Bladewatch.com

Out-law

In its Digital Britain report the Government said that it wanted the public sector to reap the benefits of scalable, speed of provisioning and flexible pricing that it says cloud computing can bring.

While it consults with an IT trade body the Government has told all departments to make sure that all IT procurement from now on is compatible with cloud computing.

“All those Government bodies likely to procure ICT services should look to do so on a scaleable, cloud basis such that other public bodies can benefit from the new capability,” said the Digital Britain report.

Cloud computing is the use of massive central computing resources for IT work, with more modest computers connected to servers by networks. With the increasing ubiquity of broadband internet access cloud computing has become increasingly widespread.

The Digital Britain report outlined the phenomenon as has been observed in the consumer world. “The ‘public’ cloud  – where services can run on any server anywhere in the world – has attracted attention from industry commentators,” it said. “Achieving it, would be a first around the world for Digital Britain.”

It is not the report’s recommendation, though, that the Government run its business over public cloud networks.
“There are issues of meeting governmental needs for data location, security, data recovery, availability and reliability [with cloud computing],” it said.

The Government’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) and CIO Council has consulted with high tech industry trade body Intellect and has commissioned a strategy study to investigate the use of cloud computing in Government, which will be called a ‘G-Cloud’.

An interesting article talking about government ICT moving towards cloud computing, it will be interesting to see what elements of the IT infrastructure could be moved to a cloud platform, if like the enterprise there are any issues relating to data security or ownership. I wonder if the public sector should not be mixing cloud with commoditization of the platform, could we not adopt the simple practices of stripping down the component pc or interface to what’s needed? Upgrading and getting off those legacy platforms, lower the marginal operating cost for now and move on to cloud?

As with the enterprise my familiar phrase “STABILIZE THE CORE”, reduce the complexity of the infrastructure, look at ways to reduce operating costs and reduce fault calls, which might simply involve upgrading the desktops, rebuilding them or looking at a particular problematic application or element of the desktop support chain.  We can immediately look at service and cost transformation in this part of the IT infrastructure and then move on to cloud, to next generation applications and services, but we need to understand each unique business line, operating unit’s requirements and transform them.

Related to this, is there any reason that there isn’t a government wide email or exchange platform, where we only have one platform, one set of infrastructure cross departments (excluding sensitive areas), could we not have like in the enterprise a nhs active directory forest hosted once with users and areas hanging off that? We need less duplication of effort, less emotion, a commoditized infrastructure as a service, but I wonder if the way we operate budgets, the way we do government is compatible with this.

But I wonder at the same time, if this work should not be undertaken by the public sector within it, in small scale projects with some people from the private sector to get the right balance of making a platform that works within the standards of the public sector whilst offering a different viewpoint or possibilities for delivery? I wonder also if we should not be looking at having fewer more skilled teams running the infrastructure? Looking at outsourcing where appropriate?

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Public Technology

Due to be commissioned over the next few weeks, the purpose-built Data Centre will consolidate the Trust’s IT and communications services into one state-of-the-art facility and pave the way for the major £400M hospital building programme due to open in 2013.

NextiraOne’s Intelligent Building Services (IBS) division has been involved in the North Bristol NHS Trust’s Data Centre project from the outset and helped the Trust to formulate its ICT strategy and choose the dedicated data centre approach. Working with the Trust’s architects and other building and specialist suppliers, NextiraOne’s IBS team provided a continuous range of consulting and expert services: from the initial definition and scoping to the construction and fit-out of the new Data Centre based at Southmead, housing the data and voice requirements of the two acute hospital sites and other local healthcare services.

NextiraOne experts also helped with the full design and installation of the physical infrastructure – from power supply, cooling and light, to security and access control. Of particular importance to the Trust was the need to reduce its carbon footprint and this will be achieved by consolidating servers and using blade technology where possible. The data centre will also have the latest technology in environmentally sensitive lighting and energy-efficient cooling systems, which in themselves will cut power consumption by an estimated 40-70%.

It’s always interesting to see the range of requirements and technologies used in the public sector to deliver the next generation infrastructure and IT services for the UK’s public health service, I’m off to read up more, I see they are using blade servers where possible and trying to reduce their energy consumption, very cool.

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Public Technology

12 months after the Cyber-Ark “Trust, Security & Passwords” survey discovered that 33 percent of IT staff used their IT administration rights to snoop around networks to access privileged, corporate information such as HR records, layoff lists, customer databases and M&A plans, a repeat of the survey has discovered that the situation has escalated.

Despite a sharp rise in data breaches and increased media awareness on the subject, the third annual Cyber-Ark survey reveals that 35 percent of IT workers now admit to accessing corporate information without authorization, while 74 percent of respondents stated that they could circumvent the controls currently in place to prevent access to internal information.

Cyber-Ark’s “Trust, Security & Passwords” is a global survey of more than 400 senior IT professionals both in the US and UK, mainly from enterprise class companies.

An interesting article and results from the survey, it’s a mixed scenario, IT infrastructure needs locked down to enable people to do their jobs, but at the same time restrict access to unnecessary data, at the same time we need to trust our IT teams, and work with them to understand that accessing private data can not only expose the organization to operational risk, but expose them to work and legal difficulty.

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BBC News

Software originally developed for the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project can now be used to power any old PC.

Sugar on a Stick, as it is known, can be run from a USB drive to give aging PCs a new look and access to collaborative educational software.

The operating system is designed for use by children and was announced at the LinuxTag conference in Berlin.

It has been developed by Sugar Labs, a breakaway organisation from OLPC.

“Sugar on a Stick is a great way to try Sugar without touching your computer’s hard disk,” said Walter Bender, founder of Sugar Labs.

The release could dramatically increase the use of the free software, which has until now been predominantly distributed with the XO laptop, the machine sold be OLPC.

The child-friendly computers, originally marketed as the $100 (£60) laptop, currently cost $199 (£120) each. Sugar on a stick, however, can be used on any machine.

“It is also well-suited to slower, older PCs and low-powered netbooks,” said Mr Bender.

It’s great news that we can bring further operating system options to extend the life of older pcs, particularly if it delivers the functionality that we’re aiming to provide without the associated additional licensing or support costs. I just wonder though, could we not be looking at reducing the cost of the pc itself and bundling in this new operating system? My only concern is that I’m all for improving the accessibility of IT to everyone, it brings new opportunities for revenue, for free communication and discussion, but should we not be doing this with a degree of environmental and energy efficiency in mind? Should we not in essence be decommissioning those computers that are possibly nearing end of life, will offer poorer energy efficiency and user experience, dare I suggest that anything older than say a G4 or a P500 might get recycled?

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Businesswire

ROUND ROCK, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dell today expanded its enterprise technology portfolio to help organizations become more efficient through the innovative use of technology. The introduction of flexible and modular virtualization and data center consulting services, business-ready virtualization configurations, new Dell PowerEdge servers and EqualLogic PS4000 storage array will further simplify the planning, deployment and management of virtualized and physical IT environments.

The expanded lineup attacks cost and complexity for two key areas of enterprise computing – virtualization and high-performance computing (HPC) – while providing differentiated solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses.

Virtualization: Virtualization is at the heart of data center efficiency. Dell is delivering enhanced virtualization solutions and services to reduce planning time for a faster path to efficient infrastructures, accelerate virtualization adoption and simplify management of virtual environments.

Improved Planning:

o Dell is introducing new flexible and modular virtualization consulting services. Dell’s technology accelerated Dell ProConsult offerings use electronic discovery, Web based surveys, best practices, comparative data and reference architectures for shorter, more impactful engagements. To help holistically optimize data centers, Dell is introducing a variety of consulting options aimed at reducing the cost to plan, manage and run them:

o Platform Optimization and Virtualization makes IT infrastructures more effective through an analysis of workload requirements, reference architectures and validated solutions. Dell virtualization services can dramatically reduce total cost of ownership, provision virtual machines in minutes instead of the weeks for traditional machines and help customers build a standards-based virtual environment.

o Data Center Planning and Management helps customers make IT investment decisions faster based on sound best practices and key technology insights rather than long-term, manual consulting engagements.

o Disaster Recovery helps customers plan and implement an effective and affordable disaster recovery program balancing people, processes and technology.

o Data Management quickly diagnoses problems and recommends proven storage solutions to help eliminate unused capacity, provision storage faster, and comply with internal policies and external regulations.

o Facilities Efficiency resolves space, power and cooling issues in priority order to help customers avoid expensive air conditioning upgrades and help reduce energy consumption.

Fast Deployment:

o Two business-ready virtualization configurations simplify the design, procurement and deployment of virtual enterprise infrastructures.

o Data Center Virtualization Configuration: The unified virtualization platform with pre-configured architectures combines Dell PowerEdge M-series blades and EqualLogic PS6000 iSCSI storage technology, with Cisco Catalyst networking switches, VMware vSphereâ„¢ 4 and Platespin Migrate from Novell to achieve an intelligent, automated data center.

o Small and Medium Business Virtualization Configuration: The Dell virtualization configuration combines the PowerEdge R710, Dell PowerVault MD3000i, PowerVault DL2000 powered by Symantec for backup and PowerConnect networking technology together with Microsoft’s virtualization suite, including Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and System Center Essentials and System Center-Virtual Machine Manager 2008, to reduce cost and simplify management of virtualization.

o Dell is announcing additional virtualization solutions including:

o Enhanced Hypervisors: Support for VMware vSphere 4 and Citrix® Essentials for XenServer™ 5.0, and will support Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V to help customers deploy the latest virtualization software solutions. Dell now supports VMware vSphere 4 across 37 Dell PowerEdge platforms to help customers deploy the latest virtualization software solutions for both enterprise and small and medium business customers. VMware vSphere 4 helps customers of all sizes transform their data centers into internal private clouds.

o Disaster Recovery: Dell EqualLogic Auto-Snapshot Manager 2.0 for VMware vSphere 4 simplifies data protection and recovery through automation and integration with VMware vSphere 4. It delivers “Always On IT” for reduced application downtime and data protection managed under a single pane of glass for simplified and affordable disaster recovery. Dell EqualLogic arrays integrate with the VMware platform through support for the VMware vStorage™ APIs, enabling disaster recovery support for VMware vCenter™ Site Recovery Manager and enhanced performance with the EqualLogic Multipathing Extension Module for VMware vSphere 4.

o Application Virtualization: Dell helps companies make critical decisions for virtualizing business applications with published best practices and validated workloads for Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SQL Server applications for faster and more cost effective deployment.

Simplified Management:

o Dell helps eliminate the complexity from managing virtual infrastructure by providing tailored management solution that best fit individual business needs.

o Dell Virtualization Management toolkit: A choice of Dell and partner management tools that include Dell OpenManage and EqualLogic storage management, with key systems management platforms such as Dell Management Console, Microsoft, Symantec, and VMware, so you can easily manage virtual and physical environments.

o Virtual infrastructure capabilities: Solutions from Novell and Vizioncore provide data protection with OEM virtual to physical, physical to virtual and physical to physical conversion solutions.

o Virtual Server Remote Monitoring and Reporting: Dell ProManage Virtual Server Remote Monitoring and Reporting helps to provide improved visibility into VM performance and determine average utilization for processor, memory, network and disk at the VM level for better virtual and physical asset management. It also provides complete end-to-end VM reporting, monitoring and management 24X7 by Dell’s Service Operations Center. As a result, IT staff can be freed up from day-to-day administrative tasks and focus on driving strategic company value.

Small and Medium Business: With new Dell products and services, small and medium businesses can more efficiently deploy and manage technology with limited IT resources.

o Dell, a leading provider of storage solutions and the number one vendor for iSCSI SAN solutions2 – the fastest-growing segment of storage hardware, is expanding its industry-leading architecture and product portfolio.

o Dell is introducing the new EqualLogic PS4000 storage array and PowerVault NX3000 network attached storage (NAS) device to help SMBs and remote office customers meet the ever-growing demand for storage.

o The EqualLogic PS4000 includes enterprise-class storage virtualization, thin provisioning and management capabilities and integrates seamlessly into existing EqualLogic storage area networks (SANs). The family is designed to address three key customer requirements:

+ Server Virtualization: PS4000 SANs act as virtual storage in remote offices with advanced integration and data protection capabilities for virtual servers including VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer. They can load balance workloads dynamically and automatically across disks and multiple arrays in a pool, eliminating the need for manual re-distributing capacity or application workloads which can incur downtime and services costs.

+ Consolidation: The peer scaling ability of the EqualLogic line allows small or remote office IT organizations to buy only what capacity or performance they need without huge upfront costs, and grow their SAN with additional PS Series arrays as business needs dictate. As data requirements increase, customers can easily add a second PS4000 or a high-end PS6000.

+ Data Protection and Disaster Recovery: The PS4000 includes full snapshot, replication and application and hypervisor integration features for simplified, automated, cost-effective data protection and disaster recovery. With built-in Auto-Replication, corporate IT managers can alleviate the risks, administrative burdens and slow recovery of backup at remote offices by replicating branch data to a centralized backup location.

o The PowerVault NX3000 shares files across Windows and non-Windows clients and reduces duplicate files with Single-Instant Storage (SIS) technology. Additionally, the NX3000 is capable of serving as an optional iSCSI target to support application data.

* Dell is extending its 11th generation PowerEdge portfolio with Intel Xeon 5500 series processors to include the PowerEdge T410 and T710 tower servers and R410 rack server. The new systems meet the unique needs of SMBs and remote office locations with enhanced performance for general business applications.

o Performance: The Dell PowerEdge T410 provides an average of 11 percent greater performance3 and is 16 percent more energy efficient (performance/watt) than the HP ProLiant ML150 G64.

o Compact design: Standing only 24 inches deep with an interactive LCD panel, the PowerEdge T410 is an ideal choice for small businesses looking for technology that fits in tight work spaces. The PowerEdge R410 features a short chassis that fits in small spaces like closets, shallow racks, mobile server enclosures, wall server enclosures and A/V racks.

o Easy to manage and use: The PowerEdge servers include Lifecycle Controller for one-button deployment, easy-to-manage technology that helps improve productivity. The new rollback features provides confidence during the deployment of critical system updates with fall back to the last known good state.

o Grow with your business: The PowerEdge T710 has the capability to include 16 drives for large local storage capacity to allow remote offices and growing business with large internal storage to scale as they grow.

o Virtualization for Small Business: New Dell ProConsult service provides a simple tool to remotely evaluate business’ existing IT environment and quantify the return on investment for implementing virtualization.

High Performance Computing: Dell believes future high performance computing clusters will be powered by standards-based cluster technology. For HPC and technical computing environments within the public and private sectors, Dell is adding the PowerEdge R410, a powerful, compact and quiet rack server that provides the right balance of features and performance, to its HPC server line-up.

* Balanced Performance: Configured to increase productivity for intensive HPC workloads, the R410 has the raw computational horsepower needed for technical computing, with up to 80 percent performance5 improvements over last generation servers. It is designed to save energy with policy-based power and thermal management, and standards-based Energy Smart components.

* Increased scalability and performance: High-speed interconnects such as InfiniBand QDR and DDR provide the throughput needed for communication-intensive applications using PCIe gen2 I/O slots that double the theoretical I/O bandwidth of PCI gen1.

* Simplified Management: The server comes pre-loaded with Dell Management Console (DMC) and Dell Lifecycle Controller for simplified management.

* Inspired Design: Rack servers are designed with system and image commonality and an LCD screen positioned to provide aisle-level access for diagnostics. Convenient placement of interface ports and power make installation and redeployment easier. Clutter-free cable routing reduces complexity and makes airflow and maintenance more efficient.

The new PowerEdge T410 and R410 servers are available today on www.dell.com/PowerEdge starting at $999. The PowerEdge T710 server will be available in the coming weeks. The new EqualLogic PS 4000 is available today on www.dell.com/EqualLogic starting at $10,000. Servers, storage, virtualization solutions and Dell services are available through Dell or any of the company’s more than 49,000 Global PartnerDirect Channel Partners. In addition, as part of its ongoing commitment to the channel, Dell will continue to expand its partner certification program for consulting.

Very cool news for Dell, I’ll need to check out these new R410/T410 servers as well as the EqualLogic PS 4000, they sound interesting, anything we can do to improve efficiency, reduce the deployment and support cost has to be a good thing for the end user community.

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BBC News

A trial version of Microsoft’s free anti-virus software has been launched in the US, China, Brazil, and Israel.

Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) promises to provide people with basic protection against viruses, trojans, rootkits and spyware.

The software giant has been criticised in the past for failing to include free security software with Windows.

Its first security package, Windows Live OneCare, failed to attract many customers and will be discontinued.

Microsoft is hoping that MSE, available as a free download from its site, will prove more popular. It has said it will automatically update it for users.

However, rival security vendors have questioned whether Microsoft can compete with more established anti-virus players.

It will be interesting to see what reception Microsoft’s free anti virus product will receive, certainly there will be those in the industry concerned about Microsoft working in the anti virus space in terms of competition, but then I wonder if this might not provide further incentives to drive down the cost of anti virus software. People need anti virus and some kind of firewall software in order to protect their computer (as well as having the hot fixes installed), whether it’s AVG, Symantec, Network Associates or anyone else, that we lower the cost and make the tools more accessible has to be a good thing. If we are wanting to onboard more users both at home and at work to Windows as a platform we need to remove as many barriers to entry as possible, in doing so to reduce temptation away from Windows to Linux, to Mac from existing users.

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HP

HP today expanded its Total Care initiative for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) with several new products, solutions and services that reduce costs, improve productivity and enhance efficiency.⁽¹⁾

To help SMB customers keep their businesses up and running with less capital and fewer employees and technology resources, HP has introduced infrastructure offerings including storage, virtualization, remote access and consolidation solutions.

“In today’s economic climate, SMBs need technology solutions that take out costs while helping drive even greater competitive advantage so they can survive and thrive,” said Kathy Chou, vice president, Worldwide Small and Medium Business Strategy, HP. “Through our Total Care initiative, HP is helping customers achieve their business goals.”

Very cool, anything HP can do to make support, ownership and total cost more affordable, the information more accessible has to be a good thing, I’m off to check it out.

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Finextra

Citibank is currently in discussions with Indian IT firms Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Wipro, among others, to sell some of its internal IT platforms, according to local press reports.

The deal, which could be valued between $60 and $100 million, includes intellectual property (IP) used for delivering equity trading services, says the Economic Times of India, citing “two people familiar with the discussions”.

“With this IP, we will not only gain business from Citi, but also be able to offer services to other financial services customers using the same platform,” a senior executive at one of the IT firms told the paper.

It will be interesting to see what products/services and solutions we gain from this announcement going forward, could this create new opportunities for revenue coupled with white labelling solutions for financial customers? Will we see both the application code, and the application as a service be available, we’ll need to see, I wonder if this might not be something that we see happening more as organizations seek to realize their investment in IT.

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NetApp

Enhanced Manageability Software and New Software Packs and Bundles

NetApp today also announced System Manager to expand its manageability software offerings with a solution that enables storage experts and non-storage experts to easily leverage NetApp’s proven storage efficiency technologies. System Manager, which is free of charge, provides customers with out-of-the-box management of their FAS2000 and FAS3000 storage systems. System Manager is a Microsoft® Windows®-based tool that provides an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) that automates common device management tasks and supports NetApp storage efficiency technologies like deduplication and thin provisioning to achieve greater cost savings and performance improvements.

Also, NetApp’s existing manageability products, which include Operations Manager, Protection Manager, and Provisioning Manager, now support a wider range of NetApp storage efficiency features such as deduplication, thin provisioning, and Snapshot™ copies. As a result, customers managing a large number of NetApp systems can automatically configure and deploy different storage efficiency technologies across their entire enterprise environment. By automating these complex operational processes, customers can save both time and money.

Furthermore, the new NetApp software packs and NetApp Select™ software bundles enable customers to realize the full savings that storage efficiency can deliver. Repackaging over 30 existing products into a small number of bundles, the new packs and bundles streamline the ordering process for both customers and partners and can provide substantial cost savings  when compared to purchasing products individually. The NetApp Select software bundles package protocol support along with several of the software packs into one offering.

“NetApp strives to empower customers with the storage efficiency tools necessary to improve business operations and drive down costs,” said Nick Thurlow, vice president of EMEA Sales at NetApp. “This notion of efficiency also extends to the actual cost and ordering process, which should be as simple and cost-effective as possible. With the latest enhancements to our software manageability product suite along with the new software packs and software bundles, we are addressing customer needs for a more simplified and streamlined experience.”

It’s great to see NetApp continuing the innovation of their storage platform, both in terms of improving the efficiency of their storage through deduplication, thin provisioning and Snapshot as well as furthering the ability of managing the storage using their GUI. If we can leverage smart technologies like thin provisioning coupled with SnapShot and deduplication, we can reduce the amount of storage required and extend the life of our existing storage which has to be a good thing when we consider the volume of storage continuing to increase. That we use a range of smart technologies, best practice and effective configuration to be more effective and efficient with our storage has to be the way forward, an interesting read, do check it out.

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Techtarget

Many data center managers are indifferent to the EPA’s new Energy Star program for servers, saying they’re unsure of the impact — if any — the server specification will have on their purchasing decisions.

Pete Simpson, the data center operations director at Indianapolis-based insurance claims company Real Med Corp., said the Energy Star rating is “irrelevant” to him.

“The major manufacturers will all produce compliant equipment as they rev their products, so over time these will become standard features of all but the el-cheapo white-box server manufacturers,” Simpson said. Besides, being “green” isn’t a company priority right now; more important factors are reliability, processing power, and memory access times, among other things.

“We currently have plenty of power and cooling capacity, so I’m not up against a wall for more power efficiency and less heat load,” he said.

Another great article from the techtarget team. The energy star thing is not world changing, but it’s a start, it might make server professionals and business users think about the energy footprint of their server when looking at buying or renting a server. Can the value be taken out of context, yes, but then I suspect as with everything, it will be business requirement or budget first, everything else is secondary. We need to couple this with further best practice as an industry in systems management, in configuration, billing and process, taking in the big picture and working on IT, not just the individual components.

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