With more organizations embracing cloud mandates and moving quickly to flash-accelerated, shared storage infrastructures, NetApp introduced a new line of enterprise storage systems and enhanced software designed to accelerate the broadest range of virtualized applications.
“As they adapt their IT operations to improve service delivery and embrace cloud mandates, CIOs recognize the advantages of shared storage infrastructures,” said George Kurian, Executive Vice President, Product Operations, NetApp. “Our new FAS8000 series and enhanced software offerings allow customers to respond quickly to changing business needs, move seamlessly to an era of unbound clouds, and eliminate the overprovisioning of people, time, and money.”
Monthly Archives: February 2014
Hostway Names Robert Boles CEO
Hostway Corporation on Thursday announced the appointment of 30-year technology industry veteran Robert Boles to the post of Chief Executive Officer. He succeeds John Martis, who is the new Chief Operating Officer and will work with Boles to broaden the company’s Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions and delivery models.
Boles most recently served as Senior Vice President of IT Infrastructure Services for Cognizant Technology Solutions, an $8+ billion provider of global IT and business process outsourcing services where he drove dramatic growth by leading a move into the data center and cloud services space. Hostway will leverage Boles’ experience at Cognizant and in his previous positions to bring new, packaged, hosted and cloud-based enterprise-class solutions and IT services to the small and mid-sized businesses that Hostway serves.
Hostway Names Robert Boles CEO
Hostway Corporation on Thursday announced the appointment of 30-year technology industry veteran Robert Boles to the post of Chief Executive Officer. He succeeds John Martis, who is the new Chief Operating Officer and will work with Boles to broaden the company’s Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions and delivery models.
Boles most recently served as Senior Vice President of IT Infrastructure Services for Cognizant Technology Solutions, an $8+ billion provider of global IT and business process outsourcing services where he drove dramatic growth by leading a move into the data center and cloud services space. Hostway will leverage Boles’ experience at Cognizant and in his previous positions to bring new, packaged, hosted and cloud-based enterprise-class solutions and IT services to the small and mid-sized businesses that Hostway serves.
Don’t Be a Michael Scott – Embrace Change in IT
By Ben Stephenson, Journey to the Cloud
One of the biggest impediments to the adoption of new technologies is resistance to change. Many IT departments are entrenched and content in the way they currently run IT. But as the technology industry continues to embrace IT-as-a-Service, IT departments must be receptive to change if they want to stay competitive.
I’m a big fan of the TV show The Office. In my opinion, it’s the second funniest series behind Seinfeld (and it’s a very close second). Dunder Mifflin Scranton Regional Manager Michael Scott is a quintessential example of a decision maker who’s against the adoption of new technologies because of fear, a lack of understanding, and downright stubbornness.
In the “Dunder Mifflin Infinity” episode in Season Four, the young, newly promoted hot-shot exec (and former intern) Ryan Howard returns to the Scranton branch to reveal his plan on how he’s going to use technology to revitalize the company. Part of his plan is the rollout of a new website that will allow Dunder Mifflin to be more agile and allow customers to make purchases online. Michael and his loyal sidekick (and part-time beet farmer) Dwight Schrute are staunchly opposed to this idea.
At this point in the episode Michael is against Ryan’s idea of leveraging technology to improve the business process out of pure stubbornness. Michael hasn’t heard Ryan’s strategy or thought out the pros and cons of leveraging technology to improve business processes. His mindset is simply “How can this new technology possibly be better than the way we have always done things?”
Maybe your company has always bought infrastructure and run it in house—so why change now? Well, running a hybrid cloud environment can provide better service to your end users and also contribute to cost savings. Regardless if you act or not, it’s something you need to keep an open mind about and look into closely. Dismissing the concept immediately isn’t going to do you any good.
Creed Bratton is the oldest employee in the Scranton office. After hearing Ryan’s announcement about implementing new technologies, Creed gets extremely worried that he’s going to get squeezed out of his job. He goes to Michael and shares his concerns that both their jobs may be in jeopardy. At this point, Michael is now against the adoption of technology due to a lack of understanding. Ryan’s plan is to retrain his employees so that they have the knowledge and skillset to leverage new technologies to improve the business—not to use it as a means to downsize the workforce.
This is similar to the fear that cloud computing will cause widespread layoffs of IT workers. This is not necessarily the case. It’s not about reducing jobs; it’s about retraining current employees to take on new roles within the department.
Ryan claims that the new website is going to significantly increase sales. Michael and Dwight set out on a road trip to win back several key customers whose accounts they have recently lost to competitors to prove to Ryan that they don’t need a website. Their strategy? Personally deliver fruit baskets. Each customer ends up turning them down because the vendors they are currently using have websites and offer lower prices.
In this case, Dunder Mifflin’s lack of IT innovation is directly affecting its bottom line. They’re making it an easy decision for customers to leave because they simply aren’t keeping pace with the competition. As a modern day IT department, you need to be leveraging technologies that allow people to do their jobs easier and in turn reduce costs for the organization. For example, by installing a SaaS-based marketing automation tool (i.e. HubSpot), your marketing team can automate workloads and spend more time generating leads for the sales team to drive revenue. By using Amazon, or another IaaS platform, you have the ability to buy only the capacity you actually need, saving on infrastructure hardware capital and maintenance costs. For workloads that make more sense running on-prem, creating a private cloud environment with a service catalog can streamline performance and give users the ability to choose and instantly receive the IT services they need.
At the end of the episode, an enraged Michael and Dwight head back to the office. On their way back, Michael’s GPS instructs him to take a right hand turn. Dwight looks at the screen and tells Michael that it’s saying to bear right around the bend, but Michael takes the sharp right trusting the machine and follows it…directly into a lake. Dwight shouts that he’s trained for this moment and jumps in the two feet of water to valiantly save Michael. When they get back to the office Michael announces “I drove my car into a [bleep] lake. Why you may ask did I do this? Well, because of a machine. A machine told me to drive into a lake. And I did it! I did it because I trusted Ryan’s precious technology, and look where it got me.” At this point, Michael is resisting technology because of fear.
In today’s changing IT landscape, embarking on new IT initiatives can be scary. There are risks involved, and there are going to be bumps along the way. (Full disclosure, Ryan ends up getting arrested later in the season for fraud after placing orders multiple times in the system—but you get the idea.)But at the end of the day, the change now taking place in IT is inevitable. To be successful, you need to carefully, and strategically, plan out projects and make sure you have the skillsets to get the job done properly (or use a partner like GreenPages to help).The risk of adopting new technologies is nothing compared to the risk of doing nothing and being left behind. Leave a comment and share how your organization is dealing with the changing IT landscape…or let me know what your favorite Office episode is…
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The path to good cloud architecture uses SOA
What does SOA bring to cloud computing? Most of those who design cloud architecture and build cloud-based systems don’t understand the answer to that question. However, certain patterns are emerging that prove SOA is a best practice to define good cloud architecture…even though it may not be called SOA.
Many enterprises are just tossing things out of the enterprise onto public and private clouds and hoping for the best. Making things worse, many of the larger enterprise’s clients do not see the forest through the trees, or, in this case, the architecture through the clouds. So, you have both parties taking a reactive versus a proactive approach to the cloud.
Every enterprise should have a good architectural context to support the use of cloud computing. Or, the ability to create an overall strategic plan and architectural framework, and then look at how cloud computing fits into this …
My Journey From RobustCloud to IDC
After an interesting career in the corporate world and an independent, I am making another change.
Starting next month, I will take up the role of Research Manager in the Platform as a Service Practice with International Data Corporation (IDC). After spending 5 years evangelizing cloud computing as an independent consultant and analyst, I will now leverage my skills at IDC by focusing on one of the emerging and fast growing facets of cloud computing.
The past five years have been one heck of a ride interspersed with dozens of conferences, speaking engagements and short consulting activities. Along the way I interacted with the best of cloud experts, analysts, customers and vendors which led me to connections with thousands of cloud computing aficionados via multiple social avenues like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Companies with which I worked included Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, NTT, Oracle, Redhat, Salesforce, Tibco and VMWare.
My Journey From RobustCloud to IDC
After an interesting career in the corporate world and an independent, I am making another change.
Starting next month, I will take up the role of Research Manager in the Platform as a Service Practice with International Data Corporation (IDC). After spending 5 years evangelizing cloud computing as an independent consultant and analyst, I will now leverage my skills at IDC by focusing on one of the emerging and fast growing facets of cloud computing.
The past five years have been one heck of a ride interspersed with dozens of conferences, speaking engagements and short consulting activities. Along the way I interacted with the best of cloud experts, analysts, customers and vendors which led me to connections with thousands of cloud computing aficionados via multiple social avenues like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Companies with which I worked included Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, NTT, Oracle, Redhat, Salesforce, Tibco and VMWare.
Remediate WS2003 and Move to the Cloud in One Step
With Windows Server 2003 end of extended support approaching, enterprises must begin their migration planning for all affected production applications. There are a variety of approaches and many people will take a “mix and match” approach. Whatever the approach, it’s important to have a migration plan now – 200 business days goes by quickly when some applications take weeks to migrate. This is the perfect opportunity to move those applications to the Cloud. There’s a way to move your applications and modernize (move to the cloud) at the same time.
SOA Software Closes Another Profitable Year
SOA Software on Tuesday announced that it closed 2013 as a profitable year with double digit revenue growth over the previous year. With the increased pace of convergence of API Management and SOA Governance and new strategic partnerships, the company has benefited from a continued investment in robust enterprise-ready software.
“We saw growth in customer adoption of APIs and a convergence of API Management and SOA Governance, both areas where SOA Software has been traditionally strong and continues to be a thought leader,” said Paul Gigg, President and CEO of SOA Software. “We are uniquely well-positioned to grow our market leadership in API Management and will continue to bring innovative solutions to market.”
BMC Software Delivers ‘The New IT’ with Three Pioneering Products
BMC Software on Tuesday introduced an array of product innovations that take full advantage of advancements in user experience and crowdsourcing to give employees complete control of their IT experience via an elegant and intuitive mobile interface.
The new products – BMC MyIT 2.0, BMC AppZone 2.0 and BMC Remedyforce Winter ’14 – showcase the company’s commitment to using mobile, social, and cloud technologies. BMC believes these technologies, along with automated and industrialized IT service delivery, are the defining characteristics of the new IT. As businesses increasingly replace physical products and services with those delivered digitally – such as banks enabling customers to deposit a check with a smartphone versus going to a branch – expectations for improved experiences across the technology landscape have skyrocketed, as have the pressures put on IT to deliver them. BMC addresses these challenges in the customer-focused products announced today.