ITIC Editorial Calendar

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog / By Laura DiDio

March/April 2020: ITIC 2020 Global Server Hardware and Server OS Reliability Survey

Description: Reliability and uptime are absolutely essential. Over 80% of corporations now require a minimum of 99.99% availability and greater; and an increasing number of enterprises now demand five nines – 99.999% or higher reliability. But which platforms actually deliver? This survey polls businesses on the reliability, uptime and management issues involving the inherent reliability of 14 different server hardware platforms and server operating system. The survey polls corporations on the frequency, the duration and reasons associated with Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 outages that occur on their core server OS and server hardware platforms. The results of this independent, non-vendor sponsored survey will provide businesses with the information they need to determine the TCO and ROI of their individual environments. The survey will also enable the server OS and server hardware vendors to see how their products rate among global users ranging from SMBs with as few as 25 people to the largest global enterprises with 100,000+ end users.

The 2020 ITIC Global Reliability Survey has also been updated and expanded to include questions on:

Component level failure data comparisons between IBM Power Servers and Intel-based x86 servers such as Dell, HP, Huawei, Lenovo and Cisco.
Percentage of component level failure data comparisons by vendor according to age (e.g. new to three months; three to six months; six months to 1 year; 1 to 2 years; 2 to 3 years; 3 to 4 years; 4 to 5 years; over five years).
Which component parts fail and frequency of failure
A percentage breakout of server parts failures for parts such as hard disk drives(HDD), processors, memory, power components, fans, or other
Where available, how the component failed. For example: memory multi-bit errors, HDD read failures, processor L1/L2 cache errors, etc.

April/May: 2020 Hourly Cost of Downtime

Description: Downtime impacts every aspect of the business. It can disrupt operations and end user productivity, result in data losses and raise the risk of litigation. Downtime can also result in lost business and irreparably damage a company’s reputation. The cost of downtime continues to increase as do the business risks. ITIC’s 2019 Hourly Cost of Downtime survey found an 85 % majority of organizations now require a minimum of 99.99% availability. This is the equivalent of 52 minutes of unplanned outages related to downtime for mission critical systems and applications or just 4.33 minutes of unplanned monthly outage for servers, applications and networks. This survey will once again poll corporations on how much one hour of downtime costs their business – exclusive of litigation, civil or criminal penalties. ITIC will also interview customers and vendors across 10 key vertical markets including: Banking/Finance; Education; Government; Healthcare; Manufacturing; Retail; Transportation and Utilities. The Report will focus on the toll that downtime extracts on the business, its IT departments, its employees, its business partners, suppliers and its external customers. This report will also examine the remediation efforts involved in resuming full operations as well as the lingering or after-effects to the corporation’s reputation as the result of an unplanned outage.

May/June 2020: ITIC Sexual Harassment, Gender Bias and Pay Equity Survey

Description: ITIC’s “Sexual Harassment, Gender Bias and Pay Equity Gap,” independent Web survey polled 1,500 women professionals worldwide across 47 different industries, with a special emphasis on STEM disciplines. The survey focuses on three key areas of workplace discrimination: Sexual Harassment, Gender Bias and Unequal Pay.

July/August: 2020 IoT Deployment and Usage Trends Survey and Report

Description: The Internet of Things (IoT) has been one of the hottest emerging technologies of the last several years. This ITIC Report will present the findings of an ITIC survey that polls corporations on the business and technical challenges as well as the costs associated with IoT deployments. This IoT Report will also examine the ever present security risks associated with interconnected environments and ecosystems. ITIC’s IoT 2020 Deployment and Usage Trends Survey will also query global businesses on a variety of crucial issues related to their current and planned Internet of Things (IoT) usage and deployments such as how they are using IoT (e.g. on-premises versus Network Edge/Perimeter deployments); the chief benefits and biggest challenges and impediments to IoT upgrades. Vendors profiled for this report will include: AT&T, Bosch, Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu, General Electric (GE), Google, Hitachi, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Particle, PTC, Qualcomm, Samsung, SAP, Siemens and Verizon.

August: ITIC 2020-2021 Security Trends

Description: Security, security, security! Security impacts every aspect of computing and networking operations in the Digital Age. And it’s never been more crucial as businesses, schools, government workers and consumers are working at home amidst the ongoing Nouvel and damaging security hack impacting the lives of millions of consumers and corporations. This Report will utilize the latest ITIC independent survey data to provide an overview of the latest trends in computer security including the latest and most dangerous hacks and what corporations can do to defend their data assets. Among the topics covered:

Security threats in the age of COVID-19
The most prevalent type of security hacks
The percentage of corporations that experienced a security hack
The duration of the security hack
The severity of the security hack
The cost of the security hack
Monetary losses experienced due to security breaches
Lost, damaged, destroyed or stolen data due to a security breach
The percentage of time that corporations spend securing their networks and data assets
Specific security policies and procedures companies are implementing
The issues that pose the biggest threats/risks to corporate security

August/September: ITIC 2020 Global Server Hardware Server OS Reliability Survey Mid-Year Update

Description: This Report is the Mid-year update of ITIC’s Annual Global Server Hardware, Server OS Reliability Survey. Each year ITIC conducts a second survey of selected questions from its Annual Reliability poll. ITIC also conducts new interviews with C-level executives and Network administrators to get detailed insights on the reliability of their server hardware and operating system software as well as the technical service and support they receive from their respective vendors. ITIC will also incorporate updated PowerPoint slides and statistics to accompany the report.

October/November: AI, Machine Learning and Data Analytics Market Outlook

Description: This Report will examine the pivotal role that AI, Machine Learning and IoT-enabled predictive and prescriptive Analytics plays in assisting businesses sort through the data deluge to make informed decisions and derive real business value from their applications. AI and Machine Learning take Data Analytics to new levels. They can help businesses identify new product opportunities and also uncover hidden risks. Machine intelligence is already built into predictive and prescriptive analytics tools, speeding insights and enabling the analysis of vast probabilities to determine an optimal course of action or the best set of options. Over time, more sophisticated forms of AI will find their way into analytics systems, further improving the speed and accuracy of decision-making. Rather than querying a system and waiting for a response, the trend has been toward interactivity using visual interfaces. In the near future, voice interfaces will become more common, enabling humans to carry on interactive conversations with digital assistants while watching the analytical results on a screen. Analytics makes businesses more efficient; it enables them to cut costs and lower ongoing operational expenditures. It also helps them respond more quickly and agilely to changing market conditions – making them more competitive and thus driving top line revenue in both the near term and long term strategic sales. Vendors Profiled: AppDynamics, BMC, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and SAS. It also discusses how non-traditional vendors in the carrier and networking segments e.g. Dell/EMC, GE, Google, Verizon and Vodafone have fully embraced AIOps and analytics via partnerships, acquisitions and Research and Development (R&D) initiatives and have moved into this space and challenged the traditional market leaders. And it will provide an overview of the latest Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) and their impact on the Analytics industry.

December: ITIC 2021 Technology and Business Outlook

Description: This Report will be based on ITIC survey results that poll IT administrators and C-level executives on a variety of forward looking business and technology issues for the 2020 timeframe. Topics covered will include: Security, IT staffing and budgets; application and network infrastructure upgrades; hardware and software purchasing trends and cloud computing.

Survey Methodology

ITIC conducts independent Web-based surveys that contain multiple choice and essay questions. In order to ensure the highest degree of accuracy, we employ authentication and tracking mechanisms to prohibit tampering with the survey results and to prohibit multiple votes by the same party. ITIC conducts surveys with corporate enterprises in North America and in over 25 countries worldwide across a wide range of vertical markets. Respondents range from SMBs with 25 to 100 workers to the largest multinational enterprises with over 100,000 employees. Each Report also includes two dozen first person customer interviews and where applicable, vendor and reseller interviews. The titles of the survey respondents include:

Network administrators
VPs of IT
Chief information officers (CIOs)
Chief technology officers (CTOs)
Chief executive officers (CEOs)
Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs)
Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs)
Consultants
Application developers
Database Administrators
Telecom Manager
Software Developer
System Administrator
IT Architect
Physical Plant Facilities Manager
Operations Manager
Technical Lead
Cloud Managers/Specialists
IoT Manager
Server Hardware/Virtualization Manager

ITIC welcomes input and suggestion from its vendor and enterprise clients with respect to surveys, survey questions and topics for its Editorial Calendar. If there are any particular topics or questions in a specific survey that you’d like to see covered, please let us know and we will do our best to address it.

About Information Technology Intelligence Corporation (ITIC)

ITIC, founded in 2002, is a research and consulting firm based in suburban Boston. It provides primary research on a wide variety of technology topics for vendors and enterprises. ITIC’s mission is to provide its clients with tactical, practical and actionable advice and to help clients make sense of the technology and business events that influence and impact their infrastructures and IT budgets. ITIC can provide your firm with accurate, objective research on a wide variety of technology topics within the network infrastructure: application software, server hardware, networking, virtualization, cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT) and Security (e.g. ransom ware, cyber heists, phishing scams, botnets etc.). ITIC also addresses the business issues that impact the various technologies and influence the corporate business purchasing decisions. These include topics such as licensing and contract negotiation; GDPR; Intellectual Property (IP); patents, outsourcing, third party technical support and upgrade/migration planning.

For more information visit ITIC’s website at: www.itic-corp.com.

To purchase or license ITIC Reports and Survey data contact: Fred Abbott

Email: fhabbott@valleyviewventures.com;

Valley View Ventures, Inc.

Phone: 978-254-1639

www.valleyviewventures.com

ITIC Editorial Calendar Read More »

ITIC 2020 Editorial Calendar

2019, 2020, Editorial Calendars / By Laura DiDio

March/April 2020: ITIC 2020 Global Server Hardware and Server OS Reliability Survey

The 2020 ITIC Global Reliability Survey has also been updated and expanded to include questions on:

Component level failure data comparisons between IBM Power Servers and Intel-based x86 servers such as Dell, HP, Huawei, Lenovo and Cisco.
Percentage of component level failure data comparisons by vendor according to age (e.g. new to three months; three to six months; six months to 1 year; 1 to 2 years; 2 to 3 years; 3 to 4 years; 4 to 5 years; over five years).
Which component parts fail and frequency of failure
A percentage breakout of server parts failures for parts such as hard disk drives(HDD), processors, memory, power components, fans, or other
Where available, how the component failed. For example: memory multi-bit errors, HDD read failures, processor L1/L2 cache errors, etc.

April/May: 2020 Hourly Cost of Downtime

May/June 2020: ITIC Sexual Harassment, Gender Bias and Pay Equity Survey

July/August: 2020 IoT Deployment and Usage Trends Survey and Report

August: ITIC 2020-2021 Security Trends

Security threats in the age of COVID-19
The most prevalent type of security hacks
The percentage of corporations that experienced a security hack
The duration of the security hack
The severity of the security hack
The cost of the security hack
Monetary losses experienced due to security breaches
Lost, damaged, destroyed or stolen data due to a security breach
The percentage of time that corporations spend securing their networks and data assets
Specific security policies and procedures companies are implementing
The issues that pose the biggest threats/risks to corporate security

August/September: ITIC 2020 Global Server Hardware Server OS Reliability Survey Mid-Year Update

October/November: AI, Machine Learning and Data Analytics Market Outlook

December: ITIC 2021 Technology and Business Outlook

Survey Methodology

Network administrators
VPs of IT
Chief information officers (CIOs)
Chief technology officers (CTOs)
Chief executive officers (CEOs)
Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs)
Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs)
Consultants
Application developers
Database Administrators
Telecom Manager
Software Developer
System Administrator
IT Architect
Physical Plant Facilities Manager
Operations Manager
Technical Lead
Cloud Managers/Specialists
IoT Manager
Server Hardware/Virtualization Manager

About Information Technology Intelligence Corporation (ITIC)

To purchase or license ITIC Reports and Survey data contact: Fred Abbott

Email: fhabbott@valleyviewventures.com;

Valley View Ventures, Inc.

Phone: 978-254-1639

www.valleyviewventures.com

ITIC 2020 Editorial Calendar Read More »

KnowBe4 Survey: 64% of Corporate Users Say Security Awareness Training Stops Hacks

2018, 2019, ITIC Reports & Surveys / By Laura DiDio

A new security survey finds that two-thirds of corporate users – 64% — assert that proactive Security Awareness Training helps their businesses to identify and thwart hacks immediately upon deployment. And, an 86% majority of corporations say Security Awareness Training (SAT) decreased overall security risks and educated employees to the ever-present danger posed by cyber security scams.

Those are the findings of the KnowBe4 “2018 Security Awareness Training Deployment and Trends Survey.” This annual, independent Web-based survey polled 1,100 organizations worldwide during August and September 2018. The independent study conducted by KnowBe4, a Tampa, Florida-based maker of security training and phishing tools, queried corporations on the leading security threats and challenges facing their firms as cyber security attacks increase and intensify.

ITIC partnered with KnowBe4 on this study which also polled businesses on the initiatives they’re taking to more proactively combat the growing diversified and targeted cyber threats. The survey found that 88% of respondents currently deploy (SAT) tools. The businesses report that the training plays a pivotal role in identifying and thwarting attacks; minimizing risk and positively changing the employee culture.

Among the other top survey findings:

Social Engineering was the top cause of attacks, cited by 77% of respondents, followed by Malware (44%); User Error (27%) and a combination of the above (19%) and Password attacks (17%). (See Exhibit 1).
Some 84% of respondents said their businesses could quantify the decrease in successful Social Engineering attacks (e.g. Phishing scams, malware, Zero Day etc.) after deploying SAT to their end users after just a few simulated exercises. This is based on 700 anecdotal responses obtained from the Essay comments and first person interviews.
On average, respondents reported that Social Engineering cyber hacks like Phishing scams and Malware declined significantly from a success rate of 40% to 50% to zero to five percent after firms participated in several KnowBe4 SAT sessions.
Almost three-quarters – 71% of survey participants – indicate their businesses proactively conduct simulated Phishing attacks on a monthly, quarterly or weekly basis.
An overwhelming 96% of respondents affirmed that deploying SAT changed their firm’s computer security culture for the better, making everyone from C-level executives to knowledge workers more cognizant of cyber threats.

Introduction

In the 21^st century Digital Age corporations can no longer practice security with 20/20 hindsight.

Complacency and ignorance regarding the security of the corporation’s data assets will almost certainly lead to disaster. Not a day goes by without a major new cyber hack reported.

Threats are everywhere. And no organization is immune.

Hackers are sophisticated, bold and hone in on specific targets. The hacks themselves are more prolific, pervasive and pernicious.

The current computing landscape includes virtualization, private, public and hybrid cloud computing, Machine Learning and the Internet of Things (IoT). These technologies are designed to facilitate faster, more efficient communication and better economies of scale by interconnecting machines, devices, applications and people.

The downside: increasing inter-connectivity among devices, applications and people produces a “target rich environment.” Simply put, there are many more vulnerabilities and potential entry points into the corporate network. IT and security administrators have many more things to manage and they can’t possibly have eyes on everything. Oftentimes, the company’s end users pose the biggest security threat by unknowingly clicking on bad links. But even so-called “trusted” sources like supposedly secure third party service providers, business partners or even internal company executives can unwittingly be the weak links that enable surreptitious entry into the corporate networks.

The ubiquitous nature and myriad types of threats, further heightens security risks and significantly raises the danger that every organization – irrespective of size or vertical market – will be a target. The accelerated pace of new Cyber security heists via Social Engineering, (e.g. Phishing scams, malware, Password attacks, Zero Day, etc.), makes the IT Security administrator’s job extremely daunting.

Fortunately, there is help in the form of Security Awareness Training which immediately assists organizations in educating employees from the C-suite to the Mail room and transforming the corporate culture from one that is lax, to one that is alert and vigilant.

Data & Analysis

Computer and network security has all too often been practiced with 20/20 hindsight. That is, organizations have been lax in implementing and enforcing strong Computer Security Policies.

The KnowBe4 2018 Security Awareness Training Deployment and Trends Survey results indicate a majority of companies recognize the increasing danger posed by myriad pervasive and pernicious cyber threats. Businesses are also acutely aware that Security and IT managers and administrators cannot possibly have “eyes on everything,” as the size, scope and complexity of their respective infrastructures increases along with the number of interconnected people, devices, applications and systems. Hence, companies are now proactively assuming responsibility for safeguarding their data.

SAT is a cost effective and expeditious mechanism for heightening user awareness — from the C-Suite to the average worker – of the multiple security threats facing organizations.

Among the other survey highlights:

Among businesses victimized by Social Engineering, some 70% of respondents cited Email as the root cause. This is mainly due to end users clicking without thinking and falling prey to a wide range of scams such as Phishing, malware and Zero Day hacks. Another 15% of respondents said they were “Unsure” which is extremely concerning.
An 88% majority of respondents currently employ Security Awareness Training Programs and six percent plan to install one within six months.
An 86% majority of Security Awareness Training Programs conduct simulated Phishing attacks and that same percentage – 86% – firms randomize their simulated Phishing attacks.
Some 71% of respondents that deploy KnowBe4’s Security Awareness Training said their firms had not been hacked in the last 12 months vs. 29% that said their companies were successfully penetrated (even for a short while before being detected and removed).
Survey respondents apply Security Awareness Training programs in a comprehensive manner to ensure the best possible outcomes. Asked to “select all” the mechanisms they use in their SAT programs: 74% said they use Email; 71% employ videos, 43% of businesses said they use Human Trainers; 36% send out Newsletters and 27% engage in seminars/Webinars with third parties.

Overall, the results of the Web-based survey coupled with over two dozen first person interviews conducted by KnowBe4 and ITIC found that Security Awareness Training yields positive outcomes and delivers near immediate Return on Investment (ROI). Approximately two-thirds of the respondents indicated that the training helped their companies to identify and thwart security hacks within the last six months. The participants said security awareness training helped to alert their firms to a potential vulnerability and allowed them to block the threat. And it also enabled security and IT administrators and users to recognize rogue code and quickly remove it before it could cause damage. Another 20% of those polled claimed their firms had not experienced any hacks in the last six months.

All in all, in this day and age of heightened security and cyber threats, organizations are well advised to proactively safeguard their organizations by implementing Security Awareness Training for their administrators and end users to defend their data assets. For more information, go to: www.knowbe4.com.

KnowBe4 Survey: 64% of Corporate Users Say Security Awareness Training Stops Hacks Read More »

ITIC 2018 Server Reliability Mid-Year Update: IBM Z, IBM Power, Lenovo System x, HPE Integrity Superdome & Huawei KunLun Deliver Highest Uptime

2018, ITIC Reports & Surveys / By Laura DiDio

August 8, 2018

For the tenth straight year, IBM and Lenovo servers again achieved top rankings in ITIC’s 2017 – 2018 Global Server Hardware and Server OS Reliability survey.

IBM’s Z Systems Enterprise server is in a class of its own. The IBM mainframe continues to exhibit peerless reliability besting all competitors. The Z recorded less than 10 seconds of unplanned per server downtime each month. Additionally less than one-half of one percent of all IBM Z customers reported unplanned outages that totaled greater than four (4) hours of system downtime in a single year.

Among mainstream servers, IBM Power Systems 7 and 8 and the Lenovo x86 X6 mission critical hardware consistently deliver the highest levels of reliability/uptime among 14 server hardware and 11 different mainstream server hardware virtualization platforms. Each platform averaged just 2.1 minutes of unplanned per annum/per server downtime (See Exhibit 1).

That makes the IBM Power Systems and Lenovo x 86 servers approximately 17 to 18 times more stable and available, than the least reliable distributions – the rival Oracle and HPE ProLiant servers.

Additionally, the latest ITIC survey results indicate just one percent of IBM Power Systems and Lenovo System x servers experienced over four (4) hours of unplanned annual downtime. This is the best showing among the 14 different server platforms surveyed.

ITIC’s 10^th annual independent ITIC 2017 – 2018 Global Server Hardware and Server OS Reliability survey polled 800 organizations worldwide from August through December 2017. In order to obtain the most accurate and unbiased results, ITIC accepted no vendor sponsorship. …

ITIC 2018 Server Reliability Mid-Year Update: IBM Z, IBM Power, Lenovo System x, HPE Integrity Superdome & Huawei KunLun Deliver Highest UptimeRead More »

ITIC 2018 Server Reliability Mid-Year Update: IBM Z, IBM Power, Lenovo System x, HPE Integrity Superdome & Huawei KunLun Deliver Highest Uptime Read More »

Q & A: Mike Flannagan, VP & GM, Cisco’s Data & Analytics Group

Q&A with Industry Leaders / By Laura DiDio

ITIC’s coverage areas continue to expand and evolve based on your feedback. We will now feature Q&As with industry luminaries and experts discussing hot industry trends and technologies.

Cisco is one of the preeminent high technology companies and a market leader in networking for the last three decades. Cisco’s technologies and market strategies continue to evolve along with those of the overarching high tech industry and its expanding customer base. Cisco is expanding its presence beyond networking and becoming a driving force in The Internet of Things (IoT) and Data Analytics. Michael Flannagan is Vice President and General Manager of Cisco’s Data & Analytics Group. He is responsible for the company’s data and analytics strategy, and leads multiple software business units. This includes: Cisco’s Data Virtualization Business Unit; Cisco’s Analytics Business Unit and Cisco’s ServiceGrid Business Unit and Cisco’s Energy Management Business Unit. ITIC Principal Analyst spoke to Flannagan in-depth about Cisco’s recent analytics acquisitions and the increasingly prominent role analytics will play in Cisco’s products and strategy.

Laura DiDio, Cisco is upping its game with IoT Edge Analytics/Data Analytics, the acquisition of ParStream and its recent partnership with IBM to incorporate Watson’s cognitive computing and AI capabilities onto Cisco edge routers. Can you provide us with insight into the tangible positive impact that IoT Analytics is having both in the data center and at the Edge in terms of business and technical advantages – e.g. performance gains, positive impact on manpower and device resources, cost savings, driving top line revenue, lowering TCO, accelerating ROI and also helping to increase reliability and mitigate risk? …

Q & A: Mike Flannagan, VP & GM, Cisco’s Data & Analytics GroupRead More »

Q & A: Mike Flannagan, VP & GM, Cisco’s Data & Analytics Group Read More »

Cost of Hourly Downtime Soars: 81% of Enterprises Say it Exceeds $300K On Average

2016, ITIC Reports & Surveys / By Laura DiDio

The only good downtime is no downtime.

ITIC’s latest survey data finds that 98% of organizations say a single hour of downtime costs over $100,000; 81% of respondents indicated that 60 minutes of downtime costs their business over $300,000. And a record one-third or 33% of enterprises report that one hour of downtime costs their firms $1 million to over $5 million.

For the fourth straight year, ITIC’s independent survey data indicates that the cost of hourly downtime has increased. The average cost of a single hour of unplanned downtime has risen by 25% to 30% rising since 2008 when ITIC first began tracking these figures.

In ITIC’s 2013 – 2014 survey, just three years ago, 95% of respondents indicated that a single hour of downtime cost their company $100,000. However, just over 50% said the cost exceeded $300,000 and only one in 10 enterprises reported hourly downtime costs their firms $1million or more. In ITIC’s latest poll three-in-10 businesses or 33% of survey respondents said that hourly downtime costs top $1 million or even $5 million.

Keep in mind that these are “average” hourly downtime costs. In certain use case scenarios — such as the financial services industry or stock transactions the downtime costs can conceivably exceed millions per minute. Additionally, an outage that occur in peak usage hours may also cost the business more than the average figures cited here. …

Cost of Hourly Downtime Soars: 81% of Enterprises Say it Exceeds $300K On AverageRead More »

Cost of Hourly Downtime Soars: 81% of Enterprises Say it Exceeds $300K On Average Read More »

IBM, Lenovo Top ITIC 2016 Reliability Poll; Cisco Comes on Strong

2016, ITIC Reports & Surveys / By Laura DiDio

IBM Power Systems Servers Most Reliable for Seventh Straight Year; Lenovo x86 Servers Deliver Highest Uptime/Availability among all Intel x86-based Systems; Cisco UCS Stays Strong; Dell Reliability Ratchets Up; Intel Xeon Processor E7 v3 chips incorporate advanced analytics; significantly boost reliability of x86-based servers

In 2016 and beyond, infrastructure reliability is more essential than ever.

The overall health of network operations, applications, management and security functions all depend on the core foundational elements: server hardware, server operating systems and virtualization to deliver high availability, robust management and solid security. The reliability of the server, server OS and virtualization platforms are the cornerstones of the entire network infrastructure. The individual and collective reliability of these platforms have a direct, immediate and long lasting impact on daily operations and business results. For the seventh year in a row, corporate enterprise users said IBM server hardware delivered the highest levels of reliability/uptime among 14 server hardware and 11 different server hardware virtualization platforms. A 61% majority of IBM Power Systems servers and Lenovo System x servers achieved “five nines” or 99.999% availability – the equivalent of 5.25 minutes of unplanned per server /per annum downtime compared to 46% of Hewlett-Packard servers and 40% of Oracle server hardware. …

IBM, Lenovo Top ITIC 2016 Reliability Poll; Cisco Comes on StrongRead More »

IBM, Lenovo Top ITIC 2016 Reliability Poll; Cisco Comes on Strong Read More »

Contemplating a Hybrid Cloud Deployment? Why Infrastructure Matters

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog / By Laura DiDio

The forecast for 2014 and beyond is cloud, cloud and more cloud – cloud computing, that is. For a majority of organizations – irrespective of size or vertical market – it’s a matter of “when” not “if” they will initiate a cloud computing deployment.

And ITIC survey data indicates that hybrid clouds will predominate and be the cloud architecture of choice for 64% of businesses. Hybrid cloud solutions offer organizations the best elements of public and private clouds when properly architected, tested, deployed and maintained. The benefits include reduced costs based on a utility-like pay-per-use model, greater scalability, flexibility and greater efficiencies in terms of manageability and business processes.

That said, in order to ensure optimal hybrid cloud performance and maximize Return on Investment (ROI), companies must start with a strong foundation. This includes a robust, reliable, flexible, scalable, manageable and secure infrastructure that provides integration and interoperability among legacy network components and the firm’s public and private clouds. Any hybrid cloud deployment lacking in these aforementioned elements is almost certainly doomed to failure. …

Contemplating a Hybrid Cloud Deployment? Why Infrastructure MattersRead More »

Contemplating a Hybrid Cloud Deployment? Why Infrastructure Matters Read More »

IBM Platform Resource Scheduler Automates, Accelerates Cloud Deployments

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog / By Laura DiDio

One of the most daunting and off-putting challenges for any enterprise IT department is how to efficiently plan and effectively manage cloud deployments or upgrades while still maintaining the reliability and availability of the existing infrastructure during the rollout.

IBM solves this issue with its newly released Platform Resource Scheduler which is part of the company’s Platform Computing portfolio and an offering within the IBM Software Defined Environment (SDE) vision for next generation cloud automation. The Platform Resource Scheduler is a prescriptive set of services designed to ensure that enterprise IT departments get a trouble-free transition to a private, public or private cloud environment by automating the most common placement and policy procedures of their virtual machines (VMs). It also helps guarantee quality of service while greatly reducing the most typical human errors that occur when IT administrators manually perform tasks like load balancing and memory balancing. The Platform Resource Scheduler is sold with IBM’s SmartCloud Orchestrator and PowerVC and is available as an add-on with IBM SmartCloud Open Stack Entry products. It also features full compatibility with Nova APIs and fits into all IBM OpenStack environments. It is built on open APIs, tools and technologies to maximize client value, skills availability and easy reuse across hybrid cloud environments. It supports heterogeneous (both IBM and non-IBM) infrastructures and runs on Linux, UNIX and Windows as well as IBM’s zOS operating systems. …

IBM Platform Resource Scheduler Automates, Accelerates Cloud DeploymentsRead More »

IBM Platform Resource Scheduler Automates, Accelerates Cloud Deployments Read More »

Microsoft: Bullish or Bottoming Out? Part 2

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog / By Laura DiDio

According to some press and industry, you’d think that Microsoft was all but dead. Microsoft’s tactical and strategic technology and business missteps are well publicized and dissected ad infinitum. Less well documented are Microsoft’s strengths from both a consumer and enterprise perspective and there are plenty of those.

Microsoft Strengths

One of the most notable company wins in the past five years is the Xbox 360 and Kinect.

Xbox 360 and Kinect: Simply put, this is an unqualified success. The latest statistics released earlier this month by the NPD Group show that Microsoft has a 47% market share and sold 257,000 Xbox 360 units in the U.S. in June, besting its rivals the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii for the 18th consecutive month. But Microsoft and indeed all the hardware games vendors find their sales shrinking due to the sharp increase in the numbers of users playing games on their smart phones. In Microsoft’s 2012 third fiscal quarter ending in March, Xbox 360 sales dropped 33% to $584 million. The consumer space is notoriously fickle and games users are always looking for the next big thing. Microsoft’s ace in the hole is the Kinect motion-controller, which still has a lot of appeal. The company is banking on that as well as slew of new applications and functions like the Kinect PlayFit Dashboard which lets users track the number of calories they burn when they play Kinect games. …

Microsoft: Bullish or Bottoming Out? Part 2Read More »

Microsoft: Bullish or Bottoming Out? Part 2 Read More »