|
|||||
|
Sometimes we can be guilty of making assumptions. We can enable a remote access technology without much concern for impacting operations on the internal network right? Wrong! Because DirectAccess modifies the behaviour of the Windows7 machine you need to make absolutely certain all the ducks are in a line or you risk internally connected users being denied [...] It looks like 2010 could be the year most organisations kick start a desktop refresh. I suspect many held off on upgrading to Vista so for many it’s a Windows XP to Windows 7 upgrade path. I wanted to revisit some of the old challenges in these projects and look at some of the new [...] I remember a few years ago Microsoft created linkage between product releases (to generate cumulative sales?). I believe the trio were Exchange, Vista and Office. While the cumulative features had merit I don’t think there was a strong enough business driver. So now we have a similar linkage between Windows 2008 and Windows 7. This time [...] I recently finished an exercise defining the technical standards for one of Europe’s largest managed service providers. As part of the exercise I gathered the key capabilities across the various infrastructure silos across the Data-centre. I found that it was a trawl to separate the facts from the fiction in the vendor marketing. I have gathered [...] TOGAF has a method called the ADM (Architectural Development Method), the good news is that the same method applies to defining any Architecture (including setting up the Architecture Practice itself). The ADM breaks down into phases that are run iteratively (not always in a set sequence). So lets get started with Phase A: Phase A – Setting [...] TOGAF breaks down Architecture into the following pillars: Business Architecture Phase B on our quest to establish an EA practice focuses on Business Architecture: Terminology: Define a set of standards so that everyone is talking consistent language (formal term here is Ontology) TOGAF uses a term “Enterprise Continuum” and I wish they would think of a different phrase as it throws me each time. It’s important we know exactly what it is as it’s the key deliverable for Phase C. It relates to three elements: Architecture Continuum Consider the repository as a folder full of documents, the usual [...] The good news is that most of the legwork to get the ball rolling is done in phases A to C. Here is what is left: Phase D: Define the technology that is used within the EA practice, ideally a TOGAF aware repository. If nothing else set standards for people to follow; for example always create [...] Let’s start by establishing what does an EA practice do for your organisation. The EA practice should identify Where are you? The reason the methodology is so important is that all three of these answers are always changing. The wind of change blows in for a huge array [...] I believe the first rule of drawing comparisons is to compare apples with apples. As I mentioned in an earlier blog Vsphere is a group of products, Hyper-V is a capability of one product – namely Windows 2008. So let’s start with VMware ESX v Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V I see a lot of HyperVisor experts jumping [...] For those not into Nuclear Physics; Half Life is defined as the amount of time for the atoms in a radioactive substance to decay to half the level they started with. The IT Industry may enjoy a minor boom once the effects of the global recession diminish but ultimately I suspect we are heading for a [...] It’s been many a year since I studied PRINCE2, since then I have experienced rather too many project managers keen to maintain plans with clearly unmanageable numbers of activities and dependencies. I am a strong believer in the art of the practical. Some programmes may impose a structure but to me the layering as proposed in [...] My eye starts twitching when I see fancy marketing terminology, so I have taken a slightly overdue relook at the VMware stack. And stack is the first answer to my question, VSphere is essentially a stack of software, mostly updated versions of existing VMware products but some new and worthy of attention. ESX and ESXi: ESX(i) is [...] I met with my old friend Steve Tuppen this week who is incredibly sharp with regard to driving cost savings into large IT Service Delivery Contracts. I learned a thing or two about how financial (not capability) drivers are likely to shape IT Architecture in the future. In a nutshell organisations will expect to switch IT suppliers [...] |
|||||
|
Copyright © 2010 The Highlander Principle - All Rights Reserved |
|||||