Competitive advantage

This Sector of IT will remain strong

With layoffs affecting each industry, IT is no exception. IT had its share of layoffs, but one sector in IT remains strong. IT services which are directly related to the modern office functionality. Services such as (network setup, hardware repair and setup, phone systems setup, office application support, on-line or on the phone support, etc.)

These types of services are an integral part of any modern office setup; in fact they are part of many home offices setup. Imagine a day of your life where you can not have access to your e-mail or your LAN connection is not giving you access to the internet or to the rest of your office network, can you, as a business, afford it?

Big part of IT services became an integral part of our lives, they became a necessity, just like transportations or health care, we can’t afford a day without them.

I strongly believe that a need for a good technician will remain strong despite the economic ups and downs.

Cloud Computing and the future of hardware

Reading so much about cloud computing these days get me thinking about the future of hardware. Which type of hardware will have sustained demand and which type will gradually become obsolete?

If I can make a small list, I would see it as follows:

1- Demand for large capacity hard drive will start to slow, since many applications will be hosted online
2- Demand for more memory will remain strong, since working in the cloud environment will require great deal of RAM
3- Demand for faster processor will always be strong although some of the processing will be done in the virtual cloud environment
4- Demand for flash drives and other storage devices will start to slow
5- Demand for network equipments will remain strong
6- Demand for printers and copiers will remain strong
7- Demand for larger screens will remain strong

One of the major advantages of cloud computing is to provide a secure data backup location, the demand of storage devices will start to slow. I don’t see any other type of hardware sales will be affected.

Is India the best place for low cost computing initiatives?

We heard about the $10 laptop that the Indian government is planning to launch,

Now, Airtel India is launching a cloud-based Net PC, the system will cost about $165 and it will consists of a 15 inch flat screen and plug and play system. It will be connected to the could environment via a backend Linux run server for storage and application.

Considering the addressable market size in India and the ever growing middle class population, the Indian market has all the ingredients to make such project a success.

Many users are still worried about the safety of their data in could computing environment, but in a growing economy where people are trying to get the best of what technology has to offer, I think this and other similar projects will succeed.

Data Ownership

Who owns the data that was created while at job? Does the company have rights to all data or intellectual property that was created by an employee? For example, can an employee keep the company’s clients contact list?

Currently, I am working in the State of Qatar and the local laws here state that after a foreign employee finishes his contract, he must leave the country for five years before he can come back and work for another employer, the businesses community argues that if an employee switch jobs, he may take trade secrets with him to the new employer and that will cause them to lose competitive advantage.

I think there is no one standard policy a company should follow; it all depends on the job situation and the total compensation package being offered to the employee for his services.

If you work from home, do you really have a weekend?

With the advancement in communications and the fact that large number of people can afford to buy communications devices made it even easier to get work done while away from office or even work full time from home office.

I have started to work from home since 2003 and needless to say, I work everyday even in weekends. The conventional office hours has no meaning when you work from home; your office is only feet away and you don’t need to get dressed to go to work, you can work in your Pajamas.

This new work style is changing how people work, its changing the traditional work habits and with this change the concept of weekend is changing.

If you look at outsourcing, its very clear is that someone is doing your work away from office. In reality, outsourcing is nothing more than doing office work away from office, either that work done at employee home or done half way around the world, the idea is same, office work can be done outside the office.

Since people can do office work at home, many will start to use the weekend to finish the work of the week ahead or do some catch up.

What is COBIT?

1. What is the purpose of COBIT?
The purpose of COBIT is to provide management and business process owners with an information technology (IT) governance model that helps in delivering value from IT and understanding and managing the risks associated with IT. COBIT helps bridge the gaps amongst business requirements, control needs and technical issues. It is a control model to meet the needs of IT governance and ensure the integrity of information and information systems.
2. Who is using COBIT?
COBIT is used globally by those who have the primary responsibilities for business processes and technology, those who depend on technology for relevant and reliable information, and those providing quality, reliability and control of information technology.

Can I use COBIT as a statement of criteria for specific audit conclusions?
Yes, basing the IT Assurance Guide firmly on the control objectives takes the auditor’s opinion out of the audit conclusion, replacing it with authoritative criteria. COBIT is based on more than 40 standards and best practices documents for information technology from standards-setting bodies (public and private) worldwide. These include documents from Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan and the United States. Because COBIT contains all pertinent worldwide standards identifiable at the time of publication, it is all-inclusive with respect to IT controls standards. As a result, COBIT can be used as an authoritative source reference document, providing IT controls criteria on audits.

The above information and more FAQ about COBIT can be found at:

 http://www.isaca.org/Content/NavigationM…

What is the Azure Services Platform? Microsoft version of Cloud Computing

The Azure™ Services Platform (Azure) is an internet-scale cloud services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers, which provides an operating system and a set of developer services that can be used individually or together. Azure’s flexible and interoperable platform can be used to build new applications to run from the cloud or enhance existing applications with cloud-based capabilities. Its open architecture gives developers the choice to build web applications, applications running on connected devices, PCs, servers, or hybrid solutions offering the best of online and on-premises.
Azure reduces the need for up-front technology purchases, and it enables developers to quickly and easily create applications running in the cloud by using their existing skills with the Microsoft Visual Studio development environment and the Microsoft .NET Framework. In addition to managed code languages supported by .NET, Azure will support more programming languages and development environments in the near future. Azure simplifies maintaining and operating applications by providing on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage web and connected applications. Infrastructure management is automated with a platform that is designed for high availability and dynamic scaling to match usage needs with the option of a pay-as-you-go pricing model. Azure provides an open, standards-based and interoperable environment with support for multiple internet protocols, including HTTP, REST, SOAP, and XML.
Microsoft also offers cloud applications ready for consumption by customers such as Windows Live™, Microsoft Dynamics™, and other Microsoft Online Services for business such as Microsoft Exchange Online and SharePoint® Online. The Azure Services Platform lets developers provide their own unique customer offerings by offering the foundational components of compute, storage, and building block services to author and compose applications in the cloud.

Reference: http://www.microsoft.com/azure/whatisazu…

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is not really well defined concept, at least from my understanding. Some say Cloud computing is part of web2.0, some say Cloud computing has been around for many years but under different names.

So what is Cloud Computing? If I can put it in the most simple from it would be “ the ability to do everything on-line, not only accessing the web, but to be able to run applications from the web and even access hardware.”

One short video I watched on Google described Cloud Computing as the ability to host your applications in way that you can scale up and down your storage and bandwidth needs depending on the traffic in your website.

Another video described it as the ability to do all your productive works using a thin client, a laptop with only basic hardware configuration and only the very basic applications, everything else will be available online.

Some professionals believe that Cloud Computing will put and end to the software applications as we know it now. There will be no more installation CDs, every piece of software will be available on line, you use it to do your work as if its installed in your local computer.

Batch Processing and ActiveBatch 7.0 Part 5

ActiveBatch® includes an extensible Built-in Library that allows developers and users a “scriptless solution” for automating workflows to better address the requirements for Process Automation. With ActiveBatch you can create and execute an array of business processes such as Database or ETL, Crystal Reports, and other processes into more tightly integrated workflows as a job step(s) across a diverse group of applications and scripts.

Among the Automated Business Processes included in the Jobs Library are:

* SQL Server Jobs Including DTS Packages and SSIS
* Crystal Reports® Integration
* SQL Blocks for Oracle or SQL Server
* FTP/SFTP Operations  z/OS
* Email Jobs
* Managing Services
* Supporting File Operations like Copy or Zip
* ActiveBatch operations and more

To create an integrated workflow using job steps, select the type, and complete a few fields, directly or using variables, such as the server name, job name, or database name, and other required information. Database and other job types can be integrated into an automated Business Process that can be triggered through ActiveBatch by events, simply date and time or through using the conditional status of a predecessor job.

Simply add a request for ActiveBatch to report progress and your operations group can view the steps as the sequence progresses.

Steps can be grouped using flow controls and be nested as well for improved Business Automation.

Our unique Library allows for reduced errors by eliminating complex scripting, improving service levels and allowing for a reduced cost of operations through centralized and integrated control of diverse jobs and applications.

Check our Job Library details for more specific information or tell us about your requirements for scriptless automation to improve your Business Processes.

Batch Processing and ActiveBatch 7.0 Part 4

Event Automation - Reducing “Slack” Time In Operations:
ActiveBatch® is an event driven job scheduling solution that allows jobs and job plans to be triggered by events such as file creation, modification, deletion, system startup, runaway processes or thousands of events that can be managed by our full support of the Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and or SNMP trapping.

ActiveBatch supports File Triggering on both Microsoft Windows as well as Non Windows systems including Linux, UNIX or OpenVMS upon the creation, modification or deletion of a specific file.

Multiple event triggers can be set up on jobs and job plans so that jobs are triggered based on events, a specific date and time, or even from previous jobs that have failed or succeeded in operation. ActiveBatch allows the job designer to create powerful job flows to take advantage of event based capabilities for the intended business process.

No longer will jobs “wait” for startup as ActiveBatch reduces the amount of “Idle” time previously built into other job scheduling systems by triggering workflows on Events such as File creation, modification or deletion on Windows, UNIX, Linux or OpenVMS systems, or on the completion status of a predecessor job or workflow. ActiveBatch can check for exit status and determine the appropriate job to trigger based on conditional flows. ActiveBatch allows for event based jobs to have expected run times so that they can be monitored or even allow for alerts to be sent to people on whom the job is waiting to release a file or initiate an action. The bottom line is that ActiveBatch helps IT to leverage the business unit with improved service levels.

ActiveBatch allows for events based jobs to gain visibility for operations by their inclusion in Daily Activity or Run Books allowing for “Expected Event Times” to be published so that these jobs and workflows can be identified when problems arise.

ActiveBatch Alerts can triggered when an expected event does not occur within a specified time window. With ActiveBatch you can, as an example, alert a vendor or supplier, that the system is waiting for their action or a file.

ActiveBatch job scheduling software can also interrogate data by using Active Variables and allow specific data to be used as an alternative approach to an event based job trigger. Within ActiveBatch, Active Variables can be used between jobs so that data is passed throughout the business process. Some examples of Active Variables are:
* Date Expression
* File Contents
* SQL Record Set
* Web Service Request Result
* WMI Query
* XML Query
* File System Information

In addition to ActiveBatch’s event based capabilities, ActiveBatch incorporates powerful date and time scheduling allowing either calendar scheduling or fiscal year scheduling. Jobs can be associated with one of more schedules that provide highly granular scheduling details for the greatest flexibility. Business calendars can be associated with jobs or job plans so days may be excluded and identified for previous or next day scheduling, or allow them to run based on the next scheduled date.