In a recent discussion with a colleague, he looks after one of our Strategic Enterprise Accounts, we got chatting about some of the ways that his account are looking to reduce costs, the one that most interested me was in Test and Development.…
A Checklist for the Cloud
My original version of this article was published on CIO.com, it proved to be very popular so I decided to also post it on my blog.
Let me be clear from the start: Cloud computing is no longer an IT priority—it’s a business priority.…
like in Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’ Symantec asks…just what has IT ever done for us?
When I read about the incredible work that Symantec Granite Labs have achieved, for some reason my head went straight to one of my favourite sketches from the classic ‘Life of Brian’, here’s the link so you can see what I’m talking about.…
A tale of two banks - why IT must create new outcomes
Recently I moved house, I needed to change the address on my Bank accounts but as it turns out, this can’t be done over the phone or on-line with either of the Banks that I have accounts with. I ended up having to go into the local branches of both of my banks, I never expected such a difference in service and I now know exactly which one I will make my primary bank for the future, I’ll simply call them Bank A and B to protect their identities…
Bank A, I wandered in and queued with several other miserable looking people, I soon realised that this must be because they’ve been here before.…
Flash to Cloud and back again - (A NetApp Tale)
Disclaimer, this is a NetApp post through and through! now that’s out of the way let me tell you my NetApp Tale. This one clearly came to me whilst watching one of my favourite films, it should be pretty obvious which film that is.…
But it wasn’t built from the ground up…so what?
One of the latest phrases that seems to be in vogue right now in the IT industry is ‘Built from the ground up’, or it’s more derogatory form ‘Not built from the ground up’. We’ve all latched onto this as if it offers some unique and incredible value to a piece of technology, or as a way to try and show how someone elses technology is somehow inferior.…
Commodity, Business Value, New Opportunities – The IT spending conundrum (Part 2 of 2)
It’s been a few weeks since part 1 of this post and I’ve had lots of interesting feedback. much of this was surprise that with all the focus on cost reduction, IT spending patterns have changed very little. Here are three strategies that I believe must be embraced for the future, in order to continue to reduce the cost of running IT, whilst increasing the value that it can offer to the business
1) Build highly efficient and adaptable Infrastructures
2) Embrace Service Providers and Hyperscalers
3) Be disruptive with Technology
Build highly efficient and adaptable Infrastructures It’s possible today to build an infrastructure that has the necessary performance, scalability and data management capabilities to support many applications, be those the applications you have now or applications that you may have in the future.…
An interview with Ty, NetApp’s Head of Flash!
On one of my many recent trips I managed to catch up with Ty McConney at our HQ in Sunnyvale. Ty is NetApp’s VP for Flash Solutions and is responsible for setting out the Flash agenda for the company.
It’s a longer video than I would normally post, I planned to just ask a few questions and thought I’d get a few short answers, however it turned into a much longer and much more interesting discussion.…
Commodity, Business Value, New Opportunities - The IT spending conundrum (Part 1 of 2)
In many organisations most of the IT budget is spent where there is the least opportunity to create business value!
Those of you that have heard me talk over the last 6 months or so will know that I have focused a lot on where and how the IT budget is spent.…
Explosions, Data Centres and why people make decisions
I’m always intrigued as to when something becomes so important that people decide the time is right to do something about it. I almost decided not to post this video as it was from a trip several years ago now and I’ve told the story during a number of presentations, but I think it’s just such a wonderful example of why we should never make assumptions as to why something is important to someone.…