Notes from the Consultant's Jungle

I really don’t know why several of my most recent posts are about smartphones.  This forum is about data center and IS security.  However, I am a mobile consultant, and smartphones are a key weapon in the consultant’s utility belt. With that disclaimer, I was reading an article today in Gigaom about smartphone market share.  [...]

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In restaurants, airports, and public transportation I often hear debates over iPhone versus Droid.  These are discussions between owners of these devices, and often times with potential owners trying to decide which phone to invest in next.  By the way, I use the term “invest” very specifically, because these devices require more than writing a [...]

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This morning I was reading a short piece by Gary Beach, Publisher Emeritus of CIO Magazine in which he asks if he’s “certifiably nuts” for encouraging broad-based, state-administered technology certification programs.  The short answer from me- no, not really.   I would though, like to support the spirit of Gary’s call with my own encouragement.

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Posted by Bob Landstrom: CISSP, CGEIT This week I was in New York City attending a meeting with the Executive Communication Group.  One night I decided to go for a walk, and as I was walking I reflected upon the fact that right there, in the streets of Manhattan where I walked, there was once [...]

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Early news wires this morning report the acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle at a $9.50 USD/share price.¬† While many of us were watching the dance between IBM and Sun over the past few months, this deal with Oracle leaves me scratching my head. Oracle’s Larry Ellison says, “The acquisition of Sun transforms the IT [...]

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Microsoft Windows running on a mainframe?¬† Could this be the greatest abomination since the Labradoodle (before you Labradoodle owners out there skewer me, I’m sorry but the Labrador Retriever is such a wonderful dog and to corrupt this fine breed with Poodle blood is a bane to me)? Anyway, this week’s Network World magazine carries [...]

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To many, the concept of Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and what-have-you as a Service (XaaS) is well understood.¬† The emergence of strong cloud based services facilitates a true paradigm shift in modern computing.¬† I’ve found though, that there remains a misunderstanding in some circles about exactly what this new [...]

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I’ve waited for the dust to settle to log a post about Google’s Chrome, and to do so now almost seems trite since there’s already been so much content in the dialogue about browser wars, IE killers and such.¬† I do feel compelled to make a few cursory points about Chrome, just for the record.¬† [...]

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‚ÄòTis true me hardies, the day o’ big data centers on the seven seas be upon us all. So cast off yer land lubberin’ server farms an’ hoist the main sail. We’re settin’ these servers afloat ‚Äòfore ye feel the bite of me floggin’ whip. Arrr. Well, we’ve talked about data centers in salt mines, [...]

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In earlier posts and conversations, I’ve mentioned my interest in container data centers and the opportunities they bring for certain types of implementations and use cases.¬† As a big fan of agility in IT in order to meet the dynamic demands of the Business, containers can be a valuable weapon in the arsenal. In my [...]

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