We are suspicious that ‘cloud computing’ is one of those things that isn’t quite here yet, despite the fact that everyone seems to bang on like it is.  For example, the fountains of knowledge up at Gartner claim we will all be living in cloud cuckoo land by a week next Tuesday (OK so maybe it’s more like a sizeable minority by 2012 or something) but perhaps this is too premature. 

According to Computer Weekly, a recent cloud focused event found that many businesses who had embraced the cloud (that just sounds silly doesn’t it?) boasted IT savings of anything up to 90%.  It’s all to do with harnessing utility processing power at cheap accessible rates rather than running your own datacentre/s blah blah blah.

A cloud, earlier

Now permit us to skirt over all of the technical detail here but, merit-worthy as this all sounds, it doesn’t necessarily address all the niggly stuff that IT departments have to contend with on a daily basis.  More technology… pah…how about better processes for a change?  We are supposed to be masters of technology, but the development of cloud computing seems to have everyone contemplating radically different infrastructure set-ups in order to march to its tune.

In the next ten years, you will likely buy a hybrid car rather than an electric one.  Why?  Because the reality is that near-term.  As such, will all your IT really exist within a cloud, or is it more likely that the weather will gather from time to time and then blow away?

A bit like US presidents pumping trillions into firing pieces of junk at the planet Mars, UK politicians talking big on IT and technology in general are obviously trying to reflect back all the associated positive attributes onto themselves.  What’s not to like about someone painting pretty pictures of a better tomorrow?  A vote winner right there; just wave an iPad around, go on YouTube, get Twitter and Facebook crazy, and promise to shove a big pile of broadband up everyone’s nose.  

Yes, we are a bit cynical.

Passing without comment on this blog at the time, was the sad news that Labour MP David Taylor had died last Boxing Day.  So why mention it now?  Because with many years experience at the sharp end within a sizeable IT department, Mr Taylor was one of the few parliamentarians who understood anything of any substance regarding IT.

Instead, brace yourself.  Not only for the inevitable surfeit of horrifically over-simplified and inaccurate IT-related ramblings from poorly briefing politicos, but also for the ensuing responses from equally ill-at-ease ignoramuses who might in fact have good reason to shout-down their opponent’s tech-drenched manifesto pledge but who will – rather unfortunately – do so really badly.

Right now, somewhere, at the end of some speech-writer’s pen are the words: “After all, we are all IT users now…”

Not ALL of us mate…

On 6^th April, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) will collect new powers enabling it to discharge the sort of stern clip around the ear that recalcitrant corporate data abusers rightly deserve.   Ahead of the big date, the Deputy Info Comm himself has been on the PR offensive to balance the iron fist of £500,000 fines on the one hand with the olive branch of guidance, sympathy and a nice cup of tea in the other.

Working at the ICO must be a bit like being a police officer attached to the ‘don’t drink and drive’ initiative circa 1975.  Everyone says it’s an important and worthy cause, but not enough to radically alter behaviour.  Not yet anyway…

Unlike the booze lobby who dragged their heels encouraging drinkers to leave their car keys at home, at least the ICO has an ally among the vendor and reseller community.  At least when they aren’t overdoing the FUD anyway…

Dare to look at your inbox and they’ll be sales pitches telling you that if it isn’t impending regulatory compliance of one form or another that is hours away from burning down your house and strong-arming your kids off to a Siberian gulag, then bet your bottom dollar the ICO will soon be rapping your quivering buttocks with court summons to pay a £gazillion data breach fine.   But scare tactics only work up to a point, and it’s encouraging to see that the ICO appreciate that fact.

What broke the back of the drink drive problem wasn’t just shock and awe, or education – it was honesty.  People were honest with each other, admitting they’d done it, that it was wrong, and that they wouldn’t do it anymore.

Honesty in terms of data breaches would start with many IT depts admitting they don’t have a terrific handle on exactly what the hell is going on event logging and reporting wise, and that in the event of a critical issue they wouldn’t have the internal resources to deal with it.  While that may necessitate a technical solution from a trusted source, internal corporate paymasters need to sit up and listen too.

Keeping data secure is a strategic issue, and not simply an operational one.  IT pros may or may not need help to solve it, but they could all do with extra time and resources to avoid it getting washed overboard by other ‘priorities’.

Security is one of the IT certainties that you could probably add to the “nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes” proverb. Although, perhaps Benjamin Franklin wasn’t exactly clued up with the debate around automating IT security processes.

One thing Franklin did often refer to was laws; compliance if you will, something that has driven the IT security world (nuts?) for a number of years. Compliance to meet the security and regulatory changes that have occurred in the last decade has been a central factor in the development of IT management processes.

Do you know your PCI from your Data Protection Act; your HIPAA from your MiFiD? Details are just a smokescreen when the problem is that wherever compliance is mandated, it has often meant manual responses such as sifting through security reports and events for malicious activity. This is a hugely inefficient process made worse by regulatory pressure. While regulators will continue to bring in new standards and such like, security has become a far wider, holistic entity within an organisation.

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) is one such technology that can greatly aid IT managers in trying to automate and add efficiency to security processes. The benefits to such a solution can include; improved detection of cross-enterprise threats, ending the need to interrogate multiple data sources, space and power savings, and empowering more professionals with less specialised skills to be able to carry out the task. And that’s to say nothing of the enormous compliance benefits…

Happy Birthday Cloud

So the Internet is 40 years old this month; assuming of course that you carbon date one of IT’s most seminal births back to when a few ARPANET boffins first started tinkering with their nodes.

Regardless, all IT pros agree that a lot of ‘cutting edge’ technology has become obselete during that period. Disk storage no longer means a filing system for floppies, high-speed communications are now Gigabit/s rather than Kilobit/s, and ‘the great fax machine revolution’ is something we prefer not to talk about. 40 days is a long time in IT, let alone 40 years.

But while IT continues to be dynamic and evolutionary, the repetitive manual processes that often surround it are stuck in the dark ages. IT is still exciting and surprising, but it is also a utility service; a cost-centre; a business-critical asset.

So what does the future hold for IT? With all the business pressures and expectations, is there still room for innovation? With the constant need to integrate and exploit new technological capabilities, how can IT maintain financial and operational discipline?

They say life begins at 40, so it’s worth considering operational improvements sooner rather than later. Then again they also say 40 is the new 30. In any case, it’s a numbers game…

Supposedly web 2.0 is an IT Manager’s nightmare, but at Automated IT we want to defend IT Managers’ (via Twitter, blogging, facebook natch) willingness to embrace web 2.0. It is great to see Computer Weekly give credence to the idea of being innovative with IT resource, but IT Managers seem get a bum rap in the article.

IT Managers are not bulwarks to innovation, they are managing and delivering crucial IT services. The bulwark is often the amount of resource and manpower they have to spend on operations, the everyday stuff that is important but probably not the subject of glowing press articles. IT Managers are never given a pat on the back when (as per most of the time) IT works like clockwork, only when things go awry.

So my message to those criticising IT Managers is that if you want IT departments to be more able to innovate, liberate them through automating IT processes. Automating your bread and butter operations can free up IT staff to provide the gourmet innovation you demand.

Forrester Research’s State Of Enterprise IT Budgets: 2009 survey has highlighted that it forecasts enterprises reducing their operating and capital budgets by 3% in the US and 2% in Europe. Perhaps more worryingly, the same research looking exclusively at SMB’s IT budgets found an even steeper reduction in IT budget spend (4% in US, 3% in Europe).

At AutomatedIT we always look for a silver lining – particularly when it comes to automation delivering tangible cost savings for organisations. Even in a reduced budget environment, introducing and extending automation into your IT infrastructure can make any budget go farther and work better. This is particularly important for SMBs, who can generally make more pronounced and beneficial changes than larger organisations

In fact, making those changes, saving money and reducing man power will shine even brighter when budgets contract – you might even get a thank you from your boss, or those prickly lot in the financial department.

Don’t be scared of what the scary research tells you; by using automation, you can embrace the challenge and make your budget go further.

Keeping the datacentre going would be easy if you had a pair of impulse engines and a warp drive.  Sadly, there is such economic concern regarding the electrical powering of datacentres and IT in general at the moment, that there is even talk of UK businesses having to move their facilities abroad to avoid huge running costs.

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