Virtualization Management A Key Priority for Overcoming VM Stall

Management is a key priority for expanding virtualization across the IT environment, new research has found.

It is important to have a choice of robust, heterogeneous, virtualization-specific management solutions, covering multiple management disciplines, with a clear roadmap to extend management into enterprise-wide physical plus virtual management as organizations' IT environments mature. The roadmap for virtualization management is an important key to resolving VM stall, accelerating virtualization maturity, and delivering key benefits such as reduced cost of IT, improved operational efficiency, lower staffing costs, and increased business agility.

Five key findings:

-- The reality of VM stall: Around one-third (34 percent) of organizations have only deployed virtualization for five to 20 percent of servers - typically the "low-hanging fruit" of test and development systems, Web servers, print servers, etc. Most respondents (87 percent) have only virtualized less than 40 percent of their servers. Only 12 percent have reached the final phase of virtualization, with more than 40 percent of servers virtualized. On average, respondents have virtualized just 39 percent of their servers. Most organizations are still in the early phases of virtualization deployment, held up by VM stall.

-- Key causes of VM stall: Respondents cited several causes for their inability to expand their virtualization deployments. While budget remains the top barrier to new technology deployment, the leading non-monetary causes for VM stall include the high operational risk of a failed migration; the inability of available tools to meet management needs; and the lack of resources skilled in virtual server management.

-- Leading virtualization objectives: The research further found that at these early stages, the focus tends more toward cost savings. At this stage, the leading objective for virtualization, as cited by 39 percent of organizations, was improved efficiency and headcount reduction. A further 32 percent cited hardware and capital cost reduction as a primary virtualization goal. Only a few organizations have progressed to a more mature stage of adoption, but here focus shifts toward higher-order business outcomes. At later stages, the flexibility to meet changing business demands was the leading virtualization objective, cited as a primary goal by 43 percent of organizations.

-- Virtualization-specific vs. integrated management: In surveying organizations' preferences for dedicated vs. integrated virtualization management solutions across 11 different management disciplines, it was clear that management needs vary by maturity, discipline, and scale. A significant minority of organizations (23 to 33 percent, depending on maturity) expressed a preference for virtualization-specific management tools. However, many respondents (47 to 53 percent) expressed a preference for integrated physical plus virtual management tools. This demonstrates that there is a clear need for both virtualization-specific, and integrated physical and virtual solutions across all disciplines, and the flexibility to move seamlessly from one approach to the other.

-- Heterogeneous hypervisor support: Moreover, the research data also reinforce the fundamentally heterogeneous nature of most virtualization deployments at their deepest levels. Almost two-thirds of all respondents (65 percent) reported employing multiple hypervisors in at least some capacity (ranging from early evaluation through to full deployment), while almost one-fifth (19 percent) reported employing four or more hypervisors. This heterogeneity also contributes to the difficulty in finding adequate management tools to support virtualization environments.

Comment by Stephen Elliot, vice president of strategy, Virtualization and Automation, CA Technologies: Organizations held back by VM stall are unable to progress from the entry-level benefits of server consolidation into infrastructure optimization, automation efficiency, and dynamic data center or private cloud. This means virtualization rollouts fail to realize the full scope of promised benefits - not just cost reduction, but also service improvements, staffing benefits, business and IT agility, management efficiency, and market responsiveness.

Comment by Andi Mann, vice president of product marketing, Virtualization and Automation, CA Technologies: Organizations at all maturity levels need a choice of dedicated and integrated management tools, across multiple disciplines, and designed for heterogeneous virtualization environments, to overcome VM stall and accelerate their virtualization deployments.

The research, based on a survey of 473 IT decision makers in large and mid-sized enterprises in the U.S. and Germany, was conducted on behalf of CA Technologies by Oliver Wyman, an international management consulting firm.

Contact: http://www.ca.com/us/collateral/supporting-pieces/na/Virtualization-and-Management.aspx

IT Professionals Predict Mobile and Cloud Technologies Will Dominate Enterprise Computing By 2015

Information technology professionals predict that mobile and cloud computing will emerge as the most in-demand platforms for software application development and IT delivery over the next five years, according to a new survey.

More than half of all IT professionals -- 55 percent -- expect mobile software application development for devices such as iPhone and Android, and even tablet PCs like iPad and PlayBook, will surpass application development on all other traditional computing platforms by 2015.

With the proliferation of these mobile devices, industry analysts are predicting mobile applications sales will undergo massive growth over the next three years, with estimates of mobile application revenues expanding from $6.2 billion this year to nearly $30 billion by 2013.

Additional survey findings:

-- 91 percent anticipate cloud computing will overtake on-premise computing as the primary way organizations acquire IT over the next five years

-- Mobile and cloud computing are followed by social media, business analytics and industry-specific technologies as the hottest IT career opportunities beginning in 2011

-- 90 percent believe it is important to possess vertical industry-specific skills for their jobs, yet 63 percent admit they are lacking the industry knowledge needed to remain competitive

-- Telecommunications, financial services, healthcare, and energy and utilities rank as the top four industries in which respondents identify as having the greatest opportunity to expand their careers.

Comment from Jim Corgel, general manager, IBM Independent Software Vendors and Developer Relations: To best understand where enterprise technology is headed, one must pay attention to those who have a pulse on market demands - the developers and IT specialists responding to these demands and creating the next generation of business applications. These survey results clearly demonstrate that IT professionals see a combination of disruptive technologies and industry-specific skills as key to driving near-term business growth.

About the survey: The 2010 IBM Tech Trends Survey provides insight into the most significant enterprise technology and industry trends based on responses from 2,000 IT developers and specialists across 87 countries. The online survey, conducted by IBM developerWorks of its eight million registered users in August and September 2010, includes responses from IT professionals with expertise in areas such as enterprise and web application development, system and network administration, and software testing and architecture.

Contact: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks

Mainframe Is Essential To Cloud Computing Strategies

Seventy-nine percent of IT organizations believe the mainframe is an essential component of their cloud computing strategy, a survey has found.

In addition, 74 percent of respondents believe that the mainframe will have a role in any cloud computing initiative, and 70 percent agreed that cloud computing will sustain or extend the mainframe environment.

As the mainframe takes center stage in cloud computing environments, organizations will increasingly rely on mainframe management solutions.

Eighty-two percent of respondents reported that they intend to use the mainframe in the future either as much or more than today.

The most pressing issues facing European organizations in the next 12 months is an increased demand for training (cited by 54 percent of respondents).

Comment from Dayton Semerjian, general manager, mainframe, CA Technologies: This survey provides indisputable evidence of the mainframe's agility to perform in new IT models such as cloud computing, and on-going durability as a critical data center platform for decades to come. Ongoing, practical innovation will be required to ensure that the mainframe can always be an effective and integral part of an evolving IT infrastructure.

About the survey: More than 300 IT decision makers in ten countries responded to the CA Technologies commissioned survey, "Mainframe - The Ultimate Cloud Platform?"

Contact: http://ow.ly/2PFhY

Contact: http://www.ca.com

Cloud Is A Strategic Direction For Most Companies

More than 60 percent of responders to a recent survey said that moving to the cloud for applications, infrastructure, integration and other solutions is a strategic direction for their organization. Thirty-five percent of cloud strategy decision makers were C-level executives with IT management owning the strategy in 41 percent of the cases.

Most of the companies involved in the survey are already deploying cloud-based solutions. One-third (36 percent) of those surveyed have implemented at least one cloud solution, with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) ranking among 70 percent of respondents as the number one cloud platform implemented or planned for implementation. An additional 25 percent said they are considering moving some or all business processes to the cloud, illustrating that more than half of the survey respondents see the value of the cloud.

However, lack of clarity around cloud benefits was the top reason cited by respondents for not currently implementing cloud-based solutions. Despite the growing adoption of cloud-based solutions, companies still struggle to understand what the cloud is and how to use it.

The survey also showed that security, management and scalability are the top considerations for companies when evaluating whether or not to deploy cloud solutions, with 70 percent citing the ability to secure data as their top priority. Other high scoring considerations include the ability to quickly integrate with internal applications and external partner systems as well as a "pay as you go" pricing model.

Comment from Margaret Dawson, vice president of marketing and product management at Hubspan: This research validates what we are seeing in the market, with many IT departments looking to move applications and business processes to the cloud but doing so in a strategic, thoughtful manner. No matter what challenge you are trying to solve, one of the key benefits of the cloud is being able to start small and grow both from a cost and implementation perspective.

About the survey: The survey on cloud computing and "as a service" solutions was conducted by Hubspan Inc., a provider of cloud-based business integration solutions. More than 200 companies completed the cloud survey, ranging in size from under 50 to several thousand employees. Respondents represented a range of industries, with high-tech, manufacturing, wholesale distribution, retail and B2B eCommerce accounting for 50 percent of the polls.

Contact: http://www.hubspan.com

Channel Partners Face Challenges In Current Model Of Cloud Services

The overall number of channel partners (VARs, SIs, ISVs, etc) offering cloud services to U.S. small and medium businesses (SMBs) has grown enormously since 2008, fueled in part by the prevailing economic conditions and new cloud solutions and technologies. With strong adoption by these SMBs, Remote Managed IT Services (RMITS) are growing rapidly and becoming more structured in the U.S. There are more solutions available for U.S. SMBs and more methods for delivering these solutions in an efficient manner for channel partners, new research from AMI-Partners has found.

Overall current conditions are very promising for partners to embrace the cloud. However, the channel partners are hampered in their transition to cloud-based services by their small scale and accompanying legacy cost structures and business models.

Channel partner challenges can be broadly classified into the following three key areas:

-- Standardizing Remote Managed Offerings: Some partners don't currently have a standardized set of RMITS offerings. Instead, they improvise on an as-needed basis, so customers are not familiar with available options.

-- Standardizing SLAs: Some partners do not have Service Level Agreements (SLAs) although 55% feel that it is important to offer them. Those that do don't always provide clear terms about the types and responsiveness of services provided. Often partners themselves find it difficult to track their own employee time spent on tickets/customer problems. But some have started using PSA (Professional Services Automation) software to deal with this.

-- Standardizing Pricing: Just like their service offerings, many local partners lack standardized and transparent pricing required for a broader acceptance of RMITS by SMB customers. This makes it difficult for the customers to understand how RMITS can help them control and manage IT costs.

As a result, over the last couple of years, many pure-play Managed Service Providers (MSPs) have entered the market to provide remote management and other cloud services to U.S. SMBs. Unencumbered by legacy issues, they have developed efficient delivery and pricing mechanisms that provide strong value to these SMBs. The current environment also provides a strong opportunity for large vendors to bridge the gaps in channel partner services by standardizing the offerings, SLAs & pricing, and thereby enabling broader adoption of cloud-based services by US SMBs.

About the study: AMI's 2010 US SMB Channel Partner Report.

Contact: http://www.ami-partners.com

Government, Companies Must Do More To Ensure Cyber Security

More than 71 percent of respondents to a recent online survey are concerned that their company is not equipped to protect itself from cyber attacks, while approximately 88 percent think the government is not equipped to protect itself.

Other findings:

--  The overwhelming majority of respondents (93 percent) believe cyber attacks are on the rise.

--  Respondents cited viruses and malware (67 percent) and DoS attacks (50 percent) as significant threats to organizations today.

--  Respondents (nearly 74 percent) expect their service provider to provide protection against cyber attacks.

--  The clear majority of respondents (90 percent) believe the best way to protect against cyber attacks is with a solution that detects, analyzes and mitigates unwanted, unwarranted or malicious traffic in real time.

Many fear critical networks face significant threats It is no surprise that the majority of survey respondents feel cyber attacks are increasing with alarming frequency. News reports of various worms, bots, viruses and identity theft have put the public on high alert. But despite an increased awareness of cyber attacks and a renewed effort by the Obama administration to fight cyber threats, few respondents feel critical government networks and company networks are adequately protected (12 percent and 19 percent, respectively).

Not only do respondents believe more cyber attacks are being levied on critical networks, an overwhelming majority (95 percent) believe those attacks are increasing in sophistication, as compared with attacks from a year or two ago. Survey results indicate an inability to protect sensitive and confidential data (69 percent) is a top concern among respondents. This is especially true in a cloud environment.

Responsibility of protection placed on carriers Although malicious activity on the Web has undoubtedly prompted most -- if not all -- organizations to put some sort of network security in place, more than 73 percent of respondents feel the onus of security should fall to their respective carriers or service providers. While not part of this study, we believe the reasons for this expectation are because of resource constraints in most organizations, the relative scarcity of skilled personnel, and the lack of widely available tools to detect and mitigate sophisticated attacks.

With a rise in the complexity and sophistication of attacks, the type of security tools that service providers deploy may well be a differentiator as customers begin to understand the real, devastating threats present in the cyber world.

As more networks become compromised, it is evident that standard approaches using signature- and policy-based software and hardware such as malware/anti-virus, firewalls, IDS/IPSs, and SEMs alone or in combination are critical but insufficient. Rather, a multi-tiered system based on vulnerability analysis and risk assessment of the data contained in the network -- enabling complete network and data visibility in distributed, heterogeneous networks and real-time processing and policy enforcement -- will emerge as a more desirable and complete solution.

Realizing that one company cannot possibly offer technology and services to cover the vast needs among organizations, cyber security vendors must cooperate with each and form a "cyber security ecosystem" and to offer more value to their customers. In an ecosystem, vendors interoperate with others in their ecosystem -- such as combining the best of forensics, visualization, data mining and storage -- in addition to their own cyber security solution. This integrated approach seems more valuable as it enables "best of breed" solutions to be combined based on the risk assessment and vulnerability analysis. By extending a vendor's product set through partnerships, cyber security vendors add critical value to their product and provide the best possible system for network protection and management.

Comment from Greg Oslan, CEO and president of Narus: Narus sponsored this survey to uncover what's important to the people most affected by malicious cyber activity -- the network and security professionals. Armed with these results, Narus can bolster its campaign to arm the world's most critical networks with cyber protection -- a solution that will provide the ability to see clearly and act swiftly.

The Narus survey focused on cyber security in the United States. Sponsored jointly with Converge! Network Digest and Government Security News, the survey queried a cross-section of security professionals in a variety of industries. The survey questions were developed by Narus, Converge! Network Digest and Government Security News, with input from noted telecom and security industry pundits. Opinions were gathered online from respondents, representing a cross-section of professionals in a variety of industries. One-on-one interviews were conducted to add more depth to the survey.

Contact: http://www.narus.com

Many Small and Medium-sized Businesses Worry About IT Security

With limited resources, now more than ever, small- and medium-size business (SMBs) need to carefully consider the range of threats to their business and take action to protect and run their IT systems. Information security threats can be overwhelming and the risks require more than traditional perimeter and host defenses to protect critical business data.

Nearly 60 percent of respondents to a new survey said they are concerned about network security threats. In addition, more than 70 percent said that if an IT security incident took their business offline for one day it would significantly impact their business or potentially put them out of business altogether. Meanwhile, IT outsourcing has emerged as an important trend for SMBs challenged to maintain IT systems which are increasingly difficult to manage internally. The survey revealed that 40 percent of SMBs use external IT support to help run their operations.

Additional key findings from the Staples Advantage survey include:

-- IT is mission-critical. More than half (51 percent) of respondents said IT support personnel should be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

-- Telecommuting and security. Nearly 60 percent of respondents say telecommuting is a key way they plan to trim costs in the year ahead. This can be an IT security risk without adequate security practices and employee awareness.

-- Data retention. To satisfy certain legal and regulatory requirements, businesses need a way to store and protect certain business information. According to the survey, more than 40 percent of respondents say their organization does not have company policies in place regarding the storage and retention of email, as an example.

-- Data protection and employee transitions. Employee transitions are an often overlooked risk to company security. Only one in four respondents said they monitor activity to ensure departing employees are not downloading proprietary information. Additionally, 40 percent have not changed network passwords associated with certain departing employees.

To help IT managers and those responsible for IT decisions increase network security and avoid IT downtime, experts at Staples Advantage offer SMBs the following five tips:

-- Adopt a multi-layer security strategy. Just as bumpers, airbags and seat belts all work together to protect passengers in a car, implement security measures at the file, email data store and gateway levels to properly protect data against viruses.

-- Make sure all machines are up-to-date with patches and security update downloads.

-- Use encryption to protect your sensitive data. Enable encryption on wireless networks, and optionally use passwords and encryption software to protect individual files. Use file permissions to control access to sensitive data, and consider installing software that monitors and logs who accesses what data, and when.

-- Invest in multiple connections to the Internet. Leasing and maintaining dual connections to the Internet is no longer an expensive proposition. Using two connections to the Internet, each from a different provider, greatly reduces the potential impact of connectivity interruptions to email, Web and VoIP services.

-- Avoid costly hardware failure by investing in hardware redundancy. Use a service that monitors hardware for uptime and critical performance metrics. Robust monitoring platforms that can dig down to the machine level are best. Carefully assess service providers. Before choosing an external provider of cloud services or any SaaS application, carefully research their service level agreements, infrastructure, redundancy and disaster recovery provisions. When possible, use multiple vendors to eliminate single points of service failure.

Comment from Jim Lippie, president, Thrive Networks, the IT network services business of Staples Advantage: The survey findings help show that IT managed services is becoming a "must have" rather than a "nice to have" for SMBs. A majority of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are concerned about threats to IT security while many of them can increase steps to help protect their business information.

About the survey: Staples Advantage conducted an online survey of business decision makers at more than 100 small and medium-sized businesses across the US. The survey asked a series of questions about IT and its impact to business operations, taking into account a variety of technologies ranging from personal computers to smartphones.

Contact: http://www.staplesadvantage.com/technology