Welcome to B & M Bulletin, produced specifically for IT specialists. In this issue:
• Filling the skills gap
• Tech View: Perceptions of the mainframe
• Specialist Profile: Paul Begley
• B & M staff member profile - HR Manager, Matt Jones
• B & M ProSupport
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Filling the skills gap
Jerry Smart, Managing Director of B & M, looks at how the trend towards redeploying IT professionals from task-oriented to strategic work creates a skills gap in organisations
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"The impact of MOOSE.."
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This month, we are considering the impact of MOOSE on the IT function - not the large Canadian deer, but rather the standard indicator used to calculate the cost to Maintain and Operate the IT Organisation, Systems, and Equipment as a percentage of revenues. MOOSE enables different organisations to compare performance between similar IT functions and links the performance of the IT Organisation with bottom-line business goals such as reducing risk and costs while encouraging growth.
This focus on reducing risk and cost has lead to a trend of redeploying skilled IT professionals from operations-oriented support, maintenance and management to more strategic activities. However this approach can leave a gap in an IT function's resources to support operations-oriented tasks, which are inevitably the essential underpinnings of successful business service delivery.
Without the support of skilled contract specialists, this strategy would incur the risk of increasing downtime and impeding business continuity - both of which could be extremely costly to any organisation. Any downtime in a major retail bank, for example, could potentially cost the organisation hundreds of millions of pounds an hour [source: My View: The CIO and The CEO by George F. Colony, President of Forrester], so it is not surprising that business continuity - delivered by people with appropriate skills - is being placed further up the corporate agenda than ever before.
Whatever an organisation's motivation for putting in place a plan to the reduce risk of failure in IT operations, it makes sense to look at what external providers can offer. Cost may always be an important consideration - but it is not always the driving factor when it comes to choosing truly reliable back-up support or managed service, or when considering outsourcing. The most important criteria, according to Information Week, are reliability, cost, value and technical skills.
For information about helping us to deliver B & M ProSupport professional support services, please contact people@bmeurope.com
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Tech View: Perceptions of the mainframe
Paul Smith, B & M's Technical Manager looks at some of the differences between the perception and reality of today's mainframe
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The mainframe and its operating system have always had an image problem: type 'if operating systems were airlines' into your search engine and you will see an amusing summary of the perceptions of many people working in mainframe environments today!
However, the rumours of the demise of the mainframe continue to be grossly exaggerated - particularly when you start to examine the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of mainframes, compared with other server environments. Industry watchers The Robert Francis Group and authority Wayne Kernochan of Illuminata Inc. have each looked at IBM's own TCO figures and put together studies from which we can conclude that:
- The purchase cost of an IBM mainframe used to be higher than a server based on technology from the likes of Intel, AMD or Sun, but today there is very little difference between these and a low-end zSeries machine. With a rise in workload (and ensuing capacity) the increase in administrative and infrastructure costs for distributed systems is pretty much linear. The incremental cost for adding workload to a mainframe on the other hand is minimal.
- The administrative costs of software applications for a database infrastructure, for example, are about the same on either platform.
- Software for security and file serving is generally considered better on mainframes.
It is hard to put accurate numbers to these claims. IBM says that a System z10 running 26 IFLs generates about $24,600 in electricity charges per year, compared with $133,000 for the 760 blade-type servers. Hewlett Packard, on the other hand, claims that compared with a z9 system, Blade servers will deliver lower TCO. However, other reports suggest that a mainframe will typically be around four times more efficient in throughput and resource utilisation.
In its 2008 yearbook, mainframe watcher Arcati concludes that the mainframe seems to offer a more 'cost effective, secure and powerful solution' compared with distributed systems, and says that the market for mid to large-end systems is seeing healthy growth, whilst the bottom end (sub-500 MIPS) is beginning to decline.
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Specialist Profile: Paul Begley, Senior Mainframe Specialist
This month, Paul Begley explains how B & M helped him get started with contracting in the UK
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Having started his IT career in the early '80s, Paul Begley went to Saudi Arabia as an MVS Systems Programmer in 1990 on what should have been a two-year contract - which in fact lasted for 15 years. Paul worked at a small mainframe site for a Saudi bank, a role which he enjoyed as it enabled him to work in different areas including systems programming, storage, hardware installation, performance management and mainframe security.
After returning to the UK, Paul started looking for contract work and first came across B & M. "They were immediately interested in my skill set and put me forward for contract positions in mainframe storage", he explains, adding, "I found B & M staff courteous and very efficient, and they handled all the enquiries I had, as I hadn't contracted in the UK before".
B & M placed Paul with a large financial organisation on an assignment providing support for a large 120-terabyte DASD environment and IBM back-up systems, supporting mainframe services with up to 45,000 users - around 25,000 of whom are typically logged on simultaneously at peak times. Paul is still on contract with the same organisation and provides support as part of a 'business as usual' service. "I am currently working on the administration of DFSMS/DFHSM and defining and modifying space management policies", he explains.
Like many contract specialists, Paul enjoys contracting as he finds that it enables him to stay in a senior technical role, instead of becoming involved in management. He adds, "My current role has enabled me to work and learn in different hardware and software environments to the ones I am used to, giving me more transferable skills and increasing my saleability in the job market - something which would be more difficult from a permanent position. By contracting, I am in complete control of my career direction and can decide where and when I want to work".
On a personal level, Paul also enjoys being broadly able to plan his holidays as he wishes and has enjoyed meeting and working with a lot of new people, working in different areas and projects, which allows him to keep up to date with new developments and changes in the IT industry. He concludes, "I may decide to move into Open Systems storage management at a later date once I have completed my current assignment".
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Real People, Real Skills
This month, we profile B & M's Human Resources Manager, Matt Jones
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Matt Jones joined B & M in February 2008 having worked in human resources and recruitment for several years. Matt's main duties at B & M include managing the HR team, planning and implementing strategies to source specialists and dealing with all internal human resources issues.
Matt's first position in the industry was at Manpower where he worked as a recruitment consultant for over three years. He progressed from ad hoc recruitment in a town centre branch to running Manpower's newly-won Hewlett Packard contract, working on site at HP's Reading and Bracknell premises.
Matt then moved to a more HR focused role, working for a small IT software company. His primary task was to implement the company's HR structure and to grow the company from 30 staff to over 100, which he successfully achieved. Matt dealt with all aspects of HR including ultimately making himself redundant when his work with the company was completed! Matt also managed several newly formed departments on an interim basis including a team of 20 telesales graduates.
He took up a new challenge, managing a recruitment team within a private healthcare company, dealing primarily with a new diagnostics project in the West Midlands. The project quickly grew to over 200 medical and administrative staff, at which time Matt's focus changed from recruitment to employee development, including working on several training modules.
Matt spends his spare time immersing himself in any sport he can find, whether it be watching or taking part - captaining his local football and pool teams and supporting Reading FC.
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B & M ProSupport - proactive IT support
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B & M ProSupport is a flexible support service designed to meet the very different IT situations within large enterprises. B & M ProSupport offers a choice of second and third-level support services that help to reduce downtime and keep the business running - right up to on-site, 24/7 support if required. If you have experience in delivering the following types of support, please contact people@bmeurope.com to
find out about current IT support opportunities.
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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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