You know you're not in iTunes anymore when the app you're eyeing has a US$1,050 price tag, but SAP is nonetheless expanding its online shopping experience in a bid to entice its customers to purchase enterprise software the way they shop on their smartphones.

Gartner recently predicted that 25% of organizations will have their own app store by 2017, and while app stores can improve flexibility and empower staff, once the floodgates open it can be incredibly difficult for enterprises to manage software licensing, control entitlement and track actual software usage.

Oracle has won a US$100 million ERP project that will replace legacy systems at 34 colleges in Washington state, in a deal that highlights the continued relevance of its PeopleSoft product as it tries to convince customers to adopt its next-generation Fusion Applications.

SAP has expanded its foray into corporate sustainability with the release of a carpooling application called TwoGo.

Scores of IT projects being conducted by North Carolina's government are racking up higher-than-expected costs and going far beyond their planned schedules, a new report by the state's auditor has found.

A U.S. government watchdog agency has found that nearly half of 14 large ongoing military IT projects are over budget and more than half are behind schedule.

Worldwide spending on IT products and services will grow 4.1 percent this year to roughly US$3.8 trillion, according to new forecast figures released by analyst firm Gartner.

Few tech industry buzzwords have gotten as vigorous a workout as "Big Data," but while the hype remains plentiful, it is starting to give way to real-life successes as well as formal ways companies can develop big data strategies, according to a number of IDC analysts.

Failed expectations, increased costs, unnecessary legal risks -- going blind into a big data project doesn’t pay

On the surface, Cisco and Juniper's SDN strategies seem to have sharp contrasts if recent announcements are any indication.

SAP and a financial analyst are at loggerheads over a recent report by the analyst, which said that a handful of customers had received substantial discounts on their software maintenance renewals.

When Ben Fried left his post as IT managing director at Morgan Stanley and took over as Google's CIO in May 2008, he knew what he was getting into: supporting a user base full of technology experts and computer industry stars, like co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, CEO Eric Schmidt and Vice President Vint Cerf. In a recent interview with IDG News Service, Fried spoke candidly about his job and shared tips and advice for fellow CIOs, including the urgent need for tablet device strategies. An edited transcript of the interview follows.

When you're one of just two technology managers tasked with supporting a geographically dispersed user base, any kind of self-help technology that takes the burden off IT is welcomed with open arms. That's why Ernest Kayinamura of Enel North America and his lone counterpart have actively embraced wikis as a way to make IT materials more accessible to the end users they support.

It would be hard to exaggerate the angst that has gripped the US in recent months as the election nears, markets churn and assets melt. But the headlines that have made us dread picking up the newspaper mask a long-term problem that may shape the future of America more than John McCain's plan for Iraq, Barack Obama's health care ideas or Uncle Sam's heroic efforts to rescue the economy.

Science and technology may not have been the focus of the recent debates between presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama, but both candidates have outlined some broad policy proposals and goals. That's a good thing, because, as some of the top technology thinkers in the United States today recently shared with Computerworld, the next president will have to tackle the country's ongoing decline in global technological competitiveness.

Business travelers will soon need to carry the name of their corporate lawyer in addition to their passport when traveling to the United States, and they may need to bring with them a different business laptop as well. This is because US Customs can search and confiscate your laptop without any prior cause, according to policies that have been posted online since a Ninth US Circuit Court ruling in April.