TBM deja vu from “The Future of IT,” Global Institute for IT Mgt

The Future of IT – Global Institute for IT Mgt is an article written by Dr. Jerry Luftman, founder of the Global Institute for IT Management. Formerly of Stevens Institute for Technology (quasi-thinktank for IT/systems), the article has a few key takeways:

research is showing that even with the economic downturn, there is a steady increase in the number of organizations around the globe devoting more time to leveraging IT for revenue generating initiatives.”

 “IT is moving from an organization focusing on metrics/SLAs and expenses to analyze itself, to an organization that is delivering demonstrable business cost reduction, to an organization that is providing distinctive revenue increases.”

 many blogs profess that SME IT organizations will be eliminated as the result of Cloud. However, these discussions often miss an important contribution of Cloud computing; it enables these SMEs to consider IT initiatives that heretofore were only available to large organizations (initiatives that can help catapult them to the next revenue inflexion point).”  

“we are finding that an even bigger problem is our non-IT executives not understanding what their role needs to be for IT initiatives.”

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“adjacent possible” innovation at a Starbucks in Canton, Mass….

Starbucks gets it, which is where I’m at this morning for a business meeting.  Being a New Englander, I’ve always bee a BIG Dunkin’ Donuts fan…..even a bigot, I would admit.  The problem with DD though is they were slow to Wi-Fi and even now their shops are not conducive to working and meetings in the manner of Starbucks.
So now I look for Starbucks in any location I have a meeting since the probability of having quality Wi-Fi is 99%, as compared to Dunkin’ (50-50 shot) and even to McDonald’s (90% but improving).
…but back to my blog post heading, the “”adjacent possible” innovation at a Starbucks in Canton, Mass…”
The person I was to be meeting with at 9:30am texted and called me to push it back to 10am.  Along with catching up on work, after getting onto the Starbucks Wi-Fi network, I found that this location at least offers free/full access to the Wall Street Journal.  This is a classic example of innovating via the “adjacent possible.”
Will Starbucks receive any benefit from this?  How about the Wall Street Journal?  Hard to quantify but I bet I’m not the only one blogging about how  great Starbucks is as a convenient/functional business meeting hub….and willing to bet that this relationship with Starbucks will increase the Wall Street Journal’s digital readership (paid or not), and advertising metrics, through the roof.
Kudos to both…..
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Who Needs Microsoft? 10 open-source alternatives for small businesses | PCWorld

10 open-source alternatives for small business software | PCWorld is one set of alternatives to Microsoft, which will save you not only the $ mentioned in the article on a per-product basis, but, as importantly, going non-Microsoft will allow SMBs to more cost-effectively replace desktops/laptops with virtual desktops.  How?  Why?

The how and the why is all related to MS Windows OS licensing “non-strategy” in the cloud.  For the right to use Windows on an end-client (including tablets) or on a virtual desktop, Microsoft requires you to subscribe to VDA license, another $100/user/year.

For a 100-person SMB, the VDA licensing alone will a $10,000 cost to your IT budget….when you get to be a 1000-person mid-sized business, this cost is $100,000.  Wouldn’t that money be better spent on either an employee or consulting company that can help you take advantage of open-source for your office productivity software?

PS  In addition to the open-source software summary listed in this article, for Office, I would add Apache’s OpenOffice.  For a lower cost alternative to MS-Office, which is not open-source, SMBs should also evaluate Google Apps.

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NIST draft cybersecurity framework | Federal Times | federaltimes.com

…its a good start, and can be a useful reference document as it evolves for mid-sized companies not having the depth of resources a F500 enterprise might…

NIST seeks feedback on draft cybersecurity framework | Federal Times | federaltimes.com

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Zapthink Vision for Enterprise IT in 2020 (hardcopies available at n/c other than shipping costs)

…from  http://www.zapthink.com/2013/08/22/zapthink-2020-version2//, download for free or get printed posters sent to you for only the cost of shipping…

Zapthink Vision for Enterprise IT in 2020

 

 

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Amazon Owns More Than a Quarter of IaaS/PaaS Market

“The online giant’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) arm turned over more than $600 million in IaaS and PaaS revenue in Q2 2013, 59 percent more than closest rivals Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and IBM Corp. combined, according to Synergy Research Group.”

via Amazon Owns More Than a Quarter of IaaS/PaaS Market.

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ITconnecter IT Job of the Week – Director IT in Framingham, MA

About the Job

Director Information Technology

World-Link Communications established in 1989, is an award winning  provider of Mobile Satellite Services specializing in the maritime sector. Our customers are ship owners in the USA,  Russia, Cyprus, Greece, Middle East and  South America.  We create, install, manage, and support  IP solutions for vessels at sea.  Our latest project is delivering internet access and crew communication for large fleets.  Visit us on the web at: http://www.wlnet.com – We are a service company that strives to deliver the latest technology packaged in optimized solutions to our customers and their operating environment.

We are seeking a bright, talented, and capable individual to join our team as IT Director with a take charge attitude, to take ownership of our technical services delivery infrastructure, manage  our  technical team, allocate resources, and insure reliable operation of our  infrastructure .

Come Join us as we continue to grow our business and deliver value added satellite solutions and services to the maritime industry.  We are a team of professionals in a rewarding, growing, and stable company.

IT Director Responsibilities:

Supervise a team of IT Technicians and oversee resource allocation

Manage daily operations of the IT team, analyze workflow, establish priorities, and develop documentation for training / onboarding processes.

Manage the day to day operation of a technical support  team operating around the globe

Ensure systems and infrastructure 24x7x365 operation, and manage any down time of all critical infrastructure resources

Develop training platform for staff on new technologies, processes, and procedures

Develop and Implement innovative solutions and automation to optimize existing processes

Assess, communicate, and prioritize operational risks to network and infrastructure services

Design and execute plans to remediate security risks

Diagnose hardware and software problems, and replace defective components

Develop, Plan, and execute network backups and disaster recovery operations

Perform routine network failover procedures, and maintain records

Design, configure, and test computer hardware, networking software and operating system software

Recommend changes to improve systems and network configurations, and determine hardware or software requirements related to such changes

Monitor network performance to determine whether adjustments need to be made, and to determine where changes will need to be made in the future

Develop computer information resources, providing for data security and control, strategic computing, and disaster recovery

Provide the company with opinions on new and emerging technologies

Oversee, monitor, and manage the inventory of IT assets across the company

Schedule upgrades and security backups of hardware and software systems

Manage crisis situations, which may involve complex technical hardware or software problems.​

Perform other duties as assigned

Qualifications:

5+​ years of experience in managing and supervising a technical support team and IT infrastructure.

Hands on experience as a systems administrator / network engineer in VMware / Linux / Windows & SAN environments.

Experience troubleshooting within a complex network and applications environment

In depth knowledge of  networking, security protocols (Experience with defining and implementing security policy as well as operating a secure infrastructure)

Must have excellent organizational, verbal and written communication skills

Experience with Network documentation, training,  and monitoring tools.​

Demonstrated experience motivating and leading staff towards accomplished goals and metrics,

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related discipline(Related work experience can be substituted for educational requirement)

Experience with networking technologies including TCP/IP and LAN/WAN

Detail Oriented, excellent written and verbal communication skills

The ability to interact, communicate, and represent Company towards employees and customers.

Our Environment:

VMWare, SAN,  and clustered VMs in a hosted computing environment.

VMware  ESXi, VEEAM

Windows Server 2003/2008

Linux Management and Administration, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Debian, etc.

DNS, DHCP, and Sendmail  Server Management

TCP/IP Networking and security  (including VLANs, QoS, IP Addressing)

Firewalls, routers, iptables, and switches

This is a permanent full time position in our Framingham, Ma. office. Salary and benefits including medical and dental health insurance, paid holidays & vacation, tuition sharing, 401K & profit sharing;  salary & bonus package.

Forward resume and salary requirements for consideration to:

World-Link Communications, Inc.

1101 Worcester rd.

Framingham, ma. 01701

Email to: careers@wlnet.com

via Director Information Technology Job in Framingham 01701, Massachusetts US.

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Service Definition for Hosted Desktops – Where to Begin

From this blog:

“As you gain customer adoption, your customers may slowly drive you toward greater specialization until you may over time find yourself migrating into one or more vertical-specific offers.”

Personally, I think you should look long and hard at your existing customer base and begin packaging a vertical story (along with a horizontal offering), Even if your offering is horizontal in nature,   understanding an industry by virtue of having provided services to that industry allows a horizontal service provider to add vertical-specific value without having to invest in industry-specific technology.

…regardless of which technology you use, on-prem or cloud, Citrix or VMWare / Desktone, this article provides one perspective on marketing and packaging cloud-based desktops (Service Definition for Hosted Desktops – Where to Begin.)

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from TechTarget article – How Desktop as a Service licensing works

From the article:

“As you can see, DaaS licensing can be tricky. As such, some organizations will no doubt find that they are financially better off leasing virtual desktops from a public DaaS provider who charges a flat rate.”

via How Desktop as a Service licensing works.

For a vendor-specific detailed overview, visit http://www.desktone.com/resources/51-microsoft_licensing_delivering_daas_sorting_fact/view for a pre-recorded webinar.

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Logicalis US Announces DaaS Relationship w/Desktone | Logicalis

Logicalis US Announces Desktop-As-A-Service (DaaS) Relationship with Desktone | Logicalis.

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