Josef Nankivell » ISAD337 http://josefnankivell.com Student, geek, persistent polemicist Sun, 23 May 2010 17:01:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Data Centre Sustainability http://josefnankivell.com/university/isad337/improving-data-centre-sustainability/ http://josefnankivell.com/university/isad337/improving-data-centre-sustainability/#comments Thu, 25 Mar 2010 13:36:03 +0000 Josef Nankivell http://josefnankivell.com/?p=349
  • Data Loss – A Time for Change Mobile technology and cloud computing have brought about a radical...
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    In recent years, there has been a significant growth in the number, size and power density of data centers. This has been fueled by paradigms such as software as a service (SaaS), cloud computing (Armbrust, 2009), and a range of Internet-based businesses, social networking sites and multimedia applications and services (Buyya et al., 2009). With this growth, concern about the energy consumption and environmental sustainability of data centers has also grown.

    As a result, data centre managers and IT businesses struggle to support their businesses in the face of budget cuts and uncertainty about the future. It is, therefore, not unusual that environmental sustainability is not a priority in many companies at this time. However, becoming sustainable and “green” is good for both the business and the environment. Reducing energy use and waste while increasing the use of recycled materials improves a company’s bottom line while showing positive business ethics to your customers and employees. However, it is not always clear to know how to move to greener and more sustainable operations.

    Read More…

    Read the rest of the report here on Google Docs.

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    ]]>     http://josefnankivell.com/university/isad337/improving-data-centre-sustainability/feed/ 0     Skills for the Information Age http://josefnankivell.com/computing/skills-for-the-information-age/ http://josefnankivell.com/computing/skills-for-the-information-age/#comments Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:46:58 +0000 Josef Nankivell http://josefnankivell.com/?p=326
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    Skills for the Information Age

    ICT Industry – Practice

    1960s/70s – Programming in 3GL and Assembly languages, manual control of processes, storage-constrained environments, hierarchical, network-databases.
    1980s – 3GL/4GL (non procedural) languages automatiion of processes, growth of storage, networks, relational databses (mathematical set theory), personal computers and user computing methodologies.
    1990s – Programming in var languages, dev of services, client/server, internet begins, OO techniques, enterprise-wide apps.
    2000s – Programming/scripting, automation of services, browsers, search engines, internet established, systems of ICT (ITIL).

    Side-notes
    • Once invented, does not need to be invented again
    • Doing anything strategic was difficult
    • Focus moves from data to information (and to knowledge)
    • Increasing use of databases
    • Convergence of Human-Computer technology
    • ICT becomes the “business enabler”
    • Information viewed as an organisational asset
    • Service orientation
    • ICT personnel seen as “professionals”

    Information viewed as an organisational set

    • An organisation is only as successful as the quality of its decisions
    • Decisions are required at strategic, tactical and operational levels
    • Information provides a major input to decisions
    • ICT is now the main delivery means for information
    • Information must be treated like any other organisational resource – it must be looked after or it may be lost, damaged or remain unused

    The rise (and fall?) of the Chief Information Officer (CIO)

    • Manager of IT resources and operations
      • Governance of the IT function
      • Operating the core infrastructure and related services
      • Managing the applications portfolio supporting business
      • Recruiting and managing IT skills, expertise and people
      • Developing and retaining IT project management skills
      • Managing the suppliers of IT services and products
      • Measuring and managing the company’s IT investments
    • The CIO as an enabler of business change
    • Strategic business player and part of the senior management team
    Above information from Cranfield University paper (exemplar paper)

    Side-notes

    • Low level & high level activities mixed together.
    • CIO should not have to do low level activities?

    Service Orientation

    An IT Service is a set of related components provided by IT systems in support of the business and perceived by the customer/user as a coherent and self-contained entity. Or: something “end-to-end.”

    Of what is a service compromised?
    • Peopleware
      • Docs
      • Skills
      • People
      • Procedures
      • Guides
    • Software
      • Databases
      • Dev environments
      • Operating systems
      • Applications
      • Services tools
    • Hardware
      • LANs
      • WANs
      • Mainframes
      • Work stations
      • Servers
      • Networks
      • Telephones
      • Sensors
    E.g. Email:
    • Server hardware
    • Client hardware
    • Network infrastructure
    • Email server software
    • Email clients
    • Directory services
    • System administration
    • Users

    Is our orientation now aimed towards service?

    ITIL v.3

    • Sevice design
    • Service Transition

    Configuration Management

    • To record all Configuration Items (CIs)
    • And relationships/dependencies between them
    • To provide accurate information to support other ITIL core processes
    • To provide a sound basis for Incident, Problem, Change and Release Management
    • To account for all IT Assets and verify configuration records, correcting any exceptions

    ICT Personnel as Professionals

    • Development, support, networks, suppliers, problems, technology change, users, management – how can we cope with the world of ICT?
    • What skills have we got?
    • What level of skill – Basic/Expert?
    • How many skills?
    • How can we evaluate our skills?
    • What/how do organisations recruit?

    Create a skills management strategy

    • Determine the business case for skills/resource management, professional development, and other strategic, tactical or operational change
    • Analyse professional development processes and strategy versus a Maturity Model of professional development
    • => Skills for the Information Age
    • “SFIA describes what people do, not necessarily what their jobs are called”

    SFIA

    Categories and Levels

    • Strategy and architecture
    • Business change
    • Solution development and implementation
    • Service management
    • Procurement and management support
    • Client interface

    Skill Level (tag)

    7. set strategy/inspire
    6. initiate/influence
    5. ensure/advise
    4. enable
    3. apply
    2. assist
    1. follow

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