Michael MacMillan

Canada

Outsourcer sees ripe market in Canada as firms study offshore model.

Taking stock of exactly what software and hardware an IT department currently owns sounds simple enough, but those who have tried it agree that the task is difficult, and not without its share of risks.

While outsourcing IT services to an offshore firm may have seemed a radical concept arn decade ago, it's now becoming a fairly common practice among many large- and medium-sizedrn Canadian IT shops.

As I write this, news of Novell's intent to purchase German Linux vendor SuSE Linux AG is only hours old. It's unclear whether shareholders or regulators will yet put a stop to the company's plans. But if Novell stickhandles this buyout correctly, it could have a big impact on both the company's future and, potentially, your IT strategy.

Paul Finlayson says the number of recent stories in the media about a shortage of IT workers have him scratching his head.

Canada's oil and gas industry is bullish when it comes to IT acquisitions, but less so when it comes to complying with the looming U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley accounting laws, according to a recent Ipsos-Reid survey.

A seminar in Toronto on Tuesday outlined both the pros and cons of offshore IT outsourcing.