The largest issue faced when attempting a to-Cloud shift is moving from an individual server based system to a scalable multi host system. Of course if scalability isn’t a requirement for you rehosting is your answer. With rehosting you simply change the configuration of the system to point to a new location a migrate your files and databases. Many companies offer this infrastructure as a service like Amazon Web Services and Rackspace Hosting.

But what if scalability is a requirement? You could refactor or revise your system. Refactor is changing only what’s required to get your system to work while revising is implementing more significang changes. The end result is to have the application work on a platform as a service such as Windows Azure or Google’s App Engine. The difficulty of this process depends on the service chosen. Azure runs a very .net compatible environment while Google will require more significant re-writing.

Then, of course, you could completely rebuild the system with the cloud in mind. The best way to do this is the utilize a development platform like VMWare’s WaveMaker or LongJump. This may seem a daunting task but it is truly the way to use the potential of the cloud to the fullest.

]]> http://www.itmanagementnews.com/2012/01/26/moving-your-systems-to-the-cloud/feed/ 0 http://www.itmanagementnews.com/2012/01/13/the-cloud-may-not-have-a-silver-lining-in-business/ http://www.itmanagementnews.com/2012/01/13/the-cloud-may-not-have-a-silver-lining-in-business/#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:30:50 +0000 Trevor Boland http://www.itmanagementnews.com/?p=290 IT professionals have always had to grit their teeth and deal with end users’ sometimes unrealistic expectations, but as the cloud rolls in their frustrations may only increase. Employees now have access to fantastic technologies in their private lives and they expect these technologies to be made available to them professionally. Vanson Bourne polled 520 CIOs (in a survery available here)from around the world to better understand how they felt about the impending issue. 77% of respondants feel that this trend of BYOT (bring your own tech) will lead to great business risks as employees will attempt to utilize their private technologies without IT involvment and the information security they provide, a trend that 64% of polled CIOs say is already occuring.

Knowledge of the system in which they are working is an IT professional’s Excalibur when it comes to dealing with issues more persistant than the Black Knight but cloud computing and the lack of transparacy from third party providers effectively disarms them. SaaS (Software as a Service) and social media applications are effectively blocking IT proffessionals from supporting their services by refusing to provide SLA (Service Level Agreements) to the business to formally draw the line between the IT department’s and the third partie’s responsiblities.

The cloud has the potential to be a business powerhouse, allowing users to work from anywhere but companies and employees need to give the transition and the associated trust over to the IT professionals they currently employ. If not, this cloud may just end up being a harbinger of stormy weather for businesses.

One thing is very clear: although the labor itself may be cheaper that it would be wherever your company is, the process of outsourcing is not cheap. If you are planning on shipping out some jobs, you need to be aware of this or risk losing a lot more money than you expected at the beginning. According to an article on cioinsight.com, some of the common hidden costs of outsourcing include currency value, organization, communication, and others. It is simply a huge task to orchestrate the operations of  an outside set of workers, and according to Hank Zupnick, CIO of GE Real Estate “You can’t expect day-one or even month-six gains…You have to look at offshore outsourcing as a long-term investment with long-term payback.”

Not only do you have to think about whether it is a good move for you company based on direct costs, but also whether your customers are ok with your decision. Many people seem to have problems with the idea of outsourcing, as they may think that these jobs are being taken away from worthy workers at home. As another article states, “If you go down this road, make sure that your customers are given the same or better service and that all cultural differences are accounted for,” or face to possibility of vicious backlash from some of your more traditional customers. The moral of this story is just to take everything into account when considering a move like this.Everybody in the business world knows that outsourcing can be a very touchy subject, so I just want to go over some of the issues that make it so controversial.

The only real reason any company every chooses to outsource jobs, especially jobs that can be sent abroad, is money. Its a simple fact that workers in the countries we typically outsource to are not quite as demanding as American workers, even though they may be equally qualified. This may seem like a fantastic idea on the surface, there are many things to think about before deciding to outsource certain jobs or tasks elsewhere.

One thing is very clear: although the labor itself may be cheaper that it would be wherever your company is, the process of outsourcing is not cheap. If you are planning on shipping out some jobs, you need to be aware of this or risk losing a lot more money than you expected at the beginning. According to an article on cioinsight.com, some of the common hidden costs of outsourcing include currency value, organization, communication, and others. It is simply a huge task to orchestrate the operations of  an outside set of workers, and according to Hank Zupnick, CIO of GE Real Estate “You can’t expect day-one or even month-six gains…You have to look at offshore outsourcing as a long-term investment with long-term payback.”

Not only do you have to think about whether it is a good move for you company based on direct costs, but also whether your customers are ok with your decision. Many people seem to have problems with the idea of outsourcing, as they may think that these jobs are being taken away from worthy workers at home. As another article states, “If you go down this road, make sure that your customers are given the same or better service and that all cultural differences are accounted for,” or face to possibility of vicious backlash from some of your more traditional customers. The moral of this story is just to take everything into account when considering a move like this.

The Present

Keeping the current business models and systems at top efficiency is vital to any business. Failing to do so can easily cause the business to fall behind its competition. Thus, consistently maintaining, evaluating, and improving existing systems is key to any IT department. In fact, this is typically the defining features of a company’s Information Technology/Systems department. Without proper maintenance and improvement of the applications and technologies that power your company today, your business can quickly run out of steam and fail to make it past tomorrow.

The Future

However, merely focusing all your attention on current systems will make addressing future obstacles more difficult, and could damage future opportunities that rise in the market. Thus, constant monitoring and research needs to be going into what will be required to meet potential needs in the future. If an great opportunity on the horizon requires a new technology – you better start researching what this technology is about, and at minimum have an understanding of the basics needed to implement and utilize it if the need arises. Failing to do so will wind up delaying plans to capitalize on these types of opportunities, and even potentially eliminate opportunities only available in short windows.

Direction

So how does an IT Manager balance these two facets? The best way is to get a clear understanding of the company’s short and long term goals. Failing to understand what the direction(s) the company may be heading will certainly lead IT management researching unnecessary paths.

Communication

Secondly, communicate consistently with other departments. Being in tune with what the other areas of a company are up to, how they utilize technology, and what issues they may be having will give an IT department the needed knowledge to maximize both current systems and recognize potential future systems that would be of value.

Generally speaking, knowing how to balance present and future demands requires a complete understanding of the company.

What are some other important factors in balancing the present and future of a company? Let us know in the comments.

It seems to be a reality that Google+ is going to be around for a while longer, and there is nothing that anybody (other than Google) can do about it. Not long ago, Farhad Manjoo, a writer for Slate, proclaimed that not even their new pages setup will be able to save the new social network from a fiery demise. Apparently when Google+ was first released to the public and did not have pages, some companies took it upon themselves to go ahead and make profiles for them, sometimes under false pseudonyms to throw Google off, but to no avail. The writer of the article says that this, among other reasons have made their pages offering too little, too late. However, I do not agree. Another article in the NYTimes backs up my point, saying this in support of the service:

“Sure, Google hopes to build a social network that competes with Facebook, Twitter and other social services,     but that is not the main reason the company has put so many resources behind Google+. Instead, Google+ is a     social layer that has always been intended to sit on top of the     company’s flagship product: search.

Google has been getting its hands into so many aspects of the web, there is no way that they didn’t plan on Google+ being another component to the big picture. Google dominates the Internet right now, especially in the realm of search.  Companies that make pages can be pushed ahead to the top of search results, which could be a huge boost for a lot of companies and in itself is reason enough to create a page for your own organization. I mean, lets be honest, unless you have some horrible vendetta against the first site that comes up when you enter your search terms, you’ll probably choose that one. That is typically very good for the organization holding the first spot, and not so great for anyone else, so why not be that first spot? Just go get your page (https://plus.google.com). For now at least, its completely free, so there is really no downside to it. Any organization that has a Facebook page knows that its a big deal.

1.Performance/pay reviews

This is a great way to get employees motivated and working towards something. When an employee gets regular feedback on the job they doing, they may be more likely to think that they can advance their career within their own company because somebody is actually paying attention to the work they, as individuals, do. An employee that works hard and does their job well should be periodically considered for advancement when the opportunity is available and even then there is not title change, throwing a few more dollars/hour the way of one of these hard workers is still a good option. While it may mean that sometimes you have to give employees more money, it also means that they will be happier and you wont have to worry about the costs of hiring someone new.

2.Change thing up a little bit

There are not many people that will be content doing the exact same thing everyday for years at a time. It is just a fact that people get frustrated when their lives become monotonous and stale, and that is not good for employee longevity. One thing that you can do for them is change up the work that they actually have to do. For example, when working with developers, those in management positions should try their best to give out varied and exciting projects to keep the employees on their toes and doing their jobs well. Many developers got into the business because they enjoy coding in creative ways, so make sure that they get what they want. This is one option that is a good thing for all of the parties involved.

3.Find ways to promote teamwork
While this may seem like a cheap way of appealing to your employees emotions instead of reason, employees may be less likely to leave a company where they feel comfortable with their co-workers. Have your developers work directly together in teams to get their projects done, let them have things in the office that make them more comfortable being there, and have sponsor exciting events to break up the monotony. This option should be taken into consideration along with one of the others, since complacency is never a good thing, but it is still viable.

I think that every company, big and small, could do with a nice lesson in showing their employees a little appreciation every once in a while. It doesn’t take much on the part of management to make things like the tactics mentioned above happen, but remember, a little bit goes a long way.

One of the biggest issues in management is keeping employees on task and away from any distractions that you can avoid. This has obviously been a much harder task since the advent of the smartphone, which more or less allows someone to do just about anything in the palm of their hand. As alluded to in this article, another huge concern is that of data security, which is definitely a risk when you consider the fact that it is virtually impossible to recover the data from a stolen sim card.

One company, Three Laws Mobility, is trying to do something about smartphone administration on a very large scale. 3LM, which was recently purchased my Motorola [2], has come out with a new smartphone administration solution that allows a specific set of devices to be remotely controlled by whoever has access to the application. It even has the ability to remotely erase any and all of the data from a given device (including unwanted apps), which is definitely good news for those actively worried about mobile device security issues. Another notable feature is the ability to track the location of a given device, which can also come in handy in the event of theft.

The entire 3LM protection suite will be available for purchase very soon, so keep an eye out for more updates at http://www.3lm.com.

Tasks

If you want to see your tech team leap tall buildings and defeat the most frightening IT enemies, give them tasks to do. Make them straightforward, and bluntly so. Tech people tend to view the world in if-else statements, so the more your IT department operates in that way the more will be accomplished and the better your tech team will operate. Few things are more fulfilling than knowing what you have to do and being able to accomplish it in bite-sized (20 minute) steps.

Recognition

Even more fulfilling than getting things done is being recognized for what you do. There is a reason why sticky notes and to-do apps sell: people love checking off what they’ve accomplished! There needs to be a sense of completion to tasks, because if there is a sense of completion then it feels like there is progress being made. Recognition could be as simple as a big white board in the IT office with the list of things to do and being able to check them off or as extravagant as parties or rankings. Not having recognition is like a program without an exit status; you never know when one task ends and another begins!

Reward

Even more fulfilling than getting things done and being recognized for it is being rewarded for what you’ve done. If you’ve ever played a Zynga app you know what I’m talking about. You earned +1 XP! You have no idea what it means, but you’ve just been rewarded! Or, you’ve just unlocked a bungalow! People will do a lot to achieve something they perceive as a reward, look at what people will do for $5. This is the only reason reason commission-based payrolls work. Apply the same concept to IT and it could be anything from parking spots to getting off an hour early on a Friday. Again, people will pay a lot for even small rewards.

Expectation (Chemical X)

Expectation is the “Chemical X” of creating Powerpuff Techs–techs that accomplish incredible tasks and are happy doing it. Expectation is what ties everything together and maximizes the volume of tasks techs accomplish. Again, consider if-else statements, when an atmosphere of expectation is built then techs will consider that if I accomplish this task then I will be recognized and then I will be rewarded with another task to accomplish and possibly a prize that is valuable to me and others.

Zynga has this concoction developed to perfection. When you play a Zynga app you are given tasks from the start, it is clear what you are supposed to accomplish, and when you accomplish a task a pop-up congratulates you, you are always rewarded with another task to accomplish, and often you are given some kind of prize. Expectation is built up of how accomplishing tasks will give me rewards and help me achieve my own personal goals of creating some form of empire or cafe. Porting these ideas to the tech field is difficult, but to get a feel for how this is done create a test Facebook account (unless you want to use your real one) and check out Empires and Allies so that you too can create Powerpuff Techs!

There are many virtualization utilities available, but my experience with ESX has been very positive. The only oddity is that it also flies by the name of vSphere. So, when going to download or get support for ESX one has to look under vSphere Hypervisor. I say ESX, but really it is ESXi. Previously, all the administrative utilities were built outside the kernel which takes more space. ESXi places it all inside the kernel which is not only smaller, but provides better security.

Here’s where ESXi is like “the grid”: it takes reality into the virtual dimension. That is, it takes physical servers and makes them virtual. Not only can they be turned off and on but they can each be assigned their own IP address. The benefit of virtual servers over real ones is that you can flex the hardware as needed, or even just delete the virtual server if it isn’t needed. This is a dream for anyone in IT.

Whether consolidating already existing servers or looking to do testing or trying out new software, virtual servers is the way to go. VMware provides a tool called the vCenter Converter that takes physical machines and creates virtual ones from them. This is a hit or a miss. You can either boot to a CD or install it on the OS, but the errors come when there are incompatible drivers and the like. Whether its VMware, KVM, or what have you, venture into the unknown and get on the grid.

The eNotes article goes on to explain that there are seven aspects of the power of influence: reward, coercive, information, resource, expert, referent, and legitimate. Managers need to be able to get workers to accomplish tasks and do so in a certain way; it is these tools that managers use to achieve that. For example, if a worker is not accomplishing a task on time it the manager can perhaps use the power of reward to get them to move faster.

The point of using these influential tools is to meet the goals of each position and the organization. In any given situation there are right tools and wrong tools to use. This is where management expertise comes in: knowing which tool to use. If one of the company’s goals is quality it may be that giving employee rewards will degrade quality and therefore fail overall.

Management expertise will come over time through practice. Take time to become more familiar with these seven aspects of the power of influence. When situations arise where employees are not meeting their responsibilities assess which tool is best to use, be creative in coming up with how that tool can be implemented, and execute. Great managers take time to excel in the little situations that arise every day.