Welcome to B & M Bulletin, produced specifically for IT specialists. In this issue:
• Making the most of business networking sites
• Tech View: What's lurking in your storage pool?
• B & M staff member profile: Vivienne Brown, Accounts Controller
• Specialist profile: Colin Dickens, Senior DB2 Systems Programmer
• B & M ProLegacy
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Keep in touch and raise your profile
Matt Jones, HR Manager at B & M Europe, explains how the business networking site, LinkedIn, is helping IT Specialists to keep in touch with acquaintances and win more contracts
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" linking you to thousands of professionals "
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LinkedIn, launched in May 2003, is a business-oriented online network of more than 25 million professionals from around the world, representing over 150 industries. LinkedIn allows individuals to be found for business opportunities or to discover inside connections and get introduced to other professionals.
A LinkedIn profile helps to broaden your business networks by enabling you to find former colleagues, clients and customers, and to see who they know, linking you to thousands of professional individuals worldwide. It can also be useful in helping you search for new job opportunities.
The idea behind LinkedIn was born a decade ago, when Oxford graduate Reid Hoffman and his college friend Konstantin Guericke brainstormed how they could devise an online networking service for professionals. Reid Hoffman explained the difference between LinkedIn and social networking sites such as Facebook: "People like to keep their work and professional lives separate from their personal lives. The functions we provide make professionals more effective. We don't give people a way to spend their entertainment or idle time."
LinkedIn is helping many IT contractors to become reacquainted with former colleagues and classmates, to network with like-minded and similarly skilled individuals and to create new opportunities for themselves. You can also join one of the special interest areas through LinkedIn Groups.
Not only is LinkedIn a good idea from a networking point of view, but it has also proved a very lucrative one for its founders. In June 2008 a group of venture capital firms purchased a 5% stake in LinkedIn for $53M.
At B & M, we have already connected with many IT specialists on LinkedIn and this is proving to be a very effective way to get in touch, both with specialists we already know and with those we don't who are seeking new contracts.
If you would like to connect with Matt, or any other B & M staff, please visit his profile.
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What's lurking in your storage pool?
B & M's Technical Manager, Paul Smith, looks at ways to implement a more robust storage strategy that supports disaster recovery
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Despite its importance, Disaster Recovery is an area that is often not given as much attention as it should. In particular, there is a raft of organisations which have not fully planned to protect their ability to process data and to store data reliably in the event of a disaster. And in today's 24-hour, 365-day world even a blip in data processing needs quick - and ideally seamless - resolution.
The foundation to a good disaster recovery strategy is of course to have the physical aspects of security already in place, with power, backup and access all covered. Once this is sorted, implementing RAID storage is a good next step. The type of RAID will depend on your requirements: RAID-5 (1 parity drive) is efficient and resilient, but more recently RAID-6 (with 2 parity drives) has come to prominence as although individual RAID drives are effective, they can be costly and administratively complex if you have a large server farm.
One way to simplify things, whilst keeping an eye on costs and power efficiency, is to use Storage Area Networks (SANs) with Dynamic Array Expansion (DAE). In this model, each server is stripped of as much of its critical direct access storage as possible and the data is pushed out to a SAN data-island and divided up into logical units. SANs can be implemented using an existing fibre channel, or the newer Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI). Using DAE allows you to add on more storage at any time; and with the cost of storage per gigabyte falling at around 30% a year this can make good economic sense.
To fully exploit this model, an organisation needs to be able to bring servers on line quickly, either using Hot Standby partitions (real or virtual) or Blades, which work for almost any current hardware and software combinations.
To source scarce storage and disaster recovery skills for your project, contact people@bmeurope.com
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Specialist Profile: Colin Dickens, Senior DB2 Systems Programmer
Colin Dickens explains how working in a variety of industries helps him bring new ideas and working practices to customers
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Colin Dickens is currently on his second stint with the same global banking group, the first being in 2007, when he worked as a DB2 Systems Programmer. Although Colin's contracts have recently all been in the financial services sector, his 35-year career in IT, of which the last 20 or more have been working with DB2, has encompassed a wealth of different industries, including working in-house for several manufacturing companies, a database consultancy, an insurance organisation and a food wholesaler.
But is it really possible to apply experienced gained in the food industry for example to the world of banking? Colin explained, "People can get into a bit of a rut working in the same industry. I can bring ideas of new ways of doing things that help people consider other options that can often be beneficial".
There is, of course, a great deal of focus on the finance sector at present and you might think that contracting to this area of the market was not the best idea. Colin disagrees: "Of course it's a concerning time, but you have the same risk whether you're on contract or permanent. I have seen plenty of people get made redundant or lose permanent jobs because of a company move for example - and they don't always get redundancy pay. I think there are more opportunities for contractors at the moment as companies don't want the commitment of full-time employees since they are only planning three to six months ahead".
One of the most appealing aspects of Colin's current assignment is the flexibility that it offers him. "They have complete trust in me and you really feel as if your experience is appreciated. I like the fact that there is no-one looking over my shoulder."
Colin began working through B & M in 2007 and says that he appreciates the fact that he is 'not a number' with the company. "They communicate well about the market and job opportunities and I appreciate the level of personal contact. You don't feel that you're put on a contract then forgotten until the time comes to renew".
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Real People, Real Skills - B & M's Vivienne Brown
This month we find out about Vivienne Brown, B & M's new Accounts Controller
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Vivienne joined B & M in August 2008 as Accounts Controller.
She started her career in accounts as a financial analyst for a company of agricultural consultants, later working as an accounts assistant for the South of England Agricultural Society.
Vivienne then changed direction and spent many years in estate agency in the Mid-Sussex area. Last year Vivienne decided to return to accountancy and obtain a formal qualification. She secured a position as Assistant Accountant with Sussex Enterprise and at the same time started studying her Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) qualifications through distance learning. In July 2008 she took and passed her AAT Bookkeeping Certificate.
Vivienne recently moved to the Tadley area to be closer to family and has just started her intermediate level AAT, studying two evenings a week at Basingstoke College. Her long-term goal is to obtain her AAT qualification over the next two years and then move on to CIMA.
In her spare time Vivienne enjoys long walks in the countryside with her Parsons Russell Terrier and accompanying her rugby-mad daughter to Twickenham and other local premiership games. She is also a keen skier, started modern jive classes last year and has just taken up clay pigeon shooting.
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B & M ProLegacy
Enduring support for legacy systems
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B & M ProLegacy is an enduring legacy support service which ensures that critical business applications and platforms continue to work effectively. The service enables organisations to improve the efficiency and productivity of their IT function by outsourcing the support and maintenance of systems software environments whilst reducing organisational complexity, headcount, cost and risk. B & M ProLegacy is designed to provide support for any stabilised production system where further development is not anticipated.
B & M will manage the customer's software infrastructure to ensure that legacy systems offer optimum levels of availability. The service allows organisations to outsource the maintenance of their legacy systems, freeing up in-house IT staff to focus on development of future IT infrastructure. For information about how ProLegacy could benefit your organisation, contact sales@bmeurope.com.
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