Prepare the ground for the cloud

Posted on: June 12, 2012

mykrandal

This post originally appeared here on May 30, 2012, in the Guardian.

To make sure your organisation benefits from cloud computing, lay a solid foundation before making grand plans

Cloud computing is ubiquitous in technology conversations. It’s not just a buzzword, but a catalyst to a new wave of thinking. Cloud is still yet to show its full capabilities as the demands on the world’s datacentres continue to rise – open source and virtualisation are spear-heading this movement.

There are many opportunities for organisations to benefit from cloud computing and slot it into their overall IT strategy. However, instead of getting overwhelmed and “eating too many elephants” it’s important to prepare the groundwork for cloud and pace the business by laying a solid foundation.

Big Data. Big Noise.

Posted on: June 5, 2012

mykrandal

by Justin Hayes (Red Hat)

There is a lot of buzz these days around Big Data, and rightfully so. The volume of data produced and the number of sources producing it are growing faster and faster. Similarly, the potential for organizations large and small to harness these data cannot be understated, and should not be overlooked.

There is also a lot of noise when you look closer at the Big Data question, or to get right to the point, when you decide what your organization’s Big Data strategy should be. Here are some things to think about as you navigate the Big Data waters.

Top 10 Signs Your Enterprise Doesn’t ‘Get’ Open Source

Posted on: May 29, 2012June 18, 2012

mykrandal

by Guy Martin (Red Hat)

Open Source is not only a business model for Red Hat; it’s ingrained into the DNA of the company. Because of this, Red Hatters can generally count on their co-workers understanding both the fundamentals of open source, as well as the ethos and methodologies that go with it. However, within Red Hat Services, the consulting teams often get customer questions around these topics, or hear from employees of our customers who relay things they’ve heard regarding adoption of open source within their enterprise.

So, with apologies to David Letterman, I’d like to share the Top 10 Signs Your Enterprise Doesn’t ‘Get’ Open Source. While this is meant to be a somewhat humorous look at the topic, I also think it’s an informative way to talk about improving an enterprise’s effective use of open source technologies and methodologies. I’ll break down the list not by rank order, but by three areas that customers typically encounter when dealing with open source: Consumption, Collaboration, and Creation. I’ll also put in a few thoughts about how to address each of these from an improvement perspective.

An interview with Red Hat Training’s partner of the quarter

Posted on: May 22, 2012

mykrandal

Based outside of Washington, DC, Spectrum Training Brokers is a centralized agent offering a single channel for purchasing computer and business skills training from hundreds of vendors nationwide. As an authorized training supplier of Red Hat, Spectrum has been offering Red Hat Training for over 6 years. Named Red Hat’s Training Partner of the Quarter for Red Hat’s fiscal fourth quarter of 2012 (December 2011 through February 2012), Spectrum had the highest sales and training bookings of any other North American Ready training partner. We recently chatted with Spectrum’s Nat Emery to get his thoughts about today’s training landscape today and where it may be headed tomorrow.

NOTE: The opinions, statements and other information included in this interview/blog are those of the author, and she/he is solely responsible for its content.

Who is getting trained these days?

The majority of my (personal) sector is government related. With the government mandating certifications for a lot of their contractors, that sector – federal contractors, federal government – is really making the investment and spending money on training. That’s not to say private industry is not doing it. To me, the federal sector are the ones driving the need where professionals must have to maintain those levels of certifications to stay in those contracts, and are putting a lot more emphasis on training.

What’s new with Red Hat Training courses

Posted on: May 15, 2012

mykrandal

by Pete Hnath (Red Hat)

Innovate or die. It’s the essence of what successful companies do, especially in the tech space. At Red Hat, there is ongoing innovation in every dimension of the business, with new products like CloudForms, new infrastructure like the Customer Portal and new metrics like Net Promoter.

The Curriculum team is similarly pushing to innovate with our course offerings and course delivery. In the last year we’ve completely changed the way Red Hat courses are taught to ensure the most hands-on experience possible. Gone are hour long, death-by-slide lectures. Students are actively engaged through multiple teaching approaches and near-continuous labs focused on solving problems rather than tools and technologies. Instructors are now armed with comprehensive guides with best practices on how to teach topics, resulting in across-the-board consistency and a more optimal student learning environment.

Tip/Trick of the Month: Monitoring Drift Compliance with JON

Posted on: May 8, 2012

mykrandal

by Rich Raposa (Red Hat)

Drift is the unplanned or unintended changes that occur on a resource’s configuration. System administrators need the ability to track drift in their data centers to improve availability and reliability of their platforms, servers and applications.

Drift monitoring is a new feature in the latest version of the JBoss Operations Network 3.0 (JON). You can define a drift detection definition on the Drift page of a resource. Click the New button, assign your drift definition a name, a base directory, then select the files and/or folders to be monitored for drift. Wait a few minutes and JON will take the initial snapshot (snapshot 0) of your monitored files. Each time drift is detected, JON takes a new snapshot of the monitored files. Each snapshot has a number, and snapshots can be viewed in an intuitive, new view known as the snapshot carousel by double-clicking on the drift definition from the Drift page of the resource.

Case Study: Inside Rackspace’s ‘Fanatical Support’

Posted on: May 1, 2012

mykrandal

by Gordon Tillmore (Red Hat)

Often times we are excited to see our certifications ranked highly by analysts or in salary surveys. While this is certainly nice validation, nothing is more exciting than hearing positive feedback directly from our customers. Especially when a customer is running tens of thousands of Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers, and relies on thousands of Red Hat Certified Professionals to both optimize their own environment while also ensuring that their customers maximize their success.

Rackspace, a leading provider of enterprise-class IT hosting, is the perfect example. With more than 150,000 customers—large and small—and nearly 4,000 Linux professionals, Rackspace prides itself on providing “Fanatical Support” to its customer base. And from the start, Rackspace recognized that a business model built upon unparalleled support needed the skills and accreditation to back their “fanatical” claims.

Understanding where you are today: Assessing the current state of your datacenter

Posted on: April 25, 2012

mykrandal

by Sean Thompson (Red Hat)

As technology consultants, we’re typically brought in by a customer to help them get somewhere specific they can’t reach on their own because of resources, skills, time or a host of other reasons. One of the things I’m most surprised by during these engagements, however, is how many IT organizations know where they want to go, but they don’t necessarily know where they are, or swear they are somewhere else. The knowledge they have about their infrastructure and what’s going on in their datacenter right now is extremely limited, or at best stale due to a lack of realtime data.

The value of understanding where you are today is immense, and is an important first step in realizing your IT goals and to help you move towards your ideal datacenter. Knowing where you stand and having a clear map of your current environment shines a light on opportunities to become leaner, to improve performance and automation, and to drive efficiency. The benchmarks you’ll create will help you conduct TCO/ROI calculations that actually mean something, so it will be clear how to become more agile, and become more responsive to the business.

Page 60 of 61
<
1
...
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
>