Business Service Management Hub

The Hub Commentary_

As a native Virginian, this is very positive news for the area in general from housing, jobs and quality of life.  The extension of incentives aligns with the growth of cloud providers and Amazon already has a stake in the Ashburn data center craze already.

I arrived back in this area during the dot.com bust and it was disheartening to see the number of empty buildings along the Dulles tech corridor.  Good to see the expansion and growth and the foresight to take advantage of this period of high tech growth in this region.

Michele

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Is it news to say that the data center business is booming in Ashburn, Virginia? Not exactly, as the town in Loudoun County has been a key connectivity hub since the early days of the Internet. But recent groundbreakings, facility openings and leases make it clear that Ashburn’s prominent place in the geography of the data center industry continues undiminished.  (Read Full Article…)

The Hub Commentary_

The other consideration is value to the business and uniqueness to the business.  Those services that are similar across industries and even within your industry, lend themselves to outsourcing.  Cost saving is not the only reason and in the long run, outsourcing is often not cheaper than in-house.  However, decisions need to be made how to best use your in-house resources and right source the commodity.

Outsourcing occurs to drive change.  Some of the change is adherence to standards driving down the cost of services as well as support for services where not all services are created equal.  Both of these changes are difficult to drive from within a business unless there are good business service management practices in place driving cost and value discussions.

It is relevant to consider the right sourcing option for all services and right source the environment to drive change and allow for flexibility.  As part of the sourcing engagement will how you will measure and monitor the service provider.  This is critical to insure perception and reality are in synch.  Managing the relationship of the service provider becomes the new role of IT as part of the end-to-end service provided by the business.

How are you right sourcing IT?

Michele

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There is a misconception that switching to SaaS or a cloud-based IT infrastructure is solely a cost-savings measure. The reality is, most companies today are looking to switch to SaaS for its convenience and simplicity – not cost savings alone.   (Read Full Article…)

The Hub Commentary_

For the folks that know me best, they are snickering at how this pains me to write and not only post once, but twice about Texas Stadium.  My featured post on Friday was also about Texas Stadium and the Super Bowl and the Business Service Management opportunity facing those companies buying 30 second ads at $3M each.  I believe the might Pug stole the show!

I also included a link to this video about the data center powering Texas Stadium.   Check out this video In hindsight, Texas Stadium was geared for successful Business Service Management practices.  They were not just monitoring all the technology that powered the TV’s and point-of-sale (POS) devices around the stadium.  They were monitoring the inventory levels in the Pro Shops shifting inventory in real-time around the stadium.  They were monitoring the snack bars and offering real-time discounts around the stadium.

This was Business Service Management in action.  100,000 buyers captive for roughly 5 hours using technology to drive the highest revenue possible.  As much as it pains me, my hats off to the IT staff of Texas Stadium AND the gaunlet has been dropped on my beloved Colts and Lucas Oil Stadium for 2012!                        

Michele

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As 100,000 fans pour into Cowboys Stadium Sunday for Super Bowl XLV, the fans will have little awareness that there’s a data center serving as the technological nerve center of the stadium. But the staff at CDW and HP and the Cowboys’ IT team know how vital the stadium’s IT infrastructure is in creating the “ultimate fan experience.”  (Read Full Article…)

The Hub Commentary_

Interesting we swing to virtual stall over management tools and the year ahead holds data centers being designed with integration, systems management, hardware, end-to-end views in the planning and implementing.  Good summation of trends in the market and keys to success.

Michele

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What will be the big trends in data center design and operations in 2011? We surveyed some of the leading thinkers in the field, and got their thoughts about the trends that will make news this year. Their predictions cover a lot of ground. But a key theme was the emergence of a holistic approach to the data center, that integrates the many technologies, departments and processes that historically have created challenges for the industry.   (Read Full Article…)