December 2010
72 posts
1 tag
The Big List of 2011 Tech Predictions - covering... →
3 tags
All-in-a-box vs. Traditional service management
Michael Cote of Redmonk explores how the current rage for single-stack solutions may impact service management:
Barbara Darrow of TechTarget recently asked me what effect unified, single-stack servers could have on the existing IT Management landscape. If these offerings, like Cisco’s UCS are really “everything you need in a box,” what place do traditional, 3rd party systems management...
2 tags
Chuck Hollis (EMC) summarizes the big themes from... →
1 tag
“We’re starting to get inquiries about complexity. Key questions are how to...”
– Jean-Pierre Garbani, Forrester in “Evaluating Complexity.”
2 tags
Management by Objectives - Irrational Buyer...
Rational Survivability writes about an interesting trend in the IT department. Apparently a number of IT managers and CIOs are setting up shoddy internal clouds built on tape and chewing gum, in order to squeeze vendors and to meet year-end objectives. It’s a very interesting insight into the types of irrational things that sometimes drive decisions amongst our target:
Why do they do this?...
3 tags
Oracle revisits Sparc T processor roadmap: Time to... →
4 tags
5 tags
An inside look at the Power behind IBM Watson →
An in-depth look at how Power7 systems drive DeepQA and Watson (via the IBM Research blog.)
2 tags
Virtualization numbers
It’s year-end and IDC numbers are everywhere. The latest, as reported in the Register, cover the virtualization market. Which is blowing up.
By 2014, more than 70 per cent of all server workloads installed that year will be plunked down not on a bare metal piece of iron, but on a virtual or logical machine of some kind, according to the (virtual) box counters at IDC.
But don’t...
2 tags
How FaceBook uses HBase - a NoSQL database - for... →
3 tags
“Cash starved. Fast paced. Understaffed. Late nights. T-shirts. Jeans.
These...”
– Doug Washburn, Forrester. Read the rest at, “Apply A “Startup” Mentality To Your IT Infrastructure And Operations.”
2 tags
A good - if somewhat technical - overview of the... →
4 tags
Oracle is rocking the house
Oracle just posted very healthy revenues this quarter. And Larry continues to direct his arrows at HP - though how far behind is IBM?
“Our goal is to become number one in the high-end server business, both for OLTP and data warehousing,” Ellison said, putting a stake in the ground and perhaps in Hewlett-Packard’s chances of ever being able to run a TPC-C online transaction...
2 tags
2010: The year open source went invisible (the... →
2 tags
“The result is that not everything is totally controlled and secure. In smaller...”
– Dale Vile, Register, on false expectations of security in the cloud. Read the rest at “Is cloud data secure? Because your datacentre probably isn’t.”
2 tags
“The key is to turn the issue on its head: Don’t design cloud use around the...”
– Jean-Pierre Garbani, Forrester, on the benefits of cloud in terms of productivity NOT cost savings. Read the rest of the article at “Consider the Cloud as a Solution, Not a Problem.”
5 tags
IDEAS International on IBM Systems
IDEAS International gives a quick topline of the STG/SWG analyst summit from a few weeks ago. Nothing groundbreaking - but a good summary -
Although the organizational structure may be different this year, STG and SWG have long partnered to support IBM’s focus on providing solutions to customer problems. Showcasing of solutions brought about by integrated hardware and software has always been...
4 tags
1 tag
From Cost Center To Value Generator
Chuck Hollis of EMC writes about what senior IT people “really want.” He breaks it down into a number of areas for which IT is responsible - from “getting the infrastructure right” all the way up to “getting the people right.” Some good insights - and a good way of thinking about what the IT target is trying to achieve within their organizations.
The first...
1 tag
CA on the Cloud
CA has just published a sponsored survey that was conducted by Management Insight on how North American and European IT professionals in midmarket and LE organizations are adopting “cloud thinking.” Some interesting results.
More than 80 percent of enterprises and 92 percent of the largest enterprises have at least one cloud service; 53 percent of IT implementers indicate having...
3 tags
Incomplete Thought: Why We Have The iPhone and... →
4 tags
Cloud and Mobile Eating All Before Them
Sure, we know it’s happening - but it’s always good to have facts and figures to back up your arguments. Especially when you’re presenting to clients.
InfoWorld reports on the latest IDC predictions… tablets will overtake PCs (and not because the PC market is declining)… and the cloud continues to grow and grow and grow…
Shipments of smartphones, tablets, and...
2 tags
How One CIO Cured His Info Glut Woes →
Interesting article on Network World about why and how Herbalife manages triple the volume of data that they did two years ago.
4 tags
Dell, Compellant and "Integrated Mega-Vendors"
Forrester’s Andrew Reichman has a really good run-down of Dell purchasing Compellant. That aspect of his blog post is interesting in and of itself - but what’s even more interesting is his assessment of consolidation that’s currently driving the industry and what’s driving it -
In the best of breed world, standing up an application environment generally meant figuring...
2 tags
“I was at a recent cloud computing event, which was hosted by Microsoft and...”
– Larry Tabb, “Companies that Ignore Cloud Computing Could Be Left for Dead” (Wall Street & Technology)
2 tags
How does an enterprise architect think?
James McGovern is an enterprise architect. Which means he’s our target. His blog provides a fantastic window into the way part of our audience thinks.
Here are a few nuggets from his extremely cynical overview of 2010, “2010: State of Enterprise IT” —
We have a process for almost everything and if we don’t, we have a metaprocess for creating future processes.
Our...
4 tags
Gartner releases 2011 predictions
Gartner has published their predictions for 2011. They’re noticeably more downbeat than Forrester and IDC, playing very strongly into a “new pragmatism” POV -
“With costs still under pressure, growth opportunities limited and the tolerance to bear risk low, IT faces increased levels of scrutiny from stakeholders both internal and external,” said Darryl Plummer,...
2 tags
“One frequently voiced prediction is that automation and other software tools...”
– Caron Carlson - “Why automation does not necessarily equate to lost labor” (Fierce CIO)
2 tags
“That seems like the general “oh any technical innovation will take all our jobs”...”
– The Agile Admin - “They’re Taking Our Jobs!”
2 tags
CIO Magazine says CIOs will make a come-back in...
Not a surprising assertion, given the source. The more interesting part of their argument is that the CIOs role isn’t going to be about cost-cutting in 2011; it’s going to be about delivering better services — which is very interesting indeed!
“Most IT leaders have been aggressively reducing costs over the past few years and already have the expertise in-house to...
5 tags
Steve Mills talks to Cnet
Steve Mills on cloud computing…
It all comes back to customer value and many of the cloud ideas are about delivering a capability at a lower cost. In some areas, customers won’t go to an external provider, but they are interested in the attributes and techniques.
Companies like ADP, UPS they all offer online services. They just don’t call them cloud. If you are an...
2 tags
IBM's New Cloud Offering Helps Companies Improve... →
4 tags
The Street profiles Steve Mills in "IBM's Mills... →
3 tags
Background on the Salesforce.com Heroku purchase... →
3 tags
Sea Changes in IT
The Redmonk gang, as always, is completely wrapped up in developers. The Salesforce acquisition of Heroku, a Ruby on Rails development platform, has got them really wrapped up. A lot of what they’re writing is rhetoric - but they do make some interesting points about the consumerization of IT and about how the enterprise is beginning to re-think its relationship to IT in fundamental ways.
...
3 tags
“Which brings us to Salesforce.com – which is basically a billing engine across a...”
– James Governor, Redmonk Analyst, discusses Salesforce’s recent acquisition of Heroku, a Ruby on Rails development platform, in “Salesforce acquires Heroku: Dork Move, guys.” The interesting thing here is the idea of cutting IT out of the equation - to reach out to LOB and...
1 tag
The Office Party - 1969
Adam Curtis has posted an amazing BBC documentary from 1969, covering a christmas party for the London-based advertising firm of Davidson Pearce Berry and Tuck - which would later get bought out by Ogilvy & Mather.
Unfortunately, I can’t embed the video, but you can see it on Adam Curtis’ blog, “The Office Party.”
2 tags
Long Live the Web: A Call for Continued Open... →
4 tags
Salesforce.com's Benioff says Ellison lacks vision
Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com laid into Ellison at Salesforce’s yearly conference. The main thrust of his argument is that Ellison doesn’t understand where IT is going; he’s focused on recreating the mainframe experience when the world is moving to cloud.
“It was an amazing conference in this very room,” Benioff said, painting a dystopian picture of the...
3 tags
The Register provides a full report on Oracle's... →
3 tags
IBM floats new CloudBurst stacks: Fluffy and virty... →
4 tags
Virtualization and Organization
CIO (via Network World) published an interesting article recently on how organizational changes are needed to fully take advantage of virtualization - technology impacting culture. Here’s an excerpt -
We’ve been staring a simple truth in the face for a few years but generally trying to ignore it because the implications are big. That truth: If we are to get the most out of highly...
2 tags
2 tags
2 tags
2 tags
“Most, if not all, technology improvements need what is commonly referred to as...”
– Jean-Pierre Garbani, Forrester - “The Cloud Technology Challenge”
3 tags
Useful things to do with the cloud, developer... →
Some of the “useful things” that Michael Cote lists here are actually quite interesting. Cloud isn’t all about provisioning. Centralization and standardization lead to a lot of cool things, like better UE analytics, better versioning and distribution, and the app-ification (my invented word) of enterprise applications.
5 tags
Forrester on the Latest Oracle Announcement
Richard Fichera, the Forrester analyst for I&O, writes on his blog - “Oracle Rolls Out Private Cloud Architecture And World-Record Transaction Performance” —
On Dec. 2, Oracle announced the next move in its program to integrate its hardware and software assets, with the introduction of Oracle Private Cloud Architecture, an integrated infrastructure stack with Infiniband...
3 tags
What Developers Think
developerWorks recently published a survey detailing what developers think are the biggest trends in technology. It’s well worth checking out - “New developerWorks survey shows dominance of cloud computing and mobile application development.”
One question in particular stood out for James Governor at Redmonk - do developers think vertical industry expertise is important to their...
2 tags
The IBM Expert Network on SlideShare →
I should have posted this aaaaaages ago. It’s a huge repository/library of IBM presentations, related to the smarter planet, on SlideShare. Set up by Adam Christenson.