Archive | June, 2010
NetQoS Performance Center

IT management nirvana: Single console service assurance

By on June 16, 2010 in Ask the Service Assurance Expert

Those not familiar with the job of IT managers worldwide might not realize the number of tools often required to monitor all the moving parts of a large enterprise environment. And those aware of the myriad technologies put in place to guarantee IT services deliver as promised know that ideally supporting fewer or even just one management console is on most IT managers’ wish lists.

An article by TechTarget News Editor Shamus McGillicuddy posted Wednesday on the SearchNetworking.com site reminded me that while many in IT management have come a long way from writing scripts and manually tracking down device and system statuses, many others still struggle to aggregate all the meaningful data gleaned from IT devices and systems. The article, “Service delivery management: Integrating IT management tools,” discusses the efforts of IT managers to consolidate IT management information into fewer tools to get a clearer picture of IT service delivery, rather tha separately managing the elements that comprise the service.

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Surfing Bavaria

By on June 16, 2010 in Service Assurance

Because CA World 2010 was a big success last month in Las Vegas, we decided to bring highlights of the event to a few cities outside the U.S. for more intimate, local interaction with our customers that couldn’t make intercontinental trip.

CA TechnologiesTuesday’s event took place in Munich and emulated important facets of CA World including kick off keynotes on Service Assurance from Cliff Meltzer, corporate senior vice president and general manager of the Service Assurance business unit, and Virtualization and Automation Management from Roger Pilc, corporate senior vice president and general manager of the Virtualization and Service Automation business unit.

The remainder of the agenda comprised break-out sessions that zoomed in on use cases and best practices for assuring service levels and automating operations to enable the Data Center of the Future. Concurrently, solutions exhibits highlighted the latest releases from CA Technologies with a chance for hands-on product usage and 1:1 interaction with subject matter experts. The agenda proved popular as attendance exceeded expectations and our central European audience kept us busy in conversation even after the Bavarian beer, pretzels and weisswurst were gone.

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What’s the real story on IT job growth?

By on June 15, 2010 in Uncategorized

There is no shortage of reports on high-tech hiring, computer industry compensation and IT jobs – or the lack thereof, depending on which research you choose to believe. But the glut of information creates confusion around a market place that continues to see demand for certain skills, yet seems to require a more evolved IT employment candidate.

Taking responsibility for my contributions and coverage of seemingly contradictory reports on the topic of high-tech careers, I still feel confident saying the trend seems to be that IT managers are hopeful they will be able to add staff in the second half of 2010. But the question remains: Will that represent new jobs for the overall economy or will the additional staff be acquired by way of part-time consultants or outsourced workers?

A recent Technisource survey can be added to the pile of pro IT jobs literature. The Technisource IT HIRE Intelligence Survey was conducted online in the U.S. by Monster Worldwide between April 16 and May 1, 2010. Some 245 human resource managers and recruiters responded and the results show that more than three-fourths of those polled “have confidence that their company’s performance will improve in the next 6 months.” And in relation to that, a tad bit more, 78%, said they plan to hire IT staff in the coming months, with applications and infrastructure positions in the lead. Of those companies planning to hire, 26% reported they would be new openings, while 9% would be replacement positions.

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Getting the IT word out with social networking

By on June 14, 2010 in Uncategorized

Based on a history of personal challenges with accessing the technology I need to do various jobs over many years, I’m thinking the explosion of social networking technologies must be sending chills up the spine of many an IT manager.

In the past, say 5 years ago, I would obediently agree with a given IT group that my exploring new means of community or online discussions might be risky for companies – either in regards to pure technical security but also in the sense that if I am out there chatting away how does that make the company look. (Yet just to clarify, in my line of work, I am kind of required to be out there chatting away – even if it’s mostly in written form.) But in 2010, I am now certain the opposite is true. For many companies, restricting employee access to or participation in social networking could cast a negative light on companies, especially those that want to appear to customers as though they are on the bleeding-edge of technology.

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The BP oil spill and the IT blame game

By on June 10, 2010 in Uncategorized

It’s too soon to measure the full extent of environmental damage the BP oil spill will represent in the Gulf of Mexico and adjacent geographic locations, but government officials, company management and the public are anxious to find the root cause of this catastrophic event.
There isn’t yet any good news to be reported about this disaster. The New York Times recently published an article suggesting that while the company struggles to contain the flow of oil, BP has fewer problems restricting the flow of information to press and media outlets. Some in charge have pointed to a technical problem transmitting live high-definition (HD) video feeds from the offshore location to the mainland as a reason there was a delay in news sharing. Others suggest the delay was more likely a part of a cover-up to enable scientists to perpetuate misinformation about the severity of the spill. The motivations of those involved remain unclear at this point, but people working in technology are all too familiar with the speed at which finger pointing happens among IT groups during a disaster – and this situation seems no different.

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Increase in IT hiring or interest in new high-tech staffing models?

By on June 9, 2010 in Service Assurance

Much of the discussion in the high-tech industry around the potential economic recovery focuses on IT jobs. Will employers fill positions lost to the recession or will companies seek alternative staffing models?

Is your key IT talent planning to quit in 2010
The technology sector struggles with employment issues in the best of times – reports of not enough skilled workers flourish and debates over the need for H-1B visa holders heat up – but in these bad times, the idea that jobs won’t return at the same rate as revenue could worry IT professionals. Despite reports that more employed workers are choosing to leave their jobs, many others are checking job boards such as Dice.com regularly for open high-tech positions.

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Uncertain economic times drive strategic IT investments

By on June 8, 2010 in Ask the Service Assurance Expert

IT organizations can’t pass up the opportunity to innovate that an economic recession represents, according to industry watchers who report that financial uncertainties will play a part in IT and technology investments in 2010.

Rough ride expected on the road to IT recovery?
IT organizations can’t pass up the opportunity to innovate that an economic recession represents, according to industry watchers who report that financial uncertainties will play a part in IT and technology investments in 2010.

Rough ride expected on the road to IT recovery?
Ken Blackwell, vice president and chief architect for the Service Assurance Business Unit at CA Technologies, will take the stage at tonight’s CA Interactive IT Executive Forum, an event set to be broadcast across 25 cities. Blackwell will appear with moderator Michael Friedenberg, president and CEO of IDG Enterprise and MIT Sloan School’s Peter Weill, chairman for the center for Information Systems, who co-authored the book “IT Savvy: What Top Executives Must Know to Go from Pain to Gain.”

The event promises to help IT executives “evaluate the state of business service performance, risk and quality across physical, virtual and cloud computing environments.” And the panel of experts will also provide insight into how IT managers can “deliver an exceptional application experience that protects and grows revenue, increases customer satisfaction and maintains loyalty.” And lastly attendees of the CA Interactive IT Executive Forum will learn more about how to “manage service quality proactively across the IT infrastructure of networks, servers and databases and optimize delivery of applications and services.” All of these planned discussions are based on information posted about the event.

Blackwell shared a few thoughts via e-mail with me prior to the event regarding the reported economic recovery, IT investments and how CA Technologies can help guide high-tech customers toward revenue growth and recovery.

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Rough ride expected on the road to IT recovery?

By on June 7, 2010 in Service Assurance

The challenges will continue for IT executives working to help their companies recover from the economic recession of 2009, according to industry watchers.

While 2010 has been dubbed a rebuilding year in the press, for many working in technology, the resources to revive and grow revenue are scarce and the demands from the business continue to require IT executives to do more with less and consider updated IT service delivery and staffing models. One great example of this in high-tech news recently is HP’s plans to lay off 9,000 workers, but rehire some 6,000 in other positions, potentially holding new skills to staff next-generation data centers.

IT leaders in the majority of companies are considering how to keep the talent needed to increase IT services and workforce productivity without increasing costs. And this week industry watchers intend to discuss the current state of IT affairs at the CA Interactive IT Executive Forum, an event spanning 25 cities and featuring four IT industry experts scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, June 8.

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CA Technologies: From the network foundation to cloud heights

By on June 4, 2010 in Service Assurance

In another time, an acquisition by CA Technologies (back when it was Computer Associates) caused industry watchers to speculate about the company’s motives and its technologies’ future development. In 2010, the high-tech industry gets why CA Technologies completed the purchases of technology providers NetQoS, Oblicore, Cassatt, Nimsoft and 3tera. The company is building a technology portfolio that can manage the network, application and server foundation as well as control IT services into the cloud.

Forbes.com Friday published an article entitled “What cloud computing means” and with it, named 10 companies as “cloud leaders.” CA Technologies landed on that list alongside industry giants such as Microsoft, Google, VMware and Salesforce. (Remaining five companies are: Amazon Web Services, IBM, Rackspace, Terremark and RightScale.) CA Technologies is quoted in the article’s slideshow as recently buying “its way to the forefront of cloud computing with the acquisitions of 3tera, Cassatt, NetQoS and Oblicore, each of which had technology for managing a different aspect of the cloud environment.”

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High-tech careers, IT cost management and cloud computing

By on June 3, 2010 in Service Assurance

Many IT organizations today are investigating how they can transform their departments from a cost center to a business enabler. Such a shift requires mutual understanding and close ties with business leaders, but high-tech leaders must also update IT staff, services, processes and technologies.

I already discussed recently how IT professionals in 2010 could be looking to update their resumes with new jobs that offer them more money and more opportunities to work with emerging technologies. And recent research shows that fluctuating demand for various IT skills points not only to the economic turmoil of the past two years but also to companies’ growing interest in new staffing models and potentially new IT service delivery models such as cloud computing.

A brief tour of blogs and articles posted online by IT industry watchers revealed that the trends are growing strong among the enterprise IT community. Forrester Research last week hosted its IT Forum 2010 in Las Vegas and firm vice president and research director Robert Whiteley blogged about encounters with clients at the show. For one IT professional, the discussion with Whiteley focused on IT job searches, Whiteley’s blog explains.

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Pay for IT skills fluctuates, reveals interest in new IT service and staffing models

By on June 2, 2010 in Uncategorized

High-tech industry watchers often tout higher-than-average salaries as a driving reason to invest time and money into becoming IT certified. But in uncertain economic times, research shows IT certification details on resumes don’t always guarantee an attractive pay package for high-tech workers. The rapid change in pay rates also points to the industry’s increased interest in updated staffing models and IT service delivery options such as SaaS and cloud computing.

It makes sense that those selling IT certification training courses would argue that high-tech workers would make more money by adding to their roster of skills, but data reveals that noncertified skills also garner financial rewards. The most recent data from Foote Partners’ IT Skills and Certifications Pay Index showed that “average pay for 227 noncertified IT skills surprised the market with its first overall market gain since October 2008.” While “average pay for 211 IT certifications, by contrast, posted a small decline after a brief late 2009 recovery,” according to the quarterly update.

The economic recession isn’t the only cause for pay volatility, according to David Foote, Foote Partners co-founder, CEO and Chief Research Officer. Because the pay for noncertified and certified IT skills has been “so up and down within windows as short as three months,” Foote said in a statement, that other factors beyond the downturn are clearly in play.

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Just how smart is your smartphone?

By on June 1, 2010 in Ask the Service Assurance Expert

That’s the question CA Technologies asked North American college students when it challenged them to create a smart monitoring app for BlackBerry devices.

Managing your net from your iPhone

CA Technologies recently challenged North American university students to partake in a competition to infuse BlackBerry devices with intelligent monitoring applications, one of the software maker’s favorite technologies.

The CA Smartphone Challenge inspired one team of technology lovers to create an application that could enable IT operations managers and application managers to monitor performance of critical apps from a BlackBerry smartphone. CA Technologies put forth the challenge prior to its CA World 2010 conference in Las Vegas last month, offering a free trip to the show as part of the prize package for the winning team. The competition, which was open from March 3 through April 21 to universities across North America, attracted 14 university teams, but just one could be named winner.

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