Notes from the Consultant’s Jungle

In these times of economic stagnation, IT leaders’ attention turns to cost savings.  Indeed in times like these, the CFO is likely exerting strong authority and demanding budget concessions from departments across the enterprise.

Many companies are aggressively consolidating data centers as one way to address this demand.  There are a number of significant cost savings opportunities with data center consolidation, in spite of the complexity involved in successfully executing a consolidation plan.  Many of those, in turn, come from savings due to increased efficiencies of operation as compared to the pre-consolidated state of affairs.  In particular, we’re talking about efficiencies from removing redundancy of maintenance costs, and centralized control of operational and support expenses. [Read more →]

For those of you who are regular visitors to this blog, this topic may seem rather basic.  However, I was recently asked to write an article on this subject and thought that if it’s good enough for that venue then perhaps someone will find benefit in reading here as well.  So here are some highlights from that piece-

Clients often come to us for help with data center consolidation or new data center implementation projects.  The discussion quickly comes around to the appropriate “Tier Level” for their IT facilities.  What we’re talking about here (to a large extent) is an industry standard way of describing the availability of the data center facility.  Availability, in this case, is referring to the degree to which the facility can support constant uninterrupted operation of the contained data processing systems. 

We know that the systems themselves can be architected with high-availability configurations.  Autonomous failover of network connections, clustered server environments, and so on are ways that the systems can sustain operation even if, say, a server crashes.  What the Tier Levels of a data center refer to though, is the capability of the facility itself to support the systems it serves.  Utility power can fail, the temperature in the building can rise to cause damage to equipment, and so on.  These are facilities issues, and are the foundation upon which any amount of data processing fault-tolerance stands. [Read more →]

‘Tis true me hardies, the day o’ big data centers on the seven seas be upon us all. So cast off yer land lubberin’ server farms an’ hoist the main sail. We’re settin’ these servers afloat ‘fore ye feel the bite of me floggin’ whip. Arrr.

Well, we’ve talked about data centers in salt mines, in abandoned ICBM silos, in renovated shopping malls, and now… on boats. ‘Big boats.

This one has been hard to get much information on, because the company is being stealthy about details. A firm by the name of International Data Security (IDS) has acquired a fleet of decommissioned cargo ships, and plans to outfit them as floating data centers. The first is said to be going online at Pier 50 in San Francisco imminently.

Before you say either, “Why didn’t I think of that?” or “These guys must be crazy,” consider the following points: [Read more →]

In earlier posts and conversations, I’ve mentioned my interest in container data centers and the opportunities they bring for certain types of implementations and use cases.  As a big fan of agility in IT in order to meet the dynamic demands of the Business, containers can be a valuable weapon in the arsenal.

In my conversations with Clients about the applicability of containers to their data center roadmaps, I often find myself involved in philosophical debates.  Part of this is due to the newness of the technology as well as preconceived notions of use cases for containers.  Part too, is due to the real fact that containers are very strong solutions in some use cases, and more of a strategic option to be evaluated in others. [Read more →]

One of the contrarian voices in enterprise use of Web 2.0 technologies has often been doubt of the value of the “Wisdom of Crowds.”  That is, an apprehension that the input from widespread collaboration may have only marginal value toward the development of the product or initiative, or even worse- will be a waste of time and a distraction.  The contrarian voice always has value, as I’ve said before, but recently I’ve come across a very interesting instance of an advocate for the “Wisdom of Crowds” from a very unlikely place- the government of Communist China! [Read more →]

I’ve spoken often about the promise of Web 2.0 technologies for the enterprise (and society in general) and the potential of rich collaboration that these technologies facilitate.  Recently, I’ve been working on a concept that applies a social networking layer on top of ITIL processes.  Let me elaborate on that a bit. [Read more →]

In a recent interview with CIO Insight, Kenneth Brill of the Uptime Institute posits that the growth of demand for data processing is likely to cause enterprises to repeat data center construction projects every four to eight years. What?! Do it again? [Read more →]

When crafting Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans (BCP, DRP), the roles and capabilities of local Public Safety organizations (Police, Fire Department, Ambulance, et. al.) play an important role.  In working with a Client on their DR plan, and following the post mortem of the recent disruption of The Planet’s data center in Houston, TX, I’ve found some interesting food for thought related to the roles of Public Safety in DR planning. [Read more →]

I’ve written before about how the various aspects of our lives drive us to use multiple online personas, and that this is a shortcoming of social networking sites today. What I’m referring to here is that we all wear multiple “skins,” and to represent these personas online one needs separate profiles on separate social networking sites for our professional skin, our hobby skin, our family skin, our community skin, and so on. This is a problem of social networking sites today, and I’ve argued that it’s an architectural problem. [Read more →]

An article appearing today on Reuters describes how researchers at Carnegie-Mellon University’s Machine Learning Department have been experimenting with brain activity related to thinking of words.  The process involves capturing MRI images of a person’s brain as they are shown and asked to think about specific words.  The image captured on the MRI of the brain, while thinking the word, is matched by the computer to the word.  [Read more →]