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!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
"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/
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/
Thursday, October 22, 2009
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
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
Friday, October 16, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, October 12, 2009
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!
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!
Thursday, October 08, 2009
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
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!
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!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
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
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
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
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
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
Thursday, September 17, 2009
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
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
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
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
"... 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
Friday, September 11, 2009
“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.
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.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Desktop Virtualization – Is it time?
Today is opening day of VMWorld in San Francisco! Nortec has several of our Senior Consultants attending. http://www.vmworld2009.com/
I read an interesting article on Desktop Virtualization in Tech Republic. Server virtualization has taken off and there is more and more buzz around desktop virtualization. Is it time to for virtualization on the desktop? Tech Republic asked their CIO Jury, “Is your IT department strongly considering a deployment of virtual desktops?” - Out of 12 CIOs , 9 gave no votes and 3 gave yes votes. However, some yes votes were very enthusiastic yes so are these CIOs the early adopters or are they the minority?
Virtualization on the desktop is driven primarily by cost. This savings is mostly the cost to manage the desktop not the actual physical cost for hardware. In this current economy driving costs lower is a priority for most CIOs. The challenge is that the virtualized desktops still come up short for many applications and around multi-media. When it comes to simple desktops with minimal applications virtual desktops make tremendous sense but as the complexity goes up sometimes it cannot be done. Citrix does continue to lead in the desktop virtualization space with more and more capability around multimedia and providing the complete desktop experience users are looking for so this helps with the adoption.
I think that those implementing desktop virtualization today are early adopters, but desktop virtualization will not eliminate the desktop. Over the next 3 - 7 years there will be a slow shift to about even - 50% desktops and 50% terminals as virtual desktops.
After that well………….
Applications are moving to the internet and “cloud computing” so as this happens the virtual desktop will continue to make more sense. Provided the internet bandwidth can get ahead of the desktop demands we will eventually only need a web browser. However, as rapidly as technology is changing, it will still take time.
Link to Tech Republic Article:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=2607
I read an interesting article on Desktop Virtualization in Tech Republic. Server virtualization has taken off and there is more and more buzz around desktop virtualization. Is it time to for virtualization on the desktop? Tech Republic asked their CIO Jury, “Is your IT department strongly considering a deployment of virtual desktops?” - Out of 12 CIOs , 9 gave no votes and 3 gave yes votes. However, some yes votes were very enthusiastic yes so are these CIOs the early adopters or are they the minority?
Virtualization on the desktop is driven primarily by cost. This savings is mostly the cost to manage the desktop not the actual physical cost for hardware. In this current economy driving costs lower is a priority for most CIOs. The challenge is that the virtualized desktops still come up short for many applications and around multi-media. When it comes to simple desktops with minimal applications virtual desktops make tremendous sense but as the complexity goes up sometimes it cannot be done. Citrix does continue to lead in the desktop virtualization space with more and more capability around multimedia and providing the complete desktop experience users are looking for so this helps with the adoption.
I think that those implementing desktop virtualization today are early adopters, but desktop virtualization will not eliminate the desktop. Over the next 3 - 7 years there will be a slow shift to about even - 50% desktops and 50% terminals as virtual desktops.
After that well………….
Applications are moving to the internet and “cloud computing” so as this happens the virtual desktop will continue to make more sense. Provided the internet bandwidth can get ahead of the desktop demands we will eventually only need a web browser. However, as rapidly as technology is changing, it will still take time.
Link to Tech Republic Article:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=2607
Thursday, August 27, 2009
The Hypervisor Battle
There is an interesting article regarding VMWare’s battle to hold market share in the hypervisor market in Network World, “VMware plows ahead in face of controversy, increased competition”.
The article discusses a survey showing VMWare and Microsoft with very close hypervisor penetration! However, they point out that VMWare is used by 100% of the Fortune 100 and 150,000 companies worldwide. VMWare does seem to have the majority of clients and is very strong in enterprise clients.
This will be a very interesting year for the “Hypervisor Battle”. Microsoft has commoditized the hypervisor by bundling it with Windows Server 2008. Microsoft is taking share and starting in the mid-market clients. They are offering to manage both Microsoft Hyper-V and V-Sphere with System Center Virtual Machine Manager as they recognize that they will need to co-exist with VMWare.
Microsoft has been successful at taking down some large competitors and continues to battle with many. One thing for sure is that Microsoft will stay in the battle and will not give up easy - as Steve Ballmer said at Microsoft World Wide Partner Conference 2009: “long term, long term, long term…. Is Microsoft going to go home? We don’t go home!”
Network World Article - “VMware plows ahead in face of controversy, increased competition”:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/082609-vmware-vmworld-preview.html?hpg1=bn
The article discusses a survey showing VMWare and Microsoft with very close hypervisor penetration! However, they point out that VMWare is used by 100% of the Fortune 100 and 150,000 companies worldwide. VMWare does seem to have the majority of clients and is very strong in enterprise clients.
This will be a very interesting year for the “Hypervisor Battle”. Microsoft has commoditized the hypervisor by bundling it with Windows Server 2008. Microsoft is taking share and starting in the mid-market clients. They are offering to manage both Microsoft Hyper-V and V-Sphere with System Center Virtual Machine Manager as they recognize that they will need to co-exist with VMWare.
Microsoft has been successful at taking down some large competitors and continues to battle with many. One thing for sure is that Microsoft will stay in the battle and will not give up easy - as Steve Ballmer said at Microsoft World Wide Partner Conference 2009: “long term, long term, long term…. Is Microsoft going to go home? We don’t go home!”
Network World Article - “VMware plows ahead in face of controversy, increased competition”:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/082609-vmware-vmworld-preview.html?hpg1=bn
Monday, August 24, 2009
Microsoft Exchange 2010
Microsoft Exchange 2010 release will follow closely behind Windows 7 and there is plenty to be excited about. Windows 7 is looking fast and rock solid and Exchange 2010 has some great new features.
Microsoft is a leader when it comes to a vision around Unified Communications. Specifically I really like the voice mail to text feature that allows someone to receive their voice mail in text within an email. This will allow you to read your voice mails in loud places or when you are at a seminar and do not want to have to get up and step outside to retrieve a voice mail. Here is a summary of other Exchange 2010 features listed by Microsoft:
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 enables you to achieve new levels of reliability and performance by delivering features that simplify your administration, help protect your communications.
Exchange Server 2010 gives you the flexibility to tailor your deployment based on your unique needs and a simplified way to help keep e-mail continuously available for your users.
Exchange 2010 mailbox database will allow you up to a 50% reduction in disk IOPS (Input/Output Per Second) over Exchange Server 2007, as well as greater resiliency against data corruption.
Building on previous investments in Continuous Replication technologies in Exchange 2007, a simplified approach to high availability and disaster recovery coupled with enhanced maintenance tools, will help you achieve new levels of reliability and reduce the complexity of delivering business continuity.
Exchange Server 2010 helps your users get more done by giving them the freedom to securely access all of their communications – e-mail, voice mail, instant messaging, and more – from virtually any platform, Web-browser, or device through industry standard protocols. Your users live their business lives in their inboxes every day. For so many organizations, Exchange has been the foundation of a universal inbox.
Exchange 2010 adds new productivity features that can help your users more easily organize and prioritize the communications in their inboxes.
In today's increasingly regulated environment, it has become critical to efficiently preserve business records. This includes e-mail which has quickly become the principle source of data in legal discovery and other compliance-related investigations.
But managing e-mail for compliance has become particularly challenging for most organizations. The problem is that, as e-mail volume grows beyond inbox storage limits, users are often forced to move this mail off e-mail servers and onto PCs and laptops as PST (personal storage) files. This isolates e-mail, making it more difficult to manage and search in a way that meets compliance requirements.
To address this PST problem and ease the compliance burden, Exchange 2010 delivers new, integrated e-mail archiving and retention functionality–including granular multi-mailbox search and immediate legal hold. When you combine this with the flexibility provided by the Exchange storage architecture, you can take better control of your corporate information, while providing your users with a streamlined experience that does not disrupt the way they manage their inboxes every day.
Despite all your best efforts, users make innocent mistakes handling sensitive corporate information every day. At the same time, there is always the threat of unauthorized users getting access to unprotected sensitive data. The issue has grown even more urgent in the face of increasing regulations governing customers’ and employees’ personal information.
Exchange 2010 makes it easy to better protect your company’s communications and e-mail through centrally managed information control capabilities. This includes the ability to intercept, moderate, encrypt and block e-mail more effectively. Together, this functionality provides you with a flexible range of protection and control options, whether you want to automatically enforce controls or empower users to implement their own data protection.
Microsoft is a leader when it comes to a vision around Unified Communications. Specifically I really like the voice mail to text feature that allows someone to receive their voice mail in text within an email. This will allow you to read your voice mails in loud places or when you are at a seminar and do not want to have to get up and step outside to retrieve a voice mail. Here is a summary of other Exchange 2010 features listed by Microsoft:
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 enables you to achieve new levels of reliability and performance by delivering features that simplify your administration, help protect your communications.
Exchange Server 2010 gives you the flexibility to tailor your deployment based on your unique needs and a simplified way to help keep e-mail continuously available for your users.
Exchange 2010 mailbox database will allow you up to a 50% reduction in disk IOPS (Input/Output Per Second) over Exchange Server 2007, as well as greater resiliency against data corruption.
Building on previous investments in Continuous Replication technologies in Exchange 2007, a simplified approach to high availability and disaster recovery coupled with enhanced maintenance tools, will help you achieve new levels of reliability and reduce the complexity of delivering business continuity.
Exchange Server 2010 helps your users get more done by giving them the freedom to securely access all of their communications – e-mail, voice mail, instant messaging, and more – from virtually any platform, Web-browser, or device through industry standard protocols. Your users live their business lives in their inboxes every day. For so many organizations, Exchange has been the foundation of a universal inbox.
Exchange 2010 adds new productivity features that can help your users more easily organize and prioritize the communications in their inboxes.
In today's increasingly regulated environment, it has become critical to efficiently preserve business records. This includes e-mail which has quickly become the principle source of data in legal discovery and other compliance-related investigations.
But managing e-mail for compliance has become particularly challenging for most organizations. The problem is that, as e-mail volume grows beyond inbox storage limits, users are often forced to move this mail off e-mail servers and onto PCs and laptops as PST (personal storage) files. This isolates e-mail, making it more difficult to manage and search in a way that meets compliance requirements.
To address this PST problem and ease the compliance burden, Exchange 2010 delivers new, integrated e-mail archiving and retention functionality–including granular multi-mailbox search and immediate legal hold. When you combine this with the flexibility provided by the Exchange storage architecture, you can take better control of your corporate information, while providing your users with a streamlined experience that does not disrupt the way they manage their inboxes every day.
Despite all your best efforts, users make innocent mistakes handling sensitive corporate information every day. At the same time, there is always the threat of unauthorized users getting access to unprotected sensitive data. The issue has grown even more urgent in the face of increasing regulations governing customers’ and employees’ personal information.
Exchange 2010 makes it easy to better protect your company’s communications and e-mail through centrally managed information control capabilities. This includes the ability to intercept, moderate, encrypt and block e-mail more effectively. Together, this functionality provides you with a flexible range of protection and control options, whether you want to automatically enforce controls or empower users to implement their own data protection.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Features
Microsoft Released Windows Server 2008 R2 in July and this comes with Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. This new version of Hyper-V changes the game when considering virtualization solutions. Realistically businesses will need to look at this option particularly in the current economy where IT needs to do more with less. Much needed Live Migration has been added and customers get increased availability with support for planned and unplanned downtime scenarios.
· Available as a free download: http://tinyurl.com/5plkqa
· Support for live migration for “zero downtime” planned migrations
· Support for host clustering for unplanned downtime protection
· Improved scalability with support for 1 TB host memory and up to 8 sockets
Live Migration
#1 Customer Requested Feature
Processor Compatibility Mode
New Processor Support
Improved Performance
Lower Power Costs
Enhanced Scalability (4x Improvement)
Support for 64 Logical Processors
Support for up to 384 Running VMs or up to 512 virtual processors
Greater VM Density
Lower TCO
Networking Enhancements
Improved Network Performance
10 Gb/E Ready
Dynamic Virtual Machine Capabilities
Live Migration
Hot Add/Remove Virtual Storage
Boot From Flash
Usability Enhancements
SCONFIG Enhancements
· Available as a free download: http://tinyurl.com/5plkqa
· Support for live migration for “zero downtime” planned migrations
· Support for host clustering for unplanned downtime protection
· Improved scalability with support for 1 TB host memory and up to 8 sockets
Live Migration
#1 Customer Requested Feature
Processor Compatibility Mode
New Processor Support
Improved Performance
Lower Power Costs
Enhanced Scalability (4x Improvement)
Support for 64 Logical Processors
Support for up to 384 Running VMs or up to 512 virtual processors
Greater VM Density
Lower TCO
Networking Enhancements
Improved Network Performance
10 Gb/E Ready
Dynamic Virtual Machine Capabilities
Live Migration
Hot Add/Remove Virtual Storage
Boot From Flash
Usability Enhancements
SCONFIG Enhancements
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Management of Virtualized Infrastructure
Virtualization breaks the historical methods of measuring performance and troubleshooting problems. Applications running on virtual machines move across physical platforms and this is one reason why virtualization creates new issues that must be addressed differently than in the past. Knowing what container is running slow is not always enough to solve a performance issue.
Management and management software is crucial to running a successful virtualized environment. There are several management products directly from VMWare and Microsoft. If you are in a homogeneous environment these may be all you need. If you are looking at a heterogeneous environment or something more complex you may want to look at some of the third party products. There are products that range from virtual planning and management to troubleshooting and you can usually try them out for free!
Here are three virtualization management products:
VMWare VCenter Appspeed:
http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-appspeed/
Blue Stripe:
http://bluestripe.com/products/
Akkori
http://www.akorri.com/products-overview.htm
Management and management software is crucial to running a successful virtualized environment. There are several management products directly from VMWare and Microsoft. If you are in a homogeneous environment these may be all you need. If you are looking at a heterogeneous environment or something more complex you may want to look at some of the third party products. There are products that range from virtual planning and management to troubleshooting and you can usually try them out for free!
Here are three virtualization management products:
VMWare VCenter Appspeed:
http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-appspeed/
Blue Stripe:
http://bluestripe.com/products/
Akkori
http://www.akorri.com/products-overview.htm
Monday, August 10, 2009
Disaster Recovery Planning in Virtualized Environment
Virtualization is a driver for disaster recovery. Companies that previously could not have a disaster recovery solution are able to implement one using virtualization technology.
Here are the high level steps to creating your plan:
1. Make sure you have executive sponsorship – no point putting a lot of effort into a plan that will never get off the ground
2. Store less with deduplication
3. Plan your Recovery Time Objective (RTO) - How fast will you be back up and running?
4. Plan your Recovery Point Objective (RPO) - How far back will you be capable of recovering?
5. Utilize image level backups
6. Document the plan and implement
7. Test, test, test
You can create a plan for very high availability, extremely fast recovery that goes back a very long way but this all costs money so it is important to really analyze the business requirements and what is acceptable. The old saying is with enough money you can accomplish anything!
Plan before, after and then continuously!
Here are the high level steps to creating your plan:
1. Make sure you have executive sponsorship – no point putting a lot of effort into a plan that will never get off the ground
2. Store less with deduplication
3. Plan your Recovery Time Objective (RTO) - How fast will you be back up and running?
4. Plan your Recovery Point Objective (RPO) - How far back will you be capable of recovering?
5. Utilize image level backups
6. Document the plan and implement
7. Test, test, test
You can create a plan for very high availability, extremely fast recovery that goes back a very long way but this all costs money so it is important to really analyze the business requirements and what is acceptable. The old saying is with enough money you can accomplish anything!
Plan before, after and then continuously!
Friday, August 07, 2009
Quote of the Day
This Quote came from the Netfix Corporate Culture Presentation:
Why high performance is so important:
1. In procedural work the best are 2X better and in creative work the best are 10X better!
2. A great work place is one with stunning colleagues
Why high performance is so important:
1. In procedural work the best are 2X better and in creative work the best are 10X better!
2. A great work place is one with stunning colleagues
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