Server hardware and server OS reliability

Does Infrastructure Really Matter When it Comes to IT Security?

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog, News / By

Yes, infrastructure absolutely does matter and has a profound and immediate impact on enterprise security.

Server hardware (and the server operating systems and applications that run on them) form the bedrock upon which the performance, reliability and functionality of the entire infrastructure rests. Just as you wouldn’t want to build a house on quicksand, you don’t want your infrastructure to be shaky or suspect: it will undermine security, network operations, negatively impact revenue, raise the risk of litigation and potentially cause your firm to lose business.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. These days, many if not most corporate enterprises have extranets to facilitate commerce and communications amongst their customers, business partners and suppliers. Any weak link in infrastructure security has the potential to become a gaping hole, allowing a security breach to extend beyond the confines of the corporate network and extranet. Security breaches can infect and invade other networks with astounding rapidity.

Increasingly, aging and inadequate infrastructure adversely impacts enterprise security. …

Does Infrastructure Really Matter When it Comes to IT Security?Read More »

Does Infrastructure Really Matter When it Comes to IT Security? Read More »

Microsoft: Bullish or Bottoming Out? Part 2

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog / By

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 »

IBM, Stratus, Microsoft Score High Marks in ITIC Fall 2011 Global Reliability Survey

ITIC Reports & Surveys / By

For the third year in a row, IBM AIX v7.1 UNIX operating system (OS) running on the company’s Power System servers scored the highest reliability ratings and recorded the least amount of overall downtime from Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 outages among 18 different server OS platforms.

Over three-quarters or 78% of survey respondents indicated they experienced less than one of the most prevalent, minor Tier 1 incidents per server, per annum on IBM’s AIX v. 5.3 and AIX v 7.1 distributions. An 83% majority of IBM AIX v 7.1 and Novell SUSE Enterprise Linux Server 11 and 82% of Windows Server 2008 R2 survey respondents indicated their organizations experienced less than one unplanned, severe/lengthy Tier 3 outage per server, per annum (See Exhibit 1).

Microsoft’s Windows Server 2008 R2 (which scored the biggest year-over-year reliability gains), and Novell’s SUSE Enterprise Linux Server 11 closely challenged IBM’s AIX v 7.1 server OS reliability and uptime – particularly with respect to the most severe and costly Tier 3 outages. Unplanned Tier 3 outages – whether manmade or as the result of a disaster — typically cause downtime in excess of four hours. There is widespread disruption of applications and network operations; customers and business partners are frequently impacted and Tier 3 incidents will almost always require remediation by a significant portion of the IT staff. …

IBM, Stratus, Microsoft Score High Marks in ITIC Fall 2011 Global Reliability SurveyRead More »

IBM, Stratus, Microsoft Score High Marks in ITIC Fall 2011 Global Reliability Survey Read More »

ITIC 2011 Reliability Shows that Dell, HP, IBM & Stratus Score High Marks for Service & Support

ITIC Reports & Surveys / By

Dell, HP, IBM and Stratus Technologies won high praise from corporate users for their prompt and efficient after market technical service and support in the latest ITIC 2010-2011 Global Server Hardware and Server OS Reliability survey.

The results came from a broad based survey that polled organizations worldwide on the reliability, security and technical service and support from among 14 of the leading server hardware platforms and 18 of the most widely deployed server operating system distributions.

As we said in an earlier discussion, each poll elicits some surprising and unexpected revelations. In this survey, users reserved their highest encomiums and most critical barbs for the server hardware vendors – both in terms of product performance and reliability and the service and support they receive from their respective vendors. …

ITIC 2011 Reliability Shows that Dell, HP, IBM & Stratus Score High Marks for Service & SupportRead More »

ITIC 2011 Reliability Shows that Dell, HP, IBM & Stratus Score High Marks for Service & Support Read More »

As Ellison Rips Rivals, Oracle Services Slip, Support Prices Soar

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog, News / By

Memo to Larry Ellison: The Roman Coliseum halted gladiator combats around 435 A.D. SAP has thrown in the towel and has no interest in continuing a court battle. Hewlett-Packard executives are refusing to accept service on your lawsuits and HP’s newly named chief executive Leo Apotheker is laying low, presumably dodging your increasingly vituperative verbal assaults. You’ve got no takers for the bloody, bare knuckles brawl you crave. What does that tell you?

It should signal an end to the Circus Maximus sideshow but it won’t.

No one desires this much attention or sticks their chin out spoiling for a fight like Ellison. And in an industry like high tech that’s overflowing with giant egos, that’s saying something. It’s true that Ellison’s antics always make for reams and reams of good copy. Reporters calling for comments on the latest developments don’t even bother to suppress their mirth. Enough is enough, though. The Larry Ellison Show would be more amusing if corporate customers weren’t getting caught in the crossfire. …

As Ellison Rips Rivals, Oracle Services Slip, Support Prices SoarRead More »

As Ellison Rips Rivals, Oracle Services Slip, Support Prices Soar Read More »

Happy 1st Birthday Windows 7; Now Can We Please Cancel Microsoft’s MidLife Crisis?

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog / By

Windows 7 is now officially a year old. Since it was released October 22, 2009, Microsoft has sold over 240 million copies of the operating system — approximately seven copies per second. That makes it the fastest selling operating system in Microsoft’s history or any vendor’s history. Some industry pundits estimate that Windows 7 sales will top 300 million within the next six-to-eight months.

Microsoft has plenty of other reasons to celebrate Windows 7’s first birthday. Windows 7 has also been one of the most stable, reliable and secure releases in Microsoft’s history.

A three-quarters majority – 73 percent of the 400+ respondents to the latest joint ITIC/Sunbelt Software poll, gave Windows 7 an “excellent,” “very good” or “good” rating. …

Happy 1st Birthday Windows 7; Now Can We Please Cancel Microsoft’s MidLife Crisis?Read More »

Happy 1st Birthday Windows 7; Now Can We Please Cancel Microsoft’s MidLife Crisis? Read More »

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