How does a small or medium business ensure it can meet the basic needs for disaster recovery and business continuity? Whether it be Internet-facing applications, or Enterprise-facing applications and data, one of the most important issues faced by small companies is the potential loss of information and applications needed to run their operations.
Disaster recovery and business continuity. Recovery point objectives and recovery time objectives. Backing up data to offsite locations, and potentially running mirrored processing sites - it is an expensive business requirement to fulfill. Particularly for budget conscious small and medium-sized companies.
Christoph Streit, founder of Hamburg-based ScaleUp Technologies, believes cloud computing may offer a very cost-effective, powerful solution for companies needing not only to protect their company's data, but also reduce their recovery point objectives to near zero.
Posted by: John Savageau in cloud computing, 3tera on
Feb 24, 2010
CA and 3tera have announced CA's acquisition of the innovative cloud computing Infrastructure as a Service vendor. This is a great thing for Computer Associates, and perhaps a bit sad for the cloud community in general. Why? It is hard to fit the energy and enthusiasm felt when walking into 3Tera's Aliso Veijo office into words. A tight group of committed entrepreneurs and innovators, with a bit of cockiness due to the unique stature they held in the cloud computing community.
Not that Computer Associates is a bad company. In fact, they have always been one of the best kept secrets in business and enterprise software. Rock solid systems, professional sales and engineering - just not as well known to the broader community as other large enterprise systems vendors.
AppLogic brought the cloud community many firsts. The first to integrate IPv6 into their provisioning system. The first to really simplify the drag and drop provisioning process. Perhaps the first to really test and prove the concept of globally distributed processing and disaster recovery models. And they are really great guys.
Posted by: Robert Lewis in Untagged on
Feb 22, 2010
(from Keep the Joint Running blog )
Great Quotations: “My observation is that whenever one person is found adequate to the discharge of a duty by close application thereto, it is worse executed by two persons, and scarcely done at all if three or more are employed therein.” - George Washington.
-And thanks to David Mott for bringing this quote to our attention.
Generalists, according to the old joke, know nothing about everything, as opposed to specialists, who know everything about nothing.
Their managers know nothing about anything, which is why they hire consultants like me — people who know everything about everything.
Or at least know how to create that impression.
Posted by: John Savageau in Hawaii, broadband on
Feb 22, 2010
What is the common verbiage of Hawaii's broadband initiatives set in senate and house bills SB895, HB984, and HB1077?
Easy, "Carried over to 2010 Regular Session."
- SB895 - 2/10/2009 Establishes the Hawaii Communications Commission (HCC), The committee(s) recommends that the measure be deferred. Carried over to 2010 Regular Session.
- HB984 - 5/11/2009 Implements key recommendations of the Hawaii broadband task force by establishing the Hawaii broadband commissioner (HBC). Carried over to 2010 Regular Session.
- HB1077 - 5/11/2009 Establishes the Hawaii Communications Commission (HCC) in the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA).
The committee on EDT-CPN deferred the measure. Carried over to 2010 Regular Session.
The governor last jumped on the media bandwagon with her press conference in Feb 2009 announcing formation of the Hawaii Communications Commission. Yes, the bill listed above (SB895) which is deferred until the 2010 session. There may be budget problems, there may be difficulty understanding the scope of broadband communications in today's society and economy. But the reality is all broadband bills are deferred, and at this point on hold.
Posted by: John Savageau in ict, Hawaii on
Feb 20, 2010
Try a search engine query on "Hawaii CIO," or "Hawaii Chief Information Officer." You might get a couple corporate links pop up, or possibly the University of Hawaii's CIO link, but the only state agency within the first two pages of links is for the Information and Communications Services Division of the Department of Accounting and General Services (DAGS). The first impression, once hitting the Hawaii Information and Communications Services Division (ICSD) landing page on the State of Hawaii's website, is the microwave tower graphic.
The Information and Communication Services Division (ICSD) of the Department of Accounting and General Services is the lead agency for information technology in the Executive Branch. It is responsible for comprehensively managing the information processing and telecommunication systems in order to provide services to all agencies of the State of Hawaii. The ICSD plans, coordinates, organizes, directs, and administers services to insure the efficient and effective development of systems.
In fact, the Hawaii CIO, as appointed by the governor in 2004, acts in this capacity as a part time job, as his "day job" is comptroller of the State. In that role, the only true function managed within the ICSD is oversight of the state's main data center.
Posted by: Robert Lewis in Untagged on
Feb 15, 2010
(from Keep the Joint Running blog )
Management Speak: The company wants the analyst's report this way.
Translation: The CEO wants the report to support the decision he's already made.
-This week's anonymous contributor wanted the translation this way.
To operate a computer, you point, click, double-click, or right-click. To operate a car you push on the gas, stomp on the brake, or crank the steering wheel.
Which is why you have to feel sorry for Steven Spear.
Spear, you'll recall, authored Chasing the Rabbit (2008) — an in-depth analysis of what makes high-performance organizations tick. It’s a fine book. Spear based much of his analysis on Toyota, though, which has managed to mess up gas, brakes and steering… pretty much the entire driving experience.
The easy conclusion is that Spear is a chump and his book a waste of time.
The correct conclusion, it appears, is that his advice is right on the money, and it’s too bad Toyota’s executive team stopped taking it.
That, at least, is what’s reported by Blaine Harden in a piece that recently ran in the Washington Post (“‘Toyota Way’ was lost on road to phenomenal worldwide growth, ” 2/13/2010).
The lessons for IT:
This is the third part in an interview series with Martin Levy, Director of IPv6 Strategy at Hurricane Electric. In this segment Martin discusses the future of Hurricane Electric, IPv6, bandwidth, and global Internet development.
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Pacific-Tier: Can you cite one defining moment that really makes Hurricane Electric stand out as a company within the Internet industry?
Posted by: John Savageau in Untagged on
Feb 12, 2010
This is part two in a series of interviews with Martin Levy, Director of IPv6 Strategy at Hurricane Electric
Hurricane Electric is one of those rare companies that have survived, and grown in the past two years. A private company, Hurricane Electric has become one of the largest Internet Service Providers in the world, and is a leader in IPv6 deployment. In this article Martin Levy shares a few ideas on how Hurricane Electric approaches their business and continued growth.
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Posted by: Mark Gibbs in Untagged on
Feb 11, 2010
As if the whole John Edwards farce couldn't get any more ridiculous, now one of his ex-aides, Andrew Young, who also happens to be touting his tell-all book about Edwards, has announced that he 'found' a video tape of, shall we say, a highly personal nature featuring Edwards and Rielle Hunter, Edwards' infamous and now presumably ex-mistress and mother of one of his children.
Young, who Edwards at one time persuaded to publicly claim to be the child's father, presents himself as having a high moral stance on the matter of the tape: "I think it's a shame people are focusing on this. I couldn't have told this story without including the sex tape … We've been offered gigantic amounts of money. And we've said no." His wife added "It was disappointing to see the person you had such hopes and dreams for be so careless."
And, of course, the whole mess has gone into meltdown with, of course, Hunter recently filing a court motion against Young seeking the return of a number of items including the aforementioned video.
There's a good chance that this will result in some ugly legal drama and if it does, wouldn't you want to watch what actually happens in court? Move over Judge Judy and Judge Wapner, this will be uber-compelling, real life drama with famous people, not just some shlubs from the boonies arguing over who owns a lawnmower. [more ]
Posted by: Mark Gibbs in Untagged on
Feb 11, 2010
Online privacy is a hot topic and the accuracy and detail with which you can be tracked as you bounce from Web site to Web site should be an issue of great concern to both consumers and corporate IT.
Many people say they don't really care about being tracked, arguing that they have nothing to hide about where they browse and with whom they communicate, so nothing needs to be kept private.
But here's the problem: The tracking that can now be done by paying attention to details of your Web browser is akin to the staff of a department store following you around and noting every mole and wrinkle on your body, what you're wearing and everything you pay attention to. Then they attach flags to you so they can identify you on subsequent visits to their stores or any of their affiliates. I think everyone would care about that.
Because mostly we aren't aware of this in-depth examination and cataloging of our browsing, we hardly think about it. Perhaps we tend to operate under the old adage, "what you don't know won't hurt you" or "ignorance is bliss."
As corporations become ever more skilled at following our digital tracks they acquire knowledge that enables them to maximize their messaging and selling abilities by customizing how they present themselves to us. The result? It becomes easier to sell goods, services and information to consumers.
And from the viewpoint of a corporation dealing with other corporations online, how much do you really want your competitors, suppliers and customers to have deep insight into what your staff is paying attention to online?
If you want to learn just how identifiable you are through your browser configuration, go to [more ]
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