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Transform, Digitise, Agile, Cost Reduction and more with less...

I was speaking with a consultant friend of mine about transformation and he was asking about the determinants of success, this was following on from a conversation that I had in which you might deliver a project but fail to meet your key performance indicators – your determinants for success. It stems from the following transformation means many things to many people, key performance metrics can mean many things to different stakeholders and indeed success can be internalised within a business line but not the wider group.  Transformation could be me migrating an application from a legacy data warehouse platform on an unsupported version of Solaris to a new Big Data solution, but often in such scenarios the financial savings are not direct in nature, we take out a suite of legacy costs (which should not be discounted) and introduce a different range of services or cost resulting from the replacement Big Data solution. Therefore defining what your key performance metrics are and what those mean is crucial. In the example above to HR, I might have reduced their spend on Solaris by $40,000 a year in IT charges, to the Solaris team, I might have enabled a physical server and some associated costs to be cancelled, but to group IT, the costs might be neutral. The level of cost transparency you have not only in the re-charge but the direct PnL charges need to be in place so that at the right level...

HP Enterprise Discover 2016 London...

https://www.hpe.com/events/discover Discover 2016 is in London next week. There is full coverage at www.hpe.com/discover which I will be sure to be checking out, and pending my schedule I may well try and turn up on the...

HPE Intelligent Provisioning overview...

There are two versions of HPE Intelligent Provisioning, for HP ProLiant servers dependent on the generation or ‘age’ of the machine: Version 2.50 supports all new HPE ProLiant Gen9 platforms. Version 1.63 supports all new HPE ProLiant Gen8 platforms. You can upgrade the version of HPE Intelligent Provisioning without affecting data, this is done by downloading the ISO and booting from the ISO, it runs the update and reboots. It lets you: Perfom an assisted OS install (and configure the array if necessary) Run maintenance/diagnostics The steps therefore for a new server build out would be: Configure ILO Download the latest appropriate Intelligent Provisioining ISO and run the update Download and run the latest Service Pack for ProLiant (currently April 2015) Run Service Pack for ProLiant and bring the server firmware up to date Boot the server and run the Array configuration utility F5 – configure the array, set the boot order and reboot Run F10 to boot into Intelligent Provisioning and perform OS install – select custom install to specify the server name and specifics (including drivers/management software if you want) If the install fails due to language settings try leaving language US English Complete OS install and configuration Re-run the Service Pack for ProLiant to install any missing...

P2v quick reference guide

I was speaking with a colleague about some work I’d been doing with a colleague about p2v (converting their physical servers to virtual machines).  In this case it was a mixture of Compaq and IBM servers running Windows 2003/2008 which they needed to migrate to virtual machines to reclaim data center space whilst the project to upgrade to Windows 2008/2012 was initiated. He asked how I approached the p2v process and I’ve made some notes below. Check ILO/IMM works ok and that you know the local administrator password – for post conversion/roll back Verify server health (nothing is alerting that might potentially stop the server from booting) Delete temporary files if possible – c:\windows\temp and c:\temp also IIS logs/middleware logs Defrag the hard drives beforehand – you don’t have too but it’s nice to do and shouldn’t take long Set the hardware management agents and non essential services to manual ipconfig /all >c:\ipconfig.txt – Captures networking information to a text file. Download pspcleaner referenced here. At this point some fundamentals of approach.  I always wanted to do the conversion in as few reboots as possible, so at a high level it’s the following: Before P2V steps: Disable server monitoring including hardware monitors/backups Log on as local administrator (verifying password) Verify accessiblility of IMM/ILO (use online tools to reset password if required) Install VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Set HP/IBM hardware agents to manual Clear down space – log files/temporary files etc Using command prompt: ipconfig...

Infrastructure transformation thoughts...

I was speaking with a colleague asking about how I mean about infrastructure transformation and how I approach change/transformation. Infrastructure transformation means different things to different target audiences, if we take the infrastructure or IT stance. I’m talking about change which is significant enough to deliver enhancement and enablement to the end user community typically with some outages or service disruption. My approach has always been the baby step approach, fix the fundamentals and everything else follows: Analyse the infrastructure and businesses in scope Identify ideal platforms that can be test cases for transformation Command and control the transformation or change Understand our successes and what could be done better which should feed back into analyse the infrastructure in scope Command and control is something that is very much to my heart and is stated in terms of communication and methodology: A unified line of communication throughout the transformation process; outages, failures are all controlled, declared and resolved transparently. Involve the stakeholders and clarify roles and responsibilities – do it right, do it once Clarity in how we ‘undo’ the change/transformation Red/yellow/green so we have a dashboard reference point of what is or is not complete In summary: Create ocumented and repeatable steps which are easily replicated, that are transparent and includes no assumptions. Avoid ackronyms and complexity where possible to embed civility  and partnering in...

Red Hat Summit is coming soon!

Red Hat Summit is June 23rd to 26th and is set to be a great event, you can register for the event here: I will be watching the coverage online, what I’ll be looking out for is announcements on the journey towards innovation in OpenStack, DevOps and empowering both business and IT to bring together the right combination of technology and technology services to deliver an end to end solution for transformation and enhancement. Do check out the agenda here and the available training or certifications that are on offer and consider that attending these events is not only an investment in technical aspect of your career, it’s the people you meet, the connections you make and the ability I always find to ask questions which I might not feel comfortable asking directly of my colleagues/service provider.  The ability to grab someone and say, I’m having this problem have you seen it before? The official coverage lives here: Red Hat Summit blog: http://summitblog.redhat.com/ Red Hat Blog: http://www.redhat.com/en/about/blog I’ll be watching both online and re-tweeting content so follow me on twitter:...

HP Discover Las Vegas summary

HP Discover was last week and judging by the coverage it went very well and I’ve heard some great feedback through colleagues. I’ve just started a new role as a Software Architect for a large enterprise and was therefore unable to attend.  The official blog lives here and covered it end to end, I did watch when I could (I’ve been between client sites last week). The high level bullet points for you: HP Helps Customers Accelerate the Move to All-Flash Data Centers – further enhancements of their HP 3PAR StoreServ offering, which brings new levels of scale and performanace at a lower operational cost. HP Unveils Developer Focused Testing Solution to Help Businesses Accelerate Application Delivery – this is about creating testing solutions to meet customer requirements end to end, very cool. DreamWorks Animation Selects HP to Automate Its IT Infrastructure – leveraging HP experience and best practice to further automate and enhance DreamWorks IT infrastructure for a more agile and scalable, this will be transformational in terms of the ability to adjust the IT landscape around not only your business but projects and programmes. Updates to HP Helion Portfolio Help Customers Unlock Value of a Hybrid Infrastructure – illustrating their further commitment to bringing and enhancing Cloud and Hybrid business solutions to their customers. There were also further announcements to enhancements to HP OneView 2.0 which will be a welcome to their customers, I’ve heard great things from colleagues about it, so...

Apple Music creates opportunities for all...

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/06/08Introducing-Apple-Music-All-The-Ways-You-Love-Music-All-in-One-Place-.html Introducing Apple Music — All The Ways You Love Music. All in One Place. June 8, 2015 Apple today unveiled Apple Music, a single, intuitive app that combines the best ways to enjoy music — all in one place. Apple Music is a streaming music service, a worldwide live radio station broadcasting 24 hours a day, and a new way for music fans to connect with their favorite artists. Apple Music combines the largest and most diverse collection of music with the expertise of world-class experts who have programmed playlists for your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, PC, Apple TV, and Android phones. Apple Music will be available starting June 30 in over 100 countries. “We love music, and the new Apple Music service puts an incredible experience at every fan’s fingertips,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “All the ways people love enjoying music come together in one app — a revolutionary streaming service, live worldwide radio, and an exciting way for fans to connect with artists.” Read more: apple.com/pr I love the concept and handled effectively this could be brilliant for both Apple and the artist, creating a community and broadcast platform from which I can communicate with my marketplace as a muscian is a powerful and compelling offering. I love the offering which extends to new artists that brings diversity to the marketplace in terms of music choice and revenue opportunities for Apple and...
recent from Cloud Transform, Digitise, Agile, Cost Reduction and more with less
I was speaking with a consultant friend of mine about transformation and he was asking about the determinants of success, this was following on from a conversation that I had in which you might deliver a project but fail to meet your key performance indicators – your determinants for success. It stems from the following transformation means many things to many people, key performance metrics can mean many things to different stakeholders and indeed success can be internalised within a business line but not the wider group.  Transformation could be me migrating an application from a legacy data warehouse platform on an unsupported version of Solaris to a new Big Data solution, but often in such scenarios the financial savings are not direct in nature, we take out a suite of legacy costs (which should not be discounted) and introduce a different range of services or cost resulting from the replacement Big Data solution. Therefore defining what your key performance metrics are and what those mean is crucial. In the example above to HR, I might have reduced their spend on Solaris by $40,000 a year in IT charges, to the Solaris team, I might have enabled a physical server and some associated costs to be cancelled, but to group IT, the costs might be neutral. The level of cost transparency you have not only in the re-charge but the direct PnL charges need to be in place so that at the right level you can align projects, and goals with outcomes, a financial SQL query if you like, to achieve this target what do I need to transform or take out.  At the same time we need to recognise that decommissioning a platform, application or service should create opportunities for savings as we scale up those changes. If we transform enough legacy platforms, for example we got rid...
recent from Data Center Red Hat Summit is coming soon!
Red Hat Summit is June 23rd to 26th and is set to be a great event, you can register for the event here: I will be watching the coverage online, what I’ll be looking out for is announcements on the journey towards innovation in OpenStack, DevOps and empowering both business and IT to bring together the right combination of technology and technology services to deliver an end to end solution for transformation and enhancement. Do check out the agenda here and the available training or certifications that are on offer and consider that attending these events is not only an investment in technical aspect of your career, it’s the people you meet, the connections you make and the ability I always find to ask questions which I might not feel comfortable asking directly of my colleagues/service provider.  The ability to grab someone and say, I’m having this problem have you seen it before? The official coverage lives here: Red Hat Summit blog: http://summitblog.redhat.com/ Red Hat Blog: http://www.redhat.com/en/about/blog I’ll be watching both online and re-tweeting content so follow me on twitter:...
recent from Servers HPE Intelligent Provisioning overview
There are two versions of HPE Intelligent Provisioning, for HP ProLiant servers dependent on the generation or ‘age’ of the machine: Version 2.50 supports all new HPE ProLiant Gen9 platforms. Version 1.63 supports all new HPE ProLiant Gen8 platforms. You can upgrade the version of HPE Intelligent Provisioning without affecting data, this is done by downloading the ISO and booting from the ISO, it runs the update and reboots. It lets you: Perfom an assisted OS install (and configure the array if necessary) Run maintenance/diagnostics The steps therefore for a new server build out would be: Configure ILO Download the latest appropriate Intelligent Provisioining ISO and run the update Download and run the latest Service Pack for ProLiant (currently April 2015) Run Service Pack for ProLiant and bring the server firmware up to date Boot the server and run the Array configuration utility F5 – configure the array, set the boot order and reboot Run F10 to boot into Intelligent Provisioning and perform OS install – select custom install to specify the server name and specifics (including drivers/management software if you want) If the install fails due to language settings try leaving language US English Complete OS install and configuration Re-run the Service Pack for ProLiant to install any missing...
recent from Virtualisation P2v quick reference guide
I was speaking with a colleague about some work I’d been doing with a colleague about p2v (converting their physical servers to virtual machines).  In this case it was a mixture of Compaq and IBM servers running Windows 2003/2008 which they needed to migrate to virtual machines to reclaim data center space whilst the project to upgrade to Windows 2008/2012 was initiated. He asked how I approached the p2v process and I’ve made some notes below. Check ILO/IMM works ok and that you know the local administrator password – for post conversion/roll back Verify server health (nothing is alerting that might potentially stop the server from booting) Delete temporary files if possible – c:\windows\temp and c:\temp also IIS logs/middleware logs Defrag the hard drives beforehand – you don’t have too but it’s nice to do and shouldn’t take long Set the hardware management agents and non essential services to manual ipconfig /all >c:\ipconfig.txt – Captures networking information to a text file. Download pspcleaner referenced here. At this point some fundamentals of approach.  I always wanted to do the conversion in as few reboots as possible, so at a high level it’s the following: Before P2V steps: Disable server monitoring including hardware monitors/backups Log on as local administrator (verifying password) Verify accessiblility of IMM/ILO (use online tools to reset password if required) Install VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Set HP/IBM hardware agents to manual Clear down space – log files/temporary files etc Using command prompt: ipconfig /all >c:\ipconfigbfc.txt Defrag server – defrag c: -a -v defrag d: -a -v Set the flag (converter-worker.xml) to ssl value = false Restart VMware services Run conversion Conversion steps Remove networks – we will add network cards later Advanced Options – Select power on destination machine Advanced Options – Select install Vmware Tools on the destination virtual machine On completion of the P2V shut down...