CTOs learn to play a rich-media game

ONCE MARGINALIZED IN the technology industry, games developers are becoming a sought-after commodity. Their understanding of complex technology issues and peer-to-peer networking make them the ideal developers in today’s enterprise environments. Gamers and CTOs aren’t the only unusual bedfellows. CTOs are sidling up to the entertainment industry for lessons in rich media and scalability. But CTOs also must be aware of complications. Content delivery and DRM (digital rights management) have underscored technology with political and security concerns. And entertainment’s technology innovation is now under scrutiny by Hollywood’s legal posse.

In our special CTO expanded section, Associate News Editor Jack McCarthy focuses on the gaming industry as proving ground for many technologies (see ” Enterprise play “). The real-word applications of gaming technology in collaboration, peer-to-peer networking, and data delivery are getting noticed in the enterprise. In addition, the system and speed requirements of games push the technology envelope, making them a petri dish of innovation.

Top gaming vendors Microsoft, Sony, and Sega are also responsible for making gaming technology more mainstream. Microsoft, for instance, plans to expand its Xbox technology. And with the intense rivalry among gaming companies, competitors won’t sit still.

In a related piece, McCarthy examines the entertainment industry’s parallel course (see ” Entertainment CTOs see copyright concerns as roadblock to innovation “). Where gaming is marked by grassroots momentum, however, entertainment technology innovation is shackled by copyright protection issues.

Senior Editor Loretta W. Prencipe takes a look at gaming publisher Gigex’s broadband challenges in the Strategies & Tactics section of our expanded CTO coverage (see ” Playing the broadband market “). Gigex was on the back end of the U.S. Army’s public launch of its role-playing and simulation game. When demand spiked, Gigex CTO Christian Stumm was faced with a broadband challenge that eventually led him to buy bandwidth from a real-time market.

Likewise, EarthLink Executive Vice President of Operations Linda Beck has faced challenges resulting from the bandwidth demands of online entertainment. In an interview with CTO Media Executive Editor Eve Epstein, Beck outlines EarthLink’s efforts to ensure network connectivity (see ” Entertaining links “).

InfoWorld CTO Chad Dickerson addresses rich media and offers his advice for CTOs (see ” The show must grow on “). Advising CTOs to watch the consumer space for innovation, Dickerson also warns of pitfalls in rich-media projects.

Steve Gillmor comments on the potential future of DRM (see ” In my own dream “). He offers solutions to avoid one nightmarish scenario. And our Networks section also offers analysis and insight on streaming media and DRM.

The lesson? Enterprise CTOs need to be mindful of the technology behind “mindless” entertainment.