AKIBIA'S PRACTICAL GUIDE TO ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
Entries with Label: Cost Efficiency
“Practical Use” Fills the Gap Between Idea and Implementation
Monday, February 02, 2009
It’s no longer a question of if you will deploy virtualized environments but when you will deploy them. In fact there are many technologies at this same point somewhere between idea and implementation, including WAN optimization, security consolidation technologies, Microsoft initiatives and contract administration consolidation. These solutions will cross the chasm into main stream deployment mainly because they reduce costs and increase efficiencies.
Practical Green IT
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
As many companies have pushed its benefits, and positioned their solutions as helping to achieve "Green IT", the topic has come to represent many things to many different people. It is certainly one of the most hyped IT terms of the past two years. It offers important environmental benefits such as reduced footprint and carbon emissions, and it saps less of the energy supply. Green IT initiatives can help improve an organization's relationship with its community. While many would argue these reasons are important enough to address on their own, there is another reason that has made Green IT so attractive to the public and private sector alike: It reduces costs, and it can increase efficiencies.
Consolidate Support Vendors?
Monday, April 06, 2009
The inability to predict a specific end date for the recession puts major stress on already strapped IT budgets. In past downturns many companies hunkered down and just held back on purchases until the economy started moving again. That strategy will not work this time. This recession will require IT to tighten the belt and really do more with less.
CIOs Need to Manage Up, Broadcast Successes
Thursday, April 09, 2009
This post in InformationWeek by Bob Evans struck a chord, "Global CIO: What CIOs Must Do To Survive The Recession." The article focuses on the downturn and anecdotal, but still scary, evidence that some companies are choosing not to hire CIOs during the recession—taking cost savings (salary) from an organization they view as a cost center.
On the Path to the Cloud… Walk Before You Run
Monday, April 13, 2009
Every now and then a new technology concept really takes off as marketing gurus at some of the largest companies put their collective mindshare and budget behind the next big idea. Web 2.0 was one such term, social media is another. Cloud Computing is the next big idea.
The Near-Term Impact of Oracle Buying Sun
Friday, April 24, 2009
Oracle's acquisition of Sun is a big deal in the IT industry as two big players come together. What is Oracle's intent? How will they leverage MySql? What will happen to Sun's hardware and storage device groups? There is speculation and chatter from the acquired company's employees, the competitors, pundits and of course from the customers.
A Letter to Ralph Szygenda, the CIO of General Motors
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Dear Mr. Szygenda, I just finished reading the Q&A Mary Hayes Weir of Informationweek conducted with you regarding your responsibilities in leading GM's IT department through the bankruptcy and restructuring.
Wrest Control of Your Data Center Back From the OEM
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
In the past few weeks I've met with a number of really big, exceptionally successful companies. These companies are leading edge in nearly every way—innovative data centers that employ virtualization, and deliver high availability, mission critical services on a global scale, and yet in one specific way, they are not revolutionary at all. They are still being held hostage by the OEM when it comes to software support contracts – resulting in unrealized cost savings and under-performing service on servers and storage systems.
Death by A Thousand Processes: Getting Compliance Right Requires a Change in Thinking
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
It seems like every day we wake up to find a new compliance mandate staring us in the face. These mandates put pressure on our infrastructure, mind share and our budgets. Industry estimates show the cost for compliance can be anywhere from 8-12% of the IT budget of a Fortune 500 company to as much as 25% of the overall IT budget for a mid market company.
Preparing for a Return to Growth? It’s Not Too Soon to Make Process Improvements
Monday, August 03, 2009
Recently my Gartner sales rep forwarded me a research note regarding steps to take to “Prepare for a Return to Business Growth.” Now, Gartner’s note (subscription required) falls short of Newsweek’s prediction that the recession is over, but they do make the good point that we must prepare for the time when delayed projects come off the shelf and back into our IT plans.
A Couple Quick and Easy Green IT Steps
Monday, October 12, 2009
Last week Akibia’s team was busy attending some of the premier industry events, including AFCOM’s Data Center World down in Orlando and an ASCDI event in New York City. Both were great events and featured a number of compelling topics for the data center – from cloud computing, to virtualization to strategies for green IT.
Sun Makes More Changes Amid Uncertainty
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
As we await the European Union’s ultimate decision on the Oracle acquisition of Sun, a number of questions exist making customers uncertain of buying new Sun products or maintaining existing Sun relationships. With Sun and Oracle unable to give clear answers regarding the acquisition close date, how the server group will be integrated in Oracle and what will happen to Sun’s support team, the outlook is murky. As a result many of the prospects Akibia speaks with are evaluating ways to migrate off of SUN platforms and to more stable server and storage environments. There is much speculation concerning which competitor will benefit the most from this move away from Sun – some say IBM and HP according to this Wall Street Journal update.
