In my opinion, Object Storage officially broke through this month. It went from being the “next” big thing to being “the” big thing. Why? Because Larry said so. Well, technically he didn’t: someone else had to do it for him as he skipped the Oracle Open World Keynote to see Team USA win the America’s Cup in the most exciting regatta of all times. So I’ve been told. I wasn’t there and I’m not a sailor. I kite surf, like Richard Branson.
What has Larry Ellison to do with Object storage and how is he an authority on the topic? Isn’t object storage about unstructured data, rather than databases? Well, correct: I don’t expect a whole lot from Oracle’s object storage technology. They are a database company and they are pretty damn good at that. But they haven’t been exceptionally successful with the Sun storage legacy other than the tape part of that business. Oracle’s object storage technology could have been good if they had recycled some of Sun’s honeycomb technology, but it doesn’t look like that is going to be the case. The little information that is out there points to OpenStack Swift, and we all know how well Oracle and open source blend! Also, Swift isn’t exactly storage-efficient: the technology was designed to run on cheap, commodity hardware – not really Oracle’s game.
Let’s face it, developers rule. They have instantaneous access to technology resources that can be spun up easily without your knowledge. It is this pressure that is driving the inevitability of Cloud adoption across enterprise IT. If you still think of your IT organization as a cost center – presiding over a hefty annual budget and responsible for doling out dollars to the developers – then it’s time to rethink and re-imagine the business of IT.
If IT continues with the same old tired cost models and budget planning cycles, some of the best, most creative and most ingenious innovations in technology will never see the light of day. It’s a true dilemma for developers and innovators – why spend time creating, when your next great idea or project doesn’t meet the initial business case requirements for funding? But that was the old world of IT. The hard truth is that IT organizations are faced with a fundamental choice: resist or transform. CIOs can either accept the fact that they are now service providers competing with external vendors for budget dollars, or become impediments to change and lose relevance. Those choosing to become service providers are finding they need to develop a new operating model for IT, one that requires new platforms, processes, and skills.
By Chris Reily, Director of Solutions Architecture
Every year has its own special IT acronym and 2013 has been no different. During client meetings, in the pages of IT trade publications and on the minds of vendor partners – the term BYOD pops up more frequently than Psy’s “Gangham Style” does on pop radio. For the record, Psy is the smartly dressed Korean pop music sensation sporting Risky Business-style Ray Bans as opposed to the (also trending) bearded Uncle Si of Duck Dynasty (reality-TV) fame. If this is all meaningless to you, you’ve been working too hard. Ask your family, they miss you.
Consumerization of IT is finding its way into the enterprise rapidly. Choice, personalization and mobility are no longer simply appreciated but are ultimately demanded. BYOD in theory sounds like a terrific plan and if executed properly can be an outstanding component of an end user computing (EUC) solution in many environments. Success however goes far beyond an employee stipend and flexibility in choice. BYOD is not for every organization and even in those organizations where it makes sense, it’s not for every employee. Here is a list of the top ten considerations when investigating a BYOD solution for your organization:
What are the core applications you need to deliver to end users? Are these applications supported by recommended or allowed devices? What are the corporate use cases?
Will your infrastructure support connectivity and desktop/application delivery to new devices on your network? Storage, compute and network – it all matters.
Do you have the budget to support this initiative? Hint: it will be more than you expect. Hint #2: don’t expect to “save money” (at least in the first year). The ROI (return on investment) may come but expectations inside 36 months are unrealistic.
Who needs what? Organizations are diverse and dynamic. Not every employee will need to be part of a BYOD initiative. Different categories of associates will have varying device needs. The road warrior sales guy, administrative assistant and mechanical engineer will all have different needs.
A well-executed plan will drive employee job satisfaction. Figure out how your team will deal with happy IT-using employees; it may be a new experience for all involved.
Are you ready to set policy and stick to it? There will be challenges that make you question what you were thinking in the first place. Get managerial support and be confident.
Be flexible. Sure, this may seem somewhat contrary to comment #6. Of course you’ll encounter situations where the intelligent response is to modify and improve.
Get “buy in” from the board room and the corner office(s). The support of senior management and investors is critical; don’t even go there without serious majority support.
Seek advice and approval from legal, accounting and human resources. Ask the art department and maintenance team too if you think it can help.
Talk to others. I know this is hard for many of us who have spent careers in IT, but give it a shot and see what happens. Speak to partners who have delivered BYOD solutions. Reach out to similar organizations who have implemented their strategy. Heck, speak with companies who tried it and failed. Arm yourself with information, do your research.
This is a lot to digest. A poorly executed implementation has the surety of employees abandoning the program. Small steps and a detailed approach work best – don’t be afraid of running test groups and proof of concept (POC) trials. The risk of not exploring your options may leave your IT environment seeming as outdated as last decade’s pop dance craze. Is your organization considering BYOD? Have you already implemented a policy? If so, how has your experience been?
When I first discuss security in our Licensed ZapThink Architect (LZA) SOA course, I ask the class the following question: if a building had 20 exterior doors, and you locked 19 of them, would you be 95% secure? The answer to this 20-doors problem, of course, is absolutely not – you’d be 0% secure, since the bad guys are generally smart enough to find the unlocked door.
While the 20-doors problem serves to illustrate how important it is to secure your Services as part of a comprehensive enterprise IT strategy, the same lesson applies to enterprise Cybersecurity in general: applying inconsistent security policies across an organization leads to weaknesses hackers are only too happy to exploit.
However, when we’re talking about the entire enterprise, the Cybersecurity challenge is vastly more complex than simply securing all your software interfaces. Adequate security involves people, process, information, as well as technology. Getting …
Hostway has announced the Application Packaging Standard (APS) integration of its FlexCloud Servers (Infrastructure-as-a-Service, or IaaS), public-cloud hosting suite, in partnership with Parallels, a global leader in hosting and cloud services enablement and cross-platform solutions.
«In the rapidly evolving cloud services market, collaboration is the key to success. We’re thrilled to work with an industry leader like Parallels to give partners new ways to customize, bundle and seamlessly deliver the cloud applications and scalable infrastructure solutions customers demand,» said Todd Benjamin, Vice President of Hosted Services. «By enabling delivery of cloud services in a Parallels environment, Hostway provides ecosystem partners with a low risk, quick-to-market path to leverage their own channels to grow their businesses and offer an end-to-end solution.»
Cloud storage provider Nirvanix has announced it has voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as expected, following the news earlier this month it was to shut down effective September 30.
The Nirvanix website paints a sorry picture this morning, with a company update put almost out of the way at the bottom of the page stating that bankruptcy was sought “in order to pursue all alternative to maximise value for its creditors while continuing its efforts to provide the best possible transition for customers.”
A statement on the website also details the efforts the company is taking to make sure its customers don’t lose out, either returning data or transitioning it to other providers. Nirvanix state they are “working hard to have resources available through October 15” to aid the transition process.
The CSP is working particularly closely with IBM, with a team from Big Blue on hand to …
Steve Wozniak says he’s “a fan” of the cloud, yet he’s still worried about what could happen if consumers and companies don’t back things up locally.
This may come as something of a surprise to the tech fraternity, for whom the general consensus was that Woz wasn’t too keen on cloud – to put it politely.
Last August, after a showing of the Mike Daisey monologue ‘The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs’, Wozniak was quoted as telling a packed theatre audience: “I think cloud’s going to be horrendous. I think there are going to be a lot of horrible problems in the next five years.”
Yet 12 months on the Apple co-founder, who is speaking at Apps World Europe in October, said that the position was “unclear” and things needed to be clarified.
“I am actually a fan,” Wozniak told CloudTech. “The advantages of the …
The focus shouldn’t be on threats, but rather on how those threats might change. At the technology level, this focus on change shifts the focus from a static “locked door” approach to security to the immune system metaphor I discussed last year. But there’s more to architecting for security than the technology. At the organizational level, effective EA will help resolve shadow IT issues which can lead to unmanaged security threats as an example. At the process level, EA will address social engineering challenges like phishing attacks. Securing your technology without applying a comprehensive, best practice approach to organizational and process security is tantamount to leaving some of your doors unlocked.
SYS-CON Events announced today that Plexxi, provider of the first and only affinity-driven networking solution, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 13th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 4–7, 2013, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Plexxi is the creator of the industry’s first affinity-driven networking solution. Plexxi’s products – Plexxi Control and the Plexxi Switch – create an optimized network that dynamically helps applications perform better. The company has raised $48+ million in venture financing from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Matrix Partners and Northbridge Venture Partners. Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Plexxi also has offices in Nashua, N.H. and San Francisco.
Around the world, market leaders in all industries have already deployed managed cloud services. Seeking to use business technology as a strategic lever to advance past their competition on multiple fronts, the senior executives at these leading companies are eager to learn about the next phase of cloud service development.
Worldwide spending on public IT cloud services will reach $47.4 billion in 2013 and will reach more than $107 billion by 2017, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Over the 2013–2017 forecast period, public cloud services will have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.5 percent, that’s five times the IT industry growth as a whole.
As one of the key technologies enabling the industry-wide shift, cloud computing has played a crucial role in changing the way companies consume and use business technology. IDC believes that there are signs that cloud services are starting to shift into a the next phase — where the scale of cloud adoption will be much bigger and more user and solution driven.
In this phase of growth, cloud and the other 3rd Platform technologies — mobile internet, social, and Big Data — will become even more interdependent as they continue to drive growth and innovation across all industries that depend on business technology.