- +
Strategies for Dealing With IT Complexity 24/12/2007 10:30:47
Every innovation, every business process improvement, comes with an IT complexity tax that must be paid by CIOs in time, money and sweat. Here are strategies to mitigate the increasing complexity of IT as it enables new business.Every innovation, every business process improvement, comes with an IT complexity tax that must be paid by CIOs in time, money and sweat. Here are strategies to mitigate the increasing complexity of IT as it enables new business. - +
It Is Easy Being Green 03/09/2007 11:28:04
In last month’s issue we looked at why CIOs should be at the fore of an organization’s sustainability effortsWhen it comes to cleaning up their act, many CIOs are recognizing data centres as among the lowest hanging fruit. IDC estimates companies spent $US26.1 billion to power and cool servers worldwide in 2005, with a monstrous $14 billion of that being spent in the US alone. In fact, data centres account for between 1.5 and 3 percent of all electricity consumed in the US. Should current trends persist, the research organization projects, that bill will soar to $US50 billion by the end of the decade - +
Virtual Possibilities 02/10/2007 11:58:28
Smart CIOs are using virtualization for more than data centre consolidation. They’re becoming masters of flexibility — delivering results for the business like lightning-fast provisioning and greatly improved disaster recoveryThere isn't much about Tom Sanzone that bespeaks drama. The CIO of Credit Suisse is direct, meticulous and practical, and it doesn't seem as if he'd suffer fools gladly, an impression partly informed by his New York accent, nearly shaven head and confident demeanour - +
9 Paths to Higher Performance 10/12/2007 14:09:23
When an organization brings together talented people in a creative, collaborative environment it fosters a culture of high performance, which in turn leads to superior business resultsLike high-achieving individuals, some organizations seem to have the Midas touch. Virtually every initiative they touch earns them gold and even those that fail never seem to cost them much of anything at all - +
What Price Innovation? 05/11/2007 13:44:31
CIOs say they want more than the traditional “your mess for less” relationship with their outsourcing providers. And the providers want to market themselves as partners in innovation. So why isn’t it happening?CIOs say they want more than the traditional "your mess for less" relationship with their outsourcing providers. And the providers want to market themselves as partners in innovation. So why isn't it happening?
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. How to Beef Up Your Sales Pipeline
Understanding Email Marketing: A Guide for SMBs
Enterprise Wireless WLAN Security
Realizing the Value of Unified Communications
Email Archiving Implementation: Five Costly Mistakes to Avoid
Wireless LANs: Is my enterprise at risk?
Agile in the Enterprise
Solve Exchange Storage Problems Once and For All: A New Approach without Stubs or Links
Zones provide focussed content from Computerworld and leading technology partners.Newsletter Subscription
Suddenly all things virtual are good. After VMware's IPO last week, the whole world has discovered virtualization's value proposition.
VMware's value proposition is simple. Instead of purchasing 5, 10, or 30 physical servers from Dell that each host a single application, you only need to purchase one physical server and VMware's software which can then host these different applications.
Businesses love this as VMware allows them to realize immediate cost savings. It eliminates the requirement to buy new hardware every time businesses need a new application which shortens project implementation life cycles. It also means fewer servers on data center floors which reduce cabling, power and floor space requirements.
Where businesses need to exercise caution in this new virtual environment is the complexity that virtualization introduces. Though businesses can virtualize servers and, in so doing, reduce their infrastructure costs, complexity takes on a virtual component as well.
For instance, backups become much more complex. Prior to VMware, each physical server often had its own dedicated network connection it could use for backups. Now each virtual server must share the same physical network connection with other virtual servers on the VMware host.
Unfortunately the amount of data each virtual server needs to backup has not necessarily diminished, only its available bandwidth. This may force companies to implement alternative storage technologies such as continuous data protection or storage system based asynchronous replication so servers are no longer backed up in traditional methods. This introduces new costs into the system and, with it, new levels of complexity.
VMware helps bring about an end to the "new application, new server" mentality to which companies are accustomed. But virtualization does not eradicate complexity and as complexity moves, corporate IT departments need to ensure storage technologies keep pace with similar progress in server virtualization.
Jerome Wendt is the president and lead analyst with DCIG. He may be reached at jerome.wendt@att.net.
Computerworld Member Login
Prioritizing Services with IT Service Management (ITSM)
Computerworld Live Webinar
Wednesday 20th, August 2008
11:00am EST (Sydney, Australia)
To be repeated on:
Thursday 4th, September 2008
11:00am EST (Sydney Australia)
Sign up and receive a free copy of The Forrester WaveTM Service Desk Management Tools, Q2 2008 at the conclusion of the Webinar.
Attend and discover:
- How to deliver value to your business through ITSM
- Best practice ITSM implementation
- Why emphasis is changing from optimizing IT management processes to better servicing customers and demonstrating real dollar value
- If service-oriented ITSM is best for your business
- +
Computerworld Live Podcast #97: The Future of Enterprise Networking 25/07/2008 09:45:36
This week CW Live chats with Mark Thompson, global sales and marketing manager for HP ProCurve, on the future of the enterprise networking. Mark discusses the trends we can expect to see in the near future and how the right infrastructure can ensure your enterprise network is secure. - +
Computerworld Live Podcast #96: Security at the Edge 11/06/2008 09:22:22
CW Live speaks with Amol Mitra, HP ProCurve Director of Marketing for Asia Pacific and Japan. Today's topic: how enterprises are starting to shift away from simply controlling security via server logins, firewalls and moving to more adaptive security frameworks. - +
Data Management Edition #10: Multi-Petascale Systems 02/05/2008 09:12:33
This week we look at sustainability and the development of multicore technologies to build multi-petascale systems. - +
IT Security Edition #11: How to poison the Storm botnet 01/05/2008 08:51:55
This week CW Live presents a case study on how to poison the notorious Storm botnet . Plus we take a look at Cisco's plans for Ironport. - +
IT Security Edition #10: Cyber-battles fought and won 24/04/2008 11:09:47
Vendors bow to end user pressure to improve product security, and we take a look at the latest concepts shaping the cyber-battlefield of the future.
Tumbleweed appoints O2 Networks to its Australian Channel Partner Program 2008-08-29 12:31:00+10
HP ProCurve Brings Big Business Gigabit Switching Features to Small Businesses 2008-08-29 12:00:00+10
Nortel and LG Electronics are First in World to Demonstrate Mobile LTE Handover 2008-08-29 11:30:00+10
GlobalConnect Provides Treatment for Healthcare Provider’s Contact Support Requirements 2008-08-29 09:59:00+10
Sybase and Logica Partner To Mobilise The Supply Chain 2008-08-29 09:47:00+10
Dude! You Say I Need an Application-Layer Firewall?!
Proxy firewall technologies have proven time and again to be more secure than “stateful” firewalls. They will also prove to be more secure than “deep inspection” firewalls. High-performance proxy firewalls are available today which are easily capable of handling gigabit-level traffic. Discover more by reading on.
