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Welcome to B & M Bulletin, produced specifically for users of IT technical services. In this issue:
• Virtualisation
• Tech View: Service Oriented Architecture
• 10 benefits of virtualisation
• Real Skills. Real People - B & M's Claire Brennan
• Project services
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Virtualisation: what's all the fuss about?
Amanda Dunn, Sales Director for B & M considers the business implications of virtualisation
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"..an entire virtual infrastructure..."
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Virtualisation is being much talked about at present and, according to Gartner, is "top of mind with enterprises" with the search term 'virtualization' scoring the highest number of hits in Gartner.com's infrastructure area.
Virtualisation is the process that lets you transform hardware functionality into software. The software replaces the hardware resources of a computer - including the CPU, RAM, hard disk and network controller - thus creating a fully functional virtual machine that can run its own operating system. This process can be applied to create multiple virtual machines on a single computer, enabling it to run several operating systems and applications at the same time; or it can be extended to create an entire virtual infrastructure.
But what does it mean to business today?
Gartner believes that aside from the obvious synergy with consolidation, virtualisation is well-suited for the real-time infrastructures around which the data centres of the future will be built and where today's data centres are headed (Serverwatch, June 2007). This, says Gartner, will be an 'enabler for agility', allowing organisations to share an IT infrastructure across customers, business units or applications. This means that the infrastructure can be built to suit business needs, rather than the other way round.
The keynote speech at next month's Guide Share Europe conference (Kenilworth, October 30th - 31st) in the UK is entitled 'What happened to my mainframe?' - a sentiment that may well be shared by many CIOs / CTOs looking at the advance of virtualisation. And it is not just in the computer room that virtualisation is changing working practices: network virtualisation will open up the possibilities to make real-time changes and significant cost savings, compared with a hardware-based network.
Whatever the rate of progress of virtualisation, one thing is for certain: organisations will need to ensure that they have the skills and services they need in place to be able to reap the benefit of this change to the computing landscape.
To find real answers to providing the skills for virtualisation, contact sales@bmeurope.com
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Tech View: Service Oriented Architecture
Paul Smith, B & M's Technical Manager, explains what Service Oriented Architecture is and why business needs it
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A significant bottleneck in commercial computing is caused by a combination of legacy systems, data integration and the addition of cross-platform applications. Over the years, there have been a variety of solutions that have been developed to try to streamline development processes - early examples were 4GLs and interpretive languages while, more recently, frameworks and XML have been deployed.
Simply put, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is the underlying structure supporting communications between services. It is designed to simplify the whole development and integration cycle, thereby reducing the amount of resource required to achieve effective integration.
There is no widely-agreed definition of SOA and leading suppliers such as IBM, BEA Systems, Oracle, Sun and Microsoft each have their own take on it. IBM, for example, uses Service-Oriented Modelling and Architecture, which incorporates SOA. Oracle Corp. has already abandoned SOA in favour of SOA 2.0 and Microsoft uses Indigo.
SOA defines how two applications or programs communicate to enable one of them to complete a task on behalf of the other, using a defined language. To exploit SOA, organisations need to develop standard Metadata models for their business sector. A third party may then offer libraries of services (for a fee) which enable applications to be developed quickly, based on these models and using a range of communicating 'units' of work, thus cutting down the in-house development time and cost. A good example is the development of reservation systems for the travel industry, which has been an early adopter of SOA; the financial sector is expected to follow.
For access to skills to support SOA and other mainframe architectures contact sales@bmeurope.com.
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Real Skills, Real people: B & M's Claire Brennan
This month we profile Financial Controller Claire Brennan
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Claire joined B & M in May 2007 as Financial Controller to oversee the day-to-day running of the accounts department. She started her career eighteen years ago working with Deloitte Haskins & Sells (now PriceWaterhouseCoopers) as an Auditor.
In 1991, Claire joined Piper Trust where she worked with two of their retail ventures, Postcard (a small group of card shops) and Pitcher & Piano (a national bar chain). She spent a total of nine years with Pitcher & Piano where she was instrumental in their fast-track expansion programme. During her time with the company, she studied for both AAT and ACCA, and obtained a Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Certificate in Wine.
In 2000, Claire moved to Tootsies Restaurants where she established an accounts team and financial systems, neither of which existed before. During her time at Tootsies, the company expanded from having eight sites to thirty.
Outside work, Claire likes to travel when given the opportunity. Following her interest in wine she has travelled extensively, visiting vineyards as far as the Casablanca Valley in Chile and Montana Valley in Australia. She is also a keen sailor and completed her Day Skipper certificate four years ago, although she has not had much opportunity to pursue this since having her baby son last year.
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10 benefits of virtualisation
Jerry Smart, MD of B & M Europe, considers the top ten benefits being delivered by creating 'virtual' machines'
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1. Consolidation leads to reduced cost of managing and maintaining multiple servers
2. Better systems availability due to minimised downtime
3. Fewer physical devices lead to improved business continuity
4. Quicker adoption of IT change
5. Streamlined software development
6. No need to reinstall systems when migrating from test to production
7. Reduced physical device costs
8. Simpler re-hosting of applications
9. Non-stop change implementation
10. Reduced energy costs
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Project-based technical support
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B & M offers total support for key projects, ranging from a full managed service, through to the provision of skilled IT specialists for contract assignments. Our established relationships with some of the most experienced specialists working in the mainframe environment means that we can deliver new skills and expert resource in support of communications, data management and operating systems projects.
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B & M has specialised in delivering skilled ICT specialists to meet the needs of leading organisations throughout Europe since 1992. We focus exclusively on providing consultancy, technical services and support for z/OS, UNIX and Linux enterprise systems, including third-party systems software, open systems and networking connectivity. We add real value for HR and IT professionals by taking the time to understand their needs and applying best practice methods to deliver results. To find out more about our approach to providing the best skills for each business, go to www.bmeurope.com B & M Europe Limited
www.bmeurope.com
+44 (0)118 981 1880
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