August 30th, 2010 by Julia Lim
VMworld 2010 kicked off today in San Francisco. From the lines snaking from Moscone South all the way back to Moscone North to the overheard “moo” as the masses of waiting attendees moved slowly to overfilled breakout rooms, this year’s VMworld is off to a good start - if the sheer amount of people is anything to go by.
Always a content-rich conference, this year’s show does not disappoint. I look forward to all the cloud announcements that have already begun to come out – and just like customers I face the same challenge of separating the “wheat’ from the hype/chaff. A new game – guess how many companies will announce themselves (new and reinvented) this year with some form of “cloud” or even better “clou” in their names…
Back to VMworld – as I listen to Ed Bugnion from Cisco plug UCS in the background – this year, VMware’s theme is Virtual Road, Actual Clouds. As opposed to the 3 or 4 actual case studies at the show last year, more customers with public, private and hybrid cloud deployments are here this year and ready to tell their ROI stories. An example from the first session I’m in is BT, which went on an 8-month virtualization (maybe cloud) journey and here were the results:
- from 700 racks at 8 sites to 40 racks at 5 sites
- from $2.4 million spent anually for power to $110K
- from 9309 network ports to 840
- from weeks to provision to 12 minutes
- from 96 hours to backup to about half an hour
- from onsite management required – to fully remote management enabled
Pretty impressive – but to be taken with a grain of salt since BT is of course a vendor delivering virtualization/cloud services themselves.
But more than ROI and case studies, another theme is emerging which makes me feel like I’m back at a Gartner show. Service-oriented architecture. IT as a Service – ITaaS. Which comes first – the analyst or the big vendor messaging?
More on this tomorrow from the VMworld keynote session. Register to see it streamed live.
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August 27th, 2010 by Alejandro Figueroa
I just returned from InteropNet hot stage with some cool updates about the changes coming to InteropNet this year. I’m very excited that EM7 is at the heart of some of the coolest things happening in the NOC.
First up, we created a self-service portal to allow all of the InteropNet vendors to provision monitoring of their own gear. Using the EM7 Integration Server, monitoring configurations are automatically set up in EM7 and vendors can also make configuration changes using the self-service portal. Based on the feedback we’ve received, we believe this has great real-world implications. You may be hearing more about this pretty soon.
Then, there’s the Operational Dashboard for InteropNet NY. To build this dashboard, we thought, “What are the items I would put in one dashboard if I could?” And then we built it using EM7 G3’s liquid dashboards. The dashboard includes:
- Content Verification – External Checks: monitors all external connections between the NOC and the colo sites. This is critical because it’s monitoring the sources of Internet connections available for attendees.
- Network Top-10s for CPU, latency, inbound and outbound bandwidth, physical memory and file system percentage
- Event Summary – at-a-glance view of the distribution of events
Another striking example is how we met Qwest’s request to see the co-los that support Interop located in Sunnyvale, Denver and Newark in one view. They wanted to see bandwidth graphs, errors and discards, in a single pane of glass and as soon as possible. BAM! We did it in EM7 in 5 minutes! They said it would take about a week to configure this in other monitoring tools.
There is always a great deal of excitement around InteropNet. It brings together some of the best technical expertise from many of the top vendors in IT who are always eager and willing to showcase the latest and greatest technologies. Everyone is open to trying new and cool ways – there are no limits as we stretch the boundaries of what is possible. InteropNet is always about interoperability, efficiencies and speed and this year is no different.
The whole point is to help IT operations do their job and for that, I must say that EM7 is awesome!
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Tagged with:
cloud computing,
cloud monitoring,
Interoperability,
InteropNet,
Network Management,
Network Monitoring,
private cloud
August 27th, 2010 by Valerie Barber
In acquisitions news, the bidding battle between Dell and HP to acquire data storage company 3PAR continues, with Dell at the top with an offer of $1.6 billion. Here’s a take on other companies HP should buy and why, including Rackspace, f5, NetApp and SAP making the list
Check the web for updates on this, but as I’m writing, there are rumors that former HP CEO Mark Hurd may be returning to Teradata, where he ran the data warehouse division before it was spun off from NCR. The speculation has run Teradata’s stock up more than 11% in mid-day trading. You may also want to download Information Week’s report, “HP in Transition”. One of the top 10 challenges is for HP to change the focus from soap opera to customers.
The Data Center Institute, a think tank for data center managers, says only 15% of its member have implemented some form of cloud computing. But, it predicts, “the next five years will see the adoption of cloud computing grow dramatically.” AFCOM (Association for Computing Operations Managers) has issued a position paper meant to provide guidance to the other 85% on why and how to begin their move to the cloud.
Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) provides some insight on how IT managers should prioritize their network management investments with a keen focus on automation. For companies looking to gain efficiencies, here are five ideas on how to best allocate time and resources, including consolidating tools to reduce redundancy and exploiting untapped capabilities in existing toolsets.
Finally, bedbugs are a gross topic, but they’ve been getting widespread attention. Now, there’s news of an infestation of the file cabinets at the Social Security Administration regional office in Queens, NY. Another reason to go paperless. There’s even a list of the 15 most bedbug-infested cities: NY, Philly, Detroit, Cincinnati and Chicago. Yuck and yikes!
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August 20th, 2010 by Valerie Barber
With all the talk that cloud computing will reduce the number of IT jobs, here’s a simple, clear and encouraging blog post on dealing with change: “I believe there will be many more cloud computing jobs created in terms of cloud managers, cloud solutions architects, platform-service developers, and so on. I suspect that there will be a huge net gain in IT jobs due to the cloud, and salaries should kick up higher over the next several years as well.”
Intel’s announcement that is acquiring McAfee has some analysts talking that innovation in the security industry will suffer as large vendors like IBM, Cisco, EMC, HP and others acquire leading thriving security companies.
Amazon Web Services is now offering Reserved Database Instances – reserving portions of their cloud for users who are wary of public clouds. Users make a none-time, up-front payment (discounted) to reserve a database instance from one to three years.
Telcos as cloud computing providers? A new report by Ovum by Ovum sys AT&T, BT, Orange and Verizon have made progress in terms of service and can now compete with established players from the IT industry. Ovum analysts believe the big telecoms will be stron players across the full spectrum of cloud computing services including Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
Finally, Gartner has found that many corporate customers are not interested in the true benefits of the cloud (offloading compute and storage to infrastructure as a service), but are more focused on security issues. Read more…
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August 18th, 2010 by Larissa Fair
Having recently returned from his trek in the Amazon jungle, Alejandro is now off to his next adventure: Hot Stage for InteropNet New York. Today Alejandro is heading to sunny San Francisco CA to a new warehouse (aka super secret underground bunker) where the InteropNet team will piece together their newest data center.
(Photo: Alejandro with squirrel monkeys in the Amazon. It’s a jungle out there!)
InteropNet New York is going to be different from Las Vegas in a few ways. Using EM7 G3 Integration Server, we are planning on incorporating more aspects of private cloud operations by implementing auto-provisioning of devices for real-time network monitoring (Shout out to Tim May).
To get this working, we’re developing a self-service portal where each InteropNet sponsor can choose their own adventure. Each vendor will be able to log in and provide the IP address of each device, what physical rack location (whether it is one of the remote data centers or actually part of the NOC on the Interop show floor). They can select their SNMP credential and EM7 will automatically discover their specific device and also provide visual confirmation of whether the device is available. EM7′s dynamic discovery then will auto-align Dynamic Applications to the vendors devices. Our engineers have spent years developing and perfecting Dynamic Applications with the vendors themselves to provide best practices monitoring straight from the hardware and software vendors. Monitoring provisioning will become a snap for each vendor.
This is really important this year because we’re changing the way Hot Stage works. We’re changing the game, and making Interop even more about interoperability. It’s always been about that, but this year it’s even more prevalent. Each vendor (InteropNet sponsor) is in effect working on one portion in the InteropNet NOC and responsible for a different portion actually on the exhibitor show floor.
For example, let’s say that Enterasys is providing the core switches for the NOC, but HP is providing the switches for the exhibitor show floor. That means that both of those vendors are responsible for managing the interoperability between the NOC and the show floor – and EM7 provides the oversight over all the vendors’ gear to maximize performance and availability, individually and for the InteropNet as a whole.
InteropNet is always a challenge – and of course a welcome one – because we’re basically building an enterprise-class network in a matter of weeks. Add to that the focus on interoperability and innovation and it’s never been more important for EM7 to just work. This is a perfect microcosm of IT operations today where changes to the network may have to happen on the fly. Without a tool like EM7 that can quickly handle those changes, in some cases automatically and without human intervention, enterprises can’t implement innovations like the self-service provisioning portal and other private cloud features that we’re going to showcase at Interop NY. In fact, this level of IT operational agility is a big part of the reason why we’ve won the network management (and help desk) provider slot at InteropNet for 3 years running.
Stay tuned for more news from Hot Stage next week, and make sure to sign up to attend Interop New York in October. Get a free expo pass and 30% off a full conference pass by using this code: CNSANY01.
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Tagged with:
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August 17th, 2010 by Larissa Fair
We are heading to VMworld in a couple of weeks, and looking forward to learning about (in their words) how VMware is working to reduce IT complexity and enable IT as a service through virtualization and cloud computing. We’re especially interested to attend any sessions around private cloud management, Virtualization monitoring and ones focused on virtualization automation.
(Photo Credit: The Creativity Works, VMworld 2008)
Here are a few recent news stories around virtualization and the cloud which makes us wonder whether or not these issues will be addressed at VMworld.
How virtualization is affecting server sales. Recent articles point to more and more customers buying integrated infrastructure packages rather than individual servers. Since virtualization is decreasing the number of physical servers needed to run a data center, these packages are including not only servers, but storage and networking components.
What’s next for virtualization? Obviously virtualization management and cloud management go hand in hand, but what else can we expect to see in the virtualization industry? Daniel Beveridge recently wrote a post which pointed to the up and coming trends for virtualization. He mentions the birth and growth of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), the increase in different hypervisor types, the case for extending storage and the “depersonalization of virtualization”. He also talks about “mist computing” – a model where virtualization spans the space between data center and desktop. Compute resources that are all around us, nearby and omnipresent. According to Beveridge, mist computing is the future of virtualization.
What VMware announcements are coming? Some speculation has us wondering what big news is coming out of VMworld this year. Most large industry tradeshows (like MacWorld, Comic-Con or CES) are focused around major product announcements or industry changing trends. Since Sphere 4.1 was recently released, it leaves one to wonder what other big announcement is coming.
The future of VMware. Information Week posted a couple interviews with VMware CEO Paul Maritz. VMware has decided to escalate its virtualization strategy far beyond the world of IT infrastructure and into the areas of application and user-device virtualization, while also dramatically fortifying its capabilities in end-to-end IT management. VMware is pushing a three-level strategy for stringing together infrastructure, applications, and end-user devices in a way that helps customers save not only on CapEx but also on OpEx—and beyond. It looks like VMware is searching for “unified and harmonious management" over data centers, IT infrastructure and applications.
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Tagged with:
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virtualization monitoring,
vmWare
August 13th, 2010 by Valerie Barber
Government budgets for 2011 are firming up, with spending on web services getting a boost and funding for cloud computing taking a hit. The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to spend $40 billion in the 2011 budget year to fund shared services that increase efficiency and collaboration between agencies, but has reduced funds for cloud computing from the $35 million requested to $20 million. The committee backed the overall goal of cloud computing, they expressed concerns over guidance:
“The committee is supportive of the concepts contemplated in the e-gov account for fiscal year 2011, namely, moving agencies to cloud computing through pilots…The committee is concerned that the electronic government initiative does not provide sufficient guidance regarding consolidation of federal agency data centers into data facilities with multiple federal tenants.”
What does IT management look like in the future? From Accenture’s point of view from working with many forward-thinking clients who are looking to cloud computing, enterprises will manage less infrastructure but will need more expertise in managing end-to-end performance from multiple suppliers. They foresee a greater focus on ITIL-like processes including service management, governance, service integration and more.
Gartner and IDC have both lowered their IT spending outlooks for the rest of 2010. While both predict that IT spending will continue to rebound from the lower amounts spent during the peak of the global recession of 2009, the pace for the second half of 2010 will be slower than anticipated.
It’s always fun to look at lists and see how much you agree…here’s a good one: Game Changers: 12 technologies that changed everything.
Finally, there’s a silver lining in every cloud. One of the first push-backs regarding the cloud is security. View the slideshow on cloud security pros and cons.
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August 11th, 2010 by Doug Stevenson
One of the anomalies I see in products today is the propensity to keep adding in more complexity into an already complex application. Many management applications fall into this scenario. This is a dangerous precedent and let me explain…
How many management applications do you run into where the process of just installing and initial execution take more than a couple of hours and require a lot of skilled engineers to perform? The complexity has an adverse effect on not only the Sales Cycle but realizing ROI becomes significantly harder. The people assigned are usually multi-tasking across a multitude of projects. Yet there is a concept by vendors that the person implementing at a customer is either a Consultant (dedicated) or an employee (dedicated) assigned specifically toward making the stuff work. In some cases, the vendor is counting on this as it sells consulting services.
When applications require a significant amount of knowledge and skill just to function, many features never get exercised simply because of the added complexity each new feature produces and the long lead time toward learning new functions and how to not only provision, but tune and diagnose said features.
Think about the actual installation process. What steps are required to install the application? Is there pre-planning that must be accomplished? What other pre-requisites are necessary? How much skill is required to get the application loaded and configured?
Next, take a look at how patches are done. Simple or complex? How easy is it? Is there a lot of preparation required? Do the patches enable instant back outs? What about test harnesses? Do they auto-test or do you have to build and test yourself? I can tell you from experience, the less intrusive patching and upgrades are, the more current the installation stays. If its hard, takes too much time, or requires a lot of preparation, changes will only occur at a measured pace.
Check out EM7 G3.
Login to EM7
Go to System –> Updates
From the lightning bolt on the row for the patch you want, click it.
Click the image below for an animated demonstration.
Tells you right there if it passed or not. And if you select the note icon to the left of the lightning bolt, you see all of the installation logs. And if you like, you can schedule the patch at a given time. Just select the calendar icon to the right of the lightning bolt and do the deed. This is all pretty straight forward. Some of the other Management applications require you to shut things down, perform a bunch of steps at the command line, then bring things back up. EM7 Patches are CAKE!
As applications are surfacing, some of the vendors “get it”. They understand that the engagement cycle of installing the product and getting it up and running makes a HUGE difference. These agile products are displacing legacy applications that have become too difficult to install and too difficult to implement without significant effort.
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Tagged with:
application management,
installation,
IT Operations Management,
ITOM
August 9th, 2010 by Julia Lim
Rather eclipsed by the scandal shaping up around Mark Hurd leaving HP, rogue administrator Terry Childs was finally sentenced to four years in prison (out of a maximum five years possible) – two years after the initial incident where he locked out the rest of the San Francisco IT department from their network. In April of this year, he was found guilty of violating California’s computer crime law by refusing to hand over passwords to the city’s FiberWAN; the network continued to run, but the city had no administrative control over it for about 2 weeks. Depending on who is talking, this act cost the city upwards of $900,000.
(Photo Credit: O’Reilly Media)
If you want the details about the case, the best source is Paul Venezia’s articles over at InfoWorld. He chronicles what occurred and even visited Childs in jail to get the story straight from the source.
Several jurors at the trial talked about the culpability of the city’s lack of efffective IT mangement and policies. One of the jurors at the trial was a CCIE with 13 years of experience and blasted the SF IT management:
Management in the city’s IT organization was terrible. There were no adopted security policies or procedures in place. This was a situation that management allowed to develop until it came to this unfortunately point.
But despite poor SF IT management, Childs’ own actions paint a very different picture from the original one of an everyman hero of sorts, protecting the city’s network from his managers’ own ineptitude at all costs – even to the point of going to jail for it.
Instead what emerges is a story about a socially inept network administrator who “freaked and played aggressive defense” and made some very poor choices that landed him in jail.
What initially seemed like overkill – $5 million bail set for the rogue admin – now is not as clear-cut after more details came out during the trial. Turns out Childs was a flight risk, going to Nevada the day before he was arrested (and under police surveillance) and withdrawing $10,000 in cash.
Was he a disgruntled employee? Yes. Was he abrasive and a control freak in the office? Sounds like it. Did he know that his job was being reassigned before he changed the passwords? According to the testimony at the trial, yes.
Pity Terry Childs – I do. But don’t put him up as an example of a network administrator being wronged for just doing his job. The moral of the Terry Childs story is not that network admins are in danger of being jailed if they make extreme decisions about securing the network, but that people make mistakes and what you do after you’re in the doghouse matters (especially if you’re under police surveillance).
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August 6th, 2010 by Julia Lim
Mark Hurd Resigns- Source: Reuters
Wow. That was my response upon hearing this news today. Of all the reasons to leave a company, this would definitely be on my top 5 list of ways I would not like to go out. (perhaps someday I’ll come up with the other 4)
Obviously, HP had to break the news before it got broken for them. You need to read the quotes in the articles about this. I don’t know if there is a best way to present this kind of announcement, but HP tried. From the WSJ: “HP said the probe found there was no violation of the computer giant’s sexual-harassment policy, ‘but did find violations of HP’s Standards of Business Conduct.’” HP-legal-pressured-by-PR-to-break-the-news-before-they-get-scooped says “what”?
Hurd (kinda) elaborates:
As the investigation progressed, I realized there were instances in which I did not live up to the standards and principles of trust, respect and integrity that I have espoused at HP and which have guided me throughout my career.
Read quickly and not well, this could actually be a positive statement.
Thank goodness for the New York Times who provided additional gossip for all of us who want to know. Seems that this whole imbroglio involves a marketing contractor, hired by the office of the CEO back in 2007 and who had a “close personal relationship” with Hurd. On June 29 of this year, HP got a letter from the woman’s lawyer alleging some sort of sexual harassment and the HP investigation started the next day. The investigation found some “inaccurate expense reports [that] were intended to conceal the personal relationship.” How do you hide an affair by falsifying expense reports?! Let the speculation begin!
It took years and hundreds of millions of dollars for CA to deal with the scandal around CEO Sanjay Kumar and his 35-day month accounting. John Swainson did his best but even he couldn’t erase that stigma completely. CA, 6 years later, seems to finally be putting this behind them. And that was about improperly booking software license revenue. Can you imagine what the fallout will be for a company with a CEO embroiled in a sexual harassment suit?
I’m sure we are going to hear a lot more details on this one.
The interim CEO will be CFO Cathie Lesjak, and the search is on for a new CEO. Carly Fiorina doesn’t look so bad about now, does she? Well, if Carly doesn’t beat Barbara Boxer for that Senate seat, maybe she’d be available to pick back up the reins…
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Tagged with:
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HP,
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