IT industry

By Rob Churcher

Nagano-based server company JMF is using cloud computing to provide cheap, eco-friendly solutions to clients

It’s a simple and yet complex concept - a virtual server. The idea of pulling out the clunky piece of hardware that is at the heart of a business’ information processing system and surrendering it to the ether can be a difficult proposition for some business owners. “Cloud computing” is becoming more of a buzz word as Internet infrastructure rapidly improves around the globe and desktop and mobile devices increasingly piggyback processing power that exists elsewhere.

Michael AlfantBy Darius Jones

When opportunity knocked Michael Alfant took notice, building success from scratch not once, but twice.

By Michael Condon

J@pan Inc takes a look at some of Tokyo’s most exciting Internet innovators:

Kristopher Tate, Eric Young, Andrew Smith Lewis, Taisuke Fukuno, Marc Wesseling, Michael Sheetal

Vincenzo LufinoBy Simon Shida

Now that IT has become such an integral part of business activity, it is important to find the right IT solutions for your business. We talk to Ecotech Japan—a company that can offer just that.

By Jason Miks

Viruses, spam, hackers, phishing—words that are increasingly familiar yet businesses here are still dangerously behind the times.

By James Mok -- Part III: My struggle at the frontline of Japanese Enterprise IT -- The ancient religion of Shinto regards all natural objects and exceptional creatures as kami or “Gods.” Visitors to Japan can easily sample a taste of kami-sama treatment by indulging themselves in the high level of customer service in tasteful restaurants, cozy ryokans or in engaging with the eye-dazzling selection of consumer goods. However, the same ‘Customer-is-kamisama’ attitude in the IT services industry has worked adversely by accounting for more inefficiency than hospitality. Vendors and IT departments, by solely focusing on indisputably meeting users’ requests, have not only engaged themselves in the costly pursuit of excessive perfection and overly riskadverse decision-making, but have also inhibited their ability to innovate beyond what is being told.

James MokBy James Mok

While troops of IT project managers and engineers are being sent to ‘Death March’—a popular term to describe the brutal working conditions of extreme overtime work, tremendous customer pressure and poor office environments at the frontline of failing projects—the Japanese enterprise IT industry has been failing to cultivate innovation, reward its workers or attract young graduates.