SteveJ-restore-test

IT Service Delivery is where "the rubber hits the road". Without sufficiently capable and reliable IT infrastructure every other piece of the IT equation - Architecture and Design, Business Analysis, Project Management, Software Engineering, Software Maintenance, Information Management, Data Modelling. ... - becomes irrelevant. All other effort is wasted is the services don't run for the users. All the potential benefits of IT, the 'cognitive amplifier' effects and leveraging people's skills and experience, rely on the delivery of IT Services. Where is the academic discipline that: Defines IT Service Delivery (and it's OAM components - Operations, Administration and Maintenance) Provides a framework to compare and audit the performance of IT Service Delivery in an organisation to benchmarks relative for the industry. Defines absolute and relative performance of individuals, teams and IT organisations. Defines and explores performance, effectiveness, utilis...

The raw data for this table. It's not definitive, but meant to be close to reality. I haven't included tape media, because I have no reliable price data - and they are not relevant to the domestic market - CD's and DVD's are one of the best, cheapest and most portable/future proof technologies for enterprise and domestic archives and backups. A Previous Post quotes Robin Harris of ZDnet (Storage Mojo). Edit (04-jun-97): George Santayanda on his storage sanity blog writes on the Flashdance . Cites 80%/pa reduction in flash prices, break-even wit HDD on 2010/11. He's been in storage for years and is a senior manager. And doesn't take things too seriously. And he points to a Powerpoint by Jim Gray on the Flash/Solid State disk. Worth the read. Storage Price Trends The Yr/Yr ratios are used for forward projections. The 'Est Flash' column uses the current 'best price' (MSY) for flash memory and a Yr/Yr ratio of 3.25. Flash memory is now very muc...

"Genius is 1% Inspiration and 99% Perspiration": Thomas Alva Edison Summary Ideas cost very little to generate and without substantial additional effort, come to nothing. But new ideas are the only starting point for new things - so which is more important, coming up with the idea or making it concrete? Both are necessary and as important as one another - without the other, neither will lead anywhere. Criticism of others ideas without substantial evidence,proof, counter example or working demonstration is churlish. "Put up or Shut up" is a reasonable maxim for critiquing ideas. Ideas only take real form and viability if they are the subject of robust and probing debate and defence. It is better to fail early, amongst friends, than publicly and spectacularly. It's easy to confuse a profusion of ideas with "invention". The marker of "usefulness" is the follow-through from ideation to implementation. Intro There have been a number of world cl...

MSFT is threatening to Sue the Free World . Patents are a state-granted Monopoly in return for full disclosure . Patents are useless unless defended. Patents are granted in a single jurisdiction at a time - there are no 'global' patents. Patents are uncertain until tested in court - by the full panoply of judges, counsel and mountains of paper. Patent 'trolls' and 'submarining' exist (and are legal tactics) - people who play the system for Fun and Profit. They hide out until someone is successful, then don't try to license their patents - but sue (for large amounts). Microsoft may claim that code infringes its patents - but that's just a posture. If they were for real, they'd be launching court cases to decide the matter. Software Patents Can Software really be patented? Copyright exists to protect direct expressions of Intellectual activity. Patents exist to protect the level up, how to make something. Mathematical equations and algorithms are exp...

Microsoft threatens to Sue The Free World. Groklaw comments on MSFT threatening to sue "Patent Violations". CNN/Fortune Original article (probably) ZDnet (Mary Jo Follet) "Put-up or shut-up" responses: Linus Torvalis The copyright owner of "Linux" and at The Register Eben Moglen senior counsel for Free Software Foundation. Author of 'GPL' (GNU General Public License) used to protect Linux kernel. "we won't sue users": Inforworld reporting MSFT 'Exec'. I like Pamela's wrap (PJ of GrokLaw): Microsoft's real problem in the marketplace is that folks already hate the company's business tactics. Making folks hate them more doesn't sound so smart. Even those who pay up in fear will be looking for a way to get away from a company that acts like that, don't you think? No one respects a bully. And so I take the article as a test, to see what the reaction will be more than an immediate threat. I think Steve Ball...

Robin Harris of ZDnet "Storage mojo" has written a series of posts on factors affecting the future of Disk Storage. These are my reactions to these quotes and trends, especially in flash memory . Flash getting "70% cheaper every year" - hence more attractive : "Every storage form factor migration has occurred when the smaller size reached a capacity point that enabled the application, even though it cost more per megabyte." "With flash prices dropping 70% a year and disks 45%, the trend is inexorable: flash will just get more attractive every year." The problems with RAID and Big Drives : "There are three general problems with RAID: Economic, Managerial, Architectural" RAID costs too much Management is based on a broken concept [LUN's] Parity RAID is architecturally doomed "The big problem with parity RAID is that I/O rates are flat as capacity rises. 20 years ago a 500 MB drive could do 50 I/O per second (IOPS), or 1 IOPS for...

Another related question I've been trying to even discover the correct name for over the last 10 years. I can't believe something so fundamental to I.T. and the knowledge economy could go unstudied. I frame it as "Human cognitive response to workload". There is a whole bunch of data on "human physiological response to workload" - like the US Navy and how long stokers can work at various temperatures (and humidity?). This goes to the heart of computing/programming - being able to solve difficult problems, and managing/reducing defects/errors. In my career, I got very tired of bosses attempting to get more work done by "forced marches". 80 hour weeks aren't more productive - they just insure a very high defect rate and amazing amounts of rework. The best I have been able to find is Dr Lisanne Bainbridge and her work on "mental load". What I wanted to discover is: that for each individual there is an optimal number of 'brain work...

Addition 24-May-2007 Johanna Rotham author and consultant answered an e-mail from me. Johanna is involved in the Jerry Weinberg and Friends AYE - Amplifying Your Effectiveness - conference. Johanna's book "Behind Closed Doors" is on this blog and highly recommended for I.T. Technical Managers. Another interest of Johanna's: Hiring the Best People . Johanna's thoughtful response: Part of the problem is I can't do two of the same project where one is set up as an integrated team and the other is a bunch of people who don't have integrated deliverables. I can tell you that the projects where the people are set up with committed handoffs to each other (Lewis' idea that one person can't work without the rest of them), have better project throughput (more projects per time period) than the groups of people who do not have committed handoffs to each other. But that's empirical evidence, not academic research. Here's a real request I sent to a ...

Objectives (The What) Having begun around 1950, the world of Commercial I.T. is now mature in many ways. "Fields of Work" and professional taxonomies are starting to become standardised. Professional "Best Practices" are being documented and international standards agreed in some areas. For the first time, audits of one of the most pragmatic I.T. disciplines, "Service Management", are possible with ISO 20,000. Business managers can now get an independent , objective opinion on the state of their I.T. operations - or of their outsourcers. Being "documented common sense", ITIL and the related ISO 20,000 are good professional guides, but not underpinned by theory. Are there any gaps in the standard? How does Service Management interface with other IT Fields of Work? and What changes in those other disciplines are necessary to support the new audited practice? Analysis of the full impact of I.T. Service Management, creation of a full taxonomy...

These are books on my bookshelf I'd recommend. Notes on them later. Pick and choose as you need. Personal Organisation Personal Efficiency Program - Kerry Gleeson [older] Getting Things Done - David Allen [newer] Teams, People, Performance Practice What you Preach - David H Maister [Numerical model relating Profitability to Staff Morale/Treatment] How to be a Star at Work - Robert E Kelley Team Management Systems - Margerison & McCann Maimum Success: Breaking the 12 Bad Business Habits before they break you - Waldroop & Butler [rereleased as] The 12 Bad Habits that hold Good People bBack No Asshole Rule - Robert Sutton Execution - the art of Getting things done (in big business) Who says Elephants can't Dance - Louis V Gerstner [on Execution and 'Management is Hard'] Execution - Bossidy & Charan Confronting Reality - Bossidy & Charan Gallup Research First, Break all the Rules - Buckingham & ?? Now, Discover your Strengths - Buckingham & Clifto...