Links List 11.06.09

November 6th, 2009 by Valerie Barber

Lots of buzz this week as Cisco and EMC announced Acadia, a joint venture to build and install data center products. Acadia takes a different approach – instead of trying to scale ongoing service, they will install the systems and then hand off control to the customer or to an established service provider like Accenture or CSC. Cisco, EMC and VMware also announced the Virtual Computing Environment coalition that promotes private clouds, and “Vblock”, a pre-integrated offering that combines EMC storage equipment, Cisco servers and network gear and VMware software. Read more announcement details.

In related news, Dell says it expects to “promptly” close its acquisition of Perot Systems. For enterprises looking to implement virtualization and cloud computing, the merger brings together Dell’s hardware and software expertise for advanced data center implementations with Perot’s expertise around integration, deployment, and management. Merger plans were announced in September.

Technology industry trade association, TechAmerica, released its Vision report – a look at important trends and factors that influence the government market. As we found in our FOSE 2009 survey, the government is transitioning as long-established governing processes rapidly change. Some of their findings:

Inhibitors and Drivers to keep spending in check. Agencies will:

• Spend less to improve fiscal discipline, achieve economies in contracting and realize ROI
• Spend more to improve services to citizens, increase scope and scale, address pent-up demand, make upfront costs of investments and make investments critical to operation

Cloud Computing Implications:

• Threats: may lead to outsourcing government infrastructure, will lead to increasing erosion of margins, new competitors
• Opportunities: need for government clouds as commercial offerings don’t address all requirements

Web 2.0/3.0 Implications:

• Threats: breaks down heirarcy and government/industry relations; newer, faster ways to do business, and inadvertant release of competitive intelligence
• Opportunities: speeds communication and offers broader collaboration

TechAmerica also issued a letter to President Obama asking him to appoint a cybersecurity coordinator at the earliest possible opportunity. In our 09.19.00 Links List we noted that Frank Kramer was rumored to take the position “within two weeks” – looks like “two months” may have put us in the ballpark (if it indeed happens any time soon).

At the Cloud Computing Conference and Expo, Intel talked about the hurdles and potential gains of private cloud computing. Hurdle: there is no blueprint to building a private cloud, so enterprises will have to invest the time and resources to meet user expectations. However, the benefits of private cloud continue to be quantified:

• Cost efficiency – Amazon charges 8.5 cents per hour for a Linux server in EC2. Servers account for 50% of the expense of data center outlays; power and cooling for the servers adds another 23%
• Improving voltage regulators on servers, allowing a two-way server to scale back to 60 watts when idle, would save $6 million per year for a company running 50,000 servers
• Building private clouds with servers using flash drives instead of disk drives uses 90% less electrical for cooling

Despite today’s news that unemployment is the highest since 1983, the worst of the recession may be over for IT pros with certain high-tech skills. Pay for IT professionals increased slightly more than 1%, causing industry watchers to be cautiously optimistic. However, there is conflicting information, as some IT professionals are seeing their pay slashed during company-wide cuts. It may help to look for jobs in the top US hotspots for IT jobs.

Finally, for a harmless break, check out Numberology – a site that gives you a daily number with an explanation of what it represents. Today’s number is $200,000 – from Neiman Marcus’ annual holiday catalog – the cost of dinner with Malcolm Gladwell, Nora Ephron and John Lithgow. Proceeds are donated to a children’s reading charity.

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