Welcome to B & M Bulletin, produced specifically for IT specialists. In this issue:
• Collaborative technology for the big society
• Tech View: the reality of virtualisation
• Specialist Profile: Andrew Hirst, WebSphere Message Broker Analyst
• Real People, Real Skills: Samantha Cruickshank
• B & M TechConsult
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Collaborative technology for the big society
With the new UK coalition government focused on enabling change at community level, Jerry Smart considers the role of collaboration of people and technologies to its success
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Technology to enable social change
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As a society we are becoming more tolerant and less radical. Each successive generation sees greater social integration and this is supported by the proliferation of personal communication and media exposure.
Under the banner of ‘The Big Society’, the new coalition UK Government has set out to devolve powers to local communities. This, coupled with a trend towards a greater proportion of the population to live in towns and cities (80% in the UK), means significant challenges for the infrastructure that delivers services.
The economic pressures to make efficiency savings and deal with increased demands means that new applications of technologies are key to addressing social issues such as traffic management, energy provision and conservation, carbon capture, education, healthcare, business integration, building infrastructure and environmental services.
To manage our towns and cities effectively we will need to share systems, services and information. This synergy is likely to be delivered by employing shared technology based on cloud-based systems that will enable collaboration and increased levels of service, but at the same time offer the potential for reductions in cost. Earlier this month, the Public Services 2020 Trust think-tank published a report entitled '2020 Vision: A far-sighted approach to transforming public services' which calls for virtual ‘town meetings’ in which groups of citizens debate local priorities while facilitators use ICT to collate their feedback nationwide – a prime example of how technology can help to enable social change.
If we are to improve our quality of life in the future then it will be through the unrestricted collaboration of people, government and other authorities.
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Tech View: the reality of virtualisation
B & M’s Technical Manager, Paul Smith, shares his personal experience of implementing simple virtualised machines
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Over the past few months I have looked at some of the pros and cons that come with using virtualisation technology. This month, I am writing from personal experience as we have been looking at some of the no-cost ‘bare metal’ Hypervisors currently available, namely Microsoft’s Hyper-V 2008 Server R2 and VMware’s ESXi 4.0 Update 1. An alternative would be the low cost option of using vSphere 4 (ESX), which gives you a Linux console and the ability to add management features which could be of use for future expansion - but beyond this, there is no essential difference between ESX and ESXi.
The aim was to create a production environment that would let us make better use of existing hardware and reduce power requirements without spending money. This involved virtualising:
- A production server running SBS 2003
- A standalone machine that operates as a proxy and voicemail server
- Three machines that exist as remote web workplace units used by staff when working away from the office
We had to consider a number of issues to decide which were the right solutions for us, namely, the amount of resource available in terms of available CPU and RAM; whether USB support was required; whether virtualisation technology was available; whether x86/x64 hardware is available and the different makes of hardware being used.
In summary, we found that neither product reliably supports USB devices for virtual machines where devices are plugged into the host hardware. Hyper-V seems a lot more flexible and will work on either 32 or 64 bit hardware and VMware tell me that they will be adding the full USB capability in a future release. VMware also allows a finer granularity of resource allocation.
Given that we have a number of USB devices on our server, we needed to source a solution that would allow these to be connected. There are a number of solutions utilising Ethernet with hardware and/or software costing around £50 - £100 (€60 - €120) that enable you to connect USB 2.0; however some solutions only support USB 2.0 running at USB 1.1 speeds (which is not ideal).
The result is that we now have two pieces of hardware running Hyper-V and ESXi running five virtual machines.
In summary, we haven’t achieved a complete no-cost solution but the actual expenditure is very small and the exploration of Virtualisation has been very successful.
If you would like to discuss this issue then please feel free to contact Paul at technical@bmeurope.com.
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Specialist profile: Andrew Hirst, WebSphere Message Broker Analyst
Andrew Hirst shares his concerns about de-skilling in the UK and his love of mountain biking
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Andrew Hirst is currently on contract as a WebSphere Message Broker Analyst with a global financial organisation, based in Scotland.
Andrew’s current role is in the company’s Enterprise Service Bus team, and it is providing him with plenty of opportunities to use and expand his Message Broker knowledge. “The whole project is interesting: as well as working in a well-designed and structured system, I am also learning new business skills;” he explained, continuing, “one aspect that particularly stands out is the opportunity to design solutions within the service bus framework.”
But what does Andrew believe are the main benefits of his current placement? “I have been exposed to commercial banking, broadened my development skills and experienced new methods of working. Each new contract boosts skills and this is a major factor in being selected for the next role”.
Of course, the depression in the banking sector has had a major impact on IT opportunities in this field, and Andrew is not alone in having seen IT projects being either shelved or scrapped over recent months as companies try to minimise expenditure. However, he believes that this is now changing. “Over the last few months my colleagues and I have noticed that things seem to be on the up. However one concern I still have is the increasing trend towards outsourcing and the unrestricted access to UK markets that foreign-based consultancies seem to have. This is not only detrimental to me personally, but will also result in the UK IT sector becoming de-skilled over time”.
Andrew is making the most of living in Scotland, which has enabled him to pursue his keen interest in mountain biking. “I'd be happy to stay in Scotland as long as I can, as I've found that the combination of interesting work, great people and the great outdoors to be a perfect combination. When the time does come to move on, then more of the same please!”
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Real People, Real Skills
This month we profile Samantha Cruickshank, Account Manager
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Samantha joined B & M in 2007 as Account Manager after spending three years in the telecommunications industry.
After studying languages at Oxford University, Samantha began her career at IBM where she was trained in the IBM portfolio and completed the sales training programme. This provided a solid basis for understanding customer business drivers and requirements as well as working with dynamic teams for the development of complex business solutions.
After some consideration, Samantha decided that she would like to make better use of her language skills and took a break from IT sales to complete a post-graduate certificate in education in Modern Languages. She went on to teach French and German, benefitting from the training in self-analysis and reflective development required of the modern teacher.
The increasing governmental demands on the teaching profession became too far removed from the core skills of teaching and Samantha left to join Ericsson. Here she consolidated the sales skills which she had developed at IBM and extended them through continued exposure to the commercial environment.
Working as an Account Manager, Samantha is now using her skills to develop B & M’s business.
In her spare time, Samantha likes to work on her newly replanted garden and spend time with her family.
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B & M TechConsult
authoritative technical consultancy
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B & M TechConsult is a specialist technical consultancy service for large enterprise systems, delivering strategic advice and recommendations to enable projects to be implemented in a timely and cost-effective manner.
We offer authoritative technical consultancy services for z/OS, AIX, HP-UX, Solaris and Linux environments and network connectivity, with consultancy projects typically including:
- Strategic Reviews
- Feasibility Studies
- Audits
- ICT Health Checks
- Process development
- Technical assurance services
B & M TechConsult delivers tailored services that enable customers to make the most of their large platform IT investments. Our consultants use their in-depth knowledge to make recommendations that can deliver dramatic improvements in an organisation’s IT infrastructure - typically delivering results in a short timescale. Consultancy is undertaken using best practice standards and objectives and deliverables are always agreed in advance.
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