IT Infrastructure Assessment Methodology

IT Forum Barcelona 2006

The link above is a test Link to a picture taken at Microsoft's IT forum.

The History

In my work I have recently had to complete a number of IT Infrastructure assessments for clients and I thought that I would document some of my findings in an effort to start building an online Toolbox or reference site if you will, with thoughts, ideas, processess and possibly links to tools to help in future endeavors.

 

Data Collection

The very first problem that faces the assessor is what data to collect, even before the obvious next question of how to collect it. The key thing here is to not collect too much data (and believe me this is all too easily done) but instead focus and zoom in on the key data that in the end will drive and determine the shape of your solution.

 

Some typical examples of key driving criteria:

• Number of users
• Number of devices (and type)
• Number of servers (and type)
• Number of sites
• Bandwidth between these sites
• Number of printers (queues)
• Number of Groups
• Number of Mailboxes
• Number of Shares
• Etc...

 

Assessment Stage

The most important thing in this stage is to 'slice and dice' the data collected and work on formatting and presentation of this data in order to start extracting a conclusion (the conclusion can also be incorporate a proposal for a new solution).

 

Presentation Stage

This is typically the last stage in which the outcome of the previous stage is presented to the customer. Some key things to do would be to develop you final conclusion in digestable material (often a presentation accompanied by a more elaborate document) and have the preview checked off by the customer to get their buy in and ensure a that what you have come up with is not out of line with the expectations of the customer. Should things not be as expected, there is still time to adjust the conclusion and bring it completely in line.

 

to be continued...

My First Mobile Post

So I have a PDA and I want to use it. Learning how to write quickly with it is going to help. With a small screen and all.
That should do it for now...
Oh, that picture? Its the Barcelona Congres Center....

Thinkers and Doers

A thought just struck me as I was just mulling over some of the stuff I heard today on the latest Gillmor Gang and Gillmor Daily. I really like Steve Gillmor's approach to moderating and fuelling discussion, as well as his ideas.
The thing that struck me is that it's interesting how guys like Steve and to a certain extend Tim O'Reilly as well (having watched his Mix 06 discussion with Bill Gates yesterday) have very pronounced ideas about new directions in Technology (Steve with his Gesture Bank and Tim of course with the whole Web X.0 movement). At the same time (being true to their analyst inclinations) they criticize the incumbents. Which of course is fine, but and this brings me to my point, they seem to be stuck more in their ideas rather than developing their vision(s) into tangible product(s). As I said... just a thought...

Web 2.0 as a replacement for Desktop Management?

It is pretty exciting to see all the buzz around Web 2.0 & Ajax, having only just "dipped my toe in the water". I'm really liking what I see and I think given time the concepts will yet again revolutionize the way we view, use and manage computing. Note that I deliberately avoid use of the 'old' IT acronymn. IT is probably still what it is, but it just feels to old a term to still be using it.

The BIG question on my mind is how far can Web 2.0 be taken, such that it obviates the need for Desktop Management such as what currently is being done with products such as SMS in the Windows world (making up at least about 90% of the corporate desktops). In the same vain, it might render desktop virtualization techniques (such as server based computing and VMware player-like technologies) unnecessary as these technologies have arisen as an answer to the difficulty of managing the corporate desktop.

In such a new world the concept of ASP takes on new meaning as well. Will the new Web 2.0 incarnations of the 'old' standard productivity applications be offered only by a few big players (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo)? Will Web 2.0 change the paradigm such that our needs change and we f.i. no longer need full blown Word Processors because the only place we need to publish our data is on the Web. Should data be publish offline (to create a book or report) then I'm sure there will be tools available to compile and format our online data automatically such that it can be printed for offline usage.

One issue that I believe is unanswered by all Web 2.0 technology that I've seen today is that of security. In other words how well is my data protected from both external as well as internal threats. I don't think SSL is an answer here. At best a small part of the answer. If Web 2.0 is going to be a broad as possible solution, viable from the mom & pop shops right thru to the large enterprises, we need to have answers (solutions) that deal with (federated) Identify and Access Management questions to deal with distrectionary as well as mandatory access control across the Web 2.0 world...

technorati tags: Web2.0, Desktop, Management

Thoughts-10-1-2006

Give and Ye Shall Receive

I realized that I hadn't included the byline/slogan from Bram Cohen's Bittorrent site yet that I spoke about earlier. Well its here now (title of this entry). This is really what provoked my thoughts earlier today. Seem like a double meaning there there, give freely and generously your donation and programs shall keep coming. On the other hand when using the Bittorrent client, ensure you give back to your fellow Bittorrent users. Its actually hard not to because its kinda built into the program. As soon as you've downloaded a bit, Bittorrent ensure that gets offered back into the network, to other peers. That way its kinda hard not to share. You could change the upload speed to a very small value (like 1Kb) but that's not very 'social' ofcourse.

In other words give back to the network and you can continue to receive the files you desire.

It kind of makes you wonder because in the case of copyrighted content you're giving something that is not yours to give in the first place. Fact is that this is whats happening. The horse has bolted and there is no way that we can lock it up again. Perhaps this reality should drive us to find alternative means of ensuring that content creators get compensated for the works they create. Another thought I had was that how much compensation is actually sufficient (if there is such a thing) and is one work of art more valuable then another? This is something that can change over time as well, as the public's tastes change.

Should there be some sort of model where the artist gets compensated for the work they create through an auction perhaps, where many bidders/buyers can collectively make up for a compensation, such that the artist gets sufficiently compensated for the work created and after that the work can even become public domain??? Its then up to the buyer (who then get the first hand experience of the work of art in return for the money spent) whether or not (s)he publishes this to the wider public and thus spreads the work of art without breaking copyright/licensing laws and the artist would still have been paid. In other words the ownership of the work is relinquished by the artist as soon as the work 'leaves his/her hands'. This would effectively cut out the whole middleman business of publishers.

Not sure if this would really work but some variations to the theme might be possible and feasible. Anyway just some randon rambling thoughts.....