Vista's replacement first sightings

Today I am doing house-keeping, that is catching up on my expenses, sorting out my calendar, and generally doing all the stuff that you never get time to do. The big advantage of working from home is that you know what you must produce; you know how long you are allocated for that, so you can arrange your work accordingly.

New Microsoft Operating System

The first public news on Microsoft 7, as it is code named, was revealed on youtube. The replacement for Vista, which had very little new and compelling features, hence the slow up-take in the market, appears to be moving towards the Apple iPhone concept of touch screen, voice commands and jesters. However, Microsoft have been very secretive on this and very few people have been party to what they are thinking, but they need to get their skates on as the rumours suggest that it is due for release in the 2009/10 time frame.

Whatever, Microsoft 7 looks like the one thing it must do is provide the customer with the features that they want and do not yet know, they want and already know, and what they will need to compete in business successfully in the next five years. Therefore, it should be more like Server 2008, built to make out lives easier and increase productivity, security and collaboration.

VMware continues to broaden its capabilities

Day 2 of preparation on my key note speak next on ITSM, today will be all about putting the deck together, and doing a run-through. I generally find that I speak longer while practicing so for a 30 min key note at home it should be 40 min. We get three days prep and the last day will be Monday, see what I do then.

The weather has picked up and we are looking set for a dry day, the first for about a week. This helps as I find walking and running through my presentation very helpful, so if you see some chap who appears to be talking to himself, just listen a little closer, it could be me practicing. The reason I do it, is it is better to speak out loud as you hear what you are saying, and it gets your vocal chords ready for projecting your voice.


VMware acquires another company

VMware announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire B-hive Networks, Inc., a privately-held application performance management software company with headquarters in San Mateo, California and principal R&D facilities in Herzliya, Israel. With this acquisition, VMware will leverage the B-hive team and technology to offer proactive performance management and service level reporting for applications running within VMware virtual machines - on both servers and desktops. In addition, B-hive’s R&D facility and team will form the core of VMware’s new development center in Israel. The terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be completed during the third quarter of 2008, subject to customary closing conditions, were not disclosed.

This is just another move by Vmware as they expand its capability in the virtual market-place: because as the Hypervisor becomes more available and is less differentiated the value-add capabilities will be in the management space, but this requires a broad coverage and a new thinking on how organisations will get value from a virtualised data centre.

The rain comes from clouds, so is cloud computing a damp squid

Day 1 of preparation on my key note speak next on ITSM, today will be all about getting the message I want to convey and structuring the delivery. Apart from that I have an unhappy customer to answer, he could not find what he was looking for on the Web-site, so I am writing a response to his questions.

What next for the Cloud

The concept of cloud computing is an interesting topic, and one which will no doubt take up many column inches over the coming years. For now I believe that its use will be restricted to internal cloud deployments: because the idea of letting critical business processes and data be supplied from a pool, that is available to all subscribers potentially, is not a prospect that many CIO will feel comfortable with.

However, the SMB sector will probably embrace the concept, as it will make starting and running a business less complicated, especially if you need IT and do not understand the market. At this stage my views are not yet well enough formed to produce an compelling argument either for or against the concept. I shall be visiting the HP labs next week and will be discussing clouds.

Virtualisation does not take bank holidays

The return to work is helped by a wet and windy day, which means working is the lesser of two evils, gardening being the other. Today will be sort out e-mail, as the rest of the world does not share the same bank holidays as us, and then doing my article for the company blog. This will be an update from my recent trip to Orlando to IBM Pulse.

Where are the big deployments of Desktop Virtualisation?

As an analyst I have been talking and writing about virtualisation for some time, and in fact desktop virtualisation, server hosted format that is, has been promising large benefits for over a year now. However, the uptake in the user community remains low, and this has prompted me to do some investigation.

The first issue appears to be that organisations are struggling to get the server side virtualisation projects working and bedded in, and this experience has made them more cautious than they were 12 months ago.

Secondly, the emotional attachment employees have to their desktop/laptop computer is proving to be harder to break than most observers first thought. This in its self will not stop any determined organisation, but does require some ground work to be conducted before these beloved items are removed.

Finally, the problems of getting power in to data centres is causing a re-think, because if all the desktop computing power is to be housed in the data centre then this will require significantly more space and power. Currently, data centres are finding it difficult to increase their power supply, and must first reduce consumption before they can accommodate this new centralised demand.

I believe that server hosted desktop virtualisation will become the de facto standard approach, but it will take another three – five years before it gains sufficient momentum to overtake the deployments of PCs.

EA is it the role for you

Friday, after this week a day at home is good, yesterday the points at Rugby failed, so Euston St at 5pm was manic, in fact they cancelled all trains until 6pm, then you had too many people on the trains that were going north. Today is a day of speaking to journo’s and vendors, reviewing some documents and doing my expenses.

Enterprise Architecture (EA) an art or a science

For the bank holiday weekend I have decided to discuss the role of EA and in this blog concentrate on the capabilities needed to perform the role. In IT we believe everything can be decomposed to 1’s and 0’s: because that is the way the computer works, but EA is a discipline that attempts to cross the divide between the business world of £’s and NPV’s to that of the 1’s and 0’s.

Currently EA is in its embryonic state, by that I mean as a profession it is relatively immature, when compared to engineering where the status of Chartered Engineer (CEng) is recognised as a symbol of competence and ability presided over by a well structured standards organisation. It my contention that EA requires a similar rigorous body to standardise the skills and training needed to become an Enterprise Architect. Because only by raising the profile and making it recognisable and easy for employers to know that an individual has the skills to be an Enterprise Architect will the role become more organisational in its scope and therefore break-away from its current association with IT.

I believe that EA should be a discipline that reports to the CEO, and not CIO, as its purpose is to enable business strategy to be translated to executable programs that can deliver organisational value over the long-term

HP is solid as i get over jet lag

Another early start, as London today for one of our events, I am not speaking due to the fact I only arrived back in the country yesterday. Today is all about meeting the team who are working on the report with me, and doing some background research on the topic. I shall be meeting the other speakers and asking questions about strategy formation.

HP has a solid quarter in EMEA

HP announced its quarterly earnings yesterday for EMEA and this can be reported as more solid that spectacular. However, that has to be set in the context of a very good last quarter. On the whole HP out-performed the market, and reported that is was seeing excellent growth in the emerging markets such as Russia and the Middle East.

Once again the trend in the Personal Systems Group (PSG) was that notebooks continue to grow, with revenues up 31% and units 46% demonstrating that prices are continuing to fall in a very competitive market. Desktop revenues were flat and units up only 2%. These figures indicate that HP is moving more units in the commercial sector and is getting this balance correct; both the commercial and consumer sectors grew 17% and 16% respectfully in terms of revenue. This balance enables HP to ensure it maintains a strong presence in the highly influential consumer sector, where I believe many innovations are being piloted by home users, then being translated to industrial use, for example Skype.
Technology Solutions Group (TSG) saw the software division grow by 28% and now represents 7% of this group’s revenue. The biggest highlight is that blades are continuing to grow and HP reported a near 60% market share in EMEA. Add to this the EDS acquisition then this group should continue to see good growth prospects.

Day 3 for Pulse, but home for me

Just got off the red-eye, landed at 6.45 am, which is good, but now I remember why I hate events in Orlando: the plane was full of children, and one constantly, and loudly, kept asking his Nan how long left, every 20-30 mins. Therefore, I got no sleep; still you have to take the rough with the smooth.

Today is catch-up on sleep and general bits and pieces day, because if you are cleaver you use the extra hours going over to the US to do any work and get ahead of yourself so it can be an easy day.

Pulse is Green

IBM are beginning to drive home the message that if you want to make energy savings in the data centre you have got to be able to measure and control the devices at a granular level; however, the value is by taking this information and making it relevant to a non-technical audience by demonstrating which business services are consuming what and when.

IBM has a really good story to tell here, but they are struggling with how to market it, and for me the title ‘big green’ does not work. I applaud what they have and how it can be used for eventually even non-IT management, but think the potential audience is a currently confusing mix of IT and facilities teams. Therefore, until organisations resolve the internal responsibilities then IBM is trying to sell to two different groups with different agendas.

Day 2 of IBM Pulse

Day 2 in Orlando, the meal last nigh was vast, so I had to get up at 6 am and go to the gym. Good job as we have an early start 7.30 breakfast meeting, then 1 to 1’s, more sessions before I leave for the airport at 4pm. Today will be taking more notes and catching up on e-mails when we have finished the analyst session, and before the car comes to pick me up.

IBM Pulse, the focus is on the future

The approach being taken by IBM is setting them up for a future where the world is driven by management and the ability to control and automate. The strap-line is

Visualise,
Control,
Automate

You can automate what you can not control; you can not control what you can not see. These three strands are reflected in the way IBM has acquired and developed its products, IBM have taken this view to a wider perspective than just it, and see the inclusion of plant machinery as the next logical step, but the IP enabled devices that IPV6 will support represents the real future use.

Florida sunshine

Today I am in Orlando Fl at an analyst event, IBM Pulse. This meant flying out Sunday at 10.25 am, so effectively lost a day at the weekend. However, the plus factor is it is hot and sunny. The key note was delivered by Lance Armstrong, he presented a very though provoking message, some times things that may appear as bad luck, but if you look at things in a different way then things can be different.

IBM Pulse Service Management

The event has 4500 people and is the merger of three previous events, Netcool, Tivoli, and maximoworld. The message from IBM is that IT is the component that underpins every business process, and in fact impacts how and what we do today in terms of how organisations grow and become more profitable.

The message is very compelling; however, the tools and benefits all look great, but are the organisations ready for the shift that is needed to accommodate this new world. In my opinion some are, but most are not. Therefore, this vision will need the organisations to be guided through a transformation project and re-structuring. This is what IBM got into earlier, so as you can see this is a planned move, and looks like the correct strategy so that IBM becomes a leader in IT management in the next ten years.

Virtualisation can help with the green debate

It is a Friday, which in terms of doing this job has no special significance, except I must do my time-sheet and submit it. Anyway, today is a tidy up day, by that I mean get those small outstanding things complete, sort out my e-mail and plan the next week. Because next week will start early for me, I am flying out of Manchester at 10.00 am to Orlando so that I can attend IBM Pulse analyst sessions. So expect my posts next week to be a different times. I have no intention of getting up at 4 am just to post for UK readers at 9 am.

The Green debate is still rumbling on

According to recent scientific reports there is now an added urgency for a more comprehensive international climate agreement post-2012. According to the most stringent scenario outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global average surface temperature can still be limited to an increase of 2 degrees C above the pre-industrial level. Staying within this limit means a reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions of at least 50% below the 1990 level by 2050.
Currently all the media attention is focused on the aviation and transportation sector as the villains, however, the IT data centre, and the computer in general, wastes a significant amount of energy every day. UK Government figures quote that an organisation can save UK£50 per PC per year in energy costs by simply ensuring PCs are switched off after work and at weekends. The data centre represents an even bigger prize for organisations that address the issue of under-utilisation of servers.

In fact rumours from the Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy Group (PRSEG) report that post 2012 the EU Emissions Trading Scheme will be extended, and this extension will inevitably affect more organisations than the current scheme. One possible approach will be for a carbon emissions cap on organisations, which will force organisations to look at its energy consumption, and I believe that IT can offer solutions that will enable a reduction in energy consumption. In fact I have been advocating the need for organisations to consider the power and cooling impact that IT data centres represent, and to adopt new technologies that can significantly reduce their energy consumption, and hence an organisation’s carbon footprint. I am a firm believer that virtualisation is one such technology that organisations should be actively investigating: because as the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali stated, action is needed now; therefore I recommend that organisations assess the impact that IT computing resources contribute to the overall organisational energy consumption, and that this should be addressed before legislation is introduced forcing organisations to report on and then reduce its energy consumption, or face penalty charges.

The Services market get more competitive

Today is write-up day for the subscriber magazine, the out-line was approved with no changes. The problem with today is I have a vendor briefing with Fujitsu-Siemens that is scheduled for an hour, a telephone call with an organisation to discuss IT strategy formation (research for the report I am working on, but not due to start for two weeks), and a telephone call with another IT director on the same subject. This all means that my writing day will be disjointed. To make things worse, I have also to write a look-ahead, a short article on a topic that coincides with the magazine publication, July, so the challenge is to find out something IT relevant that is going to happen and write an analysis of it before it has happened. This is not too bad when there are plenty of events, but July is a quiet month so the linkage may be tenuous.

HP and EDS a good marriage?

The purchase of EDS by HP has not been widely received as positive, which is due to the fact that HP has a reputation for taking a long time to integrate its mergers and acquisitions before they demonstrate stakeholder value. However, I believe in this case HP should be able to re-brand EDS and merge its own services function in to it, which will be a quicker approach and faster to return value.The key to why HP has taken this step can be seen in its solutions to data centre automation, these technologies when applied in services contracts will allow the services company to increase margin, by significantly reducing cost. It also provides HP with the ability to add the EDS data centres to its own very aggressive plans (currently well under way) to restructure the network and data centre configuration, which is yielding significant savings and providing HP with some more green credentials

What is Microsoft doing on the desktop

Another day working from home, today I am investigating ITIL v3.0 upgrade options for a customer who has FrontRange technologies deployed. I suspect this will take most of the day as the information will need to be collected and then combined in a written response. I much prefer to perform these subscriber enquires by doing a telephone call, as the question asked is not always exactly what they want answered.

SIMtone, have sent me a trial of their Virtual PC beta software to test, the only problem being the device has a US plug, so I need to buy a US to UK convertor first, as my convertors are all the other way, for obvious reasons. So any spare time will be spent setting that up.

Windows XP Service Pack 3

Windows Vista has received a bad press from the media and us analysts alike, the truth is that the number of deployments is increasing slowly, in-line with that of XP when it was launched. However, Microsoft by releasing XP SP3 are sending a very confusing message; on the one hand if SP3 was just bug fixes and security updates, then no body would argue, but by including NAP (Network Access Protection) in the release they are adding new functionality to a product they want people to migrate from.

The launch of Windows Server 2008 I believe will be the catalyst for Windows Vista migrations to accelerate in the corporate world: as Server 2008 and Vista are the same code base, and they have been designed so that deploying Server 2008 will make managing the desktop Vista client much easier. This I believe will be the big driver for organisations when they consider upgrading their server operating systems, which combining the desktop as well can yield management savings. However, only time will tell, but I for one am not writing Vista off just yet, although I am still on XP for all my work and home PCs.

Virtualisation prices soften as competition grows

The day after we have been in the office and you are back to working from home is a big contrast, you go from seeing lots of other people, to working on your own. Now do not get me wrong, working from home is a big plus and it is more environmentally friendly, as before I had up to a 3 hour daily commute, now I go to Hull once a fortnight, and every where else is by train, plane, or a teleconference so no travel involved. Today was going to be a day working on a consultancy project, but that fell through, so I will be reviewing a technology audit.

Vmware – Feeling the heat from Microsoft

As I predicted last year, and have been saying at speaking events for the pat 12 months, this year (2008) will see prices soften in the virtualisation space, especially from Vmware. Because the Hyper-V imminent launch (2nd August is latest date) will see the Microsoft marketing band-wagon push this technology to the SMB sector, which have been put off server virtualisation by the up-front cost of implementing Vmware, or the uncertainty of using open source. However, Citrix acquisition of XenSource, Oracle’s OVM (based on Xen) and Microsoft have changed the game. Vmware is now trying to build its reputation with the SMBs as a ready to use, cost effective solution to deploying added-value from server virtualisation.
Watch this space, as over the next 12 months Vmware will be creating a new position for its self as it differentiates its self from Microsoft in the virtualisation wars of 2009

A day in the office

Today is a day in the office that is a 5am start and 3 hour drive to Hull, which also means I will not be home until 9pm. This is a day of meetings and team discussions, it is good to bounce ideas and concepts of your peers, and tests your own arguments robustness, as analyst’s are not forgiving, any weakness will be exploited.

The Vmware news will have to wait, it was given under NDA until today, US time, so I will update you tomorrow.

CMDBs Start small and expand as you go

CMDBs are an excellent tool, but beware when choosing one, ensure you can start small and at a high level of detail, then increase the granularity and scope as you become more familiar with the tool and more refined in your processes. ITSM is a good solid bedrock from which bigger and better things can grow. More to come over the coming months.

A world of virtual things

Today is mainly taken up with researching the material for my magazine article on server and storage virtualisation. The point is that these two areas are connected and have a symbiotic relationship, that is if you have one you need the other to obtain the real value from your investment. That will take about 4 hours, and then i will lay the article out, plan the flow of my argument and submit it to the editor for approval.
I also have only one vendor briefing today, VMware, which you will hear about on Monday. Have a nice weekend, and i have decided to write this blog in two parts, a diary for anybody interested, and an analyst comment on technologies i follow.

Virtualisation

The idea of infrastructure virtualisation is to increase the utilisation figures of servers and storage; however, it can also increase agility and delay capital expenditure, but server virtualisation will also need more storage, and increases your license costs. Therefore, before you leap do the maths, does it make sense for your organisation, or are there other solutions such as enterprise-class server or mainframes.

Day 1 in the afternoon

Just completed a subscriber request on next generation network applications, so being DA is not so bad, RIA are not my normal area, so it is good to learn something new.

Day 1

Duty Analyst today, this means answering e-mails and telephone calls from the sales team and our subscribers. This can be day of new adventures, or it can be as dull as dishwater, you just never know.