Thanks to everyone who shared their IT best practices through the Intel Premier IT Knowledge Award program.  Judges from Intel and CXO Media poured over the very qualified submissions and had the hard job of narrowing to a handful of finalists.  Two awards (one for management of client fleet, one for data center) will be chosen by a panel of judges from Intel and CXO Media.  One additional award winner will be chosen by the IT community members of Intel Premier IT Professional via online voting.

So it's your turn. 

Users can find the link to vote on http://ipip.intel.com. 

For those who are not program members, membership is free and takes just a few minutes. You'll also stay up-to-date with best practices and technology insights online, in publications and local events.

The Intel Premier IT Knowledge Awards program was designed to recognize and reward North American IT managers/groups who have generated best practices, driving business value and innovation.   

The finalists represent diversity of business size, type, and solutions deployed using Intel architecture.

Data Center Management

Applied Materials

HD Supply

RichRelevance

Toyota Motor Sales, Inc.

Client Fleet Management

Hay Group

Our Kids of Miami-Dade/Monroe, Inc. 

Polycom, Inc.

Raleigh Pediatrics Associates

Award winners will receive industry recognition in an upcoming issue of CIO magazine as well as invited guest at either the CIO 100 Symposium and Awards or the CIO: The Year Ahead event. 

Let us know who your favorite IT hero is. 

CIO magazine has received some great submissions from IT organizations for the Intel Premier IT Awards.  Stellar examples of best practices in client fleet and data center management.  But some of you, literally dozens, have incomplete drafts waiting to be submitted for award consideration. 

With the deadline for submission May 29, 2009 getting closer, I ask you: If you've come this far, what's keeping you from getting your submission to the finish line? And if you haven't considered submitting for the award ... why not?

Winning submissions for client fleet management and data center management as well as a "people's choice" winner will be profiled in CIO magazine.  Plus, a winner in each category will also be CIO magazine's guest at the CIO 100 Symposium & Awards or CIO: The Year Ahead events.  And a recogntion plaque for your company or office.  Eligible nominees are North American IT end-user organizations.

At our Intel Premier IT events, on Open Port, and elsewhere, we hear loud and clear from you that these are challenging times for IT.  And, in conjunction with CIO magazine, we'd love to provide some honor and recognition for the work you've done.

If you have a question about eligiblity or other critera, ask away.  To paraphrase a TV doctor: "Hello, IT.  We're listening."  And we hope to hear from you, here or through the official award website: http://www.premieritawards.com

This week, we'll have guest Intel blogger Enrique Castro-Leon, Enterprise and Data Center Architect and Technology Strategist. As a preface I'd like to share the preface from the forthcoming Intel Press book Enrique has co-authored, "The Business Value of Service Oriented Grids." The preface (also in our resources area) tees up the history that brought us to service oriented grids and an industry example of how using virtualization and service orientation can help a mature business. If you'd like more, let us know you're reading and give us a shout.

And don't forget our other guest blogging by the Intel Business Exchange managers this week.

Scale is a key consideration when we develop content for the IT audience, whether it's roadmap or IT best practices. A face to face (F2F) event can reach a few hundred people while the web is unfettered by time, space, and atoms. Yet I'm reminded again of the importance of F2F in new data published by Strategic Oxygen, which conducts ongoing studies of how IT professionals consume information. Events remain a leading source of new technology information for IT professionals. Even for CIOs, conferences are a top source. That said, blogs and forums continue to grow in importance, especially for medium-size companies. That's why we're online here in Open Port, sharing roadmap and IT BKMs, but also there with our F2F Intel Premier IT events like this past week in Austin and Denver.