Jan Ursi

How to capitalize on the game-changing multicloud model and unlock new revenue streams by demonstrating your value as a skilled partner in helping build and deploy the capabilities your customers need, building blueprints for business-relevant applications that can be deployed in a self-service model and move freely from on-premise to public cloud and back again, on any platform and any hypervisor. That’s where the money is.

The emergence of disruptive new technologies and consumption models means the IT industry is transforming too fast, and is now far too complex to believe any vendor inherently “knows” the recipe for making channel partners successful. It’s time that control over joint investments and profits is directed back to where it belongs: to the partner.

Why the channel should take advantage of the burgeoning hyperconvergence space.
For many of us in the IT industry, hype bubbles tend to form quickly and dissipate just as fast. Today’s next big thing may not always end up as such. A good way to gauge a technology’s potential is to look at the sales growth numbers when compared to the decline of technologies that a new innovation is replacing. For those that watched the meteoric rise of VMware, hyperconvergence is exhibiting clear… Show more

Why the channel should take advantage of the burgeoning hyperconvergence space.
For many of us in the IT industry, hype bubbles tend to form quickly and dissipate just as fast. Today’s next big thing may not always end up as such. A good way to gauge a technology’s potential is to look at the sales growth numbers when compared to the decline of technologies that a new innovation is replacing. For those that watched the meteoric rise of VMware, hyperconvergence is exhibiting clear similarities. With year-on-year growth of over 100 percent according to IDC - all the while traditional server and storage markets remain stagnant – it’s clear that hyperconvergence and the move to the enterprise cloud is the way forward, and not just a fad. Show less

Two networking cultures are converging – the office LAN (local area network) and the manufacturing monitor and control network – with many benefits for centralised control for automation and for just-in-time (JIT) stocking and ordering of components.

Inventory can be monitored in real time, even when factory and purchasing agent are miles apart. With materials from one location, parts from another and assembly in a third location, the whole process can be integrated via a common control… Show more

Two networking cultures are converging – the office LAN (local area network) and the manufacturing monitor and control network – with many benefits for centralised control for automation and for just-in-time (JIT) stocking and ordering of components.

Inventory can be monitored in real time, even when factory and purchasing agent are miles apart. With materials from one location, parts from another and assembly in a third location, the whole process can be integrated via a common control and monitoring station. It boosts efficiency, responsiveness and competitive advantage.

This is how it should be, but the convergence is often reliant on manual processes for network change management. These invite human error and, when the network links the entire operation, can have disastrous results: from insidious, hard to trace bugs, to complete shut down.

We need to automate the management processes in the network itself, in particular network changes where the greatest problems lie. The numerous adds, moves and upgrades in today’s dynamic IT networks must be managed in real-time from a central location, without any risk of disrupting the manufacturing process or entire company.
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Every organization must sooner or later adapt to an increasingly IPv6 global environment. The transition can take a number of forms:

-Hasty and costly early adoption, without sufficient planning, prioritizing and pre-testing
-Reluctant rearguard action as business is lost to competitors more visible to a growing IPv6 market and audience
-Forced adoption under pressure from government mandates and market/consumer drivers
-A careful, step-by-step migration that spreads the cost… Show more

Every organization must sooner or later adapt to an increasingly IPv6 global environment. The transition can take a number of forms:

-Hasty and costly early adoption, without sufficient planning, prioritizing and pre-testing
-Reluctant rearguard action as business is lost to competitors more visible to a growing IPv6 market and audience
-Forced adoption under pressure from government mandates and market/consumer drivers
-A careful, step-by-step migration that spreads the cost, prioritizes for optimal business benefit, allows time to evolve to the new environment and avoids expensive mistakes.

Not surprisingly, this article argues for the latter course. Having worked with a large number of engineers and IT professionals who have already deployed IPv6 from across the globe, I have distilled five key steps from that work to achieve that smooth migration. I have also identified nine key traps to be avoided along the way of migrating from IPv4 to managing the co-existence of IPv4 and IPv6 in the network and applications.
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Most IT revolutions have their tipping point, where the market expands beyond brave (or reckless) early adopters, through mainstream acceptance to suddenly becoming a universal ”must have”.
Virtualization has certainly passed beyond the first stage and, as a concept, is widely accepted – with nearly 40% of x86 workloads already running in virtual machines at the start of 2011, and expected to grow to over 75% by 2015 according to Gartner (March 2011 data).
But the tipping point to… Show more

Most IT revolutions have their tipping point, where the market expands beyond brave (or reckless) early adopters, through mainstream acceptance to suddenly becoming a universal ”must have”.
Virtualization has certainly passed beyond the first stage and, as a concept, is widely accepted – with nearly 40% of x86 workloads already running in virtual machines at the start of 2011, and expected to grow to over 75% by 2015 according to Gartner (March 2011 data).
But the tipping point to mass acceptance would mean spreading from the deep waters of Fortune 500 companies and reaching into the broad shallows of the SME market. Are they ready for that? Show less