The second annual list of the most influential people in IT is out while the soap opera that is Yahoo takes another turn.

Oracle's Ellison Tops the Most Influential in IT List
The second annual list of the most influential people in IT as identified by the editors of Ziff-Davis Enterprise is out. The usual cast of industry titans are on the list but what may be more surprising is the rising influence of a whole cast of characters from the world of Web 2.0.

Yahoo Reportedly Sees AOL as a White Knight
The executives at Yahoo have reportedly reached out to AOL to propose a merger that would essentially save Yahoo from the clutches of Microsoft. This move is apparently a response to Microsoft's threat to take its acquisition offer directly to Yahoo shareholders. Now come reports that Microsoft wants to enlist the aid of News Corp. to help close the deal on Yahoo. Now all we have to do is wait and see what Google really wants to ultimately do about all this.

CIO Influence Grows as Technology Drive Business Process Improvements
We've been talking about how business process management is going to change the way we think about IT in corporate environment for some time now. But as BPM looks to be going mainstream, it looks like the influence of CIOs is rising right along side.

Gartner List 25 Ways to Cut IT Costs
Not all these ideas may be popular, but as the economy continues to soften it's time to take a good look at ways to trim expenses. Alas, the best way to cut expenses is to reduce the cost of labor associated with IT by investing in better systems management tools. But if you have not been doing that all it might be too late for that. Another option, however, might be to reduce your security costs by moving to use a variety of new security-as-a-service options.

Green Computing Debate Kicks into High Gear
Gartner analysts this week publicly debated the merits of green computing by pointing out that right now IT only accounts for less than 2 percent of the global carbon emissions, which is a whole lot less than say the carbon being emitted by the global population of cows.

Research Survey Suggest that Use of Google Applications in the Enterprise are Prevalent
Gartner analysts this week took a shot at Google for not getting the enterprise, but while Google's understanding of the enterprise may leave something to be desired it's pretty clear the users in the enterprise get Google. Meanwhile, Google is getting ready to expand its understanding of the enterprise with a set of new hosting services that will rival similar offerings from Amazon.

Symantec Jumps Deeper into the Virtualization Pool
Possibly signaling an expansion of its ambitions in the virtualization space, Symantec is moving to acquire a company that virtualizes applications. That move followed IBM's revelation of a new Phantom virtualization initiative to make virtualization more secure. Elsewhere, virtualization on the desktop may become the next big thing as new startup companies such as MokaFive move into this space.

Miniaturization Drives Next Generation of Notebook Computing
Hewlett-Packard seems to be leading the way with a new generation of notebooks that don't compromise on features but it looks like Dell is right behind them.