2009 may not be over yet but analysts have already revealed the top 10 strategic techs that CIOs should be looking at next year.

According to Gartner, the 10 strategic technologies will have an impact on the enterprise over the next three years, with IT chiefs encouraged to make decisions on them within the next two.

The ICT industry must lead the way in conserving energy and reducing carbon emissions, according to the EC.

In a recommendation adopted by the Commission last week, it called on the ICT sector to become 20 per cent more energy efficient by 2015, and to outline, by 2011, the practical steps it will take to achieve this target.

There may be some good news for Sidekick owners: users' data which was thought lost after a server failure at Microsoft subsidiary Danger - the company that makes the devices - may yet be retrieved.

Users of T-Mobile's Sidekick had been told the lost data - which included contacts, calendars and other information - may be gone for good after the server outage last week, but T-Mobile said last night "prospects of recovering some lost content may now be possible".

What can be done to better train students for the IT workplace? The Naked CIO has some suggestions.

After reading a recent CIO Jury on whether universities are preparing youth properly for IT challenges, I began to think about why higher education is not effective. It wasn't long before I realised IT education has become too academic.

Sean Maloney, newly-promoted and heir apparent to CEO Paul Otellini in the eyes of many, was the first to take the stage at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco on Tuesday. The show is Intel's flagship event to announce new technology, tout its vision, and persuade computing partners to see things Intel's way.

(Photo credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

IBM and Microsoft have pledged support for the creation of an open source API that aims to simplify the process of switching cloud providers for organisations.

The Simple Cloud API project, courtesy of developer tools specialist Zend Technologies, launched on Tuesday. It will allow developers to makes apps in PHP, the common web-scripting language, in order that they can work with different clouds.

At the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco, chief executive Paul Otellini left attendees with a simple message: we'll keep innovating on the technology front, and you keep building the next big things.

In his keynote speech to developers on Tuesday, Otellini drove home the message that, through standards technology, Intel wants developers to be able to just build once, not many times for multiple platforms.

At the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, chip business chief Sean Maloney talked about what Intel is doing to address the needs of the enterprise and the changing datacentre.

The datacentre is undergoing a major transformation these days, the Intel executive vice president said in a keynote speech on Tuesday afternoon. Three elements - computing, storage and networking - are beginning to overlap, meaning that one cannot be addressed without considering the others, he said.

A typical scene from your average datacentre, right? Well, not exactly. This is one half of IBM's Green Innovations Datacentre in Southbury, Connecticut, where Big Blue's internal IT staff pushes the green envelope. This facility, which hosts several internal IBM applications, is packed with millions of dollars' worth of IBM hardware, of course, but also some of the latest energy-efficiency techniques.

On the far right, you can see one of those: a back door heat exchanger designed for its high-end iDataplex server system. Called Cool Blue, the system circulates cold water through the door to lower the temperature of the heat coming from servers' fans.

Networking giant Cisco Systems and storage area networking company EMC may be teaming up to form a new joint venture to provide technology services to big companies, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Citing unnamed sources who have been briefed on the plans, the Journal story said the new joint venture, codenamed Alpine, would target large businesses and would focus on installing Cisco server and networking gear and EMC storage equipment into datacentres.

This iPhone thing - I've heard about it but I'm not entirely sure what all the fuss is about... It's just a phone isn't it?Here's the skinny: the iPhone is a mobile device made by iPod-maker Apple, the first version of which was unveiled at Macworld back in 2007.

It's a touchscreen device with all the mobile phone functionality you'd expect, plus iPod capabilities and a mobile browser.

Apple has officially confirmed that it will host an event next Wednesday, 9 September. Invitations went out Monday. The music-themed event in San Francisco will be held at 10 am PDT at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, which is next door to Moscone Center, where Apple's much-larger Worldwide Developers Conference takes place every June.

Apple's invitation for next week's event (Image credit: Apple) Based on the image of the classic iPod advertisement art and the tag line, "It's only rock 'n roll, but we like it", this will be the company's annual music-focused event. Apple has hosted a new product introduction of its iPods every September for the past few years, and this year doesn't look to be any different. Besides new iPod Touch models, Apple is also expected to discuss its new interactive album format, known as Cocktail. Because the date is a Wednesday, as opposed to Apple's traditional preference for events on Tuesdays, it's possible there could finally be an announcement regarding a Beatles catalogue coming to iTunes. The 9 September date is also the day The Beatles' remastered digital albums and Rock Band video game will be released.

Microsoft is hoping to take on Apple's iPod Touch with the Zune HD. The device will be able to surf the web, play high-definition movies, and tune in to digital radio. Here's some pictures of the preview unit.

Here's the Zune HD's mobile web browser, which was engineered by Microsoft's Internet Explorer team.

What are the rules of a successful IT outsourcing partnership? They're more simple than you might imagine and, as with any long term relationship, trust is key.

Last month Groupe Aeroplan UK, which owns and manages the Nectar customer loyalty programme, extended an IT infrastructure outsourcing contract with Savvis - its supplier of eight years. Fiachra Woodman, IT director at Groupe Aeroplan UK, told silicon.com the contract has evolved over the years to the point where it has now been extended for a further two years.

Chip company Intel has launched a beta application that lets people contribute their spare processor power to humanitarian scientific projects.

The grid-computing application Progress Thru Processors, which people can download from social-networking site Facebook, allows users to donate spare computing cycles to research into climate change, cancer and malaria.

Considering hitting the shops at the weekend? Looking for inspiration? Check out the latest in our series of gadget mini-reviews, courtesy of silicon.com's sister site CNET.co.uk, the home of technology reviews. For the full review and details, click on the link below.

What is it: USB 2.0-powered external hard drive

Despite the rise of digital communications, many businesses still rely on paper documents. Quocirca's Louella Fernandes explains how to keep them under control.

Managing and accessing the huge volumes of both paper and electronic documents generated each day is a huge challenge for businesses.

Microsoft has revealed more details, including pricing, around one of its most significant forays into cloud computing, the Azure Services Platform (ASP).

ASP - a set of online developer services that includes the Windows Azure processing and storage service, the SQL Azure database platform and .NET Services - will become commercially available in the US and UK, along with several other countries, in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Compiled on BA009 flying London to Bangkok and dispatched to silicon.com via a domestic wi-fi connection the next day

Over the years I have had numerous printers, scanners and copiers, and about five years ago I opted for an all-in-one machine. At the same time I moved away from a dedicated box to a networked and shared facility.

EMC has won control of storage company Data Domain after a bidding battle over rival suitor NetApp.

Data Domain is best known for its deduplication technology, which aggressively spots and removes redundancy in stored data. This is currently a hot topic, as corporate users struggle to keep up with rapidly increasing storage demands on rapidly stagnating capital expenditure budgets.

Does the UK's new mobile phone directory go far enough to protect your privacy? Lawyer Ruth Hoy weighs in.

Last week's launch of the UK's first mobile phone directory, which claims to be able to connect anyone to more than 16 million mobile users for a small charge, was always bound to ignite contention around privacy.

Though there are plenty of tools to help businesses shore up data, the lack of policy standards makes the task more difficult than it should be, says Quocirca's Bob Tarzey.

The UK's MPs may rue the day a disk listing details of their expenses was leaked to the Daily Telegraph from the House of Commons Fees Office earlier this year, but they were going to be made public at some point anyway, courtesy of the UK's Freedom of Information Act which the MPs themselves passed in to law in 2000.

More than a year after appearing on the statute books, the info watchdog's power to fine is not yet operational. Lawyer Grant Campbell urges those involved not to lose momentum.

Data losses have provided the UK press with an ongoing stream of stories for more than 18 months now.

Sun is set to launch the latest version of OpenSolaris, tuning it for the enterprise with a new support contract, processor support and networking and storage technology.

OpenSolaris is the open source version of Solaris, and previously it has been aimed mainly at developers and as a platform for testing features that will later make their way into Solaris itself.

Broadband Britain was back on the agenda this month - with speed and bandwidth once again hot topics.

First up Virgin Media announced it was trialling 200Mbps broadband - four times faster than its current UK top speed service of 50Mbps.

Ensuring the integrity of information can make all the difference for your business, says the Naked CIO. So what are you waiting for?

How many times have I talked about the importance of maintaining data integrity?

Compiled on the Ipswich to London train and dispatched to silicon.com via 3G during the same journey

As a young man I worked in a number of 'mom and pop' stores and small businesses before joining a state-run enterprise.

Amazon Web Services has unveiled a new service that lets users physically ship their data on drives, to be uploaded to the company's cloud-based S3 storage facilities.

AWS Import/Export, currently in beta, was announced on Thursday. In an Amazon Web Services (AWS) blog post, the team noted that "hard drives are getting bigger more rapidly than internet connections are getting faster", and said a service such as Import/Export had been frequently requested by customers who wanted their data to be remotely hosted, but who had storage requirements at the terabyte and petabyte level.

Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect, is a big believer in the cloud. But he knows large businesses don't yet share his confidence.

"Enterprises will not really trust the cloud until they get some experience with it," Ozzie said, during a speech at a JP Morgan investment conference in Boston on Wednesday. He said that large businesses are more likely to start by going with an online version of a familiar product like Microsoft Exchange than they are to move a major piece of their business into the cloud.

How can electronic coding help hospitals? GS1 UK's Gary Lynch counts the ways…

A survey we ran recently in conjunction with Nursing Times magazine revealed nurses can spend up to two hours during an average shift trying to locate vital medical equipment such as pumps, drip stands and dressings.

Amazon's cloud computing division has lifted the lid on some of the enhancements it has on the way.

Amazon Web Services has been offering on-demand computing and storage capacity for three years through its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Simple Storage Service (S3) and now the company wants to make it easier for businesses to use them. The online retail arm of the company might be better known to the general public, but the web services business already consumes more bandwidth than the more famous ecommerce side.

Viglen, the IT company owned by Sir Alan Sugar, has landed a hardware deal with the Office of Government Commerce to supply hardware to a number of public sector organisations.

Under the contract, worth up to £30m, Viglen will provide around 50,000 desktops and 20,000 laptops with the option of TFT screens.

For a watch from a company better known for its phones, it's no surprise that the MBW 100 makes a lot of linking with its wearer's mobile.

The watch harbours Bluetooth connectivity, which it puts to use by alerting the wearer to incoming calls or texts by showing the caller's identity on the watch face. The Bluetooth also acts as an alarm - if the phone goes out of connectivity range - left on a pub table or removed from an unwary pocket - the watch will alert the wearer to its disappearance by vibrating.

Following a series of data breaches that have dogged the public sector, the NHS is to take delivery of 100,000 secure USB sticks.

The SafeStick USB sticks from vendor BlockMaster will be distributed to NHS hospitals under a two-year deal with seven procurement hubs across the country.

McLaren Racing, the company behind current Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton's Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team, is using IT to bring him back to the front of the grid.

After a difficult beginning to the 2009 F1 season, Jonathan Neale, MD of McLaren Racing told silicon.com IT will play a vital role in helping return the team to winning ways.

Mutual retailer the Co-operative Group has cut its datacentre maintenance and support costs by deploying HP virtualisation tech and consolidating its "server sprawl".

The Group - whose businesses include food retailing, funeral parlours and financial services - was struggling with a creaking legacy infrastructure consisting of hundreds of servers, each requiring its own maintenance pack and chargers.

2008 Turing Award winner Barbara Liskov speaks to silicon.com about her research and hot issues from security to gender gaps.

The winner of the 2008 ACM AM Turing Award for lasting and major technical contributions to the computing community was announced last month as Barbara Liskov, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Compiled in my home office on the first day of Spring and dispatched to silicon.com via wi-fi from BT Labs at Martlesham Heath, UK

The technical literature is currently ringing with cries of: 'I want to know where my bits are - and what about the increased security risk?'

This is the Estádio do Dragão in Porto which uses video surveillance and networking technology from Sony as part of its security strategy.

silicon.com's Tim Ferguson went to Portugal have a look at how the technology is helping make the stadium more secure.

Apple is expected to begin production on a high-end iPhone with 32GB of flash memory and a low-end 3G version this spring, according to a research report released Tuesday by Lazard Capital Markets analyst.

Production is anticipated to begin in April and ramp up in May, and the new phones could be announced in June, Daniel Amir, a Lazard Capital Markets analyst, said in his report.