Polluter pays the bill

Cheaper hardware and advances in network connectivity is a major reason for the large number of Intel servers. These are more like PCs on steroids, which make the low utilization plausible and is an indication for the simplicity to virtualize them all at once. This revolution has made Microsoft fat but brought us little savings. Additional requirements for security and availability ensure other components are expanded.
 
All this is not because the IT department wants that so badly, but simply because the business demand for it. With distributed processing is the genie out of the bottle and we have a growing need for IT resources. Of course the customer is king, but they should not behave like the jester.

Globalize your server sprawl

Are you ready to globalize your server sprawl? Want to chase your data around the world? Guess not, but it’s again about the everlasting dance between CapEx and OpEx and now we are encouraged to breakthrough the walls of the datacentre. Despite my 'virtualization atheism' I wouldn’t say it's all a lie, as we're doing a lot more for less. More complexity, security, specialization and licensing in less square footage for example.

Even Cloud Computing make us more trouble ahead, it’s not really a turnaround. Only differentiator is in how costs are charged. This is not something revolutionary, but was common in those days computer cycles where expensive. Unfortunately, that became out of fashion with distributed processing. So the genie is out of the bottle by decentralizing processing and now we have an ever-increasing need for IT resources.

Cloud adoption

If the noise around cloud computing has passed to you, you've probably been somewhere that had no Internet, papers, radio or phone. But anyone who is not in a place like Guantánamo Bay certainly could not have missed all the great benefits of cloud computing. Sometimes it seems that everyone has been commissioned to shout the cloud. It's almost  a shame that most companies are still hesitant about the cloud and at best give it a try.  

While most companies have to digest virtualization cloud marketers gradually begin to outvoice each other. Perhaps it's now a moment to listen to the market. 

Cloud fairytale

Sometimes you just need to recognize that others do things far better than yourself. Explaining the cloud in simple pictures for example. The few words and pictures presented by Andy Harjanto are revealing, but still allow room for personal views about the subject.  

That might be a deviation of mine but first slide is already significant, supposing the IT manager is overrun. But by who is he trampled? Could be the business demanding for more IT but also the sales guy telling half of the story in this presentation.

Managers are idiots

Not mine of course but those that you order to satisfy their information needs. So remarkable we're all information workers as it takes time to satisfy these decision supporting systems. But  'Management by Excel' does not testify to a really visionary leadership and is more like bookkeeping. So I sometimes get the impression 'information slave' gives a better description for this stupidity.  

That said, it is not so much to the managers in  general, but the information they use. I think it's the difference between the entrepreneur and the manager. First is guided by the opportunities while the manager is often guided by the threats. A difference in attitude that is often caused by the organization. All kinds of rules about compliance are to blame for the many information we have to cough up daily.

Benefit the Cloud markt

Forced by the market, no one can afford to ignore the changes. Even at Unisys, among many, probably best known as the "mainframe company ', the focus is on Cloud Computing as a delivery model. The demand for faster, cheaper and more efficient use of ICT can not be answered with a monolithic system.

It is therefore obvious that we do not come with a product, but set our focus on the processes. Even though many IT vendors promote cloud computing as 'revolution', without convergence of vision and purpose the gap between business and IT will not be closed. The only real revolution is that today the business determine what applications and services are needed. And as result of the many delivery models it has a huge choice.

Frustration leads to innovation

That (part of) the problems outlined in my contribution "Release or relationship management" was recognizable for a lot of people as came clear from the responses I received. I don’t pretend to have the right and appropriate solution but asked attention for a number of shortcomings. So a the invitation of Wilko Fisher, owner of ValueBlue, I discussed this issue with their Enterprise Architects. The additional insights seem to me a justify for part 2.

During this "pizza session" there were discussions on a number of possibilities to provide IT visibility. One such possibility is the Enterprise Architecture discipline which models are used to describe IT. A picture is finally telling more than 1000 words so it provide you quickly with insights. Subsequently, these models should allow us to model a future state which are then translates into architecture principles.