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PlateSpin has two integrated products – PowerRecon and PowerConvert – that work together to provide organisations with the ability to gather an inventory of x86 servers, record performance statistics for these servers over time, analyse the performance metrics gathered, and generate an optimised plan for the data centre, and then execute that plan. Currently, organisations can do these tasks independently for the physical and virtual environments, but very few organisations have the tools that enable the…
Technology Audits - published 29/11/2007 - Roy Illsley
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In the IT sector it is often said that a clear sign of market maturity can be gauged from the level of consolidation that is taking place, with the incidence of early-day market leaders being snapped up by established large, enterprise software vendors. In the most active sectors of the security market this has become a regular occurrence. Take the Identity and Access Management space; three years ago it contained a significant number of pure-play solutions providers, but today it is dominated by the lik…
OpinionWire Articles - published 23/11/2007 - Andy Kellett
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The leading outsourcing advisory company, TPI, recently discussed its analysis of the market position at the end of the year’s third quarter, covering outsourcing deals with a value of over €40 million. Although TPI does not advise on outsourcing deals with the public sector, its quarterly calls provide analysts with a valuable insight into the state of the high-end outsourcing arena in different global regions.
OpinionWire Articles - published 29/10/2007 - Alan Rodger
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It was reported last week that the Indian Rupee had strengthened further so that now US$1 was worth just INR39.32 (making UK£1 worth approximately INR80.4). The rupee has risen around 12% against the US dollar in the last 12 months, and the expectation is that the outsourcing providers based in India, which service organisations in the west, will be worst affected.
OpinionWire Articles - published 18/10/2007 - Maxine Holt
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CSC Covansys is a discrete part of the giant global service provider CSC, which aims to maximise the advantage to customers of using offshore resources in India to fulfil their IT and business process needs. Large, well-established Western providers have had to respond to the success of the model of using India-based resources – in CSC’s case to greatly increase the size of its existing Indian workforce by acquiring Covansys, which has the majority of its resources based in India. Organisations with a pe…
Technology Audits - published 16/10/2007 - Alan Rodger
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Lawson Opportunity Analyzer (OA) is a service from Lawson Software, aimed at helping customers align their IT strategy (in terms of enterprise application deployment) with business objectives. Historically, the deployment of applications such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has been a hit and miss affair, with relatively few delivering real, measurable success rates. OA helps by working with executives and process owners in a top-down/bottom-up manner to map, target, and then plan which business ob…
Technology Audits - published 09/10/2007 - Teresa Jones
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I started out in IT as a humble analyst programmer, more years ago than I care to remember, developing systems in languages such as COBOL and Assembler. We had long windows overnight for batch updates of systems, any Service Level Agreements (SLAs) were determined by the IT department, and any changes to systems were met with timescale estimates also by the IT department, with business needs some way down the list.
However times have changed, with businesses and customers expecting systems to be availab…
OpinionWire Articles - published 27/09/2007 - Maxine Holt
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It was reported earlier this week that the UK’s Automobile Association (AA) has given notice that it will terminate its UK£50 million, seven-year, IT infrastructure outsourcing deal with IBM. This follows the AA’s UK£6.2 billion merger with the UK-based holiday and insurance services provider Saga, which was given EU approval earlier this month.
OpinionWire Articles - published 27/09/2007 - Maxine Holt
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With the rise in Software as a Service (SaaS) applications – ranging from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to desktop applications – one could be forgiven for thinking that you can just sign up to use them and away you go. Whilst on an individual level this may be the case, for organisations of all shapes and sizes it is still highly likely that services will still be needed to ensure that the deployment runs smoothly.
OpinionWire Articles - published 20/09/2007 - Teresa Jones
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Managed Services is a more flexible alternative to outsourcing, with a lighter-touch customer experience, but still achieves many of the general benefits for customers of externalising supply. Managed Services relationships are generally more flexible, easier to establish (and terminate), and free of many of the more problematic aspects of outsourcing agreements, particularly those relating to asset transfers. Consequently, the procurement process is a great deal simpler, and is less likely to involve th…
Butler Group Review Articles - published 06/09/2007 - Alan Rodger
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Many users of managed services and larger outsourcing agreements are today looking for the inclusion of risk/reward in the contract they have with their providers. It is quite surprising to Butler Group how many providers are reluctant to offer this option, instead preferring a fixed fee for the service(s) delivered. However, the reality is that risk is being undertaken by both parties in an outsourcing or managed services agreement, and this risk can be carefully managed through risk-and-reward to be of…
Butler Group Review Articles - published 06/09/2007 - Maxine Holt
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Enterprise Single Sign On (ESSO), from ActivIdentity, is a solution set that enables organisations to effectively combine Single Sign-On (SSO) with strong security, providing end-users with secure access to almost any type of application without remembering individual passwords. Application-specific passwords are now seen as constituting more of an efficiency problem than a security benefit, as they are a major cause of calls to an organisation’s helpdesk. ActivIdentity ESSO provides multiple options to …
Technology Audits - published 30/08/2007 - Alan Rodger
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Citrix, a leader in the world of server-based computing and Windows desktop and application virtualisation, last week signed a definitive agreement to acquire XenSource – itself an up-and-coming vendor in the realm of server virtualisation solutions. With its recent acquisitions in the areas of network acceleration and optimisation, client-server performance monitoring, and software streaming, Citrix continues to build-out a compelling end-to-end application delivery and access platform. Consequently, th…
OpinionWire Articles - published 23/08/2007 - Richard Edwards
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The history of software patents in the USA is one of accidental evolution rather than thoughtful planning. Essentially, the IT industry became aware that there was nothing in existing patent legislation to exclude software from being covered. Within the system, software was treated alongside any other patent application on an equal basis – there is no ‘software patent legislation’ as such in the USA, just ‘patent legislation’. So almost overnight, IT vendors scrambled to get their software innovations pa…
OpinionWire Articles - published 23/08/2007 - Michael Azoff
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As predicted when the intended acquisition of GFI Informatique by Fujitsu Services was announced in May, commercial change in the European services industry has continued apace.
OpinionWire Articles - published 09/08/2007 - Alan Rodger
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Today, IBM announces the latest project in its multi-year effort to consolidate its once-sprawling IT infrastructure into a more manageable, cost-effective, and environmentally-friendly IT service capability. This latest initiative has been named ‘Project Big Green’ by IBM, and is an ambitious project to consolidate some 3,900 applications onto approximately 30 System z mainframes. Although this is a logical continuation of IBM’s consolidation effort, one view of the catalyst for this particular project …
OpinionWire Articles - published 02/08/2007 - Rob Hailstone
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The last decade of pervasive electronic communication has led to major cost-savings, and the ability for staff in remote locations to be involved more closely in the collaboration and joint decision-making processes that are a requirement for all organisations. However, familiarity has given way to abuse in some circumstances – for instance, it is easy to find examples of e-mail and instant messaging being used as an alternative to getting up and talking to the person in the adjacent office. Electronic c…
OpinionWire Articles - published 13/07/2007 - Rob Hailstone
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It has recently been reported that the BBC has not achieved the cost savings it was expecting from the ten-year outsourcing arrangement it has with Siemens Business Services (SBS). Butler Group reported on this deal back in October 2004, which was due to deliver expected annual savings of around UK£35 million over a period of ten years.
OpinionWire Articles - published 13/07/2007 - Maxine Holt
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Over the last two months, Progress Software has issued a number of press releases around its capabilities in the Software as a Service (SaaS) market. Although Progress has had the capability to operate in this market for some time, these announcements suggest that the company now sees SaaS as an area with significant growth potential for its infrastructure software products, and is putting in place the partnerships to exploit this potential.
OpinionWire Articles - published 29/06/2007 - Rob Hailstone
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In the last few years, the use of outsourcing, managed services, and other variants of external services that fulfil IT or business functions has become mainstream, but the focus of industry-leading practice has shifted from the potential of these approaches to deliver solely cost reduction, to how they can add real business value.
Butler Group Review Articles - published 28/06/2007 - Alan Rodger
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Sterling Commerce Managed Services are Business-to-Business (B2B) infrastructure solutions allowing trading organisations to interact with each other across a secure network. Long considered as only appropriate for large organisations, the Sterling Commerce Managed Services provide organisations of all sizes the ability to trade and collaborate electronically via various methods.
Technology Audits - published 28/06/2007 - Maxine Holt
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As one of the larger, ‘traditional’ outsourcing services providers, several of CSC’s recent activity areas, and its recent results announcement, form part of an interesting view of a company in the throes of change; especially as they come after some minor crises in its fortunes.
OpinionWire Articles - published 21/06/2007 - Alan Rodger
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NetworkD Infrastructure Management Services (IMS) are a modular, outsourced offering combining tried-and-tested desktop management practices, commercial off-the-shelf technology, and a scalable resource model with international delivery capability. The focus of NetworkD’s service offering is to deliver improved services at a lower cost – the prime directive for all IT managers these days.
Technology Audits - published 11/06/2007 - Richard Edwards
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The Web is awash with new technologies, new business models, and of course new buzzwords. One particular word – ‘mashup’ – is starting to crop up everywhere, from vendor briefings
Butler Group Review Articles - published 01/06/2007 - Richard Edwards
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Climate change issues are highlighting the urgent need to reduce the power that is consumed by computers everyday all over the world. The phrase ‘Green Computing’ has come to encompass all aspects of environmentally-friendly IT, and has become a regular hot topic of discussion in the computer media this year. Many companies have spotted the opportunity for publicity and have declared themselves to be green.
Butler Group Review Articles - published 01/06/2007 - Sarah Burnett
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