Mailbag

The emails are coming in, and I said I would do a mailbag post each month.  Being that it is Friday, what better way to end the week, than to answer some of your questions.  Has been a busy week, and I know all of you are keeping busy with work, family and summer fun. 

Our first question comes to us from Florida. 
Q.  Scott, we have some really old servers in our data center.  The company thinks as long as they are running, we are saving money not replacing them.  My concern is not only an eventual hardware failure do to age, but that we are missing other opportunities.  What do you think is the benefits to keeping up on server hardware, and how often should we replace them?

A.  My rule of thumb has been 4 or 5 years should be the max.  Most warranties are done around 3 years, and beyond that the maintenance costs are going to go up.  Rather than keep older servers beyond their asset life cycle, one company we spoke to opted for a full replacement of its servers to drop energy costs 60%, while increasing overall performance beyond 500%.  Newer hardware now have power saving technology, faster/better performance, so you may be able to have a smaller footprint to provide resources for those applications.  There are some great studies out there on this topic, and I would put together your case for why this old hardware is costing money, not saving money. 

Q. Jackie Fenn’s Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies is one of Gartner’s most referenced research notes. The Hype Cycle provides a cross-industry perspective on potentially transformative technologies - what do you think about the Hype Cycle and is it of value?

A.  What is all the Hype?  Ok, serious - I do find it of value.  Senior executives, CIOs, strategists, business developers and technology planners will want to consider these technologies when developing emerging business and technology portfolios. But again, it is one person's research and guess work.  Much of it is just that, Hype or vendor driven "make a market" approach.  It is of value to see what is going on out there, but you have to keep in mind which of these technologies will bring value to your organization.  What will help drive value, capability and game changing business objectives.  Don't get caught up in the Hype, or the keep up with the Jones.  Many of these technologies come onto the market 1 year and leave the next.  Short lived technologies can hurt your organization or put you in a tough spot.  Do your homework.

Q.  If you had to do it over again, would you go into IT?  Knowing what you know now, would that change your career?  How will your career change going forward?

A. Great question, one that makes me stop and think.  The rear view mirror is a great thing isn't it?  You can see what just happened, but you can't do anything about it, but use it as a reference for what you seeing coming at you.  If I had to do it over again, I would probably go into IT, I love the technology, and the challenges, love figuring out the tough crisis.  I would probably do some of it different, but all in all IT has been good to me.  The politics is what will kill you.  I still encourage high school kids to take a serious look at IT and Technology as a career choice.  What will my career look like going forward - that is a good question.  My dream job would be a technology focused attorney.  That means someday I have to get back to school and get a law degree.  Taking all I know in technology, business, and data and apply that to legal challenges seems like a great career version 2.0. 

Q. Do you think there will be another revolution in our country in the future?  Are we heading to another civil war?

A.  I am keeping this blog focused on Information Technology, and try to stay out of politics, religion and kitchen wars.  I do find this question interesting, and I know a great deal of folks are talking about this these days.  We went to a family reunion some weeks back and this topic came up as well.  I do think our country is heading in a bad direction, enourmous debt, to much foreign influence.  Our relationship with China should bother everyone, this is a relationship that will come back to hurt us.  They own to much of our debt, they have a huge military build up, and have a retail store in every US town - Walmart.  I think civil unrest is happening today and will possible increase in the year to come.  I think we have to deal with the immigration issues, lock down the borders, and get a handle on these terror groups.  Will the South rise again - maybe, but will it be against the north or another group?  I think the current administration has done more harm than good, and Washington has become so corrupt that the wheels have come of the little red wagon.  It is a dark cloud future for us, and I fear for the world our kids will have in 20 years.  We need to make changes now, before it is to late. 

Have a great weekend - keep the emails coming.

Scott Arnett
scott.arnett@charter.net