Refining Business Model

Nortec is now in our 20th year and it looks like it will be a good one. I am afraid to get overly optimistic with the economy and markets just recently improving. Many companies are showing good results and have used the difficult times to make the hard decisions on how to run a leaner business. Business leaders are not in a rush to add non-revenue producing overhead. The result is businesses are creating a more successful business model!

A successful business model is the silver bullet! Ok, it is not a silver bullet; I just wanted to say that! A successful business model is one of the key success criteria and something that business leaders need to continually analyze to try and find ways to improve. Otherwise, you could end up with “bullet ridden body syndrome” - essentially a business with so many holes, there is no hope. If the business model is broken it does not matter how much business you bring in and how great of work you perform you will just create more of the same problem and this is usually in the form of losses.

I used to think that scaling a low profit or break even business model would get the economies of scale and then somehow the business would go through metamorphoses with the result of a thriving well established business at the other end! This is the model that you sometimes see venture capital drive businesses toward. In some ways it makes sense, as you need a minimal size otherwise profit is not material. If you can pull this little maneuver off great! The challenge is that driving profit in a larger organization is not really any easier and may even be harder. Figuring this out and driving a profitable business in every stage ensures that the discipline needed is in place and the model works. Then the questions become: 1. Will the business model scale? 2. Will the business grow?

Cloud SaaS Growth According to IDC

IDC is predicting Software as a Service (SaaS) segment of cloud computing to be $40.5 Billion by 2014. This reinforces the high growth expectation of cloud computing.

"Figuring out how to find and capitalize on the enormous cloud services transition is the number 1 strategic goal of most IT product vendors," according to Robert Mahowald, research vice president of IDC's SaaS and Cloud Services practice. "Cloud represents both a tremendous challenge and potentially an opportunity to align with partners, create new capabilities, move into new markets, and define new leaders."

The expectation is that most software vendors will be looking to sell a cloud solution first in 2014.
“Worldwide Software as a Service 2010–2014 Forecast: Software Will Never Be the Same” by Robert Mohowald:

http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=223628

Hiring the Best Technical Professionals

Nortec is an information technology (IT) company so having the best technical professionals is paramount to our success. We are currently recruiting and hiring senior and mid-level consultants so this is top of mind. Actually, we are always recruiting since finding top IT talent is very difficult but currently we are looking to add at least two consultants. We are also always investing in developing our technical professionals as it is often easier to grow our professionals than hire.

Since hiring the best is so important, we have invested in creating a solid process for hiring. We start by maintaining a mind set of never cutting corners. Unless all of the interviewers give a thumbs up, we do not proceed with the hire. Everyone has veto power! This is important because success on the job often involves the team getting behind the new employee and ensuring that they are successful. We don’t need someone on the hiring team saying “See, I knew they would not work out.”

Our process starts by finding resume’s with the key skill sets that we need at Nortec and this usually centers on solid network experience largely around Microsoft Windows Server and Exchange. We usually start with a chronological in-depth interview to determine if the prospective employee has a track record of success and is the right kind of individual for the role at Nortec. This interview is in person and can be an hour and a half to two hours long. We than have a technical interview and this is usually done by phone and lasts about an hour. If the first two interviews go well we run a background check on driving record and criminal record. We then do a second in-depth chronological interview. If everyone gives the thumbs up and the background check comes out, we make an offer! Hopefully we succeed at bringing on a great new employee!

Cloud Computing Hype

Last year cloud computing market was about 2% of IT market and now has grown to as much as 4%. Although it is still a small segment of IT spending it is in a high growth phase – “Green Fields." Cloud Computing is garnering a tremendous amount of attention considering it is less than 5% of IT market. Two weeks ago at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference just about every presentation somehow involved the cloud. I have seen it placed at the peak of the hype curve and recently seen articles suggesting that it may be the next bubble.

Cloud computing is getting a tremendous amount of attention because of the growth and more importantly it is a complete shift in the way that companies buy technology. Cloud computing presents challenges for the IT community as it is compelling in many ways but at the same time is extremely new to the customer and the suppliers. IT companies are scrambling to create models for the delivery of cloud services and how best to support the solutions. Nortec created our Nortec 24/7 suite of cloud services five years ago and we have been refining and working out the best practices. It has taken time to create the client reports, management processes and best practices on migrating and managing the cloud offerings.

There appears to be agreement among industry experts and IT business leaders that cloud computing will continue to grow at a high pace for the next few years. The real question is when will the growth slow and ultimately how much market share will be in the cloud when the growth flattens – Greater than 40%? We will see…

Brilliantly Simple

Shortel’s tag line is “Brilliantly Simple” and besides being an oxymoron, it speaks to what makes ShoreTel a great product. It is easier to put together an overly complex solution than it is to create a simple eloquent one. Some things are complex and complicated like calculus but the brilliant mind is able to take the complexity and create something that is simple. This is the essence of great technology. ShoreTel had the advantage of designing from the beginning an IP Telephony solution with a clean slate. The result is “Briliantly Simple.”

“Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Virtualization Challenges

Implementing a virtual infrastructure is extremely compelling from a cost perspective and management. There are four main challenges outlined in a recent survey "Strategies to Improve IT Efficiencies in 2010" by Forrester.

1. Assessing Server Sizes for Virtual Servers
2. Assessing Performance and workload needed
3. Major performance issues during peak loads
4. Managing the complexity of a virtual infrastructure

These issues are all tied in to the need for implementing a well planned virtual infrastructure. The complexity is greater than in a traditional environment so having the best technical experts do a comprehensive capacity plan and then design is paramount for success. The plan needs to go beyond standing up the infrastructure and include how the virtual infrastructure will be maintained.

Once you have the virtual infrastructure in place you will need to address:

1. Visibility – Where is the application and where is the problem?
2. How do you prove source of problem to the component owner?
3. Where will the next constraint or problem arise?
4. Planning for the next expansion
5. Dealing with applications resource contention
6. Over use of VMotion – simultaneous moves in same LUN can cause poor performance

Virtualization creates the most dynamic data center that IT management has seen - The mantra becomes “constant monitoring, modeling and planning.” Depending on the size and complexity of your virtualized infrastructure the technical management team should at least once a quarter and maybe as often as weekly do a capacity planning style exercise based on current utilization and planned expansion.

Here are the virtualization mistakes to avoid:

1. Racing to deploy and failing to plan completely
2. Configuration mistakes – check before using default settings
3. Not enough storage IOPs
4. Resource contention – not all applications work well together
5. CPU access – underestimate demands
6. Not understanding work loads
7. Not taking complete system into consideration
8. Lack of awareness of the dependencies
9. Lack of awareness of workload curves

Source Article: Datamation – “IT Survey Highlights Virtualization Challenges”:
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/features/article.php/3892601/

Investing in Information Technology

I attended a forecasting presentation by Tiffani Bova, “Reading the Tea Leaves” at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference yesterday. Ms. Bova spoke about the IT industry from the Microsoft Partner perspective and the presentation was excellent.

Ms. Bova stated that IT spending is about 64% on maintaining current IT systems and the other 36% is split between growing capability and implementing new technology. These ratios have been about the same for the past 10 years and this surprised me a little as I would have thought that through advancements in technology maintaining existing systems would have been reduced.

Not surprising technology spending is off from 2007 and 2008 and will take a few years to return to the peak levels. The cloud is expected to grow to about 20% of IT spending over the next few years so this is a high growth emerging market. Although traditional IT spending will grow slower, there will be 4% to 6% annual growth in most IT segments.

Ms. Bova pointed out that companies have been in the save money mode for several years now and are now trying to find ways to transform their business and take advantage of technology. Focusing entirely on ROI and saving money may not be the best strategy now. Clearly ROI is important but, “What technology can a business implement to drive success?”, is a more significant question today.

Cloud Computing

I attended a web presentation on SaaS / Cloud Implementation by Robert Kulhawy, Ken Powell and Kevin Nikkhoo. The presentation was from the perspective of developing a SaaS business from the software vendor perspective. Here are the pros and cons of cloud based solutions they outlined.

Pros:
1. Cost Effective
2. Allow businesses to focus on their core business
3. Ease of implementation and management
4. Operational cost instead of capital cost
5. Flexibility and scalability

Cons:
1. Perceived Security of information
2. What happens if the provider fails and you still want to use the software
3. Internal IT staff has empire threatened and gives up some control

The recommendation when developing a cloud based offering is to not over customize and to develop a multi-tenancy solution that scales in order to gain price advantage. The recommendation is to price the offering at an order of magnitude less than the traditional solution meaning not half the price but 1/10th the price.
The challenge for the provider is then to drive the volume and keep the transaction low touch and standard contracts. Historically, this takes a significant amount of time and the cloud provider needs to be prepared with great tenacity. The good news for the consumer is the price will be very compelling and if you are able to adapt your business to a cloud offering it will be a very effective solution.

Project Management Success

Project management is key to success in large projects as well as smaller ones. Nortec is closely aligned with Microsoft so we use Microsoft Solution Framework (MSF) and this is effective. MSF is designed primarily around software development and we have made some modifications to adapt to infrastructure projects and thinned it out for our smaller implementations.

The project management methodology is not as important as choosing one and then having the discipline to follow the methodology. Clearly a project will flow better if everyone involved is familiar with the methodology. The challenge really is having a Project Manager who is familiar enough with the work that he is able to gauge how long certain tasks should take and then willing to hold the individuals accountable. Unfortunately, the Project Manager has to be the bad guy sometimes!

Here is a good article on Project Management in CIO Magazine “IT Project Management: 10 Less-Considered Keys to Success” by Meridith Levinson:

http://www.cio.com/article/597712/IT_Project_Management_10_Less_Considered_Keys_to_Success?source=CIONLE_nlt_research_2010-07-07

“Why are we happy?” by Dan Gilbert

Last week I watched Dan Gilbert’s Ted Talk “Why are we happy.” His main point was that we are happy because happiness can be synthesized, meaning we can learn to be happy regardless of our situation. He compared synthesized happiness to natural happiness, with natural happiness being the “feeling we get when we get what we wanted” and synthetic happiness being “the feeling we make when we don’t get what we wanted.”

When we synthesize happiness, we teach ourselves to be happy by realizing that we are in the best possible situation. Gilbert argues that synthetic happiness can provide the same feeling as natural happiness. We have the ability to synthesize happiness in any situation, as a type of “physiological immune system.” He provides some evidence of this finding in the full version of his talk.

He went on to explain that we tend to be happier when our choices are permanent. If we have the option to change our mind and switch, we often torment ourselves on the decision. Once the choice is permanent we grow to appreciate the situation, or item and synthesize happiness. As Gilbert put it, “The psychological immune system works best when we are totally stuck.”

Here’s a quote that fits well with this idea of synthetic happiness from the founder of capitalism himself, Adam Smith: “The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life seems to arise from overrating the difference between one permanent situation and another.”

You can check out the full talk at http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html

It might give you a new perspective, perhaps even put a smile on your face.

Paralysis by Analysis

It is important not to fall victim to “paralysis by analysis.” Information technology professionals by nature are very analytical and by nature want to analyze everything before taking action. This is clearly important up to a certain point. Sometimes, it is actually beneficial to not see an option and save a tremendous amount of time by not analyzing an option that turns out to be a “rat hole.” As they say “ignorance is bliss.”

More important than avoiding time wasting activities is just having the personal power to make a decision and take action. The joke on these lines is “He won’t take action because that would require a decision.” This problem becomes amplified in larger organizations where there is a culture of zero tolerance for mistakes. Sounds great in theory but when no one is willing to make a decision and take action for fear of making a wrong decision you have “paralysis by analysis.” Everyone starts taking cover on all issues and using CYA as their mantra! There will be meeting after meeting with many planning discussions and meeting notes and maybe even some action items but nothing is really happening.

Being decisive, making decision and then moving forward is absolutely a key for long term success. So how do you handle failure from making the wrong decisions? Mitigate risk and learn from mistakes. Embrace failure! “Fail early, fail often and fail cheap.”

Here is a quote by Charles Bosk, a Sociology Professor at University of Pennsylvania, who spoke with student surgeons and his observation of how they handle mistakes:

"When I interviewed the surgeons who were fired, I used to leave the interview shaking," Bosk said. "I would hear these horrible stories about what they did wrong, but the thing was that they didn't know that what they did was wrong. In my interviewing, I began to develop what I thought was an indicator of whether someone was going to be a good surgeon or not. It was a couple of simple questions: Have you ever made a mistake? And, if so, what was your worst mistake? The people who said, 'Gee, I haven't really had one,' or, 'I've had a couple of bad outcomes but they were due to things outside my control' -- invariably those were the worst candidates. And the residents who said, 'I make mistakes all the time. There was this horrible thing that happened just yesterday and here's what it was.' They were the best. They had the ability to rethink everything that they'd done and imagine how they might have done it differently."

Nicholas Carr: The Internet is Hurting Our Brains

I read an article by Bill Snyder “Nicholas Carr: The Internet is Hurting Our Brains.” The article is discussing the idea Nicholas Carr wrote about in his book “Is Google Making Us Stupid.” The concept is that we are highly distracted on-line jumping around from site to site and this is causing us to lose the ability to focus. I am not sure this is isolated to Google either as it seems to me we are generally in a more interrupt driven society. If you are not running from meeting to meeting, reading through emails and then on the phone pretty much the entire day then what are you doing?

I do find the time to think, read entire articles and write this blog. At the same time I often feel highly distracted and this creates a sense of anxiousness. I often arrive at the end of the day feeling somewhat apprehensive. 5:30 rolls around and I am thinking, “I can’t go home for another couple of hours because I just need to accomplish more to have a productive day.”

Clearly there are plenty of distractions and challenges to staying focused on accomplishing tasks. Is this actually damaging our brains? Maybe it is damaging… and besides it is not great being distracted. So how do you combat this? Here are a few ways to attack this:

1. Schedule time to work on items and do not look at email or take calls.
2. Read emails only once and either take action, delete, file or move to an action folder.
3. Designate a certain amount of time for reading online articles.
4. Participate in activities that do not involve technology – leave the mobile phone behind.
5. Take vacation and don’t check email for a few entire days.

Ok, enough - This is not actually brain surgery. It is an important point and it really goes back to life balance. In this case it is a technology and technology free balance. Nothing really changes – Use to be we worried about the TV frying our brains and now it is the internet!

On that note, I am ready for some technology free summer vacation.

Article in CIO Magazine by Bill Snyder “Nicholas Carr: The Internet is Hurting Our Brains”:
http://www.cio.com/article/597350/Nicholas_Carr_The_Internet_is_Hurting_Our_Brains

General George Casey on Leadership

Last week, I attended a presentation by General George Casey, Army Chief of Staff. General Casey discussed his current role and their goal of restoring health to the Army. He shared the challenges around the kind of warfare we are involved with today versus the past.

General Casey discussed Strategic Leadership. He said “Strategic leaders guide the achievement of their organizational vision within a larger enterprise by:

1. Directing policy and strategy
2. Building consensus
3. Acquiring and allocating resources
4. Influencing organizational culture
5. Shaping external environment
6. Communicating

“They lead by example to:

1. Build an effective organization
2. Grow the next generation
3. Energize subordinates
4. Seek opportunities to advance goals
5. Balance personal and professional demands; a. Read, b. Sleep, c. Exercise, d. Think, e. Personal passion (Hobby, sport)

On reflection, I think this is good stuff. I prefer building commitment to a plan rather than consensus but I suppose this could be semantics. Acquiring and allocating resources is probably more significant in large government organizations. At Nortec we focus more on saving and reducing resources consumed. Culture should probably be at the top but not sure this is supposed to be in order of importance. In business, shaping external environment, I would relate to front line selling and this is clearly key to business success. Communicating the vision is necessary so everyone knows the right direction to be going and this is where clear metrics come into play.

I am a big believer in leading by example and inspiring the team. I enjoyed the presentation and I think General Casey does a great job highlighting the key components to successful leadership.

Now, if I can track down that photo they took of me with the General...

CEO2GOV Summit Event Information:
http://tiny.cc/gycph

It Is a Great Time to be an IT Leader

A challenge for IT leadership has been aligning technology with senior management the CEO, CFO, COO. Historically the IT leader has not always had a position on the senior executive team and reported often to the CFO, sometimes the CEO or COO. This has changed with most companies now having a CIO and at the same time the other executives have become more IT savvy. This creates a great environment for the inspired, entrepreneurial spirited IT leader.

The IT leader now has direct access to the senior management team and the senior management understands more about technology. This can be a double edged sword as the CIO has to listen to other executives who “know how to do the CIO’s job.” Taking this into consideration it is still better having a senior team that understands technology and the value it brings to the organization. It may require more interaction to agree on what can be done but at least the conversation is seen as important and something senior management is interested in discussing.

It is time for the IT leaders to run with the ball and create creative ways to take advantage of technology. IT leaders need to build the vision of what can be accomplished with technology from operations to marketing such as social media and web 3.0. The technology vision needs to be drafted into a brief well written and understandable technology plan. This vision needs to involve the entire leadership team and be a plan that they all agree upon and are committed to implementing. This plan can be further reaching and more powerful today because the senior teams understanding of technology will assist in seeing the value.

An article in CIO magazine “What CEOs expect form CIOs” by Richard Pastore, that inspired this post:
http://www.cio.com/article/596384/What_CEOs_Expect_from_CIOs?page=1&taxonomyId=3156

Evolution of Information Technology – Dealing with the Shift to the Cloud?

While still in early stages, Cloud Computing is definitely a growing area within information technology (IT). Hosted service and remote managed services are growing faster in some areas than others. Small companies are moving their entire information technology department to the cloud in some cases. Certainly new companies are looking at this strategy right out of the gate. Most companies and particularly large enterprise organizations are utilizing a hybrid model. When it comes time to purchase new hardware or migrate to a new version of software it makes sense to evaluate cloud computing.

How should information technology leaders deal with this shift? There is some resistance since ultimately as technology moves to the cloud, one might think that a company will need less internal IT staff. This is true to a certain extent; however it is true more so for those that do not embrace cloud computing than those that do. If the premise is true that more technology will move to the cloud (and I think it is…) than IT professionals that embrace this and become experts at dealing with it will be in demand. Companies will need troops on the ground to migrate, manage and support the cloud services.

Here is a related article “Cloud Computing Is An Evolution of IT, Not An Overthrow”:

http://www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/blog/archives/2010/06/cloud_computing_22.html

"Made to Stick" by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

I read “Made to Stick” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. This book is written by the same authors as "Switch" that I read and reviewed on April 8th: http://andrewgrose.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html

I liked ”Switch” and I really liked “Made to Stick”. The main idea of “Made to Stick” is that there are certain criteria that make a presentation or story stick with the audience or reader. What will the audience remember about a presentation a day later? This is important for business leaders and for that matter everyone in order to make your ideas stick! It is well known that conveying ideas in stories is more effective than explaining bullet after bullet and this is one of the key concepts – So what are the other nuggets?

Made to stick discusses how to make the stories more compelling by drawing in the audience at the beginning. It discusses the gap theory which is essentially that we do not like a gap in knowledge and this is why we will sometimes watch a lousy movie to the end because “We just have to know what happens!” The book discusses several techniques and boils it down to an acronym SUCCESs: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Story. The book then walks through stories that reinforce these 6 key components to make ideas stick. It is a good check list when you come up with a marketing advertisement to check off each box to see how many you hit. The more you hit the more likely your ideas will stick.

One example that the book gives of a sticky story is the Subway story of Jared. The story is that Jared goes to Subway everyday and enjoys the food and looses 245 lbs. It is definitely simple! It is unusual since usually you gain weight eating fast food. It is very concrete and credible. Finally it is an emotional story about a guy going from 425 lbs to 180 lbs, essentially saving his life by eating at Subway! There is a check mark in every box so it is no surprise that this story sticks.

I recommend reading “Made to Stick.”

Desktop Virtualization

I read an interesting article in Forbes magazine: “Desktop Virtualization Tips for CIOs” by Elias Khnaser. The article points out that desktop virtualization does not always mean VDI as it may mean streaming a virtual application or running virtual machines on your desktop but I will stick with VDI – a virtual desktop implementation.

Virtual desktop implementation (VDI) is compelling from a management standpoint. It certainly saves money on desktop operational expenditure but not on capital expenditure according to Gartner. This is different from server virtualization. Server virtualization’s savings on Op Ex and Cap Ex made it extremely compelling.

The article points out that VDI must be planned entirely differently than server virtualization as the challenge becomes supporting many more applications than what is running on a server. This is where you run into problems of what applications will run on the desktops and who is in control. The technical team will like the control and ease of management – Will the users like it? VDI does create a great access anywhere and consistent look and feel.

The article is good – here is a link:

http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/24/virtualization-windows7-vdi-technology-cio-network-desktop.html

Solid State Drives

Solid State Drives (SSD) are growing at a rapid rate. The latest information states 510 Million and growing 50% over the next year. This is still a small number compared to traditional hard drives and Seagate just released a hybrid to enhance hard drive performance. Solid state technology is going down in cost and the controller technology is advancing to make SSD more attractive in more applications. Solid state technology does have a strong appeal as everyone knows that the more moving parts the more likely you will have a failure.

Here are a couple of articles on SSD Drives:

http://www.reportlinker.com/p0196489/Enterprise-SSDs-Technologies-and-Markets.html?request=news

http://hothardware.com/News/5Way-SSD-RoundUp-Sandforce-vs-JMicron/

Managing Cloud Computing

I read an article in CIO Magazine “Cloud Computing: What CIOs Need to Know About Integration” by Kim S. Nash. The article discusses the use of cloud based solutions and how they show up at companies the way a PC did in the 80s – often not through the IT department. IT departments role will be to integrate and manage at some stage. Clearly this creates an interesting challenge for the CIO.

The article also discusses running internal systems in parallel with cloud computing in order to accommodate peak requirement period i.e. between Thanksgiving and Christmas for retail and January through April 15th for accounting businesses. This appears to make a great deal of sense. The challenge becomes how to manage this! The business needs to recognize the savings and not consume them in management. It is still early days so it will be interesting to see the developments.

Nortec’s cloud offering is Nortec 24/7 and it includes hosted service including Exchange email, network monitoring and managed services. The cloud services are growing rapidly and going extremely well. In the hosted Exchange email solutions we implemented entirely cloud based solutions. On the existing Exchange email cloud services migrating premise to the cloud or from one cloud service to another is like any other migration and takes planning and time to implement. We are now working with Exchange 2010 in many clients and with this Microsoft offers a seamless passing back and forth to the cloud. Cloud technology is evolving without a doubt….

Link to article “Cloud Computing: What CIOs Need to Know About Integration”:

http://tinyurl.com/2cgl3b7

Creating Smart IT Leaders by Susan Cramm

I attended a conference call presentation by Susan Cramm on Creating Smart IT Leaders. Here are a few take away concerns and concepts:


1. Users are frustrated with IT, “they stifle creative entrepreneurialism that is critical to advancing the state of business”
2. Users are younger, tech smarter, and demanding; If IT department doesn’t do something, they will do it without their help
3. 30% of what IT has planned to do is “stupid, dumb work”
4. IT needs to empower the users to self serve
5. Ensure IT can be managed and measured
6. Use fast-cycle, value driven deliver – i.e. Agile development and Scrum method
7. Only 10% of companies are IT Smart!

I enjoyed the presentation and now I need to read the book!

Virtualization: The State of Virtualization in Federal Agencies

I read an article in Channel Insider or should I say slide presentation on virtualization in the Federal Government. It appears the Federal Government is a little behind on virtualization. The Federal Government certainly has a tremendous opportunity to consolidate and save money so this should be compelling and does present a great opportunity. According to the survey education events look like the most important thing that can be done unless of course we can get a Federal Government mandate. Mr. Obama, it is time to make a Federal mandate on virtualization. Maybe something like “70% of all Federal Government computers must be virtualized by 2014! "

Article:
http://www.channelinsider.com/c/a/Virtualization/The-State-of-Virtualization-in-Federal-Agencies-703535/

The Servant Leader by James A. Autry

About a year ago I went to a presentation by James Autry about his book, “The Servant Leader: How to Build a Creative Team, Develop Great Morale, and Improve Bottom-Line Performance.” I thought his presentation was moderate, and I was not immediately motivated to read the book. The book sat on the shelf for about a year. I picked it up last week for no apparent reason and I read a chapter or so. I thought … this is a really good book!

The essence of “The Servant Leader” is to help everyone that works for you in an authentic manner. The command and control management style is not effective as it does not create an environment that is creative and has a positive morale. Mr. Autry also stresses the importance of balancing the human factors and the pure business side of things. He really emphasizes the importance of a manager being connected and engaged with their staff. The management method he recommends boarders on being over the top California new age style, and frankly I struggle with this a little personally and philosophically. I did like the book and I agree with most of what he is suggesting. He also drilled down on how to deal with each different scenario, sort of like a how to book. I am not sure this was necessary, but I suppose it helps drive the tactical details of the methodology. I would recommend the book, especially the first 100 pages!

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

The main concept of Outliers is that people are largely a product of their environment. The first example given is that of professional hockey players. The more successful players are likely to be born near the beginning of the year. The reason being is that they are grouped by the year they are born so the older kids are naturally more likely to be better and therefore get more attention and practice. The extra attention and practice builds upon itself. These four sentences take many pages in the book and the point is beaten to death. It is an interesting point, no less. The book builds on this point stating that to be really great at anything it is primarily practice and not talent. The number Mr. Gladwell comes up with is 10,000 hours of diligent practice to be great at just about anything. The Beatles it turns out spent several years playing in environments where they were required to play for many hours straight every day of the week. They went from being modest performers to being great performers. The book goes on to make interesting points regarding cultural backgrounds and many other examples to support the impact of environment on an individual’s behavior and success.

I thought Outliers had some interesting material however it seemed to over emphasize the importance of environment. Clearly environment is an important factor to success. It is no coincidence that there are so many successful people in America – It is an environment that allows individuals to forge out and become successful. However, often when you look at successful people you will see that they overcame many obstacles and usually through pure perseverance and passion not because of their environment.

Virtualization Impact

Virtualization is proven to reduce cost by consolidating servers on less physical servers. I read an article “Does Virtualization Increase IT Management Costs?” by Charlie Schluting in Enterprise Networking Planet. Charlie Schluting states, “Cisco started saying that virtualization doesn't actually save money due to increased management costs involved with running a virtual infrastructure.” The article goes on to discuss all costs associated with virtualization: management, training virtualization staff, virtualization consultants. However, I believe it still makes sense to virtualize corporate infrastructure and that these costs will continue to decrease as virtualization becomes more and more mainstream.

In the 90s there was promise of the paperless office as the typewriter died and the word processor took over. Companies were also able to scan documents and discard the paper. However, it turns out that businesses actually print more revisions of every document with a word processor than when using the old type writer. We print far more in general not less than in the past. I doubt anyone is going to argue that we should go back to typewriters and discard scanners. Clearly we are able to produce better quality documents and office automation makes the office worker more efficient and effective.

Will virtualization drive more servers and more applications? Applications you could not justify because of the cost associated with supporting another server can be quickly and easily launched on a new virtual machine. Will businesses then end up with more physical servers?

“Does Virtualization Increase IT Management Costs?” by Charlie Schluting:
http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/_featured/article.php/3876576/Does+Virtualization+Increase+IT+Management+Costs?.htm

“Switch: How to change things when change is hard” by Chip and Dan Heath

I read "Switch" by Chip and Dan Heath. The book is about how people behave and what drives their behavior. Essentially they describe three components to human actions and they outline them as the elephant, monkey, and environment.

The elephant is our instinctual, emotional drive and our habits. Essentially, the elephant describes our regular non thinking type behavior. Our monkey is riding the elephant. Steering the elephant to do the kind of things we rationally want to do. The analogy does a great job of creating the image of this poor monkey trying to control this very powerful willful elephant. When you see that bag of cheeses the monkey may want to pass and the elephant wants the wonderful orange goodness – who wins? The environment is the people you are around and the social acceptability of your behavior.

After explaining the elephant, monkey and environment, the book gives examples of these forces and how to flip the switch to change the behavior of yourself and others. How it makes sense to appeal to the elephant instead of the monkey in some cases. Sometimes to effect the change you are looking for you need to change the environment. Who do you hang with? Appealing effectively to one or more of these behavioral forces will cause the desired change in yourself and others. I liked the book because it is powerful, interesting and a short easy read.

“5 Virtual Desktop Pitfalls” by Jon Brodkin

I read “5 Virtual Desktop Pitfalls” by Jon Brodkin in Network World. According to Mr. Bodkin the 5 pitfalls are cost, storage, network, multimedia support and user experience.

The network requirements and user experience are probably the two areas that have improved the most over the last decade so I would say these are fading pitfalls. In fact the improvements in network infrastructure and the user experience are driving VDI adoption.

Multimedia support will continue to be a game stopper in some cases.

The cost pitfall surprised me. Mr. Bodkin quotes Forrester analysis finding that the ROI is 3 – 5 years if that. This contradicts acquisition costs that I have seen that were lower than the cost to replace desktops not to mention the lower operational expenses. Clearly a business needs to be in desktop refresh mode to have a rapid ROI.

The article is worth reading especially if you are involved or considering a VDI implementation.
Link to “5 Virtual Desktop Pitfalls” by Jon Brodkin:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/040110-virtual-desktop-pitfalls.html?page=1

“Virtualization Management and Trends” a CA Study by Forrester Consulting

I read “Virtualization Management and Trends” a CA commissioned study by Forrester Consulting. The study was to evaluate the impact, challenges, and requirements around the operational aspects of virtualization. The report had seven key findings:

1. Capacity management is top operational concern
2. Moving to internal cloud requires process and automation
3. Comprehensive domain coverage is critical
4. Need a top-down application approach
5. Cloud based offerings are in demand
6. Operational control moving to day to day administrator
7. Virtualization is very positive to operation

The study confirms the explosive growth of virtualization and the overall shift to management automation. The essence being, that as a businesses moves to a virtual environment it is extremely important to have well planned and managed infrastructure. This is clearly cutting CAs own grass as a supplier of virtualization automation tools but this is in line with industry best practices. Management software and tools have often been shelfware in the past. Virtualization is driving the adoption and implementation of management tools and is forcing a more efficient managed infrastrtucture.

“Virtualization Management and Trends” a CA commissioned study by Forrester Consulting:
http://www.ca.com/us/analysts/reports/collateral.aspx?CID=227749

Virtualization and Security

Virtualization continues to grow at a rapid rate as a result of the compelling ROI. Although the average consolidation rate is less than 10:1 the latest hardware and virtualization software enables companies to implement upwards of 20:1 and 30:1 consolidation. The challenge is getting the expertise to implement, secure and manage the virtualized infrastructure.

Most IT leaders recognize the challenge to grow virtualization skills. We are investing heavily in developing deep technical skills around virtualization. Gartner in their recent report is estimating that 60% of servers are less secure in a virtualized environment versus physical enviornment. This will continue through 2012 and slowly decrease to 30% by 2015. The reason they contribute less security in virtual environment is the lack of IT expertise around virtualization.

"Virtualization is not inherently insecure," says Gartner vice president Neil MacDonald. "However, most virtualized workloads are being deployed insecurely. The latter is a result of the immaturity of tools and processes and the limited training of staff, resellers and consultants."

We will continue to invest in growing and recruiting the best virtualization experts to meet the challenge head on. We are committed to implementing secure virtualized infrastructures. We are developing air lift programs to help our clients in later stages of their virtualization implementations to take their skills to the next level. The case for virtualization is extremely compelling and growing fast so it will demand diligence and commitment from internal IT and consultants.

Gartner Report "Addressing the Most Common Security Risks in Data Center Virtualization Projects":
http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=clientFriendlyUrl&id=1288115

Leadership and Management Lessons from "Undercover Boss"

I read this article by Meridith Levinson in CIO Magazine about the new CBS TV Show “Undercover Boss”. The show takes CEOs of very large companies and has them go in the field and work as a helper with the front line workers. There is something intrinsically funny about the CEO of a very large waste management company getting in the field cleaning bathrooms! The article has some youtube videos of segments from a couple of episodes of the show and they are great. I think the show is interesting and reveals great insight into how some policies cause pain. It also demonstrates how taking genuine interest and appreciation of employees goes a long way.

Link to the article:

http://www.cio.com/article/565064/Leadership_and_Management_Lessons_from_Undercover_Boss_

2010 Prediction

I sense an increase in business activity. Personally, I have noticed higher levels of activity at Nortec as well as in office real estate that I own. The stock market continues to show recovery. Everything I read is pointing to 2010 being a growth year. The growth is predicted to be increasing from one quarter to the next starting slowly – at least that is the prediction in information technology industry. The only area that I think has not turned the corner is residential real estate.

Overall attitude of most people should improve. Recruiting and retaining top professionals will get harder – not that that ever seemed to get easier. Overall businesses and individuals will do well.

This is long needed positive news. Although the wave is not entirely upon us, I can hear the rumble and see some foam in front of it.

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.

Recent Google Hack

I read an interesting article on the recent hack into Google “Is Google hack an attack on cloud computing?” by Jon Brodkin, Network World. Google was hacked but the hack was through social engineering. The argument is that since the hack was through social engineering that this can happen anywhere. It is not really a hack on cloud computing. However, it does undermine cloud computing so it is a hack on cloud computing. It is also an attack on the use of the biggest supplier of a solution. Similar to the concept of most email attacks target Microsoft email because it is most widely used. If Google is the most widely used cloud provider it may be the biggest target for attacks on the cloud.

Article: “Is Google hack an attack on cloud computing?” by Jon Brodkin, Network World:

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/011510-google-hack-cloud-computing.html

Hosted Exchange Lessons Learned / Best Practices

We have been offering hosted exchange for a few years now. There are three key steps to ensuring an effective move to a hosted email environment:

1. CALCULATE YOUR BANDWIDTH
The first crucial step involves calculating user bandwidth requirements for your new hosted solution. Add this to the bandwidth you are currently using (call your ISP to find out the number). The result will let you know if you need to upgrade your internet service before implementation.

2. RIGHTSIZE YOUR MAILBOXES
Migrations are time consuming. Optimize your time by reducing the size of the mailboxes. Delete sent items, unused folders, and archive old date to a .PST file.

3. INCLUDE TRAINING IN YOUR PLAN
Users will have a new User Control Panel in the hosted environment. The User Control Panel allows everyone to customize their personal email settings. Training is the last step in a smooth transition to the hosted environment for your organization.

Intel Virtualization White Paper

Intel internal IT released a White Paper “Implementing and expanding a virtual environment” by Bill Sunderland and Steve Anderson. It is their experience implementing the virtual environment at Intel. The white paper states they are getting 10:1 ratio on their server consolidation and 15:1 on storage. They have only consolidated 10% - 20% of their environment with a goal of going to 70% - 80%. 10:1 Consolidation is actually low, many companies are now seeing 20:1 and 30:1 with the latest virtualization technology! It is a very detailed and technical document but I think worth reading. You realize even Intel has to do the same analysis and planning as everyone else.

http://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-4724

Exchange 2010

Exchange 2010 has been out for a month now so it is time to take a closer look. Here are the key benefits:

1. Controlling Cost:
a. Improved performance with 90% reduction in Disk IO.
b. Lower cost of storage by leveraging DAS/JBOD with larger mailboxes
c. Simplified administration

2. Enabling Mobile Work Force:
a. Broad device support
b. Phone-base access to inbox
c. Great Outlook based experience to mailbox

3. Managing Risk:
a. Moderate, encrypt, and block sensitive data
b. Efficient data management by eliminating PSTs
c. Simplified compliance with granular retention policies and mailbox search

Microsoft Exchange 2010 free ebook:
http://ow.ly/YL6n

Cloud Computing Growth

Gartner recently predicted significant growth in cloud computing stating 20% of companies would be completely cloud based by 2010 and reach 11% of the market this year. The growth is primarily from companies that have already implemented cloud computing. The implication is that if you try it you will love it.

Last year in April I posted an article on the growth rate of cloud computing: How much of the Market is Cloud Computing? At that time I calculated cloud computing to be about 2% of IT spending and that it would grow to 10% by 2019. Gartner's prediction of 20% of businesses will be completely using cloud computing is considerably higher than the information less than a year ago. It appears that cloud computing is growing more rapidly than expected!

It is time to take a closer look at using the cloud and creating a plan for your business.

This quote from Bill Gates sums it up:
"The next sea change is upon us."

CIO Magazine Article:
http://ow.ly/WraP


Article: “Cloud computing’s only for grown ups, survey says” by Carl Brooks: http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid201_gci1379117,00.html

Tech Spending Growth in 2010

Forrester released a prediction of global technology spending growth to be 8% in 2010 to 1.6 Trillion and US spending to grow 6.6 % to 568 Billion. This is close to the previous predictions in late 2009 by Goldman Sachs and Gartner. Forrester is predicting a slow start in 2010 with spending increasing through the end of the year. Paul Otellini, CEO Intel summed it up at the end of last year, "There is a very good chance corporate spending on PCs will improve significantly in 2010."

Article reporting Forester prediction:

http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=270046

Should IT be run as a business?

I read an Article in CIO Magazine “Run IT as a business -- why that's a train wreck waiting to happen - Everything you've been told is wrong: What IT should do instead” by Bob Lewis. As I read the article I imagined the cheering from the IT professionals in data centers across the country. Their frustration with unrealistic users and business leaders is finally articulated.

Clearly Mr. Lewis makes some great points in his article and it is an interesting article to read. However, many of his points are the very reason businesses fail as well. What he is getting to is the importance of creating solutions that will solve the long term business needs as opposed to running around resolving point solutions and every user demand. The essence of where he is going is that internal IT professionals must operate more like consultants and not just turning wrenches. The key here is having solid IT strategic plan and trained IT team to work like consultants. The strategic plan should be short enough that the key leaders will read and buy into the plan. The IT Team needs the consulting skills to work with the business managers and users to deliver on the plan.

IT departments that do not treat the users and business manager as customers are on a slippery slope. A major challenge for IT leaders is getting their team to communicate and to not give attitude to the users. Good IT professionals are scarce and in high demand. They are constantly being pulled in multiple directions and this causes them frustration when dealing with less technical staff. This amplifies the challenge to develop IT professionals that are effective as consultants.

Oh, in case you are wondering – I say yes, IT should be run like a business. And why not – last I checked it is part of business and frankly you should treat everyone like a customer internally and externally. It is a mantra for me!

CIO Magazine Article by Bob Lewis:

http://www.cio.com/article/517879/Run_IT_As_a_Business_Why_That_s_a_Train_Wreck_Waiting_to_Happen?page=1&taxonomyId=3123

Virtualized Management

I have discussed the importance of management and planning in a virtualized environment. IDC Technologies is predicting 20% annual growth in virtualization management software going from $871 Million market to $2.3 Billion by 2013.

Management software has been around for many years but is often shelfware. The challenge with management software is that all too often businesses will purchase the software with little to no budget for getting the software installed and their team trained. The logic is that “this is just management software” and not critical to the operation! We can just have Joe the Network Administrator run with it. Joe agrees to take on the task but with little to no experience or training. The software is setup in a manner that is not according to best practices. Joe and the rest of the team find the management software is cumbersome to operate and monitor. No one uses the software or updates …. Shelfware! The conclusion: “This management software is no good!”

The key to having success with management software is five steps:

1. Take plenty of time to select the management application and then have the team commit
2. Senior leadership needs to be committed to implementing and using the application
3. Have a consultant implement the solution according to best practices
4. Have proper training for the internal owner of the application and the team
5. Have a consultant do some hand holding and follow-up … checking back to ensure that the application is being used correctly

In a virtualized environment management software will rise in importance for successful operation so get your arms around it and commit to your solution for success.

Source Article: Virtualization Management Software Market to Grow, IDC Says:

http://www.businessmanagement1.com/business-management/virtualization-management-software-market-to-grow-idc-says/

Being Relevant in 2010

Symantec CEO, Enrique Salem spoke of the importance of being relevant.

Relevant Pronunciation [rel-uh-vuh nt] –adjective
Bearing upon or connected with the matter in hand; pertinent: a relevant remark.

We are in a new era of so many media channels. Never mind that there are now a 1000 channels on television since there is a shift to social media and the billions of web sites on the internet. How does a business or a person be relevant in an environment that is very thin and infinitely wide? This is the 2010 question and we have had all of 2009 to think about it!

The key is to engage the right people with the right information in a very broad approach. Keep in mind this quote from Seth Godin a master at staying relevant in today’s environment:

“As in high school, the winners are the ones who don't take it too seriously and understand what they're trying to accomplish. Get stuck in the never ending drama (worrying about what irrelevant people think) and you'll never get anything done. The only thing worse than coming in second place in the race for student council president is... winning.”

Use your passion for technology to be relevant in 2010!

Agile Application Development

I read an article on Agile development: “Agile Adoption – Crossing the Chasm: Why is it so difficult to switch to agile process from waterfall?” by Udayan Banerjee

The article explains how the old school waterfall process of locking down requirements when developing solutions is flawed. This process does prevent scope creep but at the end of the day the solution does not meet the business needs because business needs are changing and it is impossible to really know the requirements right from the onset. The result is that you end with an application that meets the requirement document and is completed on budget and on time but does not meet the business needs. There is a gap between what the business needs and the requirements at the onset of the project. The only way to close the gap is by using an iterative agile process like scrum. Successful application development teams know this and are actively pursuing this kind of methodology. The challenge of course becomes around budgeting, scheduling and how frequent to release each update to the user team. This article does a good job of walking through this.

Is there a place for a more agile design and deployment process for infrastructure implementation? Not completely however, understanding why agile development is effective and the direction for application development should help when doing infrastructure implementation. Keeping the agile concepts in mind and working toward more integration of the users in envisioning planning and deploying an infrastructure solution will help ensure the business needs are met.

Here is a link to Mr. Banerjee’s article:
http://udayanbanerjee.ulitzer.com/node/1137387

Goals for 2010

If you have not already created written goals for 2010 it is time. This can be done in less than an hour, so don’t let the task intimidate you. You may want to wrap it all in to a New Year’s resolution - “This year I will exercise every day and lose 20 lbs……and this time I mean it!”

Clearly the hard part about goals is executing on them. If you don’t know what they are how can you possibly execute on them. Write your goals down and keep them handy – try to review at least once a month to see how you are tracking. Create a relatively short list as too many goals are overwhelming. Create clear measurable goals and target work, personal and family. Share them with someone who will support you and this will help drive success. If you really want to put yourself out there, share your goals with everyone! You probably do not want to do this around financial goals as this can create problems.

Create one year and five year goals and it is incredible how effective this can be with a little discipline! Ok, a lot of discipline….. Nothing worthwhile is easy.

IT Budgeting for 2010

Since we are heading into a new year it is appropriate to discuss IT Budget for 2010. I read an interesting article in CFO Magazine that suggests you should be able to cut 9% to 11% of your budget: “How to Save 11% of Your IT Spend” by David McCann.

The essence of the article is that by modifying last year’s budget IT spends 10% more than they would if they did a from scratch green field approach. This includes the cost associated with the additional time to do a budget from scratch. The article does point out that there are diminishing returns if you do this every year so it suggests breaking the budget into 12 segments and doing a different segment every quarter creating a 3 year cycle.

Creating a budget from scratch does help for all budgeting - not just IT. We have been successful cutting costs dramatically by revisiting expenses with a fresh perspective. There is nothing like a challenging economy to motivate companies to examine costs.

Here is the article “How to Save 11% of Your IT Spend” by David McCann:
http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/14461534/c_14462479?f=home_todayinfinance

Desktop Virtualization Update

I read an article “Desktop Virtualization: Ready for Prime Time or Still Hype?” by Jessica Davis. I have been following the desktop virtualization market since the mid-90s with Citrix Metaframe. I saw many very un-happy desktop virtualization customers in the late 90s and early 2000s and fortunately we did not implement those solutions.

Here is an excerpt from Steve Ballmer at the Paine Webber Technology Conference back in 1999:

"You know, when you get guys like Scott McNealy and Larry Ellison and Lou Gerstner talking about the end of the PC era, … Fully 60 percent of the personal computers that are sold around the world are used by knowledge workers. They're not just used for manufacturing or order entry or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They're used by people like the people in this room, to send e-mail, to take notes, to do presentations, to do financial analysis, and that is best done today with an intelligent device. Maybe with some of the intelligence, more split client and server, but we can't take tools away from knowledge workers. There are just so many more things knowledge workers want to do. "

So, in ten years has this changed?

A little has changed as we are now constantly connected to the internet. We can do more with a terminal today and a terminal is easier to manage and secure. However, it will be a long time before I give up my PC and this article supports this showing 74% of CIOs do not have a plan for desktop virtualization. The one industry that does have a plan for desktop virtualization is the financial sector and this makes sense as security is extremely important.

Clearly there are situations where it makes sense to save money by implementing a desktop virtualization solution. When it is time to do a desktop refresh IT leaders will want to investigate both a PC and a virtualized desktop option. Each situation will be different and needs to be analyzed on a case by case basis. Every year desktop virtualization will make more sense than in the past year but will not completely replace the PC - Not yet anyway.

http://www.channelinsider.com/cp/bio/Jessica-Davis/

VMotion Sickness

I read an interesting article regarding VMotion Sickness : “Virtualization Will Cross the Chasm in Two Years” by Greg Ness

VMotion Sickness is a term coined to describe the effects from too many virtual machines moving around and VM Sprawl. This causes everything to run slower due to the overhead associated with VMs moving. This negates the basic virtualization benefits of better utilization of resources. VMotion is of course a management tool yet it can be a part of your virtualization management problem.

How do you deal with VMotion Sickness?

It starts with planning and management. Do a comprehensive capacity plan and implement structured management. Here are three keys to success:

1. Monitor right from beginning so you have a long history of data to troubleshoot problems
2. Keep a keen eye out for any virtualization bottlenecks
3. Know what is running on your infrastructure – keep details and avoid server sprawl

You may also want to read this article: “ Virtualization Will Cross the Chasm in Two Years”:

http://web2.sys-con.com/node/1203744

Managed Services Lessoned Learned

Nortec has been offering Nortec 24/7 Managed Network Services for four years now and we have learned several lessons. Nortec 24/7 Managed Services includes remote monitoring, remediation and patch management. Not all managed services are the same so this brings us to our first lesson learned:

1. Be clear on what managed services are included with your service agreement:
a. Monitoring
b. Remote remediation
c. Remote patch management
d. Exactly what servers, switches, routers, desktops are to be managed

2. What will the escalation process be if the problem cannot be resolved remotely:
a. Contact you to resolve issue
b. Send field technical professional to resolve the issue

3. Notification and reporting:
a. You probably do not want emails daily on all issues
b. You may want emails and even a phone call on major server issues
c. You should meet quarterly, semi-annually or at least yearly to review reports and discuss what is working and not working

Remote managed services are the way of the future. Communications is the main issue. Be clear on who is doing what and you will have tremendous success.

3 Basic Rules for Success

I have my three basic rules for success professionally. These rules keep you relevant, connect you and show respect to others.

1. Answer the Phone – If you are available answer the phone. I don’t believe in taking calls when in a meeting. If you must take a call well in a meeting, ask permission before and outline how long the call will last.

2. Return calls and emails – You don’t need to return solicitation calls of course but other calls and emails should be returned within a few hours. I am working on being more responsive on emails as I historically would only respond when necessary. I am working on being more proactive as people like to see that you are reading their emails and that you are not an email vacuum.

3. Show up – Be where you say you will be, when you say you will be there. If you show up late you are screaming to those waiting for you that “I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOU.” I heard a Navy Seal talk about this recently. In their training, on time meant 15 minutes early. Anyone who shows up at the last minute would have the extra not wanted duties. I suppose this is why military people are usually very punctual.

It may seem like these rules for success are just way to basic but it is surprising how many people fail on some or all of these on a regular basis. I know I can improve on these rules myself and have had a few hard lessons on showing up on time early in my career. If you can deliver on all three of these rules on a regular basis you are 90% there!

Symantec Vision

Last week at the Symantec Partner Conference Enrique Salem, CEO of Symantec outlined 5 trends in the IT industry:

1. Virtualization
2. “We are under attack” – Businesses are under attack by criminals trying to gain financially through hacking into corporate information
3. “Consumerization of IT” – Consumers adopt and implement new technologies before businesses
4. Storage is growing extremely rapidly: A) 51% businesses plan to spend more on storage next year B) 33% businesses plan to spend the same on storage next year C) 16% businesses plan to spend Less on storage next year
5. Executives are targeted with IT attacks

Symantec is positioned as the company that will protect your information - from backing up to archiving - from end point security to data loss protection. Symantec will provide the solutions for complete information protection and quick recovery when there are server failures or a lost laptop at the airport.

Mr. Salem asks the question, "what is more damaging, servers failing or loss of information and customer data?" Clearly loss of information is a larger issue and this is where Symantec is focused.

Microsoft Exchange 2010 Launch

Steven Elop, President of Microsoft Business Division announced the general availability of Exchange 2010 yesterday at Tech Ed Europe. He announced Forefront 2010 protection for Exchange 2010 and the integration of the two products. Exchange 2010 is a release with several significant advances specifically around message management, archiving and unified communications. We have demonstrated some of the features at several launch events we have hosted with Microsoft in the Mid-Atlantic. The combination of Exchange 2010, Outlook 2010, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 is driving many business to implement a server and desktop refresh. Ultimately the upgrade will drive efficiencies in the marketplace with the enhancements in these products.

Here is a link detailing the news in Redmond Developer:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/181708/microsoft_makes_case_for_upgrade_to_exchange_2010.html

Here is an article on launch in CIO Magazine:
http://www.cio.com/article/507118/Exchange_2010_Launch_Week_Round_Up

Here are video clips from Tech Ed Europe in Microsoft's Virtual Press Room:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/teched/default.mspx

Online Security

I read an article on CSO Online called "Researchers Advise Cyber Self Defense in the Cloud " http://www.csoonline.com/article/504770/Researchers_Advise_Cyber_Self_Defense_in_the_Cloud

The article points out that through social media a criminal could pieces together your birth date, personal photos, family members, and other pieces of personal information. This makes it much easier for identity theft. Between these different social media like a Blog it becomes easy for someone to gather information on someone and therefore does justify some concern.

Using social media it is easier to access personal information needed for identity theft. A stolen identity will allow a criminal access to credit. Banks and anyone providing credit will need to get more sophisticated about how they identify someone. Individuals will need to continue to be vigilant about what information they do give out to social media sites.

Companies that in all regard are good corporate citizens need only one bad apple to compromise their data. This does not even have to be over the internet. I have received letters from banking institutions stating their information was compromised internally and they are sending me a new credit card.

Clearly we are living in a time when it is easier to access information. The battle will be ongoing and will ensure a good living for those focused on information security. We will continue to transact business and share information over the internet. It is extremely effective and efficient. The main thing that an individual can do is be cautious about who they share information with online. Two questions to ask yourself before sharing sensitive information online:

1. How did you ended up at this particular site? Did you seek out this site or did the site find you through an email?

2. Does it make sense to give out the information you are giving out? Is it necessary?

The key is being careful about what information you share and who you are sharing it with.

Cloud computing is a growing trend and I don't think the fear of identity theft will stop the trend. Individuals will continue to use protective software like antivirus, antimalware, and firewalls and probably more important, just think about what information they are sharing online.

What Drives Success

I am preparing for a Nortec Management and Sales Conference and reflecting on what drives success. In a post a couple of weeks ago I wrote about the value of staying focused. This is important. However, first you must determine what you are going to focus on. What drives you? What is it that you want to accomplish? All too often I get caught up in the doing and don’t take the time to step back and reflect on what it is that I want.

Last year, I dealt with a lack of vision regarding my health and fitness. Although I was not completely out of shape, I sporadically exercised and was about forty pounds overweight. I created the vision of a healthy fit version of myself and set out to create a plan to get there. I decided that I would exercise every day first thing in the morning for 30 – 40 minutes alternating between cardio and weight training. By exercising every day I would give myself the ability to skip one or two days a week when my schedule would not permit exercising and still have a viable plan for fitness. I combined this exercise program with an improved diet by eliminating bad foods and eating smaller portions.

In the last nine months I have struggled with the weight. I am down about 10 pounds so I still have about 30 to go. I have done better on the exercise program with only a few lapses usually when on a vacation or when I am not feeling well. Key for me was doing my work outs first thing in the morning in my basement or on the street running. This allows for just one shower a day. I like to be efficient. This also alleviated “the need to exercise” from hanging over me the entire day.

The bottom line is that anyone can accomplish whatever it is they focus on. Clearly, like losing the weight for me, some things are harder to accomplish than others. You will test your discipline since ultimately it takes discipline to accomplish anything. Since humans are creatures of habit I think it is easier if you can build the disciplines into routine. Create the vision and use your passion to drive your discipline to be that person you dream to be.

Oh, one other motivator for me was my realization of my mortality and that if I don’t do something now … well, I may never get a chance in the future – Carpe Diem!

"Getting Things Done" by David Allen

I attended a presentation by David Allen last week the author of “Getting Things Done”. His presentation was straight forward and to the point. I came up with four keys to getting things done based on his presentation:

1. If you have an action that needs to be done and you can do it in less than 2:00 minutes go with the Nike strategy, “just do it!”

2. Create and constantly update your things to do list. Carrying around a list of things in your head is prone to forgetting and is a constant burden that interferes with your effectiveness.

3. Take one of three actions on emails: delete, file, or put in an action folder. Maintain an empty email inbox and clean desk.

4. Review your to do lists and action folders at the beginning of the day. Prioritize what you need to do and then schedule time if necessary.

This is my take away from what he said and the plan I am now implementing. For more details, and a better explanation of how to get things done, I would suggest reading the book. David Allen also has this simple test that can help you determine how effective you are in getting things done – It takes about 2:00 minutes:

http://www.gtdiq.com/

Windows 7 Launched Today

Microsoft released Windows 7 to the market today. So far the product looks terrific – everyone I know that is using it is very happy. Amazon announced yesterday that it was the number one pre-ordered product ever, out performing Harry Potter! If this is any indication, it will be a hit.

Here is a brief description of Windows 7 from the Nortec News Letter:

Windows 7 is the easiest, fastest, and most engaging version of Windows yet. The new user experience is really something to get excited about; thanks to elements like peek through, a whole new taskbar and some common sense simplifications, Windows 7 has a more usable UI and will run even faster than the previous release of Windows, a first for Microsoft. Developed based on feedback from actual customers Windows 7 offers faster and more reliable performance, and great features like Home Group and Windows Touch to make new things possible.

Windows 7 is much smarter than its predecessor, Windows Vista. While Vista’s memory manager devoted the same amount of RAM to each open window, performing as if each open window was visible and full screen sized even if they were minimized or in the background, Window 7’s memory manager doesn’t operate that way. Therefore, users can run Windows 7 with 1GB of RAM, unlike Vista which requires at least 2GB. With application crash resiliency, Windows 7 is also smarter when it comes to unstable apps and errors . If an application crashes multiple times, Windows 7 learns how it should run to avoid crashing. Further, the new Problem Steps Recorder makes error reports useful by generating a detailed error report in plain English.

Here is a review done on you tube. It was recorded about 5 months ago on Windows 7 beta version. I like it because it gives a good and quick introduction to the new features:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jsx-gf-z2U

Staying Focused

I am coaching hockey with my brother, Peter, this year and really enjoying it. Peter is a very seasoned coach having coached many teams including being a paid High School Coach. I have plenty to learn. I asked him what the most important thing is to coach the kids. He said that it is keeping the "main thing" the main thing – staying focused.

In business today, it is hard to stay focused for three reasons:

1. We have so many things coming at us (information over load) that it is hard to stay focused. We are constantly being pushed to look at this product and that product.

2. The entire information technology industry is a moving target. The “main thing” may change. This makes staying focused on the “main thing” really hard!

3. Human desire to seek out new exciting things – bored with “the main thing”

If you are bored with what you are doing. Spice it up and suck it up. If you want to be great at anything you will have to do it over and over again. Is there anyone who does not think Tiger Woods is not tired of swinging a golf club? Look for ways to make it fun by turning everything into a game and seek small incremental improvements. Make it fun!

Re-evaluate the main thing and prioritize. Do not rush to add more and more things that will allow you to lose focus. If you think there is a fundamental change you may have to dramatically change your focus but you will still need to focus.

One of the key differentiators for Nortec is that we are entirely focused on IT infrastructure and primarily around Microsoft. There was a CIO panel at the Microsoft Partner briefing and everyone of the CIOs said they prefer partners that are focused and not one partner for all IT.

Stay focused and be the best of the best in your niche.

BTW – The main thing when coaching kid’s hockey is skills.

IT Changes to Reduce Costs

This year IT Leaders are under pressure to reduce costs. Businesses need to improve cash while increasing operational efficiencies. These demands will cause fast changes.

The shift to virtualization this year has been very swift. IT Managers are now moving from 1.0 issues (What Servers to Virtualize) to 2.0 issues (How do I mange these virtualized servers?).

There is also a shift to cloud computing and hosted applications. This is a very disruptive shift and happening a little slower. The value proposition is very compelling in these times of cost reduction. Businesses can completely offload the infrastructure capital purchase and the management. This is very good for the business cash position.

Gartner points out that outsourcing is anti-cyclical since it is done in growth periods and sometimes more in down turns. They also present moderate results:
"Even during stable economic times, outsourcing has some specific drawbacks. It often delivers moderate (for example, 10% to 20%) cost reduction in exchange for moderate levels of satisfaction (typically 5 on a scale of 1 to 7, in which 7 represents the highest level of satisfaction), low levels of flexibility (4.8 — the lowest satisfaction score on Gartner outsourcing surveys), while causing high levels of lengthy renegotiation (more than 60% of deals are partially renegotiated in the course of their term)."
- Predict 2009: Recession Accelerated Shifts in IT Services, Gartner Report

Clearly there will be a shift to cloud computing but there will be a hybrid model for many years for most businesses. IT department will need to develop new process and methods to manage the hosted applications. Since hosted applications are fast to turn on, IT Departments will also need to manage more applications and have a strategy to stay compliant.

Windows 7 Launch

Microsoft Windows 7 Launch is just 10 days away! Most of our engineers are already running Windows 7 as well as several on the Nortec Sales Team. I am waiting for the official launch and will get a new PC with it pre-loaded in a couple of weeks. The good news is that the PC doesn’t actually need to be new and Windows 7 will run faster than Vista. Windows 7 can also run fine on most computers running XP. Microsoft has designed the Windows 7 operating system to be very quick. Unlike Vista, Windows 7 will be a brilliant success.

Nortec will be hosting Microsoft Launch Events for Windows 7, Exchange 2010, and Windows Server 2008 R2 in the Mid-Atlantic – DC, Richmond, Virginia Beach, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Here is a link to the events scheduled so far: http://www.nortec.com/launch.asp

Microsoft has done a great job with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 from everything I have seen. Exchange 2010 also looks good. Microsoft has incorporated voice mail to email conversion and much needed archiving features just to name a couple of features..

The rest of this year and 2010 will be a great time for making improvements to your desktop and server infrastructure!

Exchange 2010 Release To Manufacturing

Here is the announcement on Microsoft Technet today:

The big news today is that Exchange 2010 is now code complete. The senior leadership team has signed off on the final code, and it has been sent to early adopters for a final look before its public release. This Release To Manufacturing (RTM) milestone means we are well on our way to general availability and launch at TechEd Europe in November. For those of you attending TechEd in Berlin this year, be sure to visit the Exchange booth and tell them what you think of the product. I caught some of you on video with Crystal Flores at TechEd US earlier this year…Crystal will be looking for more of you in Berlin in a few weeks. If you can’t join in person, tune in via the Web (www.thenewefficiency.com) to be part of the launch.
Tags: Exchange, exchange 14, exchange 2010

Driving Business in the New World

I attended an event last week held at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California. The event was "Driving Revenue in the New World" put on by the IT Network and Media Network of Young Presidents Organization. We had great guest speakers including several from Google and a panel including leadership from Youtube, Linkedin and Facebook.

I am a neophyte when it comes to marketing in the online world. I have been investing time in trying to understand the best approach to using social media in business this year. This event reinvigorated my passion for online marketing and the best practices. The event also opened my eyes to the need to create an entire online marketing plan from search engine optimization to Ad Words and banner ads online. Paid online advertising was not something I really looked at very seriously and now realize this is worth investigating further.

One piece of wisdom found was that the online strategy is not something you can just delegate. Leaders need to embrace this and understand all that can be done. I have a certain fascination with online marketing and social media so this reinforced what I was already thinking. The world of online marketing is completely different then the old world of marketing and just when you think you have it figured out you discover another entire dimension. This can be very exciting and possibly frustrating! You must thrive on learning.

If you are a business leader or an IT leader I believe you need to be reading and investigating the impact and the fundamental business changes your organization needs to be implementing to grow in the new world. The message of this event was that adopting an online strategy for marketing and interacting with customers will be necessary for business survival! So if you do not have a plan, now is the time to get one!

IT Spending Growth in 2010!

This year has been a year of cost cutting for businesses and this includes IT where the spending dropped a projected 8%. Goldman Sachs on Monday released a prediction of double digit IT spending growth in 2010! They are also predicting growth of about 15% in online advertising after a 4% decrease this year. This is a positive indicator for the business climate overall and even more significant swing for IT professionals. This 20% swing will put pressure on the industry to supply the products, services and technical professionals to meet the demand.

I have already seen an increase in interest and activity in the market. I think the inflection point will be October 22 when Microsoft releases Windows 7. After that, companies will begin technology refresh cycles at a faster rate as we move into 2010.

2010 looks like it will be a great year!

Source:
Google AP - Goldman Sachs
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gtH3V91COtoipptOBVJXnfZgT3SgD9ARUUT01

Virtualization Adoption Update

VMWare ESX Server continues to lead according to Centrify survey with 60% of the market. VMWare ESXi has 31%, Microsoft Hyper-V comes in at 26% and Citrix Xen Server at 18%. This is in line with what we have seen. There is definitely a continued trend to move toward virtualization and more often than in the past companies are considering Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix Xen Server.

So what is delaying some companies from implementing a virtual production environment? There is an old adage that pioneers get arrows in their back but the pioneer days of virtualization were 3 -5 years ago and ended 2 years ago when we here at Nortec virtualized our entire infrastructure. The delay has been around cost of the software and the new hardware needed to implement the solution. Microsoft’s pressure on VMWare by bundling Hyper-V with Windows 2008 is solving the cost issue. As more and more businesses reach the point of needing a hardware refresh the hardware cost issue is being resolved as well. There are still of course a few old school hold outs but by in large this shift is happening and happening fast.

If you have not already virtualized your entire server infrastructure then now is time to put your plan together. It is a great time! There are several options and all are viable and make sense. Your design and choice of hypervisor will depend on your environment and what you are trying to accomplish.

Source: Centrify
http://www.centrify.com/news/release.asp?id=2009090101

Managing IT Professionals

I read “The Unspoken Truth About Managing Geeks” by Jeff Ello an article in CIO Magazine on managing IT Professionals. The article states that managing IT professionals is different than other groups because IT Pros are very logical and have little to no tolerance for non-logic. It is all about respect. The IT Pro needs to have respect for you and must show respect to them or the communication breaks down. The key to getting the respect is being logical and getting things done. You must not implement rules, process or decisions that do not make sense.

Mr. Ello states “While everyone would like to work for a nice person who is always right, IT pros will prefer a jerk who is always right over a nice person who is always wrong. Wrong creates unnecessary work, impossible situations and major failures. Wrong is evil, and it must be defeated. Capacity for technical reasoning trumps all other professional factors, period.”

In my experience I have seen the traits Mr. Ello describes in IT Pros. The challenge is that at the end of the day everyone is an individual and so any kind of stereotyping can be shot down. Does this mean we should not try to identify behavior that is typical for IT Pros? No – We can and this article does help identify some behaviors. I think adapting your approach to each individual will still be required. That is what you signed up for when you became a manger. Create an engaging relationship with each member of your team and have a passion for technology.

Article: “The Unspoken Truth About Managing Geeks” by Jeff Ello
http://www.cio.com/article/501697/The_Unspoken_Truth_About_Managing_Geeks?page=1

Quote of Day from "Who's Got Your Back":

Mr. Ferrazzi states the following about building your support network and following his methodology for success:

"... it requires dedication, discipline, and a willingness to push through your defenses and fears. Setting goals, then busting your butt to follow through with them, takes effort, self-reflection, honesty, and perseverance. But think about the alternative: Do you really want to look back from your old age at the dreams you almost but never quite went for, or the relationships you didn’t find the courage or time to develop? Or do you want to look back and say to yourself, ` Yes I did it’?”

- Keith Ferrazzi

“Who’s got your back” by Keith Ferrazzi

“Who’s got your back” is a book about building a support team – people you confide in for support on life’s challenges. When I first started reading the book I quickly grasped the concept of building a network. Mr. Ferrazzi gave several examples including weight watchers – essentially the entire weight watchers strategy is creating a support group to hold you accountable to your own goals.

I wondered after a chapter or so if there was really enough on building a personal support network for an entire book …. There is and Mr. Ferrazzi does an excellent job. After giving examples of how support groups have succeeded Mr. Ferrazzi explains why the support is important and how to create a support group.

My take away from “Who’s got your back” is five steps:

1. Inventory your current relationships and determine who supports you and who does not.

2. Build an engaging relationship with a few individuals that will; support you and allow you to support them; Are willing to open up in an engaging, trusting, confidential relationship.

3. Meet with those individuals at least once a month formally or casually.

4. Build the relationship to where you are comfortable discussing your goals and challenges.

5. Review your goals and hold each other accountable to them.

I have been a go it alone person and somewhat introverted so this is challenging for me. I have learned the value of support and have done some of this. I can refine my execution and have more and better relationships and Mr. Ferrazzi did a great job of outlining how to do this.