Extreme mobility: Tools and tips for smartphone-only travel
After more than 20 years of dragging a notebook computer around whenever I traveled, I finally told myself that enough is enough. On two recent business trips, I joined the small but growing number of travelers who eschew a laptop in favor of a smaller, lighter device.
I could have opted for an iPad or an Android tablet, which would have lightened my load somewhat while providing a 7-to-10-in. screen. But that's an intermediary approach that would still require carrying a phone in addition to the tablet, probably shaving only a few pounds off my travel weight. I decided to go all the way to the light side and see if I could travel with just a smartphone. Call it extreme mobility. Read more...
TUI Travel on how the cloud can bring order to international IT
For global companies, running the IT of subsidiary businesses based hundreds of miles away is no mean feat.
The Accommodation and Destinations department of international travel group TUI Travel - whose brands include Thomson and First Choice - relies on 22 joint ventures across the globe, leaving its IT department with the challenge of how to manage the myriad systems spread between each office.
According to Greg Garrison, IT strategy director with TUI Travel, managing such a diverse infrastructure remotely carries financial, reputational, technical and organisational risks.
"We now have 20 different finance systems around the world, with multiple instances, so we have a tremendous landscape of IT and investment and complexity to maintain from the central office," he told the recent SAP Sapphire Now conference. Read more...