. Virtualize I&O. “Virtualization is an incredibly powerful technology to reduce hardware costs, reduce power costs, improve utilization and so forth,” said Pultz. For instance, reducing server count by 75 per cent will reduce power consumption by a similar amount. Pultz suggests: “Don’t go slow, accelerate as much as possible your plans to virtualize servers” because of the advantages that can be reaped from high levels of virtualization.

5. Reduce power and cooling needs. “We’re just creating more capacity which creates more heat in a similar space,” said Pultz. Don’t think of the data centre holistically. Instead, break it down into pods or modules and design each individually. One module might be designed for heat density with hot and cold racks, while an other designed for higher uptime, said Pultz. Don’t forget energy monitoring tools are useful for knowing your usage and for optimizing that.

6. Contain storage growth. “We’ve got to do more than just throwing terabytes at the problem,” said Pultz. Yet, that’s the popular response among data centre managers. Some techniques include data deduplication to reduce repeats of the same data, thin provisioning to make better use of storage, and compressing files.

7. Push down IT support. “Institute self-service to get end users to do more on their own and call the service desk less often,” said Pultz. Each level of IT support has a different cost, be it self-service, service desk, technical staff, strategic staff. Having end users help themselves is cost efficient because self-service is one-tenth the cost per transaction.

8. Streamline IT operations. “Change management is a very large source of problems that generate incidents that must be solved by the service desk,” said Pultz. Applying an ITIL framework can ensure change is done correctly. Streamlining processes in general, said Pultz, can reduce the operations part of the IT budget. It also means an enterprise can reduce the need for expensive highly skilled IT professionals.

9. Enhance IT asset management. While improving IT asset management won’t result in cost savings, Pultz said having that data source is invaluable for analyzing potential cost savings across I&O. Some areas that the data can highlight are the need to extend server life, combining contracts into volume purchase agreements, and eliminating software licenses for staff who are no longer employed.

10. Optimize multi-sourcing. “I&O over the years has got much more complex with greater demands from the enterprise,” said Pultz. But it’s not a “binary decision” whether to outsource or insource, he added. It deserves a granular look at function, process and platform. Pick one of those areas to outsource. But be careful not to outsource so much that it becomes costly to manage the slew of service providers.

Overall, Pultz has observed enterprises having only completed a third of his 10 recommendations. He suggests comparing I&O costs to that of other organizations to get a sense of where one stands.

Along the same vein, a study last March by Germany-based infrastructure company Software AG found that the majority of IT directors polled considered services-oriented architecture (SOA) to be a good cost-cutting measure in this tough economy.

Specifically, 83 per cent said they will use SOA to cut costs and 40 per cent said they planned to implement SOA governance in the next year.

The reusability of infrastructure components that SOA affords means greater return on investment for an organization, said Tim Holyoake, lead technologist with Software AG. “Tough economic challenges have forced many businesses to break free from traditional application constraints and re-use existing systems to help keep costs down,” said Holyoake.

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The war over Net neutrality is entering a new phase, with an announcement Thursday by the Federal Communications Commission that it is discontinuing efforts to reach a deal with large web and telecommunications companies on a plan to send to Congress. The breakdown comes just as reports broke Thursday that Google, a leader in advocating an open Internet, had reached an agreement with Verizon about ways to offer better service to some of its customers.

This ability to favor some content and applications over others, possibly divided by those who can pay for better access and those who cannot, is the core battle in Net neutrality. To date, the Internet experience has been that all sites have equal access to bandwidth, even if the speed of a site’s servers and other factors differ.

‘Tighter Boundaries’ in FCC Talks

According to The Washington Post, the now-discontinued FCC/industry negotiations had led to agreement on a variety of issues, including what the paper described as “tighter boundaries for managing web traffic than those agreed upon by Verizon and Google, according to sources familiar with the meetings.”

In the wake of a storm of criticism that descended on both Google and Verizon, the FCC is faced with having to move as quickly as it can, or face a de facto industry arrangement. Some industry observers are saying that Google, which has been a champion of Net neutrality and an open Internet, only intends to agree to service-level agreements on content that requires quick delivery, such as real-time medical files and communications, and leave all else to voluntary arrangements.

One question is whether the FCC will now attempt to regulate Net neutrality with its rules, or if that fight will be in Congress — or both. In mid-June, the agency released what Chairman Julius Genachowski described as a “Third Way” plan to reclassify Internet service in order to achieve universal access and to “protect and empower consumers.”

Currently, the agency is receiving comments on the plan, which reclassifies wired broadband Internet service as a telecommunications service and leaves Internet content and applications largely unregulated. Some companies, such as eBay, Amazon, various consumer groups — and Google — have been backing the FCC, while phone and cable companies are largely opposed.

If the FCC does assert that regulatory power, it might be able to regulate Net neutrality directly.

Worried about ‘Few Powerful Companies’

At the time of the plan’s release, Democratic FCC member Michael Copps said the FCC needed “to reclaim our authority.” He added that he was “worried about relying only on the goodwill of a few powerful companies to achieve this country’s broadband hopes and dreams.”

In opposition to the move, Republican member Meredith Baker said “industry alone will not solve every challenge, and no commercial market is perfect, but I fear a more proactive broadband regulatory approach would adversely affect consumers, competition and investment.”

In early May, Genachowski announced that the FCC intended to reclassify broadband service as a telecommunications service, but only apply some of the regulations that apply to telecommunications.

The move came following an April judgment by a federal court concerning the FCC’s authority over Comcast as an Internet provider. The ruling found that the agency had much more limited authority under the current classification of Net providers as “information services” than had been widely assumed.

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Information Technology consulting, commonly abbreviated as IT consulting, entails advising businesses on using best information technology practices to meet different business objectives. The services provided by IT consultants may be as simple as creating an internal company information database for the managers to as complex as developing the entire organizational information system, which is crucial to the marketing and sales processes.

Why Opt For Information Technology Consulting?

The IT environment is highly dynamic and complex. This calls for specialized expertise of an information technology consulting company, for building novel IT infrastructure and other necessary integrated applications. Some key benefits of hiring an IT consultant are:

• Cost-cutting: An IT consultant helps to streamline business information, thereby enabling reduction in the dependence on manpower. This, in turn, helps to save time and cut-down costs. A good IT consultant will also offer ongoing assistance to keep the business systems running efficiently, further reducing waste.
• Security: Breach of security is a wide-spread concern, costing businesses greatly. According to a report by Ponemon Institute/ArcSight, the median cost of insider-data breaches was as high as $3.4 million per business/per annum in 2006. An IT consultant enables to ensure that business records containing sensitive information is only accessible by authorized personnel, whenever necessary.
• Expansion assistance: A business cannot grow if its IT systems are not upgraded and expanded periodically. An information technology consulting company provides timely assistance in this regard, by remaining abreast with the latest technological developments, and incorporating the same in the existing system.

Finally, an IT consulting company functions as a “help desk”, which may be approached for finding prompt solutions to technological and system lapses. Also, by conducting regular audits and maintenance of systems, IT consultants help to avoid breakdowns in the first place.

Searching for an IT Consultant in Houston

According to an Industry Report by OnForce, the world’s biggest marketplace for IT professionals, Huston had the largest service economy during the second quarter of 2008. The report revealed that growth in the rollouts in technologies, particularly wireless networks, has resulted an increase in demand for IT consultants in Huston, from restaurants and hotels to stores and schools.

If you are searching for an IT consultant in Houston and throughout the United States to help with your IT systems and services, visit www.percentotech.com. Percento Technologies offers a wide-range of services, from IT maintenance and security to IT globalization and development. Besides, Parcento boasts an eighty nine percent plus referral rate.