Aug 20

BCS Data Centre Specialist Group

By admin 24x7 Management And Support, cloud computing, design concepts, disaster-recovery, it-management, operating systems & collaborative tools No Comments »

The Data Centre environment provides the foundation for the reliability, availability and security of systems and networks that power the world’s economy. The consumer’s drive for 24/7 availability of goods and services places increasing pressure on the availability of the facilities, systems and networks that provide these services. Underpinning the service reliability is the provision of a suitable, stable and reliable operating environment. The Data Centre is this environment.

As applications, data and infrastructure grow they have an increasing impact on the Data Centre and in turn an increasing impact on the environment. Business and consumer demands for richer functionality and interfaces are driving more complex applications which create demands on processing and data storage that can outstrip performance growth. This brings increased power and cooling requirements for the Date Centre. The economic and environmental impacts of this growth now require serious consideration.

The IT industry as a whole has charged forward without much attention paid to its impact on the environment. Among today’s hot topics are the inefficiencies found within Data Centres, including the facilities themselves and the IT equipment they house. One of the key areas the DCSG is focused on is working with the UK, EU and North American legislative bodies to ensure our industry is properly focused on driving the changes required to become more efficient with our use of energy.

Whilst there are many individuals in our industry with useful knowledge and experience in Data Centre engineering, their information is not easily accessible. The DCSG has been formed to create a forum for open and honest discussion, information sharing and evaluation of Data Centre-related issues and technologies.

What does the future of the Data Centre look like and just how critical a role will it play in business, the environment and the economy?
The DCSG aims to hold around twelve meetings/events per year that will focus on the hot topics of the moment and provide a forum for communication while further fostering professionalism through the industry.

Zahl Limbuwala FBCS CEng CITP MIET

DCSG Founder & Chairman

Data Centre Specialist Group.

Apr 29

SOA Infrastructure | Progress Software

By admin 24x7 Management And Support, SOA No Comments »

Embrace the Value of SOA with Smart SOA Infrastructure

Progress products are built with your need for integration and interoperability in mind, and provide the foundation for managing loosely coupled business processes so the processes can seamlessly bridge computing, organizational, geographic, and semantic boundaries. With our SOA Portfolio products, you can deploy a practical SOA that can scale over time with the growth of your business.

Enterprise Service Bus

Progress® Sonic ESB® provides flexible integration and re-use of business applications within an SOA. It connects, mediates and orchestrates services wherever they are deployed. Sonic ESB eliminates brittle point-to-point integration and provides a robust, event-driven architecture that can evolve, scale and extend throughout the enterprise.

Enterprise Messaging

Progress® SonicMQ® is a standards-based enterprise messaging system that delivers the industry’s highest levels of performance, reliability and availability.

SOA Management

Progress® Actional® SOA Management provides end-to-end visibility and control across a distributed, multi-vendor SOA environment.

Business Process Management (BPM)

Go beyond ordinary business process management (BPM) with Progress® Savvion and rapidly create and optimize process-driven solutions and efficiently manage daily work with real-time visibility into business processes.

Data Interoperability

Progress® DataXtend® Semantic Integrator (SI) simplifies the creation, maintenance and governance of common-model based data services in an SOA. It ensures semantic consistency across the multiple, complex, and ever-changing data models in a service-oriented architecture.

Mainframe Integration

Progress® DataDirect Shadow is a comprehensive mainframe modernization toolset, eliminating the complexity and enhancing the performance of mainframe integration within more modern SOA initiatives.  Shadow streamlines connectivity to mainframe relational and non-relational databases such as Adabas, IMS DB, and VSAM.

Complex Event Processing

Progress® Apama® monitors fast-moving events, detects patterns, and takes action — all within milliseconds. Apama's integrated dashboards provide business insight based on changing operational data in an event-driven SOA.

Registry/Repository

Progress partners with best-in-class SOA registry / repository vendors. Sonic ESB integrates with standards-based SOA registries to locate and invoke Web services. SOA registries leverage Actional for lifecycle SOA management, augmenting registry service metadata with Actional's runtime data on service usage, performance, and interdependencies.

Delivering the Business Agility that Successful SOA Infrastructure Requires

To deliver the business agility promised by SOA infrastructure requires technology that can truly cross the boundaries of and connect today's distributed organizations and heterogeneous systems – quickly, seamlessly, and reliably. Progress focuses – as no platform vendor can – on the cross cutting concerns in SOA. Progress also has the hands-on implementation experience to reduce the risk of SOA projects while delivering the available business benefits. And the Progress practical SOA approach, represented in the new SOA Maturity Model, enables companies to get started on SOA today and break it down into achievable projects that progressively deliver greater and greater business benefits. In fact, a practical path to SOA success and ROI.

An Open Dialog About Building an Agile SOA Infrastructure

SOA has become the preferred approach for companies who want to deliver business agility and complete visibility to information and processes across the enterprise. Subscribe to the informative Integrated Infrastructure Blog to help your enterprise realize the true potential of SOA.

You should also network with the SOA community by joining the SOA Infrastructure Group on Facebook.

via SOA Infrastructure | Progress Software.

Mar 11

The Beast File: Google (HUNGRY BEAST)

By admin 24x7 Management And Support, cloud computing, design concepts, disaster-recovery, document-management, uncategorized No Comments »

It seems the now classic infographic movie “Google Master Plan” from early 2007 is now finally outdated, as the main allegations have been recently updated by another infographically-style film, aptly titled The Beast File: Google [abc.net.au] (movie not viewable outside Australia, but watch a YouTube version below).

The new movie, which itself seems to be inspired by the visual zooming effects from the presentation software Prezi, defines Google as an advertising giant whose main goal is to track users and deliver targeted ads.

For the appropiate counter argumentation, you can read the following post at the official Google Operating System blog.

You can watch the movie below:

Feb 18

VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager – Data Disaster Recovery for Servers

By admin 24x7 Management And Support, cloud computing, disaster-recovery, industry best practise, offsite-backup, server architecture, training No Comments »

Take the Disaster Out of Disaster Recovery

Easily manage and implement your recovery plan with VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager.

Watch our new VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager video

Build, Manage and Execute ReliableDisaster Recovery Plans

As an integrated element of VMware vSphere, VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager helps you:

Accelerate recovery for the virtual environment through automationEnsure reliable recovery by enabling non-disruptive testing

Simplify recovery by eliminating complex manual recovery steps and centralizing management of recovery plans

Accelerate RecoveryEnsure that you are able to meet your recovery time objectives RTOs by automating the recovery process.

VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager eliminates the slow manual steps of recovery, turning the complex paper runbooks associated with traditional disaster recovery into an integrated part of your virtual infrastructure management.

Ensure Reliable RecoveryEliminate common causes of failure during recovery and make it possible to test your recovery plans thoroughly and easily.By automating recovery, VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager eliminates error-prone manual steps in the recovery process and ensures that recovery procedures will be consistently executed as intended.

VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager also makes it easy to execute non-disruptive tests of recovery plans within an isolated testing environment so that you can ensure that they are up to date and will execute successfully. Simplify Disaster RecoverySimplify and centralize the process of creating, updating and managing recovery plans.

VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager guides users through the process of building, managing and executing disaster recovery plans.  It integrates seamlessly with VMware Infrastructure and VMware vCenter Server to make recovery plans significantly easier to manage and update. It also integrates easily with storage replication software from leading storage vendors to simplify the use of advanced replication software with VMware vSphere.

via VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager -- Data Disaster Recovery for Servers.

Feb 15

Wholesale Applications Community

By admin 24x7 Management And Support, MobileOS, cloud computing, communication-standards, operating systems & collaborative tools No Comments »

Wholesale ApplicationsCommunity

Will establish a simple route to market for developers and provide them with access to a customer base of over 3 billion customers.

The alliance aims to unite a fragmented marketplace by involving players from all related industries to create a community based on openness and transparency to the benefit of all.

We believe our model presents the most compelling format on the market where developers will thrive and customers will reap the benefits of greater choice.

Who’s involved?

A number of the world’s leading telecommunications operators and device manufacturers are launching an open global alliance, that will establish a simple route to market for developers and provide access to the latest and widest range of innovative applications and services to as many customers as possible worldwide.

Together, we have signed a memorandum of understanding with the aim of building an environment or ’wholesale applications community’ where innovative applications can be developed irrespective of device or technology.

The new alliance, which represents more than three billion customers worldwide is inviting players from across the ICT industry, not only operators and developers, but also handset manufacturers and internet players to join forces to create an initiative based on openness and transparency. We believe this model presents the most compelling format on the market where developers will thrive and customers will reap the benefits of greater choice. Furthermore, the GSMA is supporting this initiative.

Membership

The members currently include América Móvil, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT, Mobilkom Austria Group, MTN Group, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, Orascom Telecom, Softbank Mobile, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor Group, Telia Sonera, SingTel, SK Telecom, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, VimpelCom, Vodafone and Wind, as well as Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson device manufacturers.

We expect this list to grow and we are inviting players from across the ICT industry, not only operators and developers, but also handset manufacturers and internet players to join forces.

Role and purpose of the alliance

The primary role and objective of the alliance is to create a ’wholesale applications community’ that will establish a simple route to market for developers, in turn, providing access to the latest and widest range of innovative applications and services to as many customers as possible worldwide. This alliance will deliver scale unparalleled by any application distribution ecosystem in existence today.

What this means for customers

For customers this means a broader choice of innovative applications and services available on a wider choice of devices than ever before.

What this means for developers

For the developer, particularly small developers, the alliance will create an environment in which they can flourish and create applications in a straight-forward and effective manner. Today, the route to market for developers is challenging requiring them to approach multiple operators. The alliance will provide a single gateway for developers to access a vast potential customer base (over two billion with limited cost to the developer and this in turn will provide the maximum possible return on investment for them.

In addition, the alliance will utilise existing technical standards, rather than creating new ones to allow developers to access operators’ assets, for example network capabilities or API’s (Application Programming Interfaces) more easily. In practice this means that developers will only have to create one version of their application and this can be used on multiple types of devices and operating systems (such as Symbian, Android, Windows etc) which is not the case today.

via Home | Wholesale Applications Community.

Feb 08

Olympics and Green tech: ‘No room to fail’ – Vancouver Winter Games

By admin 24x7 Management And Support, communication-standards, design concepts, disaster-recovery, document-management, green-it, industry best practise, insights, it-management, it-projects, media-tools, network-security, operating systems & collaborative tools, proffesional bodies, server architecture, training, uncategorized No Comments »

This is not your grandfather’s winter games. Every Olympic city makes major investments in technology, security and infrastructure in the 21st Century, and the Vancouver Winter Games are no exception.  The Olympic Cauldron will be lit on February 12, 2010. And yet, the hard work began immediately after Canada was selected to host the 2010 Winter Olympics back in 2004.

Want some examples?

1)      Technology companies are certainly talking about their unique role in these Games.  Green technology is a central element. Check out this Canadian website on technology related to the Olympics.

2)      Stopping terrorism is essential. One article back in 2005 estimated that the security budget would be about $177 million with a 50-50 split between the federal and provincial governments, but USA Today called actual security spending to be closer to $1 billion. More than 1000 security cameras are in place for the Winter Olympics.

3)      Infrastructure development has been important. There are plenty of stories online about the people behind the scenes who make the Olympic Games happen. There are also stories about the technology being used. If you look hard enough, you’ll find just about every big IT company is involved in some way. One example is Sun, but AT&T and others are right there as well.

4)      The economic development aspects and wider role of the Olympics can be seen in YouTube videos like this one.

5)      The role of the city mayors and Vancouver Government overall has been a huge part of this story.

Bottom line, this is big business. Just like the involvement of the South African Government in preparing for the 2010 World Cup in June, the Vancouver Olympic Games required an incredible investment in everything that we do in government technology every day. The difference is the scale, and the number of people watching.

So when you watch that beautiful opening or closing ceremony, when the US Hockey Team is skating to victory or those international downhill skiers fly past your TV screen, remember the technology and security infrastructure that made it all possible.

Let the games begin…

Jan 31

Press Release: Mobile Cloud Application Revenues To Hit $9.5 billion by 2014, Driven by Converged Mobile Services, according to Juniper Research

By jeromewagner 24x7 Management And Support, cloud computing, communication-standards, document-management, green-it, industry best practise, insights No Comments »

HAMPSHIRE, UK: 26th January 2010 — New research has found that annual revenues from cloud-based mobile applications will reach nearly $9.5 billion by 2014, fueled by the need for converged, collaborative services, the widespread adoption of mobile broadband services and the deployment of key technological enablers such as HTML5 and the Open Mobile Alliance’s Smart Card Web Server (SCWS).

The Juniper Research report found that enterprise applications will account for the majority of revenues over the next five years, with businesses increasingly seeking to capitalise on the ability of Platform as a Service (PaaS) providers to offer scalable, flexible data storage solutions allied to device agnostic, synchronised office services.

However, consumer-oriented apps will comprise an ever-larger proportion of total revenues, derived both from time-based subscriptions to services such as mobile online gaming and advertising from cloud-based social networks.

However, the mobile cloud applications & services report warned that many enterprise customers still remained wary of entrusting their personal data to remote third-parties, and that recent high-profile data losses amongst corporate mobile users in the USA would only exacerbate these concerns. According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, “Not only is it imperative for cloud providers to ensure that access to and storage of customer data is secure, but that the procedures that they put in place in this regard – including data backup strategies – are transparent to the customer.”

Other findings from the Juniper report include:

• While the onset of a cloud-based ecosystem may further erode the strength of the mobile operator/customer relationship, cloud offers operators the opportunity to develop new revenues streams as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and PaaS providers

• Lack of network capacity may continue to be a constraint on the growth of network-based services even after LTE and WiMAX networks are deployed

Juniper Research assesses the current and future status of mobile cloud based on interviews, case studies and analysis from representatives of some of the leading organisations in this bleeding edge industry.

via Press Release: Mobile Cloud Application Revenues To Hit $9.5 billion by 2014, Driven by Converged Mobile Services, according to Juniper Research.

Dec 15

Hosted Security for Email, Web and Instant Messaging

By jeromewagner 24x7 Management And Support, cloud computing, communication-standards, disaster-recovery, document-management, green-it, hardware, industry best practise, it-management, it-projects, media-tools, ngo, proffesional bodies, uncategorized No Comments »

Hosted Security Services for Small & Medium Businesses

MessageLabs Hosted Services provide an easy and affordable way to secure, control and manage email, web and instant messaging communications. Cheaper, quicker & easier to deploy than in-house solutions, MessageLabs Hosted Services deliver proven technology from a market leader, allowing IT Managers to free up resources & concentrate on running their business.

Benefits of MessageLabs Hosted Services

Strategic Benefits Operational Benefits

Predictable costs for budgeting Lower total cost of ownership compared to in-house solutions

Less on-site hardware/software to install & maintain

Scalable service grows with your business

Only pay for the users you have

Hosted services from a market leader Helps your business to operate without interruption

Service levels you can rely on

Happy, productive end users

Proven performance

Effective resource management Threats blocked at the internet level, freeing up bandwidth

One supplier for your email, web and IM security needs

Intuitive web based portal to administer the services

24/7/365 telephone and email support as standard

A full suite of Hosted Security Services

More than just email anti-spam & anti-virus, MessageLabs Hosted Services offer solutions for email security, email management and web & IM security. Our services are flexible and can be bundled to meet your specific requirements.

via Hosted Security for Email, Web and Instant Messaging.

Dec 15

Past Events | Service Management Specialist Group | Our Groups | Specialist Groups | Membership and Networking | BCS – The Chartered Institute for IT

By jeromewagner 24x7 Management And Support, cloud computing, disaster-recovery, document-management, email-branding-disclaimers-and-signature-management, employment, green-it, hardware, industry best practise, insights, it-management, it-projects, media-tools, network-security, offsite-backup, online tools, proffesional bodies, server architecture No Comments »


Dec 13

VMware vSphere 4: Private Cloud Computing, Server and Data Center Virtualization

By jeromewagner 24x7 Management And Support, cloud computing, green-it, operating systems & collaborative tools, server architecture No Comments »

Build your Infrastructure on the Most Trusted Virtualization Solutions.

Bring the power of cloud computing to your IT infrastructure with VMware vSphere, the next evolutionary step in IT computing and the most trusted virtualization platform available.

Build on a proven virtualization platform as the foundation for private and public clouds, using federation and standards to bridge cloud infrastructures—creating a hybrid cloud structure that can respond to your evolving business needs.

Reduce your capital and operating costs and increase control over IT infrastructures while preserving the flexibility to choose any OS, application and hardware. Let your IT staff shift their energies towards creating transformative business solutions instead of routine maintenance of hardware and software

Get more from your existing IT assets and reduce capital expenses of the datacenter by up to 60% Significantly lower power, cooling and real estate needs and cut your energy costs by up to 80%Available in several different editions, VMware vSphere delivers targeted benefits to small business and mid-size and enterprise business customers.

via VMware vSphere 4: Private Cloud Computing, Server and Data Center Virtualization.

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