If you're a small organisation with a few servers supporting the usual function such as mail, file & print, database, etc., you've probably got dedicated servers for each function. But as the servers reach the end of their warranties, before rushing out and replacing them, give some thought to virtualisation as an option.
Previously the domain of large IT enterprises, with the advent of Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V, together with the free version of VMWare, virtualisation is now reachable for small organisations also. A company with up to 100 staff with a reasonably predictable workload, can be well served with two enterprise servers (single or possible quad core CPU's) and ample RAM (128MB) running Hyper-V. A rule of thumb is each core on a CPU can support one VM so with sufficient RAM to avoid paging, even two single socket quad core servers can support up to 8 VM's.
Having made the decision to go virtual, one shouldn't stop there. With a number of real servers there is always the issue of managing attached storage. Storage on the Exchange server say, cannot be used for the file and print server and vice versa. That leads to a waste of storage that many small IT shops face.
What to do? Storage virtualisation or lower cost SAN options are now also reachable for the small enterprise. Deploy an iSCSI SAN on the network and provision file and print, mail (Exchange) and SQL on that SAN (assuming you are in a gigabit backbone). Then only attach sufficient storage to the servers (say 75GB or so) for booting and local paging and now you have a very efficient data centre operation with room to grow, both from a CPU point of view and storage point of view.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Bridging the gap between IT and the Business
The Business (a generic term for those parts of the organisation charged with making the money!) have ever increasing IT requirements in order to support their goals. However they are not IT literate and often make do with what they know rather than try to find ways to improve their systems and processes.
IT professionals, on the other hand, while very comfortable with IT and applications, often do not understand business goals and outcomes.
This creates a formidable barrier between the two groups.
In the engagement between IT and the business, the IT professional, whether an external consultant or internal IT professional has to be able to understand the business outcomes desired. They cannot talk about .net, Java, web applications etc. but rather how the business outcome might be achieved.
So for example if a business unit runs a bunch of Access databases, Excel spreasheets etc. to manage a number of clients, and then aggregates them manually into a larger sheet for reporting, the appropriate discussion is not about how this all could be achieved in SQL Server and possibly SQL Serve Reporting Services, but rather in terms of, having all information stored in one location, allowing many users to update the information at the same time, grouping common information into the one place and then using a tool that they are familiar with (such as Excel and pivot tables) to report on the information. SQL never need come up in the discussion.
This does require a signficant paradigm shift for the IT professional. They need to be consultants, understand what the business wants to achieve, avoid speaking in technical terms and be patient. And then they need to deliver on their promises.
A successful IT Pro in an organisation is well in their way to achieving higher ranks, such as the CIO, since their past performance and track record will create strong support from the breadth of the organisation
IT professionals, on the other hand, while very comfortable with IT and applications, often do not understand business goals and outcomes.
This creates a formidable barrier between the two groups.
In the engagement between IT and the business, the IT professional, whether an external consultant or internal IT professional has to be able to understand the business outcomes desired. They cannot talk about .net, Java, web applications etc. but rather how the business outcome might be achieved.
So for example if a business unit runs a bunch of Access databases, Excel spreasheets etc. to manage a number of clients, and then aggregates them manually into a larger sheet for reporting, the appropriate discussion is not about how this all could be achieved in SQL Server and possibly SQL Serve Reporting Services, but rather in terms of, having all information stored in one location, allowing many users to update the information at the same time, grouping common information into the one place and then using a tool that they are familiar with (such as Excel and pivot tables) to report on the information. SQL never need come up in the discussion.
This does require a signficant paradigm shift for the IT professional. They need to be consultants, understand what the business wants to achieve, avoid speaking in technical terms and be patient. And then they need to deliver on their promises.
A successful IT Pro in an organisation is well in their way to achieving higher ranks, such as the CIO, since their past performance and track record will create strong support from the breadth of the organisation
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