Belts are going to tighten in Federal IT, making Cloud,data center consolidation and network automationeven more important. A recent article in the Federal Times says that federal IT staff sizes will likely go down next year due to continued pressure from sequestration cuts, ongoing migration of federal IT infrastructure to the cloud, and program consolidation [...]
When planning for a perfect storm, automation is a critical component of engineering for resiliency. The recent failure of two network switches in a data center in Utah rippled across the network bringing down four major US web hosting firms and impacting millions of their customers. The breadth of the impact demonstrates some of the [...]
Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the memo that solidified months of theorizing by Bob Metcalfe outlining the invention of Ethernet. Working at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Metcalfe was inspired by a network that connected a central time-sharing computer in Oahu to other Hawaiian Islands using low-cost commercial radio equipment. Metcalfe's goal [...]
Assuming the world doesn't end with the ancient Mayan calendar on Friday, December 21, 2012, this is the time of year when many people start looking toward the next year and making predictions for the future. Here are a few forward-thinking topics combed from various sources relating to IT issues in some of the key [...]
Bring your own device has become a fairly established concept. But what's next? The network? Well, not quite. Cloud Services Providers, typically by taking advantage of virtualization, have made it easier than ever for Line of Business users to rapidly and inexpensively source computing infrastructure, storage, hosted development platforms and enterprise class business applications over [...]
Even when trying to steer well clear of the election year healthcare debate by focusing solely on healthcare IT, there are a number of hot-button issues for healthcare CIOs. Electronic Health Records (EHRs), the Health Information Exchange (HIE), HIPPA compliance, telemedicine, as well as more industry-neutral issues like wireless networking and just how the cloud [...]
The ZK Research paper prepared for Cisco, Why Cloud Computing Needs a Cloud-Intelligent Network, makes some clear points on why the network is as critical (if not more) than any piece of a successful cloud strategy. We couldn't agree more. For Cisco, that means you need to buy their Cloud-Intelligent Network (CIN) gear, and for [...]
Here is a peek at the new white paper from Uplogix: Meeting the Network Requirements of Cloud and Virtual Computing with Local Management. Don't let the catchy title fool you -- this paper could be the plot of a movie. There is the introduction of characters, introduction of the conflict, rising action, heroes, villains... but [...]
Cloud is going to change customer expectations. New requirements are emerging, service levels are becoming more stringent and some of the time-tested strategies for managing costs and ensuring adequate service levels are being invalidated. The new whitepaper form Uplogix shows how the same old network and network management strategies and tools won't just rain on [...]
Network Instruments recently issued their annual State of the Network report predicting a number of network challenges due to increasing use of video and Cloud technologies. With no shortage of work for IT at most companies, the next year should be busy. The highlights from the study include the following challenges for IT staffs: Moving [...]
