• Lawyers complain about limiting terms in cloud contracts
  Stringent contracts that leave end users little recourse in the event of a serious service outage or network breach are slowing enterprise migration to the cloud, according to attorneys, who say companies are reluctant to navigate uneven legal terrain. With more service terms skewed in favor of providers and many cloud companies adopting a "take-it-or-leave-it" approach toward end users, corporate lawyers say it's vital that decision makers considering signing a cloud contract closely scrutinize the terms and ask questions so they understand exactly what their legal rights are. Computerworld (12/3)      

• Why service providers should be excited about UC technology
  Unified communications as a service offerings are gaining traction for five reasons, writes Shaun Chambers, founder and CEO of SoundConnect. A top driver is the expanding mobile business environment. Better technology and tech convergence are also playing key roles, as is the enterprise demand for outsourcing. Channel Partners/Peer-to-Peer blog (11/30)      

• U.K. moves to bolster cybersecurity amid increasing attacks
  Companies with high market visibility are finding themselves targeted by an increasing number of cyberattacks, according to U.K. officials, who say hackers are regularly zeroing in on the websites of popular brands such as Adidas with motives as simple as a sports rivalry. Meanwhile, to combat an increase in the number of attacks on critical industries, the U.K. government is considering a significant expansion to its cybersecurity regime, including the possible addition of "cyber reservists" who can be called into action in the case of a cyber emergency. The Telegraph (London) (tiered subscription model) (12/3)      

• Analysts: Declining server market not hurting Dell or Cisco
  Server revenues dipped in the third quarter, but Dell and Cisco experienced sales gains and market share growth while competitors including IBM and Hewlett-Packard didn't fare as well, according to research firms Gartner and IDC. "The market was constrained by poor macro-economic conditions in many geographies coupled with a number of technology transitions that served to further hamper the market," said Matt Eastwood, IDC group vice president and general manager of enterprise platforms. eWeek (12/2)      

• Why IT ROI is so hard to measure
  As economic recovery slowly continues in some parts of the world, budgetary pressures on corporate IT are beginning to abate -- but proving money is being well spent is not always easy, analysts say. Convincing management that investment in technology is paying off requires rethinking the definition of success. "What's important is the way people visualize the impact of the project. You don't always know the ROI on the IT spending elements if it is a wider business project, but you will have a better idea of how IT will change the way people work," says David Elton of PA Consulting Group. IT PRO (London) (12/3)      

• 8 steps to adding a skill to your toolbox
  Learning new skills is important for advancing in the business world, but you should make sure you have chosen an attainable goal and are willing to put in the work necessary to achieve it, experts say. "Many people implicitly believe that if you have to work hard at something, it means you lack ability. This is rubbish," motivational psychologist Heidi Grant Halvorson says. You can determine how best to learn an ability by examining the techniques that have worked for you in the past, she says. Harvard Business Review online/HBR Blog Network (11/29)      

Top five news stories selected by SmartBrief on ExecTech readers in the past week.

• CIOs outline skills needed to get the top IT job (InformationWeek)

• Cost not an indicator of effectiveness in security software (Techworld (U.K.))

• Scientists discover black hole 17 million times bigger than the sun (TG Daily)

• Scientists disprove existence of Sandy Island near Australia (TG Daily)

• Why bringing in more IT security pros means recruiting more women (NextGov)

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

• MIT pioneers new breed of shape-shifting robotic component
  Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Bits and Atoms are pioneering a new type of shape-shifting mechanical device, based on the structure of a protein, that could one day lead to the development of more versatile robots with the ability to rearrange themselves as needed. According to MIT's Neil Gershenfeld, the "milli-motein" is "effectively a one-dimensional robot that can be made in a continuous strip, without conventionally moving parts, and then folded into arbitrary shapes." Popular Science (11/30)      

Negotiating is an art form, and lawyers are trained to do it. IT people think of contracts as a couple of pages of specifics and then boilerplate. But it's that boilerplate that saves everybody's bacon when something goes wrong." --Paul Lewkowicz, an intellectual property attorney, as quoted by Computerworld