risk – Page 2

Mike Meikle May 17, 2011 Leave a Comment

Local Interest: Cloud Over the James (Part 1)

This fog is entirely composed of vendor hype!

(This article is part one of a two-part series on Cloud Computing and its usage by companies located in Richmond, Virginia)

Plying the stormy cloud sea toward reality has been a challenge for business and IT folks alike. Buffeted by gales of white papers, webinars and sales-speak we cling grimly to the wheel of our organization as we attempt to find a gleaming beacon of true direction in the tempest-tossed marketplace. It doesn’t help that the captain had to be tied to the mast after listening to too many slick marketing campaigns.

In an attempt to cut through the hype and educate myself outside the vendor sales pitches, I attended the latest AITP meeting on Cloud Computing. Local companies, with an international presence, were gathered to discuss their usage of the cloud as well as their rationale for choosing that solution. Also, two vendors were on hand to give their perspective on current and future use of cloud computing.

The panel consisted of Chris Burroughs,VP IT Infrastructure Services at Mondial Assistance. Ms. Burroughs has worked with the cloud model since the Application Service Provider (ASP) days. Another panelist was Mark A. Eichenberger, Office 365 Specialist from Microsoft Corporation. Mr. Eichenberger provides a variety of cloud solutions (Private, Hybrid, Public) to his customers. The next panelist was Chet Loveland, Chief Information Security Officer for MeadWestvaco. Mr. Loveland’s organization currently has near 18,000 users using Corporate Gmail. Chuck McBride, Sr. Global Infrastructure Manager of Tredegar Film Products was on hand to discuss his firm’s early cloud adoption strategy. The final panelist was Jason Karnes, Cloud Architect at VMware. Mr. Karnes works within the vCloud Datacenter. [Read more…]

Mike Meikle May 9, 2011 Leave a Comment

Skip the Sexy

I need my iPad to display real-time network data post-haste!

Cloud computing, virtual desktops, online collaboration via social media, slick hardware and hipsters with fauxhawks may look and sound cool. However, like a hot tub outside a single-wide trailer on an overgrown lot, they are all flash with little substance. If your foundational IT infrastructure and practices have been ignored or are termite-ridden then slapping an ultra-cool coat of techno-wizardry on your organization will just add to your problems.

Like any IT pro who has done time in the bowels of an organization’s infrastructure I have seen executives cheer-leading the latest pet rock technology that has been showcased in the trade rags. Yet mission critical IT and business components like disaster recovery, business continuity, asset management, vendor management and standard policies and procedures are either nonexistent or half-baked and have been for years.

So who is at fault? Well, information technology executives are partially to blame. They have not communicated the value of having foundational policies and procedures in place to key decision makers in the organization. That’s their job and they aren’t doing it.

Senior executives are at also to blame. They may have relegated the CIO to the leadership “kid’s table” and that person doesn’t have any say strategy or final decision making. What is the point of having a Chief Information Officer if they have little to no executive authority? IT may not even be a part of the organization’s strategic plan. So IT is inundated with wave upon wave of executive sponsored projects that have never been vetted for Return on Investment (ROI), have a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) or even seen if needed resources are available. I’ve seriously heard senior leadership say that “company X has this technology so we need to move on this now”. Meanwhile, they have never tested their disaster recovery plan, patch their servers in a timely fashion or have service level agreements with their vendors. [Read more…]

Mike Meikle February 3, 2011 1 Comment

Research Roundup: Rootin’ Through the Data

Cyber Security and the Davos World Economic Forum

One of the biggest problems we face is information overload. Our inboxes look like the warehouse from Raiders of the Lost Ark, Twitter releases a fire hose of information in our faces and then we have a stack of print publications teetering in the corner.

Seth Godin recently blogged about this very problem in a post titled “In and Out”. Basically, you need to determine how much information you are going to take “in” before you actually produce something or “out”.

Well, I’m here to help with some of the clutter; at least on the cyber security front today. A herd of security related reports were released this week and I’m going to provide an overview of each and link them all together over the next several posts. [Read more…]

Mike Meikle January 21, 2011 Leave a Comment

Consultant’s Angle: The Three P’s of Project Management

As a consultant charged with a project at a new client, you don’t know what is going to clobber you as walk through the door that first day. You may find your project team is exceedingly hostile, you sit three feet from the train tracks and rats will steal your lunch (a true client story). But you can always rely on the fact that any project will encompass these three basic principles, Process, People and Prerequisites. [Read more…]

« Previous Page

Share!