How to Use SharePoint Metadata to Improve Search and Control Content (MetaVis)     pdf

One of the main reasons for using a content management system like SharePoint is to efficiently find the right documents and to enforce well-defined processes that govern documents’ behavior during different stages of their life cycle. Both of these activities would greatly benefit from the use of metadata, especially if the metadata model is properly designed and the values are consistently applied to documents.

Creating a Blueprint for Software Success (Micro Focus)     pdf

There’s a sad reality in software development trends today; project success is the worst it’s been in over 10 years. In spite of the methodologies and tools thrown at the problem, 44% of projects are late, over budget, or missing required features and functions.  While the industry offers the methodologies and tools that we need to develop and deliver software effectively, the odds of project success are still not in your favor if you lack an effective, repeatable approach to build quality in from the start.  Micro Focus has developed a pragmatic approach to software process improvement to help organizations identify and remediate sources of waste and risk; the Applications Management Value Profile (AVP).

Reducing Total Cost of Ownership of Your Application Development and Database Tools Across Government Organizations  (Embarcadero)     pdf

One implication of shrinking resources is that it has never been more timely or critical to understand the Total Cost of Ownership (“TCO”) of software purchases.”  A thorough analysis considers not only direct costs, such as software licenses, maintenance, and required hardware, but also indirect costs, such as software asset management and compliance, desktop administration, software fixes, IT support, user training, and downtime.

The purpose of this paper is to help readers evaluate the TCO of the traditional software models versus the new model provided by Embarcadero® All-Access™. It will provide readers with a guideline for developing a TCO comparison that will help them determine which model is best for reducing both near-term and longer-term costs associated with their application development and database tools, as well as for making their IT operations more agile and efficient.

Clean VPN Approach to Secure Remote Access (SonicWALL)     pdf

Modern business practices have extended users, endpoints, traffic and resources beyond the limits of the traditional network perimeter. To remain viable, therefore, today’s security solutions must enable and extend business beyond that perimeter. Status quo proprietary solution vendors recommend complex—and often expensive—retrofitting of perimeter defenses, even though the modern network perimeter has become inherently insecure. Alternatively, a “clean VPN” scenario integrates secure remote access and network security appliance technology to deliver layered defense-in-depth protection for the core elements of business communications: the endpoints and users; the data and application resources; and the traffic connecting them.

10 Trends and Technologies Driving Secure Teleworking (SonicWALL)     pdf

Once the key drivers for teleworking were productivity and flexibility—the so-called “work-life balance” that many workers strive for. Those “soft benefits” still exist, but increasingly financial considerations such as gas prices, the credit crisis and hard cost savings drive teleworking programs.  Teleworking programs help companies strengthen the loyalty of their workers.  Whether driven by hard or soft benefits, teleworking programs have one core requirement: Give telecommuters secure access to corporate networks, applications and data. For workers at remote sites, IT and corporate security managers must select secure remote access technologies to make teleworking not just viable but safe.  This white paper addresses today’s drivers of teleworking and the technologies that enable it.

Ensuring Personally Identifiable Information (PII) Security within U.S. Government Agencies (Embarcadero)     pdf

Using Data Management Tools to Ensure FISMA and Privacy Act Compliance - Safeguarding personally identifiable information (PII) and remaining in compliance with government regulations is a difficult challenge made easier with database tools from Embarcadero Technologies.

Reducing the Time and Costs Associated with Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance (Embarcadero)     pdf

Today, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has significantly impacted most US publicly-traded companies, as well as companies across the globe. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act mandates executive responsibility for establishing, evaluating and monitoring the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting. Although SOX doesn’t explicitly mention the impact on IT systems, the requirements spelled out in Section 404 are used to derive the IT plans used to ensure compliance.

This paper addresses two aspects of Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance as it relates to Embarcadero’s database tools: how the tools help with compliance and how the tools themselves are compliant.

An Innovative Approach to Managing Software Requirements (MKS)     Paper

Requirements may be the most critical aspect of the software development cycle. Studies point to a more than 60% failure rate for software projects in the U.S., with poor requirements as one of the top five reasons. Managing requirements must be an integral part of an organizations overall development process, and is vital to mitigating risk on large development projects.

This paper introduces you to MKS Integrity for requirements management, the only solution available today built as an extension of an application lifecycle management platform. Further, this paper reviews the current state of the requirements management tools landscape and details how requirements are authored, captured and traced through the downstream lifecycle, how companies can utilize best practices such as parallel development and reuse in relation to requirements and how configuration management concepts such as versioning and base lining can be leveraged for advanced requirements management practice.

Repository-Centric Enterprise Architecture  (Enterprise Elements)     pdf

Enterprise Architecture modeling tools are used to capture complex knowledge about organizations and technology. Recently, the focus of enterprise architecture has shifted to a more holistic view necessitating the use of a repository-centric approach to analyze and optimize the portfolio of business strategies, organizational structures, business processes / tasks and activities, information flows, applications, and technology infrastructures across disparate modeling tools. This paper discusses the business value realized from consolidating of enterprise architecture artifacts into a single repository to support enterprise analysis and optimization using the Elements Repository.

Why Organizations Are Not Fully Protected by Standard Security Technologies  (Vericept)     pdf

Spam filters, anti-virus scanners, web blockers, and intrusion detection/prevention technologies are important security tools, but they still expose organizations to substantial risks of data loss while often lulling IT leaders into a false sense of security. Increasingly, security professionals are realizing the extent of damage caused by gaps in the capabilities of traditional security technologies.  This paper documents how these risks pose real dangers to organizations that need to protect their customer data as well as their own business strategies, intellectual property, and non-public financials. It concludes by explaining how Vericept products prevent needless data losses that can result from gaps in standard security technologies.