management tools

Microsoft's Virtual Machine Manager to be ready by end of year

Paul Mah — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 07:07:59 -0400

Microsoft announced earlier this week that its System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) will be ready by end of the year. This will bring Microsoft in line to ship within the last three months of this year, as promised many times previously. The SCVMM is Microsoft's first tool created to manage its new Hyper-V virtualization platform. Analysts agree that it is one of the key pieces missing from Microsoft's virtualization game plan. Indeed, the absence of an advanced management is certainly hampering the take-up in its Hyper-V product. This is because it is extremely difficult to manage any large-sized infrastructure without proper virtualization management tools.

To find out more about Microsoft's Virtual Machine Manager:
- check out this Network World article

Red Hat 's new CEO eyes the cloud

Paul Mah — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 03:39:31 -0400

Jim Whitehurst, the former chief operating officer of Delta Airlines and new chief executive at Red Hat, wasted no time in conveying his beliefs on the future of the company. "The clouds will all run Linux," Whitehurst declared. In an interview with CNET News.com, he pointed out that many of the top tech companies continue to profit handsomely, not necessarily due to the quality of their offerings, but rather because of the high switching costs that embracing alternate solutions entails. The result is that IT budgets continue to rise as proprietary solutions vendors takes advantage of the situation to increase support fees. Not so for a support-based open-source paradigm, where a customer can simply opt to stop paying.

Whitehurst went on to elaborate about the ongoing efforts at Red Hat to position the company to embrace cloud computing in terms of certification and management tools.

For more on Red Hat:
- check out this CNET News.com article

Red Hat eyes virtualization

Paul Mah — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:22:14 -0400

The Red Hat summit in Boston last week saw Red Hat open a beta of its Linux-based oVirt hypervisor that weights in at less than 64MB. oVirt is based on the KVM, or kernel-based virtual machine, and supports both Linux and Microsoft's Windows operating systems as hosts. In addition, it also supports live migration to allow applications running on one virtual machine to be seamlessly migrated to other virtual machines without any downtime. Live migration can be done even if the target is on a separate physical server.

Overall, observers present at the Summit were impressed by Red Hat's virtualization strategy, which also involves building management tools that will eventually allow thousands of virtual machines to be created and managed on Red Hat's platform.

For more on Red Hat's virtualization strategy:
- check out this NetworkWorld article

Make employee perks count

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:59:57 -0500

You may not be Santa Claus, but you don't want to be Scrooge either. And one of the most important management tools you have is perks that keep your staff happy. It's a challenging idea because many managers don't have a clue. You could give a guy a pair of small binoculars or a bracelet for a female staff member at a five-year anniversary. But that really doesn't do much at all for morale, let alone loyalty. There are plenty of ways to enhance worker loyalty without trinkets. Here are a few of them. Reduce unplanned work. Allow teleworking instead of mandatory office attendance. Make liberal use of training, bonuses and vacation. Just think how you would feel if you got a goodie bag full of real goodies instead of fluff. Forget the free drinks at the bar and get real about what will make your employees a team.

For more on employee morale:
- See this CIOInsight Article

Data center bloat continues

Thu, 24 May 2007 20:01:39 -0400

As data centers get more complex, executives are turning to technologies and processes like ITIL, storage capacity management and virtualization to consolidate and simplify their environments, according to a new study conducted by Symantec. The study, a result of interviews with 500 IT professionals worldwide, notes that the most common complaints among those surveyed stem from frustrations with rising numbers of servers and applications, the need to learn and implement more management tools and the hassles associated with managing multiple operating systems. Almost everyone interviewed said they would focus on consolidating data centers in the next year.

For the full story:
- read the CIOinsight article

Web analytics: The brains behind online marketing

Sun, 06 May 2007 20:01:39 -0400

Many large companies are integrating Web analytics tools into applications like email campaign software and keyword bid-management tools in the hopes of using them to plan, run and adjust Internet marketing activities, according to a new report. For example, some companies are using Web analytics tools to import results into an email campaign application that will kick off the next campaign automatically using rules based on results from the first campaign. But the report also noted that many workers involved in such efforts lack the expertise and training to use the tools effectively, and as a result, can't take full advantage of the tools. To avoid this problem, companies should decide which users will access Web analytics tools and should provide training and guidance to them. Also, evaluate the tools carefully, especially those they want to integrate with Web analytics tools, to determine their relative difficulty.

Read more about Web analytics:
- read the article at ComputerWorld

ALSO:
- read this on giving business intelligence and analytics their due
- and this on getting the maximum value from web site statistics

Minimizing SOA issues

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 20:01:38 -0400

SOA has lots of benefits, but it isn't without its challenges. The task of identifying universal processes and tools that are used by the entire organization and by separate departments can be extremely complex. Governance also is difficult, and the right management tools are vital. One way to minimize those challenges is to implement IT Service Management (ITSM) using the widely accepted approach of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). ITSM and ITIL facilitate the roadmap so that IT is treated more like a business. When a company links SOA, ITSM, and ITIL together in its approach to IT alignment, business becomes more agile, efficient, and cost-effective. Developing an integrated approach to SOA with ITSM usually requires a phased roadmap, which takes time. The vital starting point is not technology, but identifying the business-specific services in an organization.

Learn more about combining ITSM with SOA:
- read the article at CIO Update

ALSO:
- read this on SOA governance
- this on taking it slow with SOA deployments
- this on getting started with SOA
- this on whether SOA will work in your environment
- this on the basics of SOA
- and this on the four stages of successful SOA

Microsoft releases SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:01:37 -0500

Microsoft today released Service Pack 2 for the company's SQL Server 2005 software, available as a free download at the company's website. In a move that will please virtualization enthusiasts, Microsoft also announced a new licensing agreement that will allow unlimited virtual instances of the SQL Server SP2 database to run on servers that are licensed for SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition. As for the Service Pack, it will enhance interoperability with database products from other vendors, include add-ins for Office 2007 programs, integrate SQL Server Reporting Services with SharePoint and add new management tools to the database software.

For more on SQL Server 2005 SP2:
- visit Microsoft's TechNet for the free download

ALSO NOTED: The pros and cons of email that goes poof; 'Serious' flaws found in Mac OS X; and much more...

Sun, 26 Nov 2006 19:01:33 -0500

> The pros, and the cons of email that goes poof. Article

> 'Serious' flaws found in Mac OS X. Article

> Turkey maker turns to podcasts for customer service. Article

> Oracle beats out Microsoft when it comes to database product flaws. Article

> Email service aimed at low-cost mobile phones. Article

> Better management tools arrive with new version of MYSQL. Article

And Finally... The geekiest of women. Article

Office 2007 goes gold, new tools paraded

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 19:01:38 -0500

Microsoft has announced that Office 2007, the new version of the company's industry-standard productivity suite, has been released for manufacturing. Now for the important part: Why should we care? Welcome to Software Marketing 101: If you've got new tools and functionality, flaunt them like there's no tomorrow. To that end, Microsoft has announced that Office 2007 "includes the largest investment in deployment and management tools in the product's history." They include Office Migration Planning Manager, Open XML Formats Conversion Toolkit, the Business Desktop Deployment 2007 Solution Accelerator and the Office Resource Kit. Everyone loves deployment tools, but IT departments are going to need an actual reason to deploy in the first place too. To take a look at the new features that Office 2007 will bring to your users, check out this Office 2007 preview.

For more on Office 2007:
- see this ZDnet article

ALSO: Office 2007 to feature "big changes"? Article