This, of course, is more of a company culture problem than anything Yammer can control. Yammer continues to grow, and the enterprise social network space is where companies who are conceding truly social networking dominance to Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, will seek to grow.

Yammer is an enterprise social network and becoming increasingly popular for publishers to set up virtual newsrooms. While it has often been described as "Twitter behind a firewall" because of its use of hash tags, Yammer has more of a Facebook feel, in my opinion, down to being able to "like" messages left by co-workers.

At Daily Dot, Yammer was used to assign and claim stories, get feedback, request that a story be posted to the Web site and, occasionally, receive a semi-public tongue lashing from an editor (the justification I was given when I complained about having all of my idiosyncrasies discussed in front of my virtual co-workers was that, as a startup, everyone else could learn from my mistakes).

But, the occasional flame war with an editor not withstanding, the worst part of working on Yammer is the same as the worst part of socializing on Facebook: those emo-updates on Facebook from someone you haven't spoken to in years about a recent breakup and baby photos of some half-forgotten high school friend often bury the important stuff. And on Yammer, that important stuff is often information you need to do your job properly. There is no virtual water cooler in Yammer, meaning all the idle chit-chat is happening in your virtual cubicle.

On more than one occasion this chatter meant an #editrequest would get buried and missed, meaning an editor would not see, read and post a story that would have otherwise beaten our competitors. Sometimes these requests got buried because of a legitimate flood of news; other times, however, they got buried because of a flood of #snaps (Daily Dot's preferred hash tag for self-congratulatory chatter when a story got picked up by a bigger news outlet).

The other big drawback about Yammer? In my experience, it actually discouraged one-on-one communication.

ReadWriteWeb uses Skype, which has chat rooms that can be used for getting input on stories, discussing coverage and leads and, yes, going off on the occasional personal life update. But co-workers can also contact one another directly, either via instant message or voice, and that dramatically improves how people relate to one another. Daily Dot did use Campfire as a chat client, but it was another site to log into and if the person you needed to speak with wasn't logged in when you were, you were out of luck.

Is Skype the perfect back-end enterprise solution? Of course not, nor is Yammer completely flawed. The big takeaway from all of this is no matter what system your firm implements, its has to be done thoughtfully and updated frequently until it is perfect, or at least less flawed.

A top level domain is a core part of how the Internet organizes and parses the names of websites. The most common, of course, is .com, but other TLDs are .net, .org and country domains like .CO or .UK. ICANN's new gTLDs will allow companies, governments and other organizations to register unique strings. For instance, are we about to enter the era of .pepsi? See below for everything you need to know about the new domain name system.

ICANN believes that the new gTLD system will be a boon for the Internet economy. Startups, business, entrepreneurs and governments will all be allowed to own and manage their own little portion of the Internet, if they so choose.

Here is ICANN's reasoning:

"One of ICANN's key commitments is to promote competition in the domain name market while ensuring Internet security and stability. New generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) help achieve that commitment by paving the way for increased consumer choice by facilitating competition among registry service providers. Soon entrepreneurs, businesses, governments and communities around the world will be able to apply to operate a Top-Level Domain registry of their own choosing."

Many people think that the new gTLD system will start a gold rush for new domains. To a certain extent this is true. A lot of companies will be bidding big money to retain their trademarks as a gTLD. ICANN will not hold a trademarked name for a specific gTLD just because that company owns the trademark. On the other hand, owning a gTLD is a big organizational and financial responsibility that will be prohibitive for many brands and enterprises.

For example, the base financial commitment for entry for a gTLD is $185,000. If you thought you would waltz in and grab your last name as a TLD, you are probably not going to be able to. It is unlikely that we are going to start seeing individuals with personal URLs like "joe.smith." In this case, Mr. Smith would need to pay for the gTLD and prove to ICANN that he and his organization can support the strict requirements of owning a gTLD.

"Please note that applying for a new gTLD is not the same as buying a domain name. An applicant for a new gTLD is, in fact, applying to create and operate a registry business supporting the Internet's domain name system. This involves a number of significant responsibilities, as the operator of a new gTLD is running a piece of visible Internet infrastructure."

The financial commitment is more than just $185,000 that serves as an evaluation fee. A deposit of $5,000 is required with the application. As a gTLD owner, an entity is required to be the keeper of that domain. That means the company will, in one way or another, be responsible for every other URL that pops up using the new name. In the Smith scenario, whoever owns the Smith gTLD would be responsible for the organization, security and infrastructure of the domain name. After a domain is approved, there is a $6,250 monthly fee and a $0.25 per transaction fee after the first 50,000 transactions in a calendar year.

ICANN does not know how many applications it will receive in this first round of new gTLDs. Entities can apply for domains from today (Jan. 12) until April 12, 2012. This round will contain a maximum of 500 new gTLDs applications and subsequent batches will be limited to 400.

The application and review process is extensive. We are not going to see new gTLDs crop up tomorrow or even next week or next month. The review process for each application can take anywhere between nine and 20 months.

"There are several stages that an application may pass through prior to a final determination being rendered. Those stages are Administrative Check, Initial Evaluation, Extended Evaluation, String Contention, Dispute Resolution and Pre-delegation. The shortest path for a successful application is to pass Administrative Check (lasting 2 months), Initial Evaluation (lasting 5 months) and then move to Pre-delegation (lasting approximately 2 months) without any Objections filed or String Contention concerns. In this case the evaluation process could take as little as 9 months to complete. On the other hand if an application does not pass Initial Evaluation and elects Extended Evaluation and/or is in the Dispute Resolution or String Contention stages then the evaluation process could take up to 20 months to complete (or longer in the event that unforeseen circumstances arise)."

New applications will be assessed by independent third-party expert panels.

Next Page: What gTLDs will look like and other issues and concerns . . .

What Will New gTLDs Look Like?

New domains will be required to be at least three characters in length and contain only alphabetic characters from A to Z. Hence, no domains will be issued that have numbers, like .c0m or .1234.

Country codes are not included in this sale of gTLDs and are a completely separate part of ICANN's TLD standards. Part of the three letter requirement is to protect current and future country level domains like .CO (Colombia) or .UK (United Kingdom).

Not included in ICANN's gTLDs are second and third string domain names. Consider maps.google.com. In this case, the TLD is .com while the second string is .google and the third .maps. Operators of new gTLDs will be the ones to validate any second and third string domain names.

Multiple languages will be supported in the new gTLD system, and non-Latin writing systems, such as the Arabic alphabet and Chinese characters. When an applicant applies for a gTLD, it will not own the translation of the domain. Hence, if you are applying for .thing, you will not also receive the Spanish .cosa or the equivalent in Arabic letters or Chinese characters.

There are two options for new owners of gTLDs to operate them: open or closed. One will be that a company or a brand owns its own name, Coca Cola for instance, and keeps its second and third string URLs within the company. Like, news.coke or offers.coke. Coca Cola would not sell URLs to outside entities and maintain the entire gTLD in the corporate environment. This would be a closed example.

An open example would be if some entity purchases the aforementioned .smith gTLD. The organization could then start selling DNS registrations to individuals, like joe.smith or betty.smith. This is where the true money will be made in the new ICANN infrastructure.

Owners of new gTLDs will likely not be able to turn around and sell the domain. The extensive application and review process contains many layers of objections, comments and evaluation on how well an organization can conduct the domain. So, buying .sex and thinking that it can be flipped for millions of dollars later would not be a feasible model. Buying .sex and selling registrations to the domain would function much more effectively in the new system.

There are two types of applications: standard and community. A community could function as a group of like-minded people working towards a common goal with a reasonable shared infrastructure. A community could be, say, a large group of Silicon Valley startups that all want to use the gTLD .startup. The companies could create a partnership with a central body that would support the gTLD. A standard application would be to a company or an organization that merits consideration.

An organization cannot, however, apply for a gTLD on anothers behalf. If you buy a gTLD, it is yours. You cannot turn around and flip it to GoDaddy or Namecheap for management. On the other hand, there is nothing stopping the domain registrars from applying for gTLDs on their own.

"ICANN will only enter into an agreement with the applicant. There's no provision for Party X to enter a registry agreement with ICANN designating Party Y as the registry operator.

Other Issues

ICANN makes it a point to say that "no, gTLDs are not going to break the Internet."

"The increase in number of gTLDs into the root is not expected to affect the way the Internet operates, but it will, for example, potentially change the way people find information on the Internet or how businesses plan and structure their online presence."

The application and review process, not to mention the cost of supporting a gTLD, is prohibitive to cybersquatters. Some companies may buy their .brand as a defensive strategy but the fact of the matter is that it will be extremely difficult for squatters to get through the process without a plan of action and support. Some companies that can support might just buy the name so it will not have to deal with headaches later.

Forrester's Jeff Ernst has this to say on companies making decisions of whether or not to apply for a gTLD:

"Keep in mind that this is much bigger than just moving your brand from the left to the right of the dot. I'm not a big fan of submitting a defensive registration. Get some of your smartest people from marketing, finance, legal, distribution, service, and strategy together. Examine some of the biggest challenges you have today in any of those areas. Think about your company's strategy and priorities over the next 4 years. See if you can find a strategic application of a registry that can differentiate your company, contribute to growth plans, or help with one or more of your biggest challenges. And if so, go forward with a strategic application. If not, read my latest reports and understand the risks and actions you should take when you stay on the sidelines."

So we, for example, are not worried in the slightest about some organization buy the .writeweb gTLD and blackmailing us to sign up for read.writeweb. There are bigger fish in the sea.

From a security perspective, it is not likely that spammers will buy their own domains and use them as a launching point for spam attacks. As Blue Coat's Chris Larsen pointed out to me recently, it is fairly easy to block spam and malware once you know where it is coming from. So, if spam is coming primarily from a gTLD owned by a botnet operator, it would be simple to just block that gTLD. Again, given the cost and review process, that is not an efficient use of funds for malware makers.

For additional information, see ICANN's FAQ and the Application Guidebook.

What are the concerns regarding the new ICANN gTLD ecosystem? It will definitely dilute the TLD infrastructure and fragment how the Web is organized. Is that a bad thing though? ICANN is a not-for-profit organization so it is not motivated by making money hand over fist. How excess money from the application process will be used will be put to a vote. Overall, is this a positive or negative move for the Web? Let us know in the comments.

This is where IBM Research wants to help by recreating the user interface for mobile email. The first step is to help users triage (sort) email messages. So instead of the mobile email client opening straight to the inbox, IBM's notion is to open it to a triage screen. It provides color-coded "badges" to help users determine what untriaged mail they have. In the picture to the left, , the grey badge represents the number of read messages, light blue unread messages and dark blue for new messages.

Once a user has determined new messages, the untriaged view of the inbox looks a lot like a normal mobile email client. A dot to the left of the message indicates how many people have received the message, with a full green circle for the user as the sole recipient, half a circle for a select few users and an empty circle for a large amount of users. New messages have a light blue background.

It is then time to capture the intention of what users want to do with the email. The triage is just a way to determine how to initially react to an email. The next step is to actually act. An overlay appears in the client with the prompts of Next, Deferred and Reference. Next is for when users want or need to respond when they have a spare moment, Deferred is to be used later when a user is at a desktop computer and Reference is for relevant information that does not require an action of its own at this particular time.

Users can also assign a specification action such as call, print, read, reply, save, schedule, send and visit. If users do not want to assign a category, the "next" category will be assigned by default. Tasks can be acted upon by the user from within the client. Users can view, edit and delete tasks. Tasks are synced to the cloud to be available across devices and desktops.

IBM's research on a new mobile email client is directed at enterprise users. To a certain extent this would not work well for commercial users with a high volume of emails or people that see hundreds of emails a day (like the staff at ReadWriteWeb). IBM's strategy centers around Lotus and while that is one of the most-used email clients overall, it may rub some people the wrong way. To a certain extent, IBM's research is classic enterprise thinking: give IT managers and users more layers of control. On the other hand, the notion of triage, capturing intentions and tasks adds more pain points to the email experience. Users want things to be as simple as possible. IBM's triage and capture does not seem to be simple.

The study was done by IBM Research guru Jeff Pierce. You can see the details here and here.

Does mobile email need to be rethought or does the current system work just fine? What are the differences in needs for enterprise users versus commercial users? Let us know what you think in the comments.

We're already seeing clues about the future of the IT help desk today. The workforce is beginning to become more distributed and mobile, while the nature and number of devices people use day-to-day changes rapidly. That will have an impact on the way companies operate, especially as they continue their move toward the cloud.

Mobile, But Probably Not That Social

As much buzz as there's been about social CRM in the last year or two, the trend toward socially infused customer support probably has only a limited relevance to company IT departments, whose "customers" are really internal staff. And while some employees may take to Twitter with a knee-jerk complaint about crashing apps or connectivity troubles, most of these interactions will continue to happen directly.

That isn't to say that IT issues will necessarily be resolved face-to-face. Indeed, between solid help desk and ticketing Web apps and remote support solutions, there's almost no need for the IT team to ever interface with staff, who will increasingly be distributed across geographic regions.

Not only is the nature of the workforce itself becoming more mobile, but so too are the tools used by IT staff to fix problems. We're already seeing really solid mobile and tablet apps for things like help desk software, remote desktop support, accessing servers via SSH or FTP and managing networks, to name a few. As smartphones and especially tablets become more ubiquitous and powerful, we can realistically expect to see even more robust administrative tools built for them.

Supporting A Wider Range of Devices

It used to be that IT departments had only one set of devices to worry about: the desktop computers or laptops purchased by the company for employees to use. Today, organizations struggle with the blurry lines imposed by personal mobile devices and tablets and how to deal with them from a support standpoint. We can expect this to continue as both smartphones and tablets continue to proliferate.

In the future, it may not just be tablets and smartphones, but other connected devices as well. As the Web continues to grow outside of its original desktop boundaries, the list of devices IT departments need to support could grow as well. Anything that connects to the Internet and has a potential professional use is something that IT staff will at least need to be familiar with, even if they're not fully supporting it.

How the Cloud Can Help

Cloud computing is all the rage among enterprises and smaller businesses now, and that trend doesn't appear to be going anywhere. In addition to lower IT costs, the cloud can also help companies better troubleshoot IT problems.

As data gets bigger and the workforce gets more geographically decentralized, IT teams will need operations to be that much more centralized and easy to manage. As operations continue to move into the cloud, that will become easier, thanks to the rapid deployment of servers and applications, as well as individual virtual machines. Not only can IT solutions be deployed more rapidly, but they can be managed and troubleshot more easily, with many issues capable of being handled from a single, centralized dashboard.

Will IT Still Need to Use the Telephone?

Among customers, one of the most painful parts of seeking technical support is waiting on hold on the telephone, especially with bigger companies. For internal users, this pain may be minimized, but they often still have to deal with waiting in a queue one way or another.

At the end of the day, the telephone is one of the least efficient tools in the IT staff's belt. Phone-based support is already giving way to a host of other solutions, from Web-based ticketing to real-time chat. In time, we may see it disappear entirely, or at least be relegated to certain problems for which a voice conversation is better suited. In the meantime, the immediate future may see an approach that integrates voice with Web-based tools.

What are your hopes for the future of the IT help desk? Whichever side of the help desk you're on, what are some changes you'd like to see down the line?

Photo by Bill Rice

GoToMeeting is going to be preloaded onto Motorola's newest Android device, the Droid BIONIC, starting Sept. 8. The iOS version of GoToMeeting has been downloaded nearly 250,000 times. Motorola will also be pre-loading the Citrix Receiver that allows employees to access corporate Windows apps and documents from anywhere.

The GoToMeeting Android app will be free from the Android Market. Here are the features that GoToMeeting brings to Android:

Quick session entry: Click a meeting invitation from your email, enter your meeting ID and you are in.

VoiP integrated audio: Use the phones built-in mic and speakers over WiFi for conversation over an IP connection.

Audio controls: The ability to mute yourself if you are in a noisy area.

Zoom in on content: Pinch to zoom to see content up to 200%.

Portrait or landscape: Taking advantage of the accelerometer.

See who is attending: List of all meeting attendees.

The Citrix Receiver and GoToMeeting for Android are a significant step for the operating system to gain traction in the enterprise. Android is following a similar development cycle that Apple did with iOS, which took several years to have the apps, security and functionality that has made it a popular device among corporations.

On the flip side, anything that Android does in the enterprise space is probably bad for Research In Motion. Google could also have a significant feather in its hat with its Motorola purchase as that likely includes Android security startup 3LM (Three Laws of Mobility) that is one of several companies building BlackBerry Enterprise Server-like functionality for Android.

Android proliferation coupled with enhanced security, BlackBerry's declining market share and excellent apps for functionality such as GoToMeeting could spell trouble for RIM. We will see how the trend plays out in the near future and if Android can fully gain a foothold in corporations.

And yes, there are log files, but again, looking through them is like finding that proverbial needle. The effort is tedious and if your attention wavers for just a moment, you could miss that one key entry that will provide your explanation, if you even know what to look for.

Wouldn't it be nice if vendors could add in this "Cher" feature to their products to turn back time to the past? Here are two that have done so, for very different purposes, but still get the idea.

Reflex Systems' Virtual Management Center has the ability to track changes to your virtual infrastructure using its built-in timeline. You can turn back the clock and look at what has happened to your network to do further troubleshooting, to find out when the user in distress messed up some configuration parameter a few days ago, for example. The software brings the same kind of of network infrastructure controls that are seen in the physical world such as firewalls and intrusion detection. Plus, they have some cool network maps as you can see here.

The second product is from Meru, who sells a variety of wireless access points and management tools, including some that use virtualization in some clever ways. New for them is the Service Assurance Manager v1.2, which provides proactive diagnostic abilities including rewind and review. This capability allows network managers to pinpoint network connectivity issues that occurred in the past and proactively make adjustments to avoid them in the future.

The third product is from CiRBA, which sells its Data Center Intelligence subscription service. This week they announced v7, which includes an improved UI, better automation tools and the ability to book future capacity for anticipated workloads. Their software is used for physical to virtual conversions and in data center consolidation and workload provisioning.

The UI in particular is quite stunning, as you can see in the screenshot below. At a glance I can see the entire lay of my data center landscape, and the little dots represent whether you have the right level of infrastructure or not for the loads that are running on these services. You can drill down to get more specifics. They aren't just looking at CPU or RAM usage, but measuring how the servers measure up to a such VM-specific metrics such as high availability and VM security zone usage. And you can both see what happened in the past as well as model what will be predicted to happen in the future.

The service will be released at the end of the year and is subscription based on the number of servers and the length of time it is being used.

Now, obviously, you aren't going to rush out and buy any of these products just so that you can visit the past. And while I don't think the engineers at either company were thinking of Cher when they designed their products, I do believe that both are strong enough and all I really want to do is have my network beat go on here when I use them. Babe.

It is easy to use a Facebook page or a Twitter account to expand a brand's reach. Set it up and start posting and the marketing department hits its "reach" quotient for the quarter. Yet, for business-to-business (B2B) technology suppliers get little value from their social media initiatives. Hence, Forrester recommends businesses augment their social media strategies to become more effective sources of information for making technology-purchasing decisions.

For the time sink that social media can be, those are not great numbers for marketers looking to expand brand awareness. The top sources of influence for decision-makers were websites followed by word-of-mouth from colleagues and then in-person events like trade shows or conferences all. Part of this has to do with the nature of enterprise buying - it is a market ecosystem that does not change quickly. Buyers tend to use the sources they trust and often those sources are going to be other people they know and can physically interact with. Think of it like this: you ask your colleague how he/she solved problem "X." Colleague says they used "X" product. What do you then do? Turn to the Web and look up that companies Facebook page or go to the company's website?

For smaller consumer businesses, Facebook and Twitter can be great ways to increase engagement and hence foot traffic to brick-and-mortar locations. It is cheap and potentially viral. Enterprises are insulated from the viral nature of the social Web because the vetting process of technology decisions lasts longer than the typical Internet meme.

Forrester recommends and integrated approach. Instead of a stand-alone social marketing channel that screams into the Internet ether, tie it up with product and field marketing of the brand. It is a more cooperative and resource-intensive approach, but the results should be greater than setting up camp on Facebook with an "open for business" shingle on the door.

Last month in Seattle I met up with TripIt co-founder Scott Hintz and Concur co-founder Michael Hilton (currently Executive VP, Worldwide Marketing). I was most interested to find out how a trendy consumer-focused travel app found its way into the more rigid, paperwork ridden world of corporate travel management - and how it's faring.

Prior to approaching TripIt, Michael Hilton told me, Concur regarded the web 2.0 app as representing a sea change in the business travel industry. Mainly because TripIt was an application that was native to the smartphone. According to Hilton, who has been in the travel solutions industry for well over 15 years now, the smartphone has changed the dynamics of how people travel on business.

The innovation of TripIt, in the eyes of Concur's management, was that it gave travelers power. They felt that the app could be used to manage both personal and business trips. The idea behind the acquisition was that TripIt would enable Concur's customers to consolidate their travel data.

TripIt Was Already Eyeing Business Travel Market

The TripIt team had foreshadowed (or invited) the interest of Concur by launching a business offering in August of last year. Ostensibly this was a move designed to increase its revenue. Although the cynical amongst you might suggest it was to make TripIt an attractive acquisition target for the likes of Concur.

Regardless, it was probably a necessary move from a revenue point of view. Because although the consumer version of TripIt had a premium version for regular travelers, there was stiff competition in the consumer space from the likes of Dopplr, KAYAK and WorldMate.

So other than the obvious motivator of a big pay day, what attracted TripIt to Concur? TripIt co-founder Scott Hintz told me that from day one, TripIt was used by frequent travelers - which he said were mostly small or large business people. He admitted that it took some time for TripIt to recognize that in addition to its popular consumer offering, it could also offer benefits to employers.

In particular, Hintz told me, TripIt had a lot of requests from its users to create small business services. For example enabling office assistants, travel coordinators and others to manage the travel of other people in TripIt.

So while TripIt started out as a way to manage personal trips, the product was eventually extended to organize the trips of other people - typically in a business context.

TripIt is also now extending onto other devices; an an iPad app was launched in May.

Do You Concur With Concur Acquisition?

Much of the work currently happening between TripIt and Concur is in integrating the two services together. In May, it was announced that trips booked in Concur would be automatically copied into TripIt. The reverse data transfer (TripIt Pro to Concur) was announced at the end of June.

Overall, the acquisition by Concur was undeniably a great deal for TripIt. It got cash, stock in a larger, more stable company, and opportunities to flesh out its consumer app into a 'grown up' business one.

For Concur, it remains to be seen whether the bigco can successfully integrate a consumer-focused app into its heavily business-focused solutions. But as we all know, it's a business world increasingly dominated by online - and increasingly mobile - services. Concur couldn't have picked a better web 2.0 app in the consumer travel market, so at the very least it has smart new employees, access to sophisticated TripIt customers, and some very whizzy technology.

What do you think, was the deal a good one for both companies? What about for consumers?

What are the applications that IT experts need to be able to function at optimum performance? The ability to streamline aspects of the business into one application is very useful. Here are five applications that help IT professionals do their jobs at peak efficiency.

XenApp by Citrix - When it comes to virtualization and scalability, Citrix and VMWare are the go-to choices for IT gurus. XenApp is an on-demand application delivery solution that can enable Windows applications to be virtualized and managed in the data center and then delivered to any employee, on any device. Citrix is always ahead of the game in terms of compatibility as well, working with original equipment manufacturers to make sure that XenApp and the Citrix Receiver are available as soon as the hottest new device comes out. (Disclosure: Citrix is a ReadWriteWeb sponsor.)

BoxTone - The "Consumerization of IT" has become a nightmare for your tech guy. Everybody is now bringing in their own phones and tablets and wanting the tech department to make them work. It used to be so easy! Hand out BlackBerries to everyone and link them through the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. IT professionals now have to navigate through disparate platforms like Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Windows Phone (who did no help to IT departments by forking away from Windows CE compatibility).

BoxTone is mobile device management software. The software can help IT pros maintain and enforce security on personal and corporate and deploy over-the-air (OTA) updates to phones to patch security holes or set device permissions. It can leverage the best technology across iOS, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia and make scaling your workforce into a mobile machine easier.

Chatter - Salesforce.com Chatter is a great way to communicate in or out of the office. For IT professionals, communication on the go is a necessity when managing tickets across the business. Chatter works a lot like a private Twitter channel and is available for iOS, Android and BlackBerry. Chatter allows for file uploads, status updates, analytics dashboards and has notifications when you are not signed in to Chatter itself.

Microsoft Lync - On the topic of communications, Chatter may not be a robust enough solution for enterprise communications. That is where Microsoft and other enterprise communications providers like Cisco and Avaya step in. Lync is Microsoft's unified communications platform that integrates presence, security, chat, video and telephony into one location. Lync can be on-premises or hosted and with service options available from Microsoft, it can be easy to manage for IT professionals stretched for time.

Mozy - Online data backup is one of those things that you did not know you needed until there is a catastrophe at the server level and your company's data is literally melting on the floor at the data center. So, multiple backup options for data are preferable and Mozy is as good as any of them. Mozy can automatically backup data on a set schedule and delivers information to the data center on a 128-bit SSL encryption.

Photo by flaivoloka

BlackBerry Balance shows users a unified view of the applications and data on the smartphone allowing them to separate sensitive business information or personal uses like scheduling and activity management. As enterprise and consumers merge gadgets from a hodge podge of task specific devices to streamlining one device for many purposes, RIM keeps the IT administrators satisfied with security provisions while also allowing personal use.

"So, our task as a vendor has been to understand this whole, we call it dual-persona nature, that they devices have to have," said David Heit, director of product strategy at RIM in an interview in January. "So, looking forward that these devices and their solutions there is a personal element to them where the individual decides their own level of security."

Data leaks through social media is often a concern that IT departments have, especially when sensitive client information is stored next to a social media app. Balance will prevent business information to be copied into or used by Facebook, Twitter, Windows Lives, Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo accounts. Data created by business applications cannot be used by personal applications.

"In our designs for Playbook and even for all the Blackberry smartphones we are recognizing that dual-persona nature that you have to accommodate and that these devices will become capable of handling the combined scenario where it is used for both," Heit said.

Since Balance is tied through a BES 5.03 server, IT administrators get the level of control that makes them feel comfortable. If an employee leaves the organization with smartphone in tow, IT can remotely wipe the business information on the phone while keeping personal information intact. In the case of a lost of stolen phone, all data can be wiped remotely.

The Influences Driving Virtualization is the latest white paper from ReadWriteWeb. In the white paper, writer Philip Morgan looks at the influences that are shaping virtualization with particular emphasis on standardization, simplification and automation. Through that lens the white paper examines the factors that influence companies and how the cloud plays a defining role.

• Examine your risk to benefit ratio.
• Consider security implications.
• Learn best practices through enterprise case studies.
• Reduce your data center footprint.
• Outline standardized administration for better disaster recovery.
• Recommend strategic reallocation of resources.

We think you'll find our report about the influences driving virtualization will be essential reading for the new enterprise.

I.T. can still wipe data from lost or stolen phones, but only corporate data. It can deploy enterprise apps over-the-air, but it can't see what personal apps a user has installed. And it can't track the location of a phone unless the employee gives it permission to do so.

For I.T., Control Where it Matters

If that sounds like a deal that would make the control-freak I.T. admins uncomfortable, Divide offers some enterprise-ready features that should sweeten the deal. On the work "side" of the device, enterprise-grade applications for email, contacts, calendar, text messaging, IM and Web browsing are provided, and they sync with ActiveSync-compatible systems, including Microsoft Exchange, Google Apps and Lotus Notes.

I.T. still has the ability to set policies on the devices - for example, to enforce encryption or to specify under what scenarios an employee can connect to the network. It can also enforce legal terms of service, like the management of email signatures, and it can require a password to be entered every time a user switches from the personal profile to the work one.

The switching process is done by a simple double-tap of the "home" button.

Divide also includes a secure API (application programming interface) that allows third-parties (or even I.T. itself) to write apps that access corporate data. These apps can then be sent down to end users' devices over-the-air.

Finally, I.T. can brand the business profile to their liking, right down to the background image and the icons that appear on the homescreen.

Private Beta Today & Other Company Details

Today, Enterproid launches into private beta via a sign-up form on its website. A mid-2011 commercial launch on the Android platform is planned with support for Windows Phone 7 and iOS devices to soon follow.

There are some interesting co-founders behind Enterproid, it's worth mentioning: CEO Andrew Toy formerly served as VP of Mobile and Syndication Technology at MTV Networks, VP of Business Development Alexander Trewby spent 10 years at Morgan Stanley as VP of Mobile Development and VP of Engineering David Zhu was previously Director of Engineering at iOS-focused startup Smule, the maker of a slew of  #1 hits on the iTunes App Store.

Enterproid was also a finalist in the 2011 Qualcomm Ventures QPrize competition and is presenting at the DEMO conference today in Palm Desert, California.

And Dell isn't the only RIM-switcher making headlines today, either. Two of the biggest U.S. banks, Bank of America and Citigroup, are seriously considering the iPhone, it's being reported.

Last month, Apple reported that 80% of Fortune 500 companies are testing the iPhone, including Procter & Gamble, General Electric and JPMorgan Chase & Co., the latter of which is also considering Android, says Bloombeg. 

The article also cited an August survey by Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., which found that 74% of U.S. and U.K. companies now let employees use non-Blackberry devices and in the U.S. alone, that number is 83%. Cost and employee preference were the two main reasons for the switch, the poll found.

Cost savings come into play when a company can either partially or entirely eliminate the need for Blackberry servers. In Dell's case, for example, Dell CFO Brian Gladden told the Wall St. Journal that the company will save around 25% in mobile communication costs by moving off of Blackberry.

But for the employees whose Blackberry phones would have to be ripped from their cold, dead hands (as the expression goes), it's not all bad news. According to Bloomberg, Bank of America's 284,000 employees and Citigroup's 258,000 employees would simply have more choice in devices if the companies decide to permit iPhone usage, it wouldn't be a forced switch.

Similarly, Zoho CRM customers can search for customer accounts, create new accounts and add notes and details directly from within their email inbox. All of this is made possible by Google's announcement of contextual gadgets API for Gmail from earlier this year. Third party app developers can embed their services directly within Gmail, healping to streamline business operations.

"Instead of hopping from browser tab to browser tab as they move through a workflow, everything needed to get the job done is presented in a single browser tab," said Zoho's Raju Vegesna. "The contextual integrations for Gmail are our first cross-vendor efforts and open the doors to similar integrations with other third-party applications."

It's wise for Zoho to attempt to reach customers on multiple platforms, especially with the popularity of Gmail and Google Apps. It's likely that many small businesses use a combination of Google, Zoho and other suites to satisfy their operations needs. Zoho says this is "just the beginning" for its Google offerings, so expect further integration in the future.

The announcement is part of a larger upgrade for Parallels which now supports enhanced speed, performance and graphics, including Direct X 9. Mac users - as well as iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users - can now access Windows applications, file formats and even games from their various devices.

"With the popularity of mobile devices skyrocketing, our customers overwhelmingly desire the ability to do more from anywhere without the restrictions that usually come from working remotely," said Parallels CEO Serguei Beloussov.

As long as an instance of Parallels is open on your Mac, just fire up the app on your mobile device and your windows environment is instantly synced in real-time to your iPad, iPod or iPhone. This could be great for the iPad owner who wants to use the device to show a PowerPoint presentation without having to first convert it to an iPad-friendly format.

Part of making the mobile experience smooth for Parallels included boosting speed of the app to make it launch and run apps faster. Parallels says it can now boot up into a Windows application 41% faster than the previous version.

The application can now fully virtualize and leverage 64-bit apps and can reproduce 5.1 digital surround sound. Enhanced 3D capabilities mean gamers can better enjoy PC games on their Mac, though virtualizing games on the iPad probably won't work too well with the touch-screen interface (unless Monkey Island is your kind of game!)

So if you've always wanted to run Internet Explorer (or Firefox, for that matter) on your iOS device, Parallels Desktop 6 is probably the app for you. Check out a free trial at the Parallels homepage and give the free iOS app a whirl.