Social Enterprise

Have you heard the term "Social Enterprise"?  What does it mean to you?  How about your organization?  Salesforce.com talks about creating the "Social Enterprise" - you buy in?  Is Salesforce taking the lead on this or off course?

In looking at Salesforce.com vision, and as I understand it, the social enterprise that they envision leverages collaboration tools, mobile technologies and social media to enhance interactions with your customers.  If you take it a step further, it could be internal and external customers.  So it this beneficial to the organization or significant risk?  I believe there are rewards to it, risks and costs that can be significant. 

By definition, a "social enterprise" would be one that is very good at using technology to increase brand recognition, to provide the tools for customers to do business with you more easily, and to provide some value that your competitors can't provide.  To be successful with this, it takes skills, talent, a strong strategy and vision.  Your organization ready? 

How do you hire these talents then?  Do you have an advantage with your customers or potential employees?  It seems obvious, but with consumerization of IT, employees want to bring in a variety of devices and connect them to company systems and networks.  They may be coming from companies that already allow this, or they may be younger hires who are used to being connected through a variety of platforms all the time.  There comes some of the risk we can talk about. 

The CIO needs the practicality in determining which technologies to invest in, but there is also the softer requirement to make sure the workplace is more attractive to younger and tech-savvy talent. Opens the door for that bring your own device (BYOD) to work discussion.  There are legal, security, and productivity discussions to have, not to mention some HR concerns.  A topic you can't ignore anymore or hope will go away. 

You will also find that your employees now want access to collaboration tools, from wikis to social media.  But there has to be that balance.  There must be a strong sense of practicality.  That is, we don't develop technology for technology's sake, but invest in and support technology that addresses business needs.  Go capture those business capabilities - and map your IT strategy to them. 

Facebook, Twitter and all these social media applications - a benefit or distraction?  How about internal tools, like Yammer, Chatter or MS new tool?  Does your staff really need to update their Facebook site during work hours? I think the value is yet to be seen.  Your customers will use Facebook to endorse or complain about your product or services - now there is a place to engage your customers.  Now there is value.

Keep it positive!

Scott Arnett
scott.arnett@charter.net

Microsoft Server 8 - Thumbs Up

Take the time to load the Beta copy of Server 8 on a box in your lab and take a look.  Every Enterprise Server Team needs to take a look and start getting familiar with this new OS.  This isn't a boring iteration on a previous server operating system wherein a few tweaks have been achieved and nothing really changes. Server 8 - along with the suite of associated 2012-ish server applications - is nothing short of a complete redefinition of the server landscape.  I'm impressed, and I hope Microsoft comes up with a cool name for this OS and not just Windows Server 8.

Whereas Windows 8 is about radically redefining and limiting how we work (smart move), Windows Server 8's equally radical approach is to provide us with the ability to do whatever we want to do in as open and standards-compliant manner as is possible. It is such a fundamental change in attitude that I don't think anyone fully understands the long-term repercussions just yet. Is this a modular approach to the OS?  Will they be able to upgrade or update different modules of the OS without waiting for another major release? I think we have some more research to do.

The storage team in particular is due some "open" accolades. They are pushing standards-based storage management. They've been very active participants within the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), which involves working closely with all major storage players (including open source teams) to ensure that SMB 2.2 did not end up a proprietary protocol.  Plus, does this bring EMC to the table with some open standard tools?  Perhaps. SNIA has some great ideas - I love to follow their progress.

Windows 8 includes an NFS stack rewritten from the ground up. It solves a lot of the compatibility issues suffered by previous implementations and offers massive performance increases. They aren't implementing some kludged in-house frankenversion either: Microsoft bit the bullet and paid to have it done right.  Plus I don't see any vaporware yet in the beta version I have.  What has been said is present.  How cool is that?

The storage team have also produced the best PowerShell reference sheet yet. Interesting, as PowerShell scriptability is another important marker of Microsoft's growing commitment to openness and standards.

Compared to its precedents, Server 8 was designed backwards; everything in Server 8 can be manipulated via APIs and PowerShell scriptlets. GUIs are simply ease-of-use layers that offer a visual method of scriptlet control.  I also like the improved GUI.  Many IT SMEs like the scripts, but there is a risk with doing things in scripts - easy errors can occur.

That means that anyone can build an interface to control any aspect of Server 8 from any operating system they wish. If you want to run a fleet of Windows 8 servers from Linux, Microsoft is not only happy to help, it built components for that. Now, that is taking a leader role, don't you agree? 

Server 8 is also set to start breaking down some very important barriers by commoditising traditionally proprietary (and expensive) technologies and integrating them into the core OS. Long overdue features like NIC teaming join game-changers like deduplication, virtual HBAs and a thoroughly tested, enterprise-ready iSCSI target. Storage Spaces offers Drobo-like functionality, and Cluster Shared Volumes have moved beyond "Hyper-V only." So next is to see how this will play with enterprise storage environments. 

There are of course Microsoft-centric advances to Server 8 as well. Hyper-V, now supports Hyper-V Replica, Cluster Aware Updates, SMB 2.2 storage, and more. Start putting the pieces together and you get affordable HA Scale Out Storage – something that will radically redefine midmarket virtualisation deployments, but may prove to be insignificant to the large enterprise.

Hyper-V has gained forward momentum; live migration has been enhanced to the point where clustered storage is no longer a requirement. Branch Cache has improved significantly: it now uses bittorrent-esque technology to access files that may live on the local client, a nearby file server or out across the WAN. CHKDSK has been redone – it's faster, smarter and better. Bitlocker now supports clustered disks. I also like some of the management tools.  Check them out -
There's more. A lot more. Windows Server 8 beta has only been in my hands for a week, but it is already completely changing the way I think about IT. Technologies that last year were only accessible to most well-funded of enterprise IT departments, (or the most dedicated of open source administrators,) will now be available to everyone. SMB will gain significant technology with Server 8. 

Microsoft's newly found openness means that no one is forced to use Windows 8 for administration. What's more, Windows Server 8 is a versatile and feature-rich backend for non-Microsoft client operating systems. Whether your business chooses Linux, Windows, Apple or BYOD client deployments, the case for Windows Server 8 as the backend is easily made, and now a real asset to the technology architecture.

Take some time to get familiar with it - I think we have a game changer on the way.  Exciting!

Keep it positive!

Scott Arnett
scott.arnett@charter.net

Positioning IT as an Enabler of Business Growth

Time for the business to stop thinking of IT or technology as a necessary evil or cost center, and look to it to become a business enabler.  As global business strategies place a new emphasis on growth, CIOs understand that IT needs to change versus return to the way it was prior to the economic downturn. IT management needs a new strategy that can enable their company to balance driving growth with cutting costs now while making their infrastructure safer and more efficient, flexible, and innovative.

Impossible?  Not impossible, but will require time, resources and effort.  Start with sitting down with the business to identify their business capabilities they need to drive business growth.  Take those business capabilities needed and put some structure around them, you will get a big list.  Work the list down to the top 10 or so and start mapping IT enabling capabilities to them.  How can IT support and help deliver those top 10 capabilities?  IT will quickly become a business partner and position IT as an enabler of business growth. 

This is more than just a one time exercise, this is a step you need to take with the business on a regular basis.  Business climate changes, technology changes, and the focus needs to be adjusted.  This effort will ensure IT and the business are in sync and working together. 

So what about the comments IT is becoming less technology and more business?  How about business savvy technologists?  I think IT needs to become more business aware, but that does not mean we are less technical in nature.  There are more external sources now, more solutions that a vendor supported, and the list goes on, but there will always be a need for technical staff in IT.

Sharpen up your business and customer service skills, they are needed.  The business has to grow, be successful and competitive for everyone to win, including IT. 

Keep it positive!

Scott Arnett
scott.arnett@charter.net

Workforce Shortage? Skills Shortage? Politics?

Attend a conference recently and hear how we have a workforce shortage?  All these open positions in the USA going unfilled because we don't have candidates available or the skills we need.  Really?  So what games are we playing? 

Mention "talent shortage," whether you're talking about IT, manufacturing, healthcare or any other professional group, and brace yourself for a firestorm.  By chance, did you read the Wall Street Journal opinion piece that cites a recent Deloitte Consulting survey in making the case that 600,000 US manufacturing jobs are going unfilled during a period of high unemployment because of "workforce shortages or skills deficiencies". Interesting.  Wonder why employers will not interview or hire candidates that are currently unemployed?  What is the driving force to this nonsense?  Perhaps some HR expert stated the relevance to this in a article or something.  Make sense to you? 

Let's take a look at some facts, three decades of cutting jobs, cutting training budgets, and now we have no one to do the jobs we need.  We have done a poor approach to investing in our staff, building the skills and talent we need, and now we cry skills shortage.  Why are we shocked?  Listen to the lobbyists for industry as they make a case for why they need to bring more cheap foreign workers into the country to do these jobs.  Is that the answer?  Really?  Dirty politics at work again, along with some greed. 

How about we stop whining about the talent shortage and start doing something about it.  Let's take a little lower margin this year and invest in our employees and develop the skills needed for today and tomorrow.  If "People are our most important resource" as employers are wanting to proclaim, why do most of them expect this precious asset to show up gift wrapped, and to increase in value with little effort on their part?  Why is it in Information Week's most recent US IT Salary Survey shows only 28% of the 13,800 IT pros say they expect to receive education and training this year? 

Your organization needs to do a skills inventory and identify gaps.  Take the initiative to start developing those skills necessary for today's operations, and tomorrows strategy.  CIO, CTO and VP of IT - be the leader of your organization, and address the skills shortage head on.  You will also find reward in investing in your employees and giving them the skills they need to do their job.  Job satisfaction is a great thing. 

Keep it positive!

Scott Arnett
scott.arnett@charter.net

Undercover Boss - Great Insight

Ever watch the Undercover Boss TV series?  I have watched it a few times, and each time I was moved by the CEO approach.  I like the efforts and light it brings to an important topic.  Much like the "walk a mile in my shoes" programs.  It is easy to loose sight of what it is like to work the front lines when your time is captivated in the boardroom. 

I can proudly say as a member of senior managment, I always took the time to not only understand the roles in my division, but spent time side by side with the staff.  Whether it was building servers, or taking service desk calls, I took the time to have that exposure and insight.  I couldn't understand or help the team if I couldn't relate or have that first hand experience.  Furthermore, it clearly helps deliver the message that I care, and want to know them as a person.  That is why I like this show so much.  I have a strong opinion that an effective leader needs to leave the boardroom, and tie beyond from time to time and work the front lines.

There have been some companies that when hiring new leaders, make them work some of the front line jobs for a period of time before taking on their new managerial role.  I have read those critics on this approach, but I like it for those that have not grown up in the profession for which they will assume a leadership role in.  I don't see any negative side effects of this approach.  What I do see is an organization that wants team work throughout the organizational structure. 

So as a leader, there is nothing wrong with delivering drinks to your staff on a Friday afternoon to say thank you.  How about holding the door open for staff coming in out of the rain and saying thank you for all you do.  How about joining staff on an afternoon break in the breakroom and say - "how's it going?"   Be present, be personable, and engaged.  Leadership isn't about giving out orders and mandates, it is about setting direction, share the vision, help others see the vision and empower them to get there.  Micro managers are just managers not leaders.  Don't get them confused....

I would like to see more CEO, CFO, CIO's and VP's do an undercover mission and make great things happen in their company.  Spreadsheets and numbers don't tell the complete story.  Don't manage by spreadsheet, but take to the floor and learn your business and people. 

Keep it positive!

Scott Arnett
scott.arnett@charter.net

The Higher-Bandwidth, Lower-Cost Connection of Choice: 10GBASE-T LAN on Motherboard

New business demands are driving bigger, more advanced and self healing networks.

Cloud computing, virtualization and big data are driving the need for even more network bandwidth. With Gigabit Ethernet as the standard, savvy network managers are seeking to transition to 10GBASE-T for higher throughput, more flexibility and lower costs. Take a look at Intel and Dell as they showcase their new LAN on Motherboard enhancements to the Dell PowerEdge servers. Worth taking a new look at. 

In the lab this technology appears to meet expectations of the enterprise.  Could it fit a niche in your data center?  Perhaps in manufacturing floor?  How about multi media?  Seems to perform very well for streaming media.  I am impressed -

Keep it postiive!

Scott Arnett
scott.arnett@charter.net

Magazine Management

I am teaching an evening IT class this semester, and some of the students are already in an IT position.  The rest of the class are young students working towards a computer or management degree.  Has been a real refreshing experience, and I have to admit I am learning some things right along with them.  A fun class!

One of our discussions turned towards organizational Senior Management, and how they read an article in a magazine, then all of a sudden that is what the organization needs to be doing, or at.  Ever wonder why is that?  Is it the fear of appearing out of touch, the organization will loose competitive advantage?  What about bragging rights at the club house?  Who writes these articles anyway?  Are they fact, fiction or desire?  Who's standards are they?  Do these standards vary with size of the organization?  Ever wonder if a best practice for a $20B corporation makes sense for a $20M corporation, or a $2M corporation?  I guess your management needs to help guide that discussion.

I often ask myself if these analyst that write for these magazines ever built a server, worked a service desk, or configured a router.  Do they really have some real world experience to have an opinion?  Maybe we should look beyond the good grammar and easy read to see what substance is in the article.  I find many of these articles fuel the technology hype that burns a great deal of organizations.  Takes a sharp CIO or CTO to read between the lines, and determine what and how much any of it applies to their organization.  One doesn't always have to join the hype cycle to be a good leader, or stand tall at the club house. 

Organizations that have a roller coaster experience from chasing magazine technology leadership have staff churn, burn out and lack focus.  I am not saying all articles or all magazines are bad, there are some good ones out there, and there are some great articles by great people.  It is just that, their opinion, their thoughts and insight.  Take it for what it is, another opinion for you to consider as you lead your organization through technology direction setting.  I would say just like this blog. 

Next time - just pass the article on to your staff for a good read and let them determine it's value. 

Keep it positive!

Scott Arnett
scott.arnett@charter.net