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Jason Stamper's Blog: December 2008 Archives
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
December 24, 2008
To everyone who's read even one of my blogs this year, here's wishing you happy holidays.
I shall return with more blogs in the New Year, unless I feel the urge to drag myself away from the festivities because some massive news breaks in the world of IT and I update it before then. In IT, I've learned never to say never.
Jason
TfL’s back office savings should not just be for Christmas
December 22, 2008
News that Transport for London hopes to save £400m by restructuring its IT systems may be seen by many as a good thing; a step in the right direction. But then again, allowing back office functions to become so stodgy in the first place that an initiative can quite quickly find £400m worth of savings, is not something any organisation should be especially proud of.
Announcing the IT restructuring last week, a TfL spokesperson said: "TfL has identified £2.4bn of efficiency savings that will be delivered through 'delayering' management, eliminating duplication, reducing headcount and improving technology."
"The changes are focused on support and non-operational functions, including, among many other areas, our IT activities, so that we continue to improve our passenger services whilst we deliver this massive investment programme. Around IT, TfL will be consolidating its budgets and delivering £400m in savings over the plan period," the spokesperson said.
You might think that most of the automation and process optimisation that could be wrung from back office functions would have been wrung from them by now. Seemingly not...[click continue reading for more on this entry]...
Celebrity tech endorsements: battle of the brands
December 15, 2008
Celebrity endorsements of products are par for the course, indeed with more and more viewers becoming blind to more traditional advertising, they are only likely to become more common in the future.
While product placements in films have long been an important element in movie funding – and for companies to sell their products and enrich their brand – product placements in television may also be on the horizon.
ITV and Pact, the trade body for the £1bn UK independent production sector, recently issued a proposed code of practice for product placement. The code of conduct sets certain guidelines, but basically would allow brand owners to pay to have their products featured in dramas and comedies on British television.
Product placement on British TV is currently outlawed, but if the ban were lifted, it would pave the way for a new kind of celebrity endorsement: where television producers are able to put an iPhone in Eastenders’ Phil Mitchell’s hands. For the brand owners, there is the prospect of combining product placement with celebrity endorsement.
The technology industry, for its part, has been as keen on celebrity endorsements and product placement as any sector. It will no doubt be watching the debate with interest: Andy Burnham, culture secretary, said earlier this year that consultation on product placement is ongoing.
CBR looked back at some of the high profile celebrities that tech firms have deployed in the past to help sell their products. Would these celebs make you more likely to buy a particular brand? What does their association mean about the products they help to sell?
Political clout -- Yahoo Answers has used Hilary Clinton in campaigns.
Nintendo used Nicole Kidman to push its Wii console.
David Beckham for Motorola.
Eva Longoria at the Microsoft Vista launch party.
Microsoft again, this time Jenny McCarthy for the Xbox360.
Rihanna, also for the Xbox360.
Beyonce for Samsung.
Rihanna again, this time for the LG Chocolate.
Maria Sharapova for Motorola.
Click continue reading for more celebrity tech endorsements...
Data centre of the future? Bigger, greener, ‘cloudier’
December 09, 2008
Feast your eyes on what may well be the data centre of the future: a purpose-built, campus-style data centre that is not only greener than its forerunners, but will help to support the rise in data centre outsourcing in general and cloud computing specifically.
Surf 'n turf: e-shelter's new data centre in the UK.
To be built on a brown field site at Saunderton near High Wycombe in the UK, by data centre development specialist e-shelter, it will occupy a 50 acre site and be open to business in mid-2010...[click continue reading for more on the new facility]...
The mainframe isn’t dead, it’s resting
December 05, 2008
This isn't breaking news: reports of the mainframe’s demise are not only premature, they are utterly wrong.
But what is true is that companies are trying to do more with less in this economic environment, and that includes the trusty mainframe.
Macro 4 has just completed a survey of 97 mainframe users in which 84% said they wanted to free up mainframe processing power.
This would let them delay purchases of costly CPU upgrades and immediately reduce monthly systems software license charges which vary in line with how much CPU power was used in the previous month.
In a bid to control costs, Tesco has made use of performance management software from Macro 4 to help generate a significant reduction in MIPS usage before Christmas, when mainframe activity approaches peak levels.
The retailer commissioned Macro 4 partner, CPT Global, an independent performance management specialist, to consult on the project. Phase one involved CPT Global using Macro 4’s software to identify opportunities where changes to databases, systems software and applications could generate MIPS savings. In the next stage CPT is providing a more detailed assessment of these opportunities so its developers can go in and make the necessary changes.
Gartner has estimated that most large mainframe users can expect their systems’ consumption of processing power to increase by 15-20% annually, measured in MIPS.
Each additional MIPS typically costs around £2,500 in hardware and software charges. So if a company running a 10,000 MIPS system increases capacity by just 10% per annum, the incremental cost will be in the region of £2.5 million.
Still, that didn’t stop IBM’s z Series mainframe revenue being even more robust than its other server lines in its latest quarter – people may be trying to do more with less, but they’re not abandoning the mainframe just yet either.
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