OpinionCategory

As Rear Admiral Grace Hopper said – “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission”, and this is true in many areas of change. When I am fighting against “this is the way we have always done it“, I find that the path to success is to… Continue Reading Ask for Confirmation, not Definition

The role of the IT department has changed, and modern IT functions need to re-invent themselves to maintain their relevance and role within the modern enterprise. The changing IT department is moving from the nerds in the basement to real business partners. The Changing Face of the the IT Department… Continue Reading The changing face of the IT department

Humans originally evolved to be dependent on fear. In modern life, the fears that we had evolved around are no longer relevant; we are not going to be hunted by large animals, we have conquered the dark, winter and times of hunger are distant memories. It may be true to… Continue Reading What was a fear, becomes a strength

You may know about ToR, top-of-rack (for) switches. It’s the practice of placing a physical switch within each rack, so that the network switching for the rack is close to the servers or devices that need to connect to it. The ToR switches will allow servers to communicate with each… Continue Reading Top of Rack switch placement in a rack – not at the Top!

You have probably heard the expression that entrepreneurs want to “fail fast” – and that you should do the same for your business… but what does it actually mean – and do your customers want you to “fail fast”? Why would you want to fail at all? It’s important to… Continue Reading Fail fast does not mean you want to fail

What is an ‘Older Worker’? According to a Chandler McLeod report: “Coming of Age – The impacts of an ageing workforce on Australian business”, “variations exist in the definition of an employee as ‘older’ or ‘mature aged’. The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations classifies workers and job seekers… Continue Reading Aging workforce and obsolete computer systems

Consumerisation of IT refers to the transferring of consumer market IT solutions to the workplace, used to resolve enterprise needs. Among others, the use of laptops, tablets, smartphones, and software applications such as social media, web conferencing, cloud storage, smartphone applications and even delivery models used to make solutions available to… Continue Reading Consumerisation of IT

Many of us have to give directions; it might be in a project, when managing a team, instructions for someone to pick something up for you from a shop, defining a business strategy – but the way to give directions is important. What is wrong with the way people are… Continue Reading The best way to give directions – destination first

In a 2014 report, Gartner identifies the challenges of the IT organisation in view of the nature of the demands they need to satisfy: provide innovative solutions with agility; provide operational continuity as “business as usual”.  Gartner’s model establishes these as two different types of needs that require two separate… Continue Reading Bimodal IT – Gartner’s view on IT

If you are new to using the cloud, or are now deciding to move more workloads to the cloud – here are my top 10 tips for cloud adoption 1. Switch off dev/test when not using it Probably the biggest advice I can give is to understand the differences between… Continue Reading Top 10 tips for cloud adoption

Who defines how your business operations are performed? How does your business operate? Is it based on a definition of what is best for your business and customers, or is it because that is the process that came out of a shrink wrapped application? Shrink Wrapped Applications vs. Custom Build… Continue Reading Shrink wrapped applications

VMware are often focussing on the latest and greatest features and capabilities offered by their newest software. Of course, they are always driving forward and the next version’s enhancements and benefits are forefront of their minds – but there are still some people out there who are just starting on… Continue Reading Benefits of VMware – the uneven cluster

There are lots of reasons why projects fail, but specifically why IT projects fail – not technology, not budget. You may read in the press about massive IT projects spiraling out of control, costs are double or triple the budget, and technology is being blamed. However, the root cause of… Continue Reading IT projects fail for EVILL reasons

In my recent AWS Certified Solutions Architect exam, one of the key learning areas that I needed to master, was the change in terminology to transfer my knowledge from VMware vs. AWS. Obviously, there is no direct one-to-one mapping of the product offerings, but there are some common areas, at… Continue Reading VMware vs. AWS

On Friday 7th October, I sat and passed the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Certified Solution Architect exam. I passed the exam, but I probably would have achieved a higher score if I had actually used AWS before. I started studying for the exam without any prior exposure to the technology,… Continue Reading Amazon Certified Solution Architect

You have probably heard the analogy of trying to guide or coordinate people who have their own agenda or views – that it is like herding cats. It’s often a battle dealing with people who think that they already have the right answer (or those who stick to, and defend,… Continue Reading Herding cats? Use catfood

Running release R minus 1? What about release R plus 45 days? We all know the Patch Tuesday update cycle where Microsoft releases their updates. It is common practice for risk-averse companies to not run the very latest release of software, instead having a policy of running “R-1” – which… Continue Reading R-1 is dead, long live R+45

In describing myself as an IT Architect in a social gathering recently, the gentleman who I was speaking to suddenly burst into a frustrated tirade that he was a real architect, and he was horrified that I could call myself an architect. To become a construction architect, it takes 8… Continue Reading The difference between an IT Architect and a construction architect

In my travels as a consultant and adviser, I have come to find that middle management is holding back innovation. Allow me to explain this dramatic assumption. I have found that there are three types of employee – the leader, the worker and the middle-manager. The leaders In industry, government… Continue Reading Middle management – holding back innovation

The focus needs to change. People need to stop fighting today’s problems with yesterday’s answers, and instead, focus on finding solutions to tomorrow’s challenges. I see this time and again from organisations large and small, from both experienced and newly educated people – a focus on the problems that have… Continue Reading Stop fighting today’s problems with yesterday’s answers