In Case Of Disaster, Turn To Cloud | bMighty.com: Blogs For Small Business and Mid-Sized Business 11/03/2009
Posted by thaadsma in SaaS, infrastructure, managed services, security.add a comment
Still using tapes for backup? There’s a far better way to protect your data assets. At i3 Business Solutions we’ve been working with customers over the last 12 months to move away from unreliable tape to the the reliability of offsite backup and disaster recovery.
The bMighty blog has a nice summary of a Forrester report and what this means for you:
”How The Cloud Will Transform Disaster Recovery Services identifies a gap between old-school recovery from tape, which is affordable but doesn’t offer much in the way of continuity protection because it takes so long to restore; and very expensive, enterprise-targeted high-end recovery services.
Forrester foresees existing online backup providers plus new entrants into the market starting to leverage cloud storage to offer reasonably priced options with reasonably quick recovery times that might entice SMBs away from their tape backups.”
via In Case Of Disaster, Turn To Cloud | bMighty.com: Blogs For Small Business and Mid-Sized Business.
Clash of the clouds | The Economist 11/02/2009
Posted by thaadsma in Linux, broadband, ibm, infrastructure, managed services, microsoft, security, web, web services.add a comment
Cloud computing generates a lot of heated discussion, and through all the technical arguments, issues of security and trust, and battles over control, one topic keeps getting overlooked: cost.
Reducing business cost is what’s really driving us toward cloud computing.
We will all eventually adopt cloud computing, simply because the current model of scaling servers up and down is very expensive. IT departments try to buy as many servers as they think they’ll need for computing power during estimated peak capacity. But we don’t need that capacity most of the time– so lots of servers sit idle.
Cloud computing can reduce costs, becauses it provides more capacity during the peak times, so we simply pay for it on-demand. When the peaks are over and less capacity is needed, the cost then goes down. From a business perspective, this allows a company to move much of its infrastructure costs from being a capital expenditure (CAPEX) to an operating expenditure (OPEX).
The Economist published an excellent overview of how industry giants are reacting to this massive trend:
Clash of the Titans
“The rise of cloud computing is not just shifting Microsoft’s centre of gravity. It is changing the nature of competition within the computer industry. Technological developments have hitherto pushed computing power away from central hubs: first from mainframes to minicomputers, and then to PCs. Now a combination of ever cheaper and more powerful processors, and ever faster and more ubiquitous networks, is pushing power back to the centre in some respects, and even further away in others. The cloud’s data centres are, in effect, outsize public mainframes. At the same time, the PC is being pushed aside by a host of smaller, often wireless devices, such as smart-phones, netbooks (small laptops) and, perhaps soon, tablets (touch-screen computers the size of books).
Although Windows still runs 90% of PCs, the fading importance of the PC means that Microsoft is no longer an all-powerful monopolist. Others are also building big clouds, including Google, a giant of the internet, and Apple, renowned as a maker of hardware, with a market capitalisation that now exceeds those of both Google and IBM, its original arch-rival (see chart above).
Granted, there are hundreds if not thousands of firms offering cloud services—web-based applications living in data centres, such as music sites or social networks. But Microsoft, Google and Apple play in a different league. Each has its own global network of data centres. They intend to offer not just one or two services, but whole suites of them, with services including e-mail, address books, storage, collaboration tools and business applications. They are also vying to dominate the periphery, either by developing software for smart-phones and other small devices or by making such devices themselves.”
Read the whole thing, of course… Cloud computing: Clash of the clouds | The Economist.
Reshaping Cisco: The world according to Chambers | The Economist 09/08/2009
Posted by thaadsma in Linux, broadband, infrastructure, managed services, microsoft, mobile web, virtualization, web, web services.add a comment
In case you missed this article on Cisco before you headed out for your Labor Day weekend, There’s a wealth of information on where Cisco’s been and where John Chambers intends to take them. Of particular interest is their foucs on virtualization:
“In the case of servers, souped-up computers that dish up data, the market shift Cisco intends to ride is virtualisation. In essence this means that the servers in a data centre are turned into a pool of computing power to be tapped into as needed rather than being used individually. Virtualisation creates a lot of complexity, to which Cisco has found an answer, says Robert Lloyd, who heads the group that has developed what Cisco calls the “unified computing system”. Its parts—servers, storage disks, memory—are held together and managed by a powerful switch running Nx-OS, one of Cisco’s operating systems.”
As a Cisco Select Partner here at i3 Business Solutions, we see their products as essential to “making things really work.” As more and more of our business systems– and personal networks of devices– get interwoven and integrated, I can only think that Cisco ultimately will be in the middle of it, making them all work together.
via Reshaping Cisco: The world according to Chambers | The Economist.
10 reasons to purchase new hardware during a recession | 10 Things | TechRepublic.com 04/30/2009
Posted by thaadsma in business intelligence, government, healthcare, ibm, infrastructure, managed services, microsoft, security.add a comment
In tough times like these, it’s tempting to put off urgent IT hardware purchases. But you can shoot yourself in the foot by doing so, for a number of reasons–
10 reasons, to be precise.
I really think one of the most important is that your best people may be less productive, and productivity and results are the name for the game right now. Reason #2 from the list at TR:
“When PCs, displays, or network switches fail, it may be tempting to visit an old parts closet to dig out replacements. Old, entry-level Celeron- or Pentium-powered PCs with 256MB of RAM and rattling power supplies won’t help managers (now often responsible for production tasks, too, due to departmental layoffs) efficiently complete expanded task lists. Nor will such machines enable overworked colleagues to run QuickBooks, CRM applications, or proprietary programs smoothly. Nor will a 15″ CRT enable productivity gains when replacing a 22″ widescreen monitor used to display customer information alongside order entry software.
The same is true for network equipment. Outdated hubs and routers were decommissioned for a reason. They were either too slow, failed to operate properly, or didn’t meet the organization’s needs. They certainly won’t improve productivity now, when staff sizes are smaller, remaining employees must absorb the workload of laid-off staff, and stress levels climb ever higher. The subsequent delays and inefficiencies translate to lost opportunities, poor customer experiences, and less revenue.”
We’re working with our i3 Business Soultions customers every day who realize the only way to recovery and success is making good deals now for critical business systems.
Read all 10 business reasons at the TechRepublic blog:
via 10 reasons to purchase new hardware during a recession | 10 Things | TechRepublic.com.
