Quote of the Day - On Staying Focused

This is a quote from Tim Cook at Apple, I found on Seth Godin’s Blog:

“This is the most focused company I know of, am aware of, or have any knowledge of... We say no to good ideas every day.” Cook then pointed out to analysts that every single product the company makes would fit on the single conference table in front of him. “And we had revenue last year of $40 billion."

Symantec State of Enterprise Security

Symantec released their “State of Enterprise Security” Report. It is clear that security will continue to be a high priority in most companies since 75% of enterprises have experienced cyber attacks and 41% say the attacks were effective. The study found all companies experienced some cyber loss either by theft or downtime. Not sure how 100% can have loss and only 75% say they were attacked but I will let that one go….

Here is the full Symantec Report:

http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/about/presskits/SES_report_Feb2010.pdf

Time to Upgrade to Windows 7

It is time to upgrade to Windows 7. I have been running Windows 7 ever since it was released and I am very happy with the performance – It is quick to boot and snappy. The adoption rate is twice what Vista’s adoption rate and is now used by 9% of all users. Most users are still using Windows XP and it is time for those users to adopt the next generation technology. If you are still running Vista it makes very little sense not to upgrade to Windows 7 since Windows 7 solves the sluggishness of Vista.


Here is an article in Computerworld: “Windows 7 early adoption beats Vista's 2 to 1 -
Five months after release, Microsoft's newest OS owns twice the share of Vista at the same point” by Gregg Keizer

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9160538/Windows_7_early_adoption_beats_Vista_s_2_to_1

Symantec State of SPAM and Phishing Report

According to the Symantec State of SPAM and Phishing Report there continues to be targeted attacks. Spammers like to take advantage of current affairs – Haiti disaster or Valentines. The next one to watch for will be scams around tax season. Clearly we will continue to be under attack so do not click on those suspicious links in emails or unknown attachments especially form social media sites.

Here is a link to the full Symantec Report:

http://eval.symantec.com/mktginfo/enterprise/other_resources/b-state_of_spam_and_phishing_report_02-2010.en-us.pdf

Understanding Microsoft Virtualization R2 Soluions

Microsoft Press has released a free 480 page ebook on Microsoft Virtualization - Here is the link:

http://blogs.msdn.com/microsoft_press/archive/2010/02/16/free-ebook-understanding-microsoft-virtualization-r2-solutions.aspx

Virtualization Adoption

Companies are virtualizing their infrastructure at a rapid rate primarily to save money by consolidating servers. The savings are reported to be 50% - 60% on capital expenditure and 25% on operational expenditure. The industry’s leading in virtualization are education and manufacturing and this speaks to the savings.

Currently 20% - 30% of servers are virtualized on average. Most businesses are trying to get to 70% to 80%. The hurdles are controlling the VM sprawl and virtualization skill set within the organizations. The VM sprawl can happen so fast that it frightens IT leaders. This highlights the need for a well planned managed approach to virtualization. The virtualization technology has been growing and changing so rapidly the experts with competent skills have been scarce. Most companies are investing in developing virtualization skills to better manage their new agile virtual infrastructure.

Sources: VMWare, ESG Strategies Cornerstones

Virtualization Top 10 Initiatives for 2010:

I attended VMWare Partner Exchange last week. Virtualization is the top priority for most companies followed by security and storage hardware. Here are the top 10 virtualization initiatives:

1. Consolidation
2. Improve backup and recovery
3. Expand applications into virtual infrastructure
4. Disaster recovery
5. Secure virtual infrastructure
6. Improve operational process
7. Move from test to production
8. Storage deployment
9. High availability
10. Management software integration

Source: ESG Strategies Cornerstones
http://www.enterprisestrategygroup.com/

Cloud Computing Shift in 2010

I read “CIOs See Big Cloud Computing Shifts In 2010” by Steven Burke. The shift is a result of the pressure from business leaders to reduce technology spending and drive profits. Peter Forte, CIO of Analog Devices had a good quote in the article:

“This is a matter of survival," Forte said. "In the last 20 years, I haven't seen this kind of dramatic cost cutting. Luckily, the good news here is technology has evolved to the point where it is helping us make this transition. We would never have been able to make a 25-30 percent budget reduction 10 years ago without an incredible fall off in service."

“CIOs See Big Cloud Computing Shifts In 2010” by Steven Burke:
http://tinyurl.com/yk8wryg

Working within a Team

I watched a documentary on Haskell Wexler an Oscar winning Cinematographer. He is highly regarded with multiple awards and worked on famous films such as American Graffiti. The interesting part to me was the dynamics and the egos of the teams producing movies. Mr. Wexler’s award winning success created challenges when he is working with directors. In the documentary, he basically says the directors usually don’t know what they are doing and he could do it better. Some directors described Haskell Wexler as having been a pain in the neck to work with and he was removed from working on “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” for his failure to get along.

Haskell Wexler is of course a tremendously successful person and his strong ego is paramount to his success. No matter how successful someone is there will always be this balance of control and keeping ego in check. There is a fine line to navigate - if you give up too much control you risk failure and if you try to take too much control no one will work with you! It is a conundrum – the yin and the yang.