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Technology Accountability

When you buy patch-management software, does management wryly ask what happens when you need to patch that? Have vendor promises become as empty as the 401(k) plan of ? Does financial pressure leave you wondering during software license negotiations: What would Winona Ryder do?

We live in an era of accountability, born of the grand but unrealistic goals that are now part of turn-of-the-century lore. No need to repeat them here. Most of these circumspect projects, launched without IT input, buy-in or support, have fallen back into our laps with unceremonious blame.

Accountability as blame and albatross is as old as the stern lecture from your father and as new as the one your CFO delivers. Why not accountability as a badge of honor, to be worn in the face of those who thought they knew better, and shoved up the backsides of those who didn't but went right ahead anyway? Or perhaps, as I'm about to explain, accountability as a duty simply to do things right?

Technology accountability is built on four pillars: the reliability and scalability of the technology; the ease of its integration; the viability of its vendor; and its business justification.

The first two are staples. Network Computing has spent the past 12 years evaluating the capabilities of technology, testing how well it scales to meet the demands of your customers, how it withstands the test of time (far beyond a few well-intentioned packet blasts in the lab), and how well it can co-exist with and leverage your other systems and applications.

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