Most people understand technology's role in the business world. People use computers every day for commerce, communication and marketing. But what about biological scientists? These lab-coat clad researchers expect more from their systems, have great data computational needs and need to analyze their research in a way that can lead to medical breakthroughs.

Biology meets information technology at the Van Andel Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Bryon Campbell, Van Andel Institute's CIO, and Paul Hillman discuss what goes on at VAI, how scientists use technology to analyze their research and what projects are currently underway on Health Hill.

In these days of cost-cutting and keeping up with the latest technology, some companies and educational institutions have begun a migration away from internally supported e-mail and application systems to web-based solutions, such as Google Apps. This eliminates the need for patches, system updates and bringing e-mails through internal servers, but it also relinquishes the control and robust user interface features many of us have become accustomed to.

Businesses seem to be making this shift, but what are the actual pros and cons of outsourcing all apps to Cyberspace?

Click below as Paul Hillman finds out how things are going with Brian Miller, Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Information Technology Services at Davenport University. Davenport University's students have been using Google Apps successfully for two years, and Brian and his team are in the middle of planning the migration of all faculty and staff from GroupWise e-mail to Google Apps for e-mail, calendar and collaboration.

2009 saw several advances in technology. C/D/H's service area leads in collaboration and infrastructure join Paul to discuss which changes are going to stick, and which we'll have forgotten about by this time next year. Click below and find out more about Windows 7, Cloud Computing, SharePoint 2010 and Google.

In the highly romanticized culture that surrounds forensic science, it�s difficult to think about computer forensics or �digital forensics� without images of dimly lit CSI labs filled with computer chips and arbitrary blinking lights. No doubt there is some drama involved, but there are also some very important realities that business owners and managers need to think about in terms of what really is contained on all of those company hard drives.

C/D/H partners Paul Hillman, Mark Becker and Doug Lindhout recently attended Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans. At the event Microsoft laid out the company's plans for key new products and provided a larger vision for the future of Microsoft computing.

Identity management is a complex and increasingly important issue in information technology. Identity management, or IDM, is a broad term that can refer to anything from assigning user identities and identity security, to network protocols and digital certificates. With such a broad issue comes a broad set of perspectives on how to approach it.

As the communications tree at many companies opens up to include VPN, email, web conferencing, online collaboration and others, users are finding themselves with bits of important information scattered all across this range of channels. The great challenge-and great benefit-of unified communications is to integrate all of these information sources into a manageable equation. Companies are approaching this challenge with creativity and vision, and the results are winning over converts to unified communications every day.

Paul Hillman talks with Doug Brady, Chief Information Officer for Plante & Moran, one of the nation's leading certified public accounting and business consulting firms. The technology area at Plante & Moran is responsible for providing bullet-proof information resources for thousands of client services professionals around the world. In addition, IT and Plante & Moran is also expected to be an agent of change within the firm by bringing a higher level of innovation through the services they provide.

Paul Hillman talks with Matt Roush, editor of the Great Lakes IT report. They take a look at some of the interesting stops Matt made during the 2008 GLITR Fall Tech Tour and get out the crystal ball to look at some of the most important developments in IT headed our way in 2009. The Great Lakes IT Report is a daily IT newsletter available via email every business morning. It covers a wide variety of tech stories including hardware, software, advanced manufacturing, life sciences and tech education.

Software - plus - Services is the next logical step in the evolution of computing. It represents an industry shift toward solutions that are neither exclusively software-centric nor browser-centric. Across the industry, Software-plus-Services is growing as a model strategy. Even those claiming to deliver Web-only offerings are moving toward hybrid scenarios that involve both services and software. The best aspects of software - combined with the best aspects of web-based services - can deliver compelling solutions for consumers, developers and businesses. Listen as C/D/H Partner, Paul Hillman, talks with Robert Youngjohns, the president of North America Sales and Marketing for Microsoft. Robert Youngjohns plays a key role in Microsoft's drive to serve customers through the Software Plus Service model.