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Thursday's Top Five Industry Stories for December 30th, 2010

1. Growing Data Management Nightmare: Unstructured Rich Media

This may seem counterintuitive, but for most enterprise workers, data infrastructure is not a major concern. Individual business units may place an extremely high value on their actual data, but the underlying framework to keep it readily available? That's IT's job.

http://bit.ly/fF4LW4

 

2. Peeking Under the Hood of Your Data Center

In many ways, managing a data center is like maintaining a car. You need to periodically peek under the hood to make sure that everything is in good working order. Here are the questions to ask to gauge the health of your center. This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.

http://bit.ly/h4TtYc

 

3. The Ghost of ITIL Past

Ivor took Brandon by the hand and led him through the mists of time to an earlier IT world... which gave rise to the first problem, because the secure access to the data center meant Brandon couldn't tail gate him… Once that hurdle had been surmounted they surveyed the scene in front of them.

http://bit.ly/fOmkKJ

 

4. IT pointers for governments in 2011

The following are some end-of-year suggestions from Herndon, Va.-based CDW-G to keep IT operations in local and state governments running smoothly and effectively. The company, which provides technology products and services to government, education and healthcare customers, holds hundreds of contracts and preferred vendor awards for federal, state and local governments.

http://bit.ly/eS2OtY

 

5. How to make data centres energy efficient

Data centres house computers and provide them with operation and control power. They do everything from delivering tweets, serving web pages to your smart-phone through to logistics systems and supercomputers for scientific research.

http://bit.ly/gKOGKe

 

Thursday’s Top 5 is a weekly post that identifies relevant industry news and stories. Check in every Thursday to stay up to date with the latest happenings throughout the ITOM industry.

 

Thursday's Top Five Industry Stories for December 23rd, 2010

1. Is job scheduling the key to efficient IT?

IT operations software is never going to win any prizes in a 'most glamorous enterprise technology' competition, but for anyone working in the industry it is a mission critical area where IT managers should be constantly looking at new ways to make their systems more efficient.

http://bit.ly/higY95

 

2. Must-have ITSM tool features

IT Service Management (ITSM) is a philosophy around managing computers, devices and systems that takes the end user into account. How do end users -- the IT department's ultimate customers -- see the effect of IT in a business? ITSM moves away from seeing IT as a top-down sort of department, where systems and services exist in their own silos, and toward an environment where IT plays a positive role in the business.

http://bit.ly/eTYG2y

 

3. Advantages of high-performing IT

The gap between high-performing information technology (IT) functions and the rest of the pack is widening. That’s what Accenture found recently after surveying 226 top IT executives – CIOs and other most senior IT leaders – of the world’s largest private and public sector companies and organisations.

http://bit.ly/hJhyun

 

4. The top 12 gifts of cloud from 2010

What a year 2010 has been for cloud computing. We've seen an amazing year of innovation, disruption, and adoption--one I personally think will go down in history as one of the most significant years in computing history. Without a doubt, a significant new tool has been added to the IT toolbox, and its one that will eventually replace most of the tools we know today.

http://bit.ly/gZlUYC

 

5. Putting the Data Center Under the BI Microscope

Today's enterprises have made longstanding investments in applications and business intelligence to drive every aspect of their business decisions. Almost all of these external and internal functions are data-driven. CIOs must be given the same level of visibility into the financial and environmental impacts of their IT services as they have in fields like market analysis and supply-chain management.

http://bit.ly/ijH7Ow

 

Thursday’s Top 5 is a weekly post that identifies relevant industry news and stories. Check in every Thursday to stay up to date with the latest happenings throughout the ITOM industry.

Thursday's Top Five Industry Stories for December 16th, 2010

1. How Cloud Computing Levels the Business Playing Field

For much of the past year, the discussion surrounding cloud computing has been centered on its impact on IT. Most of those discussions have focused on how cloud computing can cut IT costs while at the same time herald in a new era of agility in IT operations.

As important as those developments are, the more profound impact that cloud computing will have on the way we conduct business will start to become apparent in 2011.

http://bit.ly/fKf3Ar

2. Data Center Consolidation Gets Under Way

The first two phases of the federal government's long-term data center consolidation effort--an agency-by-agency inventory of data center assets, followed by submission of draft consolidation plans--have been completed. Now begins the hard work: Implementing those plans, with the goal of reducing the number of federal data centers by 40% by 2015.

http://bit.ly/ftUHRd

 

3. 10 Forces Driving Your Potentially Agile Data Center

If your data center costs are out of control, it's time to consider moving to an agile data center. Agile is a buzzword that's tossed around a bit too much these days, but learning what it really means will translate into significantly higher profits for your data center's shareholders. An agile data center uses efficient hardware, better design, fewer employees and better tools. It also has less wasted space. You might think that the only driving force behind moving to an agile data center is the need to save money. It's a good reason, but it isn't the only one. There are 10 driving forces behind the move to agility in the data center. Are you there yet?

http://bit.ly/dIZLmO

 

4. Scenes from the Gartner Conference

More than 2,000 data center professionals gathered in Las Vegas this week for the annual Gartner Data Center Conference, one of the industry’s largest events. The conference featured the latest Gartner intelligence on cloud computing, data center design, virtualization and other trends in IT operations and data center management. There were also containers, cupcakes, and a humorous keynote from author Dave Barry. Check out Scenes from the Gartner Data Center Conference 2010 for tons of photos from the conference and expo.

http://bit.ly/i2tMqb

 

5. The Cloud Technology Challenge

Most, if not all, technology improvements need what is commonly referred to as “complementary inputs” to yield their full potential. For example, Gutenberg's invention of movable type wouldn't have been viable without progress in ink, paper, and printing press technology. IT innovations depend on complements to take hold. The use of internal cloud differences will affect applications, configuration, monitoring, and capacity management. External clouds will need attention to security and performance issues related to network latency. Financial data availability is also one important cloud adoption criteria and must be addressed. Without progress in these complementary technologies, the benefits of using cloud computing cannot be fully developed.

http://bit.ly/fQ1alm

 

Thursday’s Top 5 is a weekly post that identifies relevant industry news and stories. Check in every Thursday to stay up to date with the latest happenings throughout the ITOM industry.

 

Thursday's Top Five Industry Stories for December 9th, 2010

1. Gartner: Mobile, Social Will Drive Change

Rapid change in the way consumers are using mobile devices and social networks are extending into the enterprise, and will increasingly disrupt how companies manage their IT operations and data center infrastructure, according to Gartner analyst David Cappuccio. Although these trends are driven by younger users, the business class is also embracing mobile phones and tablets and social media like Facebook and Twitter.

http://bit.ly/fQHKml

 

2. Can IT Cope With Empowered End-Users?

The impact of consumerization of IT can be summed up in a simple statement: IT departments must now explain why the solutions they offer are hard to use. End-users are not unreasonable. They understand that a process like tracking the impact of a trade promotion across several marketing and sales channels is never going to be as simple as using Google to find out what happened to a friend from high school. There are complexities to business tasks that just are not going to go away and cannot be made simple.

http://bit.ly/efbm4B

 

3. APM Vs. The Cloud

It's not just security that's keeping CIOs from moving critical business applications into the cloud. When any downtime can negatively affect the bottom line, IT organizations want to make sure they can deploy application performance management (APM) tools to monitor availability. But that's not yet easy, or sometimes even possible, when applications are housed off-site. If a cloud provider doesn't offer sufficient metrics or allow customers to deploy APM instrumentation on its infrastructure, how can you know when performance is suffering, and why?

http://bit.ly/eZIpEj

 

4. ORSYP Puts IT Management in the Cloud

ORSYP, a provider of systems management and  IT automation tools, announced today that its offerings can now be deployed as a service in the cloud. Announced during the 2010 Gartner Data Center Conference, the cloud implementation is designed to allow IT organizations to manage systems deployed on a cloud computing platform or on premise.

http://bit.ly/igY7eH

 

5. Ten IT Trends to watch in 2011

There are a number of interesting business software trends on the horizon for 2011. Ten of these will significantly impact IT organizations seeking to align IT operations with business objectives. Awareness of such trends can help you to keep ahead of the competition.

http://bit.ly/i6YDAi

 

Thursday’s Top 5 is a weekly post that identifies relevant industry news and stories. Check in every Thursday to stay up to date with the latest happenings throughout the ITOM industry.

 

Thursday’s Top Five Industry Stories for November 18th, 2010

1. Data Consolidation Could Save Feds $14.6 Billion

Federal agencies could save as much as $14.6 billion over the next five years if they meet data-center consolidation goals, according to a new report. Whether they can, however, is another story. Only 33% of those surveyed believe they can attain the consolidation goals laid out by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the survey said.

http://bit.ly/9zQfXu

 

2. Energy-efficient tech aids agency cost savings, report says

Many public- and private-sector IT managers are getting the message: Energy-efficient IT programs are good for business, according to a new report by CDW Government. Three-quarters of the organizations surveyed are working to reduce energy use in IT operations, and two-thirds of respondents said understanding best practices for energy-efficient IT is critical to their success, according to CDW-G’s 2010 Energy Efficient IT Report.

http://bit.ly/ahxsQ3

 

3. A guiding hand for maturing IT processes

The drive to reduce costs, improve service delivery and enhance business competitiveness has become ingrained in the IT psyche. And this, in turn, means change within enterprise IT infrastructure and operations environments.

http://bit.ly/bzQFyZ

 

4. A Shift Towards User-Centric Systems Management

The traditional approach that solutions providers and IT organizations take towards managing systems is starting to break down. It used to be that most end users only had access to one device. Today end users may have multiple systems as their disposal alongside a smartphone. All these devices need to be centrally managed in the context of the user that owns them.

http://bit.ly/dmZNGs

 

5. The challenges of moving to a private cloud

In Part 1 of this article, we defined private clouds, talked about the differences between deploying server virtualization and implementing a private cloud, described the risks associated with deploying private clouds and listed the phases and steps involved in transitioning to a private cloud.

http://bit.ly/9RQytL

 

Thursday’s Top 5 is a weekly post that identifies relevant industry news and stories. Check in every Thursday to stay up to date with the latest happenings throughout the ITOM industry.

Thursday’s Top Five Industry Stories for November 11th, 2010

1. Automating the Cloud

IT automation is always a touchy subject in any enterprise. From the perspective of the IT staff, IT automation is generally seen as code for reducing the size of the IT staff. But with the advent of cloud computing, IT organizations are going to be try to scale IT applications and the systems they run on to new heights. Throwing people at that equation is not going to scale, so many existing IT processes will need to be automated as they move to the cloud.

http://bit.ly/bmIsaF

 

2. Will Cloud Change the Politics of IT?

It must be the midterm elections, because politics are in the air — and on my mind. The politics of IT, that is.

This isn’t the first time I’ve compared the dynamic between development and operations to the partisan disputes we see in the headlines and the chattering class of cable news drama. Of course, the political divisions between dev and ops are far more understated than the main stage of national politics. But both lead to gridlock.

http://bit.ly/9A65fT

 

3. Budgets Are Up; Now The Pressure’s On

Many of you are just finishing up your budgets for 2011. For most of you—76%, according to our October survey—it should be a relatively happy experience this year, as you're seeing either flat or increasing budgets. A bare majority of survey respondents are expecting 0% to 5% growth, and a quarter are expecting budget increases of more than 5%. That's in contrast to recent years, when most IT organizations saw cuts in line with revenue shortfalls at their companies.

http://bit.ly/cHhJfX

 

4. IT Systems Management Meets GRC

One area that a lot of customers frequently wind up spending redundant sums of money on is compliance and IT systems management. Because these areas are managed by separate teams of people within the company, a customer can easily find themselves spending money on developing redundant sets of controls for governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) on the one hand, and IT systems management on the other.

http://bit.ly/dwgdLb

 

5. Is Kundra’s data center consolidation initiative doomed?

It was a good idea and no doubt launched with the best intentions, but it might be time to reconsider Vivek Kundra’s chances for success in reducing the number of federal data centers. The obstacles ahead of the federal CIO’s Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI) are numerous and growing: already-scarce funding at risk of further reduction, no hard consequences for lack of compliance, and a short timetable for developing plans that many agencies are struggling to meet.

http://bit.ly/blQubW

 

Thursday’s Top 5 is a weekly post that identifies relevant industry news and stories. Check in every Thursday to stay up to date with the latest happenings throughout the ITOM industry.

 

Thursday’s Top Five Industry Stories for November 4th, 2010

1. The 13 Scariest Things in IT for 2010

Halloween may not seem all that scary to IT people -- when you are terrified all year long, what are a few goblins, witches and monsters to worry about? This year’s list of the 13 scariest things about enterprise IT is worth noting to see what’s new and what has become even scarier.

http://bit.ly/bTtHDK

 

2. IT people should automate their jobs

Forrester Research's latest research into IT automation has recommended that the best people to automate a task are the people being automated. According to Forrester Analyst Glenn O'Donnell, as automation tools manifest within operations they will not only accelerate and enforce execution, but will also alter the complexion of IT itself.

http://bit.ly/c4A688

 

3. New York As IT Center Of The World

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg last week unveiled a sweeping new IT strategy that entails consolidating the city's tech infrastructure, centralized IT planning, and a new license agreement with Microsoft. New York City is quickly transforming from a fragmented, inefficient IT approach into one that could become a model for other major cities.

http://bit.ly/ahkgvQ

 

4. The top 10 stories in IT this week

Steve Jobs was a busy man this week, making a rare appearance on Apple's quarterly earnings call where he availed himself of the opportunity to trash-talk the competition, which seems to be a hobby for him of late, and taking the stage at a company event focused on Mac hardware and software. In other news, Microsoft took to the cloud.

http://bit.ly/b2UtRA

 

5. IT Staffing to Increase By 1 Percent in 2011: Report

Companies will be hiring more internal staff in business-centric functions to help on business intelligence projects next year.

http://bit.ly/bvKD37

 

Thursday’s Top 5 is a weekly post that identifies relevant industry news and stories. Check in every Thursday to stay up to date with the latest happenings throughout the ITOM industry.

 

Thursday’s Top Five Industry Stories for October 28th, 2010

1. Cloud Computing? We Still Haven’t Mastered Server Virtualization

 

According to ESG Research, only 7% of the large mid-market (i.e. 500-1000 employees) and enterprise (i.e. 1,000 employees or more) are not using server virtualization technology and have no plans to do so. Alternatively, 61% are using server virtualization technology extensively in test/development AND production environments.

http://bit.ly/azXvki

 

2. Automation and the Four Phases of Data Center Virtualization

You’re not going to wake up one morning and discover you’re in the private cloud. Just as there required planning to create your current infrastructure, there are certain steps you need to take before changing it. This year at Interop New York, the focus on the private cloud starts first with virtualization, and the key to getting the most out of virtualization is automation.

http://bit.ly/betC5k

 

3. Streamlining the ITIL implementation process

An Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) implementation can either be undertaken in-house to service the internal customers or outsourced to an external IT service provider. In both the cases, while the framework essentially remains the same, the way it is deployed in an organization is different.

http://bit.ly/cov0zu

 

4. Tying Executive Pay To Sustainability Performance

In corporations across the globe from Intel to Xcel Energy, a new trend has emerged in binding executive compensation to progress made on corporate sustainability goals, including reductions made in energy costs and consumption. The changing legislative and financial landscape in the U.S. and elsewhere underscores the potential impact of this trend on every executive in America.

http://bit.ly/cWK3Np

 

5. The True Cost of Desktop Support

Workshop Desktop support is something every organisation does using a variety of tools, people and processes, using both trained and qualified staff through to the unsanctioned, and often badly informed “I know someone who can help” approach.

http://bit.ly/a8ICrI

Thursday’s Top 5 is a weekly post that identifies relevant industry news and stories. Check in every Thursday to stay up to date with the latest happenings throughout the ITOM industry.

 

Thursday’s Top Five Industry Stories for October 21st, 2010

  1. Saving ITIL: How To Protect The Reputation Of Best Practice Frameworks

Since the news came out that the Office of Government Commerce stated in a report by the Office of Public Sector Information they had ‘no policy remit’ to produce and develop the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) methodology, various articles and blogs have been written declaring the ‘death of ITIL’, or at least of the discipline as we know it.

http://bit.ly/aJEgcB

 

2. Umbrella for the Cloud

When it rains, it pours. And when it pours, it is best to be protected from outside elements that may cause long-term damage. This same philosophy applies to cloud computing which, many may admit it or not, is a potent tool for enterprise computing that is still prone to breakdowns and security threats as any of its predecessors were.

http://bit.ly/ctTP0R

 

3. 5 Ways Cloud Computing Will Change Business and Careers

Anytime a radical technology comes along, radical changes in business and work follow. For instance, the growth of Google, eBay, and Amazon directly piggybacked on the mainstreaming of the Internet. Similarly, in the pre-Internet years, people didn’t spend their entire days tethered to PCs.

http://bit.ly/aWb3Uz

 

4. Cloud Computing Needs Standards

Cloud computing is the latest phenomenon in the IT world. However, the emergence of standards is a sign of market maturity, and it can be a big mistake to commit to products from a market that is not mature. That’s why everyone is asking, “When will we see some cloud standards?”

http://bit.ly/9XkSQq

 

5. Data Center Management’s Role In Corporate Sustainability

What is the data center’s role in corporate sustainability? Michael Rowan, chief technology officer and founder of Viridity and Bernie Siryk, vice president of professional services at Global Green Consulting Group, shed some light this subject.

http://bit.ly/91ykF4

 

Thursday’s Top 5 is a weekly post that identifies relevant industry news and stories. Check in every Thursday to stay up to date with the latest happenings throughout the ITOM industry.

 

Thursday’s Top Five Industry Stories for October 14th, 2010

  

1. Performance Management as a ‘West Side Story’

People think in comparisons, so let me give you an analogy. I am a big fan of movies – old black and white ones, new ones with special effects, and most types in between. I especially like musicals. One of my favorite musical films is “West Side Story,” released in 1961. It is a retelling of Shakespeare’s tragic romance “Romeo and Juliet.” What do a Broadway musical and its subsequent film version have to do with successful enterprise performance management? Plenty. Here is the background.

http://bit.ly/cGqmC4

 

2. Cloud Computing Meets Energy Management

 

Over the past year cloud computing has boomed into a $16.5 billion market. Revenue is projected to grow at an annual rate of 27% over the next four years. Two of the many advantages businesses see in cloud computing are the ability to cut costs and to reduce energy consumption by limiting in-house data center operations.

http://bit.ly/a2Uk3c

 

3. How do you measure Systems Availability?

We are in the process of evaluating our Systems Availability performance measure and I would like to find out how you measure it. Except for a few minor tweaks along the way, we have been measuring Systems Availability pretty much the same way for the past several years.

http://bit.ly/a8MYC1

 

4. Outsourcing for the Right Reasons

Most companies outsource for the wrong reasons: to cut costs or to remove "non-core" distractions in order to focus on "core" IT. The first is just a way of getting somebody else to wield an axe you should wield yourself. If the service isn't adding value, don't provide it. If you need the service, you can cut costs yourself instead of paying an outsourcer to make a profit.

http://bit.ly/czlOqm

 

5. How ITIL Cuts Costs

 

ITIL may not ring a bell to those just beginning in the IT industry. It stands for Information Technology Infrastructure Library, a group of concepts and patterns for managing IT. The then-called Central Computer and Telecommunications agency (CCTA), now titled Office of Government Commerce (OGC), generated the concept when it was ordered to create an approach for efficient and cost effective use of IT resources in the 1980s. Their aim was to create an approach that is independent on any provider, which resulted in what we call now as ITIL.

http://bit.ly/dwbtXk

 

Thursday’s Top 5 is a weekly post that identifies relevant industry news and stories. Check in every Thursday to stay up to date with the latest happenings throughout the ITOM industry.