Since EasyStreet opened its doors in the mid ‘90s, the company has been synonymous with superior connectivity. Now — with the worldwide IT community poised to take advantage of the rapidly growing presence of cloud computing — connectivity is even more vital.
“As virtualized infrastructures and the demand for ‘anywhere, anytime’ access continue to increase, connectivity has become as important as processing power for users — meaning a company’s implementation of cloud computing will succeed or fail based on the quality of the end-user connection,” says Kevin Dean, a senior vice president at Interxion, Europe’s leading provider of colocation services.
“Maximum bandwidths and multiple connectivity options will drive adoption of the pay-per-use model, and anything less will have the reverse effect,” he adds in support of colocation offerings such as EasyStreet’s. “A carrier-neutral data center can provide the widest possible range of connectivity options, and with increased choice, comes more opportunities for lower costs.”
Dean’s comments appeared in a recent article in Data Center Knowledge.com.
When the world’s economy improves, companies worldwide are poised to spend increased amounts on IT outsourcing, according to a recent Gartner survey. Eighty-five percent of nearly 1,100 organizations in the U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific regions say spending for external services will rise more than 7 percent.
Respondents were surveyed earlier this year, when sentiments were optimistic about a pending recovery. Most respondents predicted economic recovery during 2010.
Allie Young, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, said the recession was clearly felt by organizations who reported increased contract renegotiations with external services providers. She noted that the majority of organizations will increasingly turn to external providers to support IT strategies when the recovery occurs.
Respondents told Gartner the overall mean average for outsourcing spending is predicted to increase to 7.13 percent. However, there is a great degree of variation in different countries. Indian users, for example, expect an increased spending of 17.4 percent, while Japanese users foresee a decrease of 1.5 percent.
You can now follow the construction of our new green data center on Facebook. We’ll post photos and the occasional video as we make good progress toward completion. This week they started excavating an enormous hole behind the building for the rainwater containment system that will support the Indirect Evaporative Coolers on the roof. Take a look!
This slideshow from CIO Insight not only highlights the unusual places workers use their smart phones to check in with the office, but how often they do so. Results include:
- 62% during a meal
- 60% while on vacation
- 18% while on a date (No wonder these folks are still single.)
- 11% at church
- 54% while driving (Gasp!)
- 57% in the bathroom (I don’t want to think about it…)
Second highest at 59 percent, professional/business service workers like those in IT say they check in while driving. (66 percent of sales employees do this.)
More than 5,200 employees participated in this survey conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.
To review the entire slideshow, click here.
There are lessons galore to be gleaned from BP’s tragic Gulf oil spill, including some that IT leaders should heed. That’s the message from Patrick Gray, founder and president of Prevoyance Group and author of Breakthrough IT: Supercharging Organizational Value through Technology.
“The most dramatic parallel is that the Gulf oil spill is at its core a technical problem, requiring a technical solution,” Gray writes in a recent post for TechRepublic.com. “So, what lessons can IT learn from this incident?”
The key ones, he says, are accepting culpability, providing regular information updates, maintaining leadership appearances, and having sufficient back-up plan in case Plan B doesn’t work.
“For the IT leader, the spill provides the perfect example of what an outsider sees as you attempt to fix a technical problem,” Gray writes. “Just as you likely do not understand the nuances of directional drilling or blowout prevention, your constituents care little about firewalls and failed SANs. How you as a leader work with your technicians and CEO and inform the rest of the organization about your progress will determine whether you have the IT equivalent of the BP spill or a well-managed and effective remediation.”
If you’re interested in Gray’s complete column, “What BP Can Teach Us About IT,” click here.
