IT Storage Blog

Is OPEX your friend in IT?

 It’s funny to have the OPEX and CAPEX conversation with fellow technology geeks and sales people.  Everyone says OPEX is better, and tells the CFO and CIO that today’s solution is going to save you from CAPEX!  I think most decision makers are getting tired of hearing that.  So much –it’s almost dismissed as sales buzz words.  Probably because many consultants forget the deeper significance (AND when there are exceptions to the rule).  What happens when you ask the geek and sales guy the significance of the two?  What is the difference between CAPEX and OPEX?

Just to clarify what you should know (follow link):

Who Are You? What Do You Mean By Cloud?

It's very frustrating as a consumer and a commercial organization to wade through the many vendors and consultants who talk about bringing "cloud" to the IT organization.  How do I know?  Because my clients tell me.  Not only are my client friends trying to figure out a concise repeatable definition to "sell" internally to their management and business teams -but they are also being bombarded with vendors saying the latest buzz words and claiming to take them on the journey.  The term "cloud" has different connotations depending on an IT professional's (consultant's) products, offerings, or place within the eco system.

That being said, I've been asked to create some examples to hopefully illustrate some thoughts on how to interpret 'who's who' -among the landscape.  This will enable the right conversations in the right context when inviting (or ignoring) the next "cloud" expert to the office.

Perspectives From Two Local C-level Innovators, On Making IT a Business Investment

Today I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Lev Gonick, CIO at CaseWesternReserveUniversity.  He joined us with his friend and colleague, Bill Bradfield, CEO at PerceptIS.  Lev and Bill met with my team and I to discuss C-level perspectives on technology –how it is managed and evaluated as an investment.

It was a great way to listen to a very insightful set of perspectives on driving business value through the vehicle of technology.  You may want to check out Lev’s blog site, here, for a glimpse of his vision and perspectives on “Top 10 IT Trends for Higher Education in 2009.”This is a very good insight, and I notice some of these trends already as well with local universities. We probably asked about 20+ questions until we finally ran out of time.  Hopefully, Lev will let me conduct a blog interview with him –to post more responses for you.  I wrote down at least 9 more questions I wanted to ask today –but of course topics from my colleagues kept things moving so fast we did not have enough time for every one of them.

 

The one point he made that resonated most with me today, was not even about the business or the technology.  Here's what he had to say… people working together in business and realizing success need two things…

Confidence Building and Trust.

  Lev continued, “We all work and live in a community.  Always find meaningful ways to give back and be involved in your community [together].”  What if we each took the time to intentionally do these things with those we create solutions with?  Co-workers, partners, clients, vendors... etc.  I think we would begin to see stronger synergies in more places.  Thanks for the insight today Lev and Bill!  ...To my readers... what are your thoughts?

Is Your Data Center Like a 3 Ring Circus?

Next Generation Data Center –Requires Next Generation Leadership, Guided by Principles, to Manage the Transition of Change.

One of my favorite journals is the Harvard Business Review.  There are so many insightful articles on leadership, happenings within various market segments, and especially authentic interviews with leaders.  These interviews always take the most simple day to day experiences in life –and relate them into making our complex professional goals easy to attain.

For example in the November issue of 2008, an interview with John Chambers, the CEO of Cisco –explains ways that he reads market trends several years in advance –by relating it back to a childhood memory of a fishing trip with his father.

How does this relate to taking the data center into the next generation?  Recently in the January 2009 issue, Julia Kirby interviews Chuck Wagner –Ringmaster for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.  Imagine this… Wagner is tasked with directing the attention of 20K+ people during a modern day show while balancing 138 years of tradition for the organization.  Do you ever feel like that you share this type of burden within your organization?

Lessons from the CFO to the CIO

Isn’t it interesting that our organizations always say, that “information is our most important asset” …yet we do not treat it that way? 

I was thinking we should model our technology approach in a few ways on the finance division.  For example, the CFO's office has been managing one of the company's most important assets for generations... the money.  He is commissioned by his organization to be in charge of four primary functions.

1. Storing all the money of the company.  He has at his disposal many facilities, systems, and processes to ensure this.
2. Protecting that money.  Again… more facilities, systems, and processes.
3. Optimizing the money.  Essentially ensuring that it is used and utilized to it’s full potential, so that none is at waste at any given point in time.
4. Leveraging the money.  This is important, so that the money brings new value to the business. 

Why don't we treat the 1's and 0's as dollar bills?  If we did we could turn IT into a revenue stream instead of a cost center!  This is what I often refer to as being Information Centric.  It involves Information Lifecycle Management.  Plus many other creative ways to begin marketing your 1's and 0's within and outside of your organization.  I have many more thoughts around this topic, and often engage my customers and business partners on this subject.  Ask me about it, the next time we see each other.  What do you think?

Information Before Technology

Where would we be today without the technology we use to manage our data / information & business processes?  When was the last time you have traced that thought back to the generations of leaders before us?  For example, my picture here -denotes from one man to another when and where to hunt.      Over time humanity has possessed verbal and written languages AND methods to record or distribute the thoughts, ideas, and business of the times.  These have been hallmark to our existence as we know it today.   In the data center we have come a long way. The philosophy of the data center has shifted within the last 50 years… to return back to the business.  Here are a couple of thoughts as to why I see things this way.

For example, this week I was noting a comment from a high ranking VP within my organization.  In our meeting he had noted an observation of how data centers have evolved from system centric to information centric.  Isn't it interesting how we seem to often return to where communication first began?  Back to my cave drawing noted above.  For the people who used that communication then, it was not about the cave –or the drawing.  It was about the information.  I can personally identify with this observation -as I see this happen locally in the Midwest.  I have seen this evolution within organizations I have spent my career.  For example, many finance institutions used to "buy" systems, based off the type of business they hoped to have.  This was a 'monkey see -monkey do' mentality.  OLTP, web B2B, email, etc... were acquired just for the sake of having them. 

However, now today -it is back to the information. Because applications and the underlying infrastructure are flexible enough (finally… many thanks to virtualization concepts being birthed into open systems & networking (thank you to our mainframe brethren))...  business can truly dictate the systems -ultimately back to the information.  I am so excited to actually talk to people about how to create and evolve information centric datacenters.  At the end of the day, it's all about having the right information, at the right place, at the right time, at the right price.  You just do not go out and buy an OLTP -for the sake of having one.

What do you think?