Monthly Archives: October 2009

Nearly Half of Americans ‘Can’t Live’ Without Their Phones

Posted on by gregl

iphone_holic_webYou’d have to be living in a remote cave for several years now not to realize mobile phones are changing the world. You can begin comprehending the impact of these ubiquitous mobile devices by reading a recent survey from global market-research firm Synovate, involving 8,000 cell phone owners across 11 world markets.

“Three quarters of the survey respondents — including 82 percent of Americans — never leave home without their phones, and 36 people of people across the world (42 percent of Americans) go as far as to say they ‘cannot live without’ their cell phone,” the report states.

Overall, 23 percent of respondents own more than two mobile phones. Americans are among the most likely to own at least two at 33 percent, along with the French at 34 percent. Brits and Americans were the most likely to own a smartphone at 21 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

“This sheer volume, coupled with enormous marketing potential that is just starting to be realized, means that marketers need to understand as much as possible about how people use their phones, how they feel about them and what they want more of,” says Steve Garton, the firm’s head of global media.

To learn more about the Synovate survey and its findings, click here.

Uh-oh. Dynamic infrastructures and ‘IT chaos’

Posted on by Karen Karger

As I understand it, dynamic infrastructures actively react to the environment around them by interpreting data from sensors. In this InfoWorld article, analyst Charles King, editor and principal of Pund-It, calls this new model “chaotically distributed computing,” and warns of the need for IT to support and manage all of those new data sources.

Check out the article, here. It contains some interesting projections about the value of dynamic infrastructures and the possible IT fallout. “But,” says King, “That is what IT is all about: recognizing the difficulties and overcoming them.”

The Long IT Haul Back to 2008

Posted on by gregl

Yes, it’s been a bad year for IT budgets – the worst ever, in fact – but we should return to the lavish spending levels of 2008 … in 2012. 

That’s the prediction of Peter Sondergaard, senior VP of research with Gartner, who says: “Global enterprise spending on IT is going to decline 6.8 percent this year. And the IT industry – measured in dollar terms – will actually not recover until 2012, to the 2008 revenue levels.”

In dollars and cents, that’s $2.3 trillion spent this year, compared to $2.5 trillion last year, which will be the level we reach again three years from now.

“Spending has actually declined in all markets,” he says, citing hardware, software, telecommunications and IT services. “Compared with previous negative economic cycles, the impact has been felt all across every single vertical industry.”

Recovery will be driven by IT spending primarily in health care, utilities and government. Sondergaard notes that IT budget planning for 2010 is being done “on the background, therefore, of the worst year ever, in the IT industry.”

“2010 is about balancing cost, risk, and growth,” he says, but expects that about half of all enterprise IT budgets will reflect zero growth or even less funding than for this year.

“By 2012 the accelerated spending on IT will begin to drive a culturally different approach to technology that will start to impact product features, service structures and the overall IT industry,” Sondergaard predicts. “Silicon Valley is no longer in the driver’s seat.”

To see Sondergaard’s brief speech on this, click here.

Business Requirements Should Drive Outsourcing

Posted on by gregl

Whether you’re looking overseas or in the Portland metro area for outsourcing your data center, the fundamental factors governing the decision are much the same. In a recent paper primarily discussing overseas data center outsourcing, Gartner consultants listed some key recommendations we feel apply locally as well:

1. Drive data center sourcing decisions with business requirements.

2. Outsourcing cost decisions should be driven not only by cost savings, but also by the provided quality and value.

3. Every sourcing strategy has limitations and risks.

4. Establish the key contract clauses required in a sourcing agreement to allow for flexibility and to support the data center needs of the future.

5. Focus on the sourcing governance challenge – organization, skills and processes – and retained activities.

“IT operations and support organizations are often viewed as an overhead that provides a commodity function that can be easily and safely outsourced,” the report states, then adds: “Good business decisions are based on understanding services and costs, the impact of change, and the risk associated with IT services that do not meet business requirements.”

Good advice that tracks with our experience. Customers who consider EasyStreet as an IT partner ultimately get the most benefit from our services.

The Data Center as Rising ‘Cost Center’

Posted on by gregl

Wondering where your IT budget is going? Recent tabulations of data center costs show the rising costs of operating one could even threaten corporate profitability in some companies.

A recent report from global management consultants McKinsey & Company says data center capacity currently is growing 10 percent annually as businesses process and store more data. And the resulting cost of this growth is higher yet.

“With this spike in capacity comes a corresponding escalation in data center IT costs,” states the McKinsey report. “Today’s data centers account for approximately 25 percent of the total corporate IT budget, when you take into account facilities, servers, storage and the labor to manage them. This share will grow as the number of servers, the amount of power consumed, and the unit cost of power all increase.”

For example, overall IT spending is climbing at a rate of six percent a year, but data center facility costs alone are jumping 20 percent annually.

“The portion of the IT budget consumed by infrastructure and facilities is significantly reshaping the economics of many businesses,” the report states. “In information-intensive businesses like investment banks, telecoms and business information, data center costs are diverting capital from new product development, making some products and segments uneconomical and materially affecting margins. Without radical changes in operations, many companies with large data centers face reduced profitability.”

You can guess EasyStreet’s take on this: Considering the well-known inefficiencies in most corporate data centers, these rising costs sound like a good argument for outsourcing as a more manageable IT cost structure for more companies.

More Fuel for Your Cyber-Paranoia

Posted on by gregl

When it comes to technology security breaches, cybercriminals now have their hands much closer to your pocketbook. They’ve developed a sophisticated piece of malicious software that can be loaded into ATMs running the Windows XP operating system for reading your credit or debit card information.

According to leading security vendor Trustwave, headquartered in Chicago, the malware records data from your card’s magnetic stripe as well as capturing your PIN – which means the bad guys have what they need to withdraw your cash.

“The malware is controlled via a GUI that is displayed when a so-called ‘trigger card’ is inserted into the machine by a criminal,” according to a recent Trustwave report on the malware. “The trigger card causes a small window to appear that gives its controller 10 seconds to pick one of 10 command options using the ATM’s keypad.”

“The malware contains advanced management functionality allowing the attacker to fully control the compromised ATM through a customized user interface built into the malware,” the Trustwave report continues. “A criminal can then view the number of transactions, print card data, reboot the machine and even uninstall the malware. Another menu option appears to allow the ejection of an ATM’s cash cassette.”

Trustwave spokespeople say the company has collected multiple versions of the malware and believes that the particular one it analyzed is “a relatively early version of the malware and that subsequent versions have seen significant additions to its functionality.”

Device Population Rising, Support Not So Much

Posted on by gregl

IT industry-analyst firm IDC sees a massive growth in the number of devices CIOs must oversee, but far less corresponding growth in services to support the devices, according to a recent white paper on the topic.

As far as device growth, IDC sees a 66 percent growth in the number of devices for which CIOs are responsible, climbing from 1.3 billion in 2007 to 2.2 billion in 2012. Support services, meanwhile, will grow 37 percent, to $728 billion, over the same period.

“While the number of devices that CIOs will be responsible for will increase dramatically over the next five years, most enterprises do not expect to see a dramatic increase in their external spending on support services,” states IDC. “However, focusing on only the external costs neglects the additional costs associated with supporting these devices. In addition to the external support costs, enterprises need to consider the internal staff required to support and manage these devices.”

Outsourcing IT was one of the potential solutions IDC says CIOs often consider.

“To address the concerns of managing and supporting an IT environment, many enterprises have chosen to outsource all or some of their IT operations to a dedicated services provider,” the report noted.

You can click here to download the white paper. (You’ll have to register for the download.)

Innovative footprint, creative cooling are key to managing power

Posted on by gregl

Question: How does a data center manage power requirements and still meet the need for more storage?

Answer: Footprint design, innovative cooling techniques, and greater energy efficiency are the real leverage points.

That’s what the Oliver Wyman Group concluded after a recent study of data centers in healthcare, technology and financial services companies.

They found data center footprints are critical as companies switch to denser storage units and more space is opened up. They need to be able to strategically place servers and storage units for maximum power and cooling efficiency. One facilities manager referred to his footprint design as “white-space management.” Not a bad phrase to keep in mind.

Sure, we know creative cooling techniques can lead to major power savings. But the impact is huge. According to one of the study’s participants,  “Cooling is the single biggest place where the facilities manager can make the most dramatic impact.”

Keeping your finger on the energy pulse is critical for managing growth in the data center. Several of the study’s participants were moving toward standardized floor-tiles for easier equipment upgrades. And some contended that leveling the load across the floor space creates less strain on power and cooling systems.

Another IT manager said, “We were able to drive towards 40 percent energy efficiency gains by changing how we manage power.” 

No surprises there.

Stay tuned to learn about how EasyStreet will be managing the load on our data center cooling systems.

Scary botnets and how to detect them

Posted on by Karen Karger

This post covers two related articles by Linda Musthaler of Network World. One article discusses “nine things about botnets that will scare your pants off,” while the other provides “more tips on detecting botnet infestation.”

At EasyStreet, we do everything we can to prevent all types of badness from infecting our own — and our customers’ — infrastructure with firewalls, proactive monitoring, Intrusion Prevention Systems and the like.

Perhaps the scariest thing noted in Ms. Musthaler’s article is that botnet software is no longer created by “script kiddies that are out for kicks,” but by professional developers who are in it for the money. Another related Network World article says, “The botnet world is booming” and, “The thriving world of botnet attacks continues to demand IT’s attention.”

Scary stuff, indeed.

U.S. Broadband Still Spotty

Posted on by gregl

The good news is that the U.S. is maintaining its top-ranked position in worldwide IT competitiveness, according to the Business Software Alliance’s annual study.

The bad news is that in the area of infrastructure, the U.S. has slipped from second to seventh place because parts of the country still don’t have access to high-speed networks.

BSA’s annual IT study examines factors such as national supplies of skilled workers, technology infrastructure, intellectual-property protection, and governmental support of technology. The U.S. scored points for its large pool of IT workers, strong R&D environment and legal system, according to Denis McCauley, director of global technology research at the Economist Intelligence Unit, which conducted the study.

Countries ranking just below the U.S. include Finland, Sweden, Canada, the Netherlands, the U.K., Australia, Denmark, Singapore and Norway.

Finland’s approach to R&D – the study’s most important category – enabled it to jump from 13th to second place this year, while improved infrastructure helped the Netherlands move from 10th to fifth spot.