Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) -- how IT is delivered inside an enterprise as a service -- and a related area, the quickly evolving Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), form complementary trends that are helping to mature IT as a customer-focused, quality-of-service activity. IT departments are under mounting pressure -- cost reduction, competitiveness of internal IT compared to outsourced services, regulatory compliance, application and infrastructure modernization -- that demands that IT processes come under better control. At the same time, IT departments must show more value to the business, to be more agile in IT's responses to business needs. To help meet these challenges, newer standards and updated best practices are arriving, especially ITIL v3 in April, 2007. To help understand these trends and these new approaches, hear or read a discussion with executives from Hewlett-Packard's Services Consulting and Integration group: Klaus Schmelzeisen, director of the global ITSM and security practices, and Jeroen Bronkhorst, ITSM program manager and also an active participant in the ITIL version 3 editorial core team, as well as an author of the integrated ITIL process maps. Read a full transcript of the discussion at http://briefingsdirect.blogspot.com/2007/02/transcript-of-briefingsdirect-podcast_21.html. Sponsor: Hewlett-Packard.
Direct download: ITSM_podcast.mp3
Category:B2B Informational Podcast -- posted at: 2:36pm EDT

Welcome to the latest BriefingsDirect SOA Insights Edition Vol. 9, a weekly discussion and dissection of Services Oriented Architecture (SOA)-related news and events, with a panel of IT analysts. In this episode, recorded Jan. 19, 2007, our experts examine TIBCO's latest SOA tools news, the role of ESBs as platform, webMethods Fabric 7 release, IBM Q4 earnings, and HP's burgeoning foray into BI and data warehousing. Our analysts have some unconventional and startling conclusions, as well as thoughtful insights. Join analysts Steve Garone, Joe McKendrick, Neil Ward-Dutton, and Jim Kobielus and for our discussion, hosted and moderated by Dana Gardner. Feel free to read a full transcript of the podcast at http://briefingsdirect.blogspot.com/2007/02/transcript-of-briefingsdirect-soa.html.
Direct download: BriefingsDirect_Insights09.mp3
Category:B2B Informational Podcast -- posted at: 11:57am EDT

The Search Inside the Music project within Sun Microsystems Laboratories digs into the actual characteristics of music, identifying patterns and traits, and then associating that with other like music. Instead of using lists of metadata about the music author, album, or composer, listeners can ask for the types of music they like -- and get it, culled from vast stores of musical possibilities. Join your host and moderator, Dana Gardner, for a podcast discussion with Paul Lamere, a staff engineer at Sun Microsystems Labs and principal investigator for Search Inside the Music, and learn how the tonal gems can be abstracted from the noise rough based on each listeners' unique tastes. Read a full transcript of the discussion at http://briefingsdirect.blogspot.com/2007/02/transcript-of-briefingsdirect-podcast.html.
Direct download: BriefingsDirect_Sunlabs1.mp3
Category:B2B Informational Podcast -- posted at: 11:08am EDT