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It is a fact of life that whenever there is a major shift in the way that we use IT, the way that we buy IT capabilities also needs to change. We have gone through this process several times as the mainstream market has shifted from batch processing to Online Transaction Processing (OLTP), then on to Client/Server, and again to Web-based applications. Corresponding to these patterns of use, software licensing schemes have progressed from bundled to licensed for a specific machine, changed again to licens…
OpinionWire Articles - published 18/09/2009 - Rob Hailstone
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The Archer SmartSuite Framework is an Enterprise Governance, Risk, and Compliance (E-GRC) solution that can help an organisation to reduce enterprise risks, manage and demonstrate compliance, automate business processes, and gain visibility into corporate risk and security controls. E-GRC solutions are required by organisations needing to manage their corporate risk profile in rapidly changing and increasingly complex business and regulatory environments, where the cost of non-compliance can be considera…
Technology Audits - published 12/08/2009 - Stephen Mann
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When the basic concepts behind SOA were first put forward there was an unrealistic emphasis on simplicity. All that was required, so the story went, was to service-enable the applications that were already being used, and then re-combine the services into new and interesting sequences that would deliver untold flexibility and business value.
Butler Group Review Articles - published 27/05/2009 - Rob Hailstone
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Although the recent news that the owners of the file-sharing facilitator ‘The Pirate Bay’ have been found guilty of aiding copyright infringement might appear to have minor impact for the world of IT, it does raise some issues. True, these have been around for many years, but each case of this type should serve as a reminder that the law is a changeable beast and due consideration of this should be given by all interested parties.
OpinionWire Articles - published 30/04/2009 - Mike Thompson
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Licensing is the number one topic for most organisations when it comes to the ''gotchas'' about x86 server virtualisation. The problem is that for many Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) virtualisation is just as much of a mystery as it is to end-user organisations.
Butler Group Review Articles - published 05/03/2009 - Roy Illsley
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In many IT and management areas, models and management processes have helped by providing a structure that helps with understanding and managing complexity. A fine example is ITIL, which has helped many organisations to organise the disparate and complex aspects of operational IT, and align them with business.
Butler Group Review Articles - published 05/03/2009 - Alan Rodger
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Due to the credit crunch crisis, the pressure is on IT departments to cut costs. “We need to be lean and mean”, says the CEO, “and IT costs us a lot. So cut at least 20% off IT costs or else!” If you touch your forelock and get out your red pen, then you’ll probably miss being lean and mean, and go directly to being thin and brassed off!
Butler Group Review Articles - published 05/03/2009 - Terry White
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Every time there is a fundamental shift in either the economic climate or the way that we deploy IT systems, it seems that changes to licence structures become part of the way the industry comes to terms with the broader changes. A reasonable balance has to be struck between adequate compensation to the vendor for the investment made in creating the software and the recognition of value by the purchaser. Innovations in licence models rarely come from the small set of established major vendors – generally…
OpinionWire Articles - published 19/02/2009 - Rob Hailstone
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In May 2008 IBM launched the first global conference on service management, which it termed ‘Pulse’, and its message was that service management must extend beyond the IT department. This year IBM continued with the event, and the message was that progress has been made on a number of enabling technologies, capabilities, and solutions, which support the concept of a convergence of IT infrastructure and business infrastructure.
OpinionWire Articles - published 19/02/2009 - Roy Illsley
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In this special issue of Butler Group Review we look at the key trends that will influence the IT landscape during 2009: their impact on the organisation, on budgets and project plans, on users, customers, and citizens, and on those charged with delivering IT services
Butler Group Review Articles - published 27/01/2009 - Tim Jennings
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Later this year current SAP CEO Henning Kagermann will handover the leadership reins to Leo Apotheker. However, 2009 is a tricky year to take the lead as the company continues to be dogged by issues relating to its highly unpopular Enterprise Support initiative, which was due to become effective this month, and the latest in the ongoing (and expensive) legal fight with Oracle over allegations of intellectual theft, all set against tough economic conditions.
OpinionWire Articles - published 19/01/2009 - Angela Eager
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As I write this article, Nigeria’s only geostationary satellite, NigComSat-1, is reported to have failed: the satellite was launched in May 2007, amid significant controversy. Particularly the financial burden weighs heavily on the minds of detractors – with an initial budget of some US$200 million, the satellite is finally believed to have cost US$450 million.
TECHwatch Articles - published 08/12/2008 - Terry White
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Much has been written recently about the potential of virtual worlds as a medium for collaboration, and several high-profile organisations have experimented with a presence in one such environment – Second Life.
Butler Group Review Articles - published 27/11/2008 - Tim Jennings
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Having recently had a business conversation in which one person referred to Business Continuity (BC) as a ‘weeping sore’, I concluded that the subject is at the very least a thorn in IT managers’ sides.
Butler Group Review Articles - published 27/11/2008 - Alan Rodger
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As analysts we operate in a privileged position, commenting on new technologies and seeing the benefits they can bring. However, back in the real world, CIOs are for the most part dealt a particular hand, which has either been inherited or grown as needs must.
Butler Group Review Articles - published 27/11/2008 - Roy Illsley
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Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) was developed in the late 1990s as a traffic engineering approach to replace IP over either Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) or Frame Relay (FR) on an Internet backbone. However, since this time other uses have been discovered for the technology; the most recent being as a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
Butler Group Review Articles - published 28/10/2008 - Roy Illsley
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The virtualisation, and centralisation, of desktop PCs has been on the corporate technology agenda for many years. Desktop virtualisation, the physical separation of the end-user device from the execution of the operating system and applications has two flavours: Client-hosted Desktop Virtualisation and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).
Butler Group Review Articles - published 28/10/2008 - Stephen Mann
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Casting IT Risk purely in IT terms is meaningless as far as its impact on the business is concerned, yet this has often been the case, due to a fragmented approach to risk management, a gap in understanding between IT and business executives, and the lack of a common terminology for risk classification.
Butler Group Review Articles - published 15/10/2008 - Tim Jennings
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More applications than ever are critical to revenues nowadays, as more business processes are tied directly to IT applications, and more applications are exposed online to customers and partner organisations.
Butler Group Review Articles - published 15/10/2008 - Alan Rodger
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Undertaking the use of outsourced or managed services can constitute a risk to an organisation, as it creates a dependency on skills from outside.
Butler Group Review Articles - published 15/10/2008 - Maxine Holt
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The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) has been quietly stealing a march on the Central Processing Unit (CPU). As the technology race between chip vendors continues to propel Moore’s law forward, the implications will impact on the future of application development.
Butler Group Review Articles - published 15/10/2008 - Michael Azoff
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Windows Server 2008 (WS08) is based on the same code base as Windows Vista; however, that is where the similarity ends. WS08 was designed and built after much consultation with operational users of Windows Server 2003 (WS03), and is designed around three main principles.
Butler Group Review Articles - published 15/10/2008 - Roy Illsley
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Like an increasing number of companies today, Sun Microsystems is looking at virtual workplaces. With over half of the company’s workforce working remotely at any given time, the opportunities for impromptu meetings and chance encounters were diminishing, and so the company decided to build a virtual extension to its Menlo Park campus.
Butler Group Review Articles - published 15/10/2008 - Richard Edwards
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Last week at VMworld, Paul Maritz, CEO of VMware, set out the company’s vision for the future of virtualisation. In his keynote speech, he positioned VMware’s approach around three key elements; firstly, the concept of a Virtual Data Centre (VDC)-OS; secondly, a move towards the concept of vCloud; and finally, repositioning VMware – changing the message from having a server virtualisation heritage to emphasising that it began as a founder of client virtualisation – and launching its vClient initiative. H…
OpinionWire Articles - published 01/10/2008 - Roy Illsley
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The creation of value for an organisation through the use of IT is not primarily dependent on the technology itself, but in the application of that technology to business processes and activities.
Butler Group Review Articles - published 03/09/2008 - Tim Jennings
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