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Super SLES chosen for supercomputers
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Service Quality – what to look for when Outsourcing IT services
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Survey reveals Open-Source adoption surge
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Interest in Open-Standards grows
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Linux OS solutions – at your fingertips
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The www.thelinuxadvantage.com
For Ambitious Managers of Linux and Mixed IT Environments.
ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS
Business as Unusual - page 7
Case Studies - pages 2, 4, 8
CIO Connect editor Mark Samuels summarises last year’s radical CIO annual event and looks to this year’s conference with its focus on consumerisation
Three case studies showing how Linux Open-Source based systems and outsource service can be made to deliver
A view from the top...
The proven pathway to Linux Open Source success How to pursue Linux Open-Source strategies to increase IT contribution and productivity. There is no doubt that Linux Open-Source (OS) ecosystem adoption is on a roll, indeed independent research indicates that the Linux market is growing by 18% pa, 50% of CIOs are committed to OS, a further 28% are experimenting, nearly 70% anticipate increasing investment in 2011 and nearly 40% expect to migrate mission critical software to OS in the next year. Why? In the main they cite software quality, improved reliability, security and bug fixing. Put simply, Linux OS continues its relentless ascent, if this is judged by global server operating system revenue growth. But what is the best route, or pathway, to success in adoption, deployment and ongoing support?
Proven Model LinuxIT, the only professional, commercial Linux Open-Source specialist in the UK, have developed an approach over the past 12 years. A unique and proven consultative methodology to build a clear picture of each client’s business model and aims.
Summarised in the diagram below, their proven and powerful model is based upon ITIL and comprises 4 key elements: significance, competence, risk and cost. This approach enables LinuxIT to plot an organisations current position and from this develop an appropriate tailored path based upon the stages in the ITIL service cycle. But it not only reduces cost and risk but addresses the many causes that can stop your progress in adopting Cloud or Virtualization such as: • Security concerns • Lack of in-house knowledge • Scalability • Cost visibility • Control • Persuading the Board to sanction the move
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And the ITIL cycle provides a powerful, proven structure. Now prevalent across major IT users, LinuxIT find it invaluable in the delivery of utility and warranty service.
Stages in adoption In the context of Linux Open-Source adoption organisations are at one of these 3 stages:
Step 1 > Those who don’t have any Open-Source, but should actively consider it.
Step 2 > Organisations that
Cloud and Virtualization are the technologies that are reshaping industry. Providing an elastic virtualized environment – basically a resources on demand model. Resources that can be applied to address a change agenda, major business development programmes, increase scale and to capitalise on time-to–market and efficiency gains.
have some, but have stalled in their adoption.
New ecosystems
Step 3 > Predominantly Open-
In terms of the Cloud there are new Open-Sourced based ecosystem infrastructures and services, designed to provide a comprehensive, easy onramp. Development services provide the tools and expertise needed to deploy and manage private and public Cloud environments. Offerings that even address the concerns about the safety of the Cloud for mission critical applications.
Source companies, where OS is at the heart of their IT strategy. The good news is that you can safely jump stages and phases in the adoption of new technology to address drivers such as compliance, automation and resilience faster. But there are few organisations that have been able to adopt the ‘big bang’ approach to adoption without creating a huge risk to the business. You often need to look at the areas for initial quick wins. Continued on page 3...
Service
• Strategy • Design
• Transition • Operation
• Consultancy • Implementation • Software • SUP/VS/MS
• Strategy • Design
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• Consultancy • Implementation • Software • SUP/VS/MS
• Transition • Operation
• Implementation • SUP/VS/MS
• Operation
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• Strategy • Design
A personal perspective from LinuxIT director, Simon Mitchell, of the drivers he sees shaping Linux Open-Source adoption over the medium term.
Prime examples of the use of Cloud in combination with Open-Source are of course the industry giants, Google and Facebook. Facebook supports its social network of 500 million users with LAMP software infrastructure. This Open-Source approach, also used by Google, Twitter, Yahoo and others, is a departure from the proprietary products offered by Microsoft, Oracle and IBM.
Open-Source But most of the software infrastructure that supports Facebook activities is in fact Open-Source, free for programmers to adopt, customise and use. Google, Twitter, Yahoo and other Internet based companies today also support their platforms with Open-Source products.
Paradigm shift Turning to Virtualization there has been a credible OS offering, both proprietry and non-proprietry, for some time. The former being led by Red Hat’s RHEV and Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Virtualization. I see Virtualization going well beyond the Datacentre, where adoption started and continues to play a key role in financial organisations looking to consolidate their information. Basically being used to manage information more effectively, enabling correct and timely decisions to be taken. An essential capability that we find in both the private and public sectors. Finally there is no doubt in my mind that these considerations and others will require, in some, a shift in their perception of Open-Source, at least in the context of Cloud computing, Virtualization – and perhaps beyond? Of course, there are still some myths out there in terms of OS suitability, it not being for corporates, too many distributions, and liability and accountability issues– ‘no one throat to choke!’ Myths that are melting away in the ‘Linux gold rush’. So for some the paradigm through which they view the Open-Source opportunity for their organisation needs to change – and fast. Taking hold of the opportunity to break free from old constraints, moving forward into a new world with the freedom to choose today and in the future, freedom to deploy at your own pace, freedom of scalability, freedom from system unreliability - the freedom to aim for the top. Simon would like to talk with those interested in embracing or exploiting Open-Source technologies and related services and can be contacted at simon.mitchell@linuxit.com
The
For Ambitious Managers of Linux and Mixed IT Environments.
Welcome To the latest issue of ‘The Linux Advantage’ (TLA). Over 35,000 IT specialists now receive a copy, or are encouraged to visit its web site at www.thelinuxadvantage.com. Our aim is to provide new and innovative thinking for real world IT management in the use of Linux and Open-Source.
Open up your Cloud options Novell solutions power Asia’s largest sports event
CHALLENGES During these times of economic regression most organisations face the challenge of getting more and better service from reduced budgets. This has been the catalyst for the widespread adoption of Linux and Open-Source software, and the outsourcing of expert services. We see the adoption of Linux based systems continuing to accelerate across all sectors of the economy. Our growth of 50% in 2010 is testimony to that, and a reward for our investment in specialist people, systems and facilities. We have seen growth in all aspects of our business - professional services, technology sales and system support and are confident of achieving similar growth in 2011.
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WORLD EVENT
http://www.novell.com/home/index.html
Growth achieved through sound client retention and attracting new major customers and, as the first Red Hat Premier Business Partner in the UK, through our success with the market leading Red Hat technology ecosystem.
This has proved to be the time for Linux, and the time for LinuxIT.’’
PS Should you need extra copies for colleagues/events do please email marketing@linuxit.com
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Management to enable uniform deployment, provide effective management of all terminal devices, and ensure a smooth and successful event.
INTELLIGENT WORKLOAD MANAGEMENT “We are honoured to have been selected by such an important sports event, something which we believe proves our strength in the intelligent workload management market,” said Dr. Sen Ming Chang, managing director of Novell East Asia. “ The three solutions we provided represent the advantages of Novell products – openness, multi-platform support, automation, reliability and safety. We were able to leverage these advantages to maximise our contribution to the Games.”
With 53 competition venues and 17 training venues, including four outside of Guangzhou, hosting the Asian Games was highly complicated, requiring the information systems to coordinate numerous tasks. To achieve effective IT device testing, software deployment/upgrade and emergency response, an effective data centre and software distribution mechanism was necessary to ensure the stable operation of the Games’ information systems and to enhance service quality and IT efficiency.
For more on how customers around the globe are leveraging Novell solutions, visit www.novell.com success or talk to LinuxIT Novell Gold Partner on 01454 333002.
Mini Case Study 1 A shining example of a tailored solution, that worked...
The Client
The challenge
University College Falmouth is a vibrant and forward-thinking specialist arts college that is a key player in the national and international creative scene. It has an international reputation for excellence in Art, Design, Media, Performance and Writing and has grown over a century by nurturing original thinking, supported by highly talented and professional staff.
The college’s Learning Technology department were operating on a low-end minimal setup, with support coming from a single source within the department itself. They had two servers running Ubuntu Server; one web server and one database server. There was no monitoring or support for this setup outside of core college hours, 9am to 5pm.
Falmouth’s Schools of Art and Design and Media and Performance offer some of the most innovative, entrepreneurial, collaborative and transformative learning experiences available in a specialist college of art.
Peter Dawes-Huish chief executive LinuxIT
With 45 nations, 476 events in 42 sports and more than 9,500 competing athletes, the Asian Games is one of the largest sports events in the world. The Guangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee (GAGOC) utilised SUSE Linux Enterprise, Novell Cloud Manager and Novell ZENworks Configuration
FIRST IN UK
LinuxIT is probably the only commercial organisation in our field whose consultants and engineers have proven real life experience of helping enterprise customers make the right decisions in their adoption and deployment of Linux and to capitalise on the cost reduction, interoperability, flexibility, reliability, security, scalability and productivity that this affords.
Novell has announced that the 16th Asian Games chose the company’s Linux and enterprise management technologies to implement an efficient and flexible data centre and software distribution management system to support their premier event.
Falmouth is a member of both the Ukadia group of specialist arts and design institutions from across the UK’s higher and further education sectors, and the Cornwall Skillset Media Academy network, a UK-wide group of institutions identified as centres of excellence in creative media education and training. University College Falmouth merged with Dartington College in 2008, heralding an exciting new era for arts education in the South West and paving the way for the development of a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall that is expected to be in place by 2012
But as University College Falmouth moved towards expanding its offering through the department of online distance and blended learning courses, as well as the wider integration with campus based courses it was important to create a service which was more resilient, scalable and reliable. In addition the college in-house IT team had undertaken a large scale Virtualization project and the Learning Technology department were keen to take advantage of the hardware resilience flowing from this work. In addition, the college had very few formal Linux skills within the Learning Technology department, and the college in-house IT team were unable to support them either. So it was vital that they found a long term solution.
The solution Commenting on the selection of LinuxIT and the project overall Ben Bull, senior learning technologist said “LinuxIT were by far the most helpful company we approached, offering a complete package of design, implementation and support. Since adopting LinuxIT Vitalsigns24 service support we’ve experienced much less downtime due to their constant monitoring, and personally, I can sleep better knowing that someone is keeping an eye on our operations 24X7. I can’t praise the service we receive enough, it really is world class.
Working with LinuxIT has been a great experience so far and has enabling us to provide a truly world class level of service to our students and staff. From the very start of the project right the way through to ongoing support, I have found LinuxIT to be professional, friendly and very, very knowledgeable. We will definitely continue to use LinuxIT in the future for all our Linux support.” More information at www.linuxit.com
The
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to include new partners such as IBM, and introduced new benefits, including Cloud specific offerings and pricing and innovative management and updating services.
The
Interview
TLA – So, what can Red Hat offer today?
?
with Petra Heinrich Petra Heinrich, VP, partners & alliances EMEA, Red Hat, talks to us about Bringing Cloud Computing back to Earth. TLA – How would you define Cloud Computing?
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PH – Well, the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) defines Cloud Computing as a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort, or service provider interaction. [1] I think that’s a good basis for what has emerged, in a remarkably short time, as a hugely important evolution in the way that businesses and individuals consume and operate computing. It’s a fundamental shift to an operational model in which applications don’t live out their lives on a specific piece of hardware and in which resources are more flexibly deployed than was the
historical norm. It’s also a fundamental shift to a development and consumption model that replaces hard-wired, proprietary connections among software components, and the consumers of those components, with lightweight web services and web-based software access.
TLA – There is a burgeoning Cloud ecosystem for organisations to choose from, what approach should they be taking?
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PH – Organisations clearly need to assess and select from the myriad of SaaS, PaaS (Platform) and IaaS (Infrastructure) vendors. There is also a need to integrate existing technology and processes, as well as optimising performance of their incumbent technology and new systems, and training end users. Extending this concept further, third parties can build their own technology on PaaS offerings- accessing fully developed and advanced platforms for the creation of customer or industry specific offerings.
TLA – How can organisations ensure that their Cloud deployments are successful?
?
PH – For those organisations that are looking to build public Cloud deployments, a series of factors will contribute to their success. Firstly, the technology to create layers of the Cloud stack, whether that be Infrastructure or Platform as a Service. Secondly, the flavour of Cloud being developed and the consistency of technology between the enterprise and the Cloud. Thirdly, developers also need the certainty of support to ensure peace of mind for end users. TLA – How is Red Hat facilitating successful deployment?
?
PH – Through its Certified Cloud Provider Program, introduced in June 2009, Red Hat has established the industry’s first program to certify that vendors have validated Cloud capabilities and support processes that provide rapid problem resolution. Red Hat has expanded the program
PH – Red Hat Cloud Foundations: Edition One. This enables customers to deploy real Private Clouds today. It includes industry-leading products for implementing a private Cloud, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Network Satellite, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, JBoss Enterprise Middleware and Red Hat Enterprise MRG Grid. We can provide a cookbook implementation guide, making Cloud setup quick and simple and a detailed reference architecture providing step-by-step instructions, scripts and settings for creating and configuring the private Cloud. All based upon the years of experience and knowledge Red Hat engineers have built and refined while creating private and public Clouds for some of the world’s largest and most demanding companies.
TLA – What about Virtualization and the Cloud?
?
PH – Virtualization is the fundamental premise on which Cloud is based. Through our Program, Certified Public Cloud Providers can run any supported Virtualization solution, ranging from Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and Red Hat or Microsoft guests to VMware and Microsoft platforms running Red Hat Linux as guests. In addition, Premier Certified Cloud Providers are able to deliver Red Hat Cloud Access, an innovative and flexible licensing model that allows customers to easily use existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions in the datacentre or the Cloud, thereby driving easy Cloud adoption. TLA – How do can you find out more?
?
PH – There is more information on our entire Cloud offering at www.redhat.com and we are working with our leading specialist partners, Premier Business Partners such as LinuxIT, to support both Private and Public Cloud offerings. TLA – Thank you.
Edition One also includes consulting services to enable turnkey assessment, implementation and operational management of a private Cloud. And training classes, to transfer knowledge and best practices to customers, creating a strong base of skills among customers staff quickly and efficiently.
?
For more information contact LinuxIT, call 01454 333002 email sales@linuxit.com or visit www.linuxit.com [1] NIST Definition of Cloud Computing v15 2010
From front page... The proven pathway to Linux Open-Source success - How to reduce cost and risk when pursuing Linux Open-Source strategies to increase IT contribution and productivity.
Strategic Migration Planning
configuration is also dynamically modified to suit particular hardware profiles such as the size of hard disks or RAM. Alternatively, it might be configured to use a different network or different security services depending on the networking segment where the system is located. A Core Build allows systems to be deployed rapidly and in a standardised manner.
The following steps have been used successfully across hundreds of migration projects. While performing these steps, it’s important to evaluate requirements and design solutions within the context of an integrated environment that takes into account: applications, solutions, and systems; the enterprise IT infrastructure; system and solutions performance; and related interdependencies.
Management Platform Step 1 > Detailed analysis of
SOE comes with a Management Platform (SOEMP). A set of different technologies and products that aim to provide the following benefits:
existing hardware
Step 2 > Consolidated deployment scenario & Virtualization analysis
Step 3 > High level hardware redeployment analysis Step 4 > Consolidated risk analysis & risk mitigation plan
Step 5 > Training plan Step 6 > Detailed cost estimate Step 7 > Master migration roadmap
Step 8 > Implementation At this point you have fully adopted Open-Source, in the top tier you need to maintain the alliance of your systems with your requirements - as a process. The good news is that the customisability and flexibility of Open-Source lends itself to creating corporately defined standards - such as a Standard Operating System (SOE).
SOE is a specification for a tested standard selection of computer hardware software and their configuration for use on computers within an organisation. SOE can: • Dramatically reduce deployment times. • Standardise software deployed and configuration. • Simplify maintenance, due to technology standardisation. • Increase stability and reduce support and management costs. Each version of Linux has its own terminology... for instance the market leader in enterprise Linux Red Hat calls it ‘Core Build’.
SOEMP also dramatically lowers the costs associated with a Core Build’s quality assurance, deployment and maintenance cycle. So at whatever stage of your adoption of OpenSource there is a road map to further adoption, where appropriate, and further gains can be made. So - is it all worth the effort? There is now strong evidence that there are 5 key categories of benefits that flow from the above: • Value creation: ensuring return reflects IT investment. • Economic incentives: real savings, from day one.
• A centralised management platform.
• Reliability: robust, proven and supported platforms.
Rapid system deployment
• The ability to manage several Core Builds in parallel.
Core Build supports a defined set of target hardware and a defined set of pre-configured services and applications. Applications might originate from Red Hat or from 3rd party vendors. An organisation often has a number of different Core Build implementations for desktops, servers, for different Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions, or for different hardware architectures.
• A centralised way to deploy errata and configuration changes to Core Build installations.
• Ease of deployment: plenty of experience at an engineering, management and user level.
As a result of a Core Build installation to a particular system, all required configuration is automatically performed in order to integrate the system into an existing IT infrastructure for example, authentication services. The
• Integration with your asset management in order to automatically configure systems. • Integration with change/incident management, and other IT tools and processes. • Automated QA mechanisms.
• Compliance: systems that tick all the boxes. For more information visit www.linuxit.com or email sales@linuxit.com Based upon a presentation given by Peter Dawes-Huish, CEO LinuxIT, at Cloud Expo Europe 2011.
• Early integration of development teams into SOE.
3
The
For Ambitious Managers of Linux and Mixed IT Environments.
Super SLES chosen for supercomputers Overview Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) provides supercomputer resources, IT tools, methods and know-how for simulation science in Germany and Europe. Jülich’s JUGENE and JuRoPA/HPC-FF are currently the fastest computers in Europe, and occupy the third and tenth place in the world rankings respectively.
Challenge To provide support for European scientific research involving largescale computational simulation, JSC planned to create three new leadingedge supercomputers. JUGENE would be the fastest computer in Europe, based on proprietary IBM* BlueGene/P technology.
Solution The JuRoPA and HPC-FF supercomputers are among the most powerful HPC clusters ever built from commodity components. The commodity approach is not just limited to the hardware side – it also extends to the operating system.
While many supercomputers run a specialised lightweight operating system on the compute nodes, both JuRoPA and HPC-FF rely on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as the operating system for all nodes. “We chose SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as the basis for JuRoPA and HPC-FF because we saw it as a very stable and efficient platform,” said Dr. Norbert Eicker, the designer of JuRoPA and HPC-FF. “Because it is Open-Source, we were able to strip out all the features we did not need – for example, the graphical desktop manager and some of the kernel functions – which helped us to eliminate many of the unneeded system processes that cause OS jitter and increase latency.” SUSE Linux Enterprise Server also runs on the I/O and front-end nodes for JUGENE, while the main compute nodes run the ultralightweight IBM CNK operating system. JSC is engaged in cooperative research with Novell using SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time Extension to resolve the issue of OS jitter.
Outsourcing – exploring the value proposition... The decision whether to develop competences in-house as opposed to Outsourcing is never easy. However there is an increasing body of evidence that indicates that there are significant benefits in placing support outside. Indeed, there appear to be significant barriers to ever establishing and developing the required competences internally such as labour constraints, i.e. turnover, rising salaries, accommodation, skills scarcity and updating. The primary reasons for Outsourcing is the need to reduce and control operating costs, improve management focus and to access skills and knowledge not available in-house. Specialists, such as LinuxIT, deliver value to clients by developing a set of experience based core competences that address client wants and needs and the delivery environment. Exhibiting complementary skills and systems that result in efficient service delivery, and lever the experience gained over a large number of diverse projects from multiple clients, driving their practices, skills, knowledge and processes.
Competences These core competences can result in a unique and compelling value proposition when investing in the growth of any of these competencies and management systems in-house conflicts with the optimisation of the clients core business activities.
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At the heart of outsource value generation seems to be client characteristics, supplier characteristics and the supplier client relationship. In addition contract based, interpersonal and reputation based mechanisms can encourage outsource service suppliers to share advantages with clients. These aspects tend to increase client control and motivate suppliers to demonstrate value for money to the client, providing high levels of satisfaction. Establishing a virtuous circle of service design, delivery, client feedback and continuous service development. LinuxIT specialise in supporting mixed IT environments. More at www.linuxit.com
This is a phenomenon caused by operating systems performing system operations (for example, daemon processes and interrupts) that create ‘noise’ or ‘jitter’, which interferes with the performance of parallel applications running in HPC clusters. SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time Extension is specifically designed to handle timecritical application workloads such as those found in supercomputing environments.
Linux is the standard in
supercomputing. By using SUSE Linux Enterprise, we are sure to get a reliable basis for our supercomputers and worldclass support for sustained productivity. Prof. Dr. Thomas Lippert head of Jülich Supercomputing Centre Institute for Advanced Simulation
By enabling applications to be prioritised over system processes, the software allows time-sensitive workloads to be processed reliably and predictably – keeping latency to a minimum.
Results The JuRoPA and HPC-FF supercomputers have now been fully built and tested, and are ready to take on project workload. HPC-FF will primarily be used in atomic fusion research, while JuRoPA will handle more than 200 different projects in a variety of areas of scientific research.
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Mini Case Study 2 Another shining example of a tailored solution, that worked...
The Client
The Challenge
Cefas makes an important contribution to securing healthy and sustainable marine and freshwater environments so that current and future generations can prosper. Their vision is to make a real difference for society, as recognised leaders in marine and aquatic science.
Cefas were using a Debian, Linux platform, based cluster managed internally. With increased demands on the system and cost issues Cefas needed to move to a more stable and economic system, with enhanced and experienced support.
As the UK’s largest and most diverse applied marine science centre, they help to shape and implement policy through internationally renowned science and collaborative relationships that span the EU, UK government, non-governmental organisations, research centres and industry. Their work takes us from freshwater to the open ocean, and includes both wild and farmed fish. Their influence and leadership spans a wide spectrum of issues, including: • Climate change impacts and adaptation • Marine planning and environmental licensing • Sustainable fisheries management • Marine biodiversity and habitats • Fish and shellfish health and hygiene • Emergency response They support this by collecting, managing and interpreting environmental, biodiversity and fisheries data.
To do so they needed to find an appropriate technology and support solution, and the skills, to install and support a high performance compute cluster (HPCC). Cefas use HPCC to run models of ocean models.
The Solution
went straight to LinuxIT for advice and commissioned the new cluster build with them. In addition to the above the technology also included Centos.
LinuxIT recommended Cefas adopt the Open-Source distribution ROCKS, the Open-Source Linux cluster distribution that enables end users to easily build computational clusters, grid endpoints and visualization tiled-display walls as the underlying platform for their new HPCC. ROCKS provided a scalable HPCC platform with centralised management for deploying and redeploying compute nodes.
The Benefits
Free Open-Source software was used as the basis for the cluster distribution and LinuxIT worked closely with Cefas scientists to ensure they could run their existing code against the new cluster platform.
Commenting on the input from LinuxIT, Michael Sage, IT systems manager Cefas, said “Our project was well managed, came in on time and on budget, and we found LinuxIT were prepared to go the extra mile to make sure the work was carried out to our complete satisfaction. I found them pleasant people to work with, and flexible”.
Cefas commissioned the first cluster in the first few months after working with LinuxIT, since then Cefas have commissioned a second cluster and
The LinuxIT solution has provided: • Cost savings • Reliable system administration backup • Monitoring of HPCC systems • Additional support services tailored to the needs of Cefas
More information at www.linuxit.com
The
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Interest in OpenStandards grows The enhanced interoperability that flows from the adoption of Open-Standards based technology is seeing an increasing preference from both the public and private sectors.
Mark Reynolds, head of technology, LinuxIT “We recommend solutions drawn from the best enterpriseclass Open-Source solutions available today.’’
Linux OS solutions – at your fingertips... A unique Solutions Configurator tailored for those interested in the benefits of adopting and exploiting Linux Open-Source can now be found on the home page at www.linuxit.com Users can select their area of interest, their challenge and be provided with proven solutions. There are 8 topic areas to choose from, listed below, and LinuxIT are keen to hear from users on other areas of interest and challenges that they should add. Those responding have the chance to WIN AN AMAZON KINDLE.
The philosophy and pragmatic methodologies that underpin OpenSource Software, in the context of Linux based technology, chimes strongly with the economic and managerial imperatives bearing down on many organisations today, and Govt policy requiring all publicly funded organisations to explore and adopt the ‘Open option’.
Choose from 8 topics:
No vendor lock-in Open-Source Software embraces Open-Standards and thereby mitigates the risk and costs associated with vendor lock-in. Mark Reynolds, Head of Technology at LinuxIT, the leading advocates of Open-Standards in the UK says ‘‘ At LinuxIT we use our specialist knowledge and experience gained over the past 12 years to recommend solutions drawn from the best enterprise-class Open-Source solutions available today. Together with complementary technologies and a customised service wrap ensuring total system reliability.’’ Simon Mitchell, LinuxIT Sales Director added ‘’ We’ve developed a unique consultative approach and methodology to build a clear picture of each client’s business model, aims and corresponding system requirements, focused upon Open-Standards and Open-Source. This proven and powerful model is based upon the ITIL framework, and comprises four key elements: significance, competence, risk and cost. This approach enables us to plot an organisations current position and from this develop a tailored path to reduce cost, risk
and security concerns, address lack of in-house knowledge, increase scalability, competitive advantage, improve cost visibility and control and assist in influencing the Board in terms of future system strategy and investment.’’
Reshaped industry With Cloud and Virtualization reshaping the industry and providing a resources on demand model Open resources can be applied to change agendas, major business development programmes, and to capitalise on time-to-market and efficiency gains. The new Open-Source based ecosystem infrastructures can be used to provide a comprehensive, easy on-ramp for mission critical systems. In addition, Linux adoption lends itself to creating corporately defined standards, such as a Standard Operating Environment (SOE) which can dramatically reduce deployment times, standardise software deployed and configuration, simplify maintenance, increase stability and reduce support/management costs. While its Management Platform (SOEMP) can provide further benefits. More at www.linuxit.com
• System Performance • System Reliability • System Cost Reduction • System Security • System Deployment • System Scalability • System Support • System Interoperability
RHEL 6 offers more The NEW Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (RHEL 6) platform offers a larger feature set, when compared with previous RHEL releases in summary: • No delineation between physical and virtual systems. • One standard product - with modules (eg GFS, Cluster Suite, Management etc). • The facility to run on any hypervisor (eg VMWARE, HYPER-V, RHEV). • The facility to stack the product in a virtual environment.
New service portal LinuxIT, the only professional Linux Open-Source technology and service specialists in the UK, have launched a new Service Portal for its support service clients.
• The ability to notify incidents and requests over the web, by logging in directly into the portal. • The opportunity to raise incidents and requests, 24x7x365. • The facility to track case progress online, 24x7x365. • Automated email notifications and updates.
• A low cost, mission-critical alternative to expensive proprietary software. • Proven performance across multiple workloads. • Offers the highest level of out-ofthe-box security in the industry. • Provides new levels of flexibility to deploy one standard system on servers of any size.
The portal provides LinuxIT clients with a number of valuable benefits including:
• Total transparency as it is built on Open-Standards. Mike Curtis (above), LinuxIT head of service delivery, commenting on the new portal said “Our clients told us that they wanted the facility to access our services online and that’s what we have given them. It is part of our policy to ensure we provide a world class service.” LinuxIT clients can login to the portal direct, or through the LinuxIT web site at www.linuxit.com
Visit www.linuxit.com/solutions/solutions-configurator
• Includes built-in Virtualization delivering a secure, robust platform. • Offers deployment flexibility physical, virtual or Cloud. • A choice of add-on options to meet your environment needs.
At the Enterprise Ireland Event 2011 - The Business Value of OpenSource Software, Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu Project, commented: “I am glad to see all of the features in RHEL 6, there are at least 50% more...(over RHEL 5).” Looking in more detail at the many improvements they include: • Updated kernel and core technology stack: a completely updated core which includes a newer kernel and associated userspace management tools. Also updated are core applications like httpd, Samba and NFS. • Virtualization: fully integrated and based on the KVM hypervisor. A range of new features improve scalability, I/O performance and deployment flexibility. The application environment is consistent across physical and virtual systems and simplifies the adoption of Virtualization. • Power management: improvements through the application stack to reduce wakeups, power consumption measurement, and adaptive system tuning to provide more efficient system power usage. • Next generation networking: comprehensive IPv6 support and a new and improved mac 802.11 wireless stack. • Reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS): system-level enhancements from industry collaborations make the most of hardware RAS capabilities and NUMA architectures.
NEW ! • Performance: improvements in the kernel and user-space stack provide better utilisation of the infrastructure resulting in industry leading performance of applications. • Scalability: Scales to the largest systems on the market today with plenty of expansion capabilities for growth tomorrow. Physical, virtual and Cloud deployments are supported. • Fine-grained control and management: improved scheduler and better resource management in the kernel. • Filesystem and storage: provides support for larger file sizes and significantly reduces repair times over ext3. Optimised for large data transfers. • Enterprise security enhancement: includes improved ease of use, application sandboxing, and significantly increased coverage of system services, while SSSD provides unified access to identity and authentication services as well as caching for off-line use. • Development and runtime support: SystemTap improvements, and a new framework for simple collection and reporting of bug information. Red Hat and LinuxIT have an alliance to extend commercial Linux adoption and support into the enterprise. Red Hat has awarded LinuxIT Premier Business Partner status, the first in the UK, in recognition of it’s specialist skills, knowledge, experience. More at www.linuxit.com
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For Ambitious Managers of Linux and Mixed IT Environments.
Value of LPI increasingly recognised by UK business Employers across the UK with mixed IT environments, or looking to embrace Linux and the benefits that flow from Open-Standards and Open-Source based technologies, are increasingly recognising the value of their staff pursuing LPI based training and exams, or setting it as a condition of recruitment. The only Linux agnostic syllabus and certification recognised worldwide, with over 275, 000 certifications to date and over 20% growth rate year on year, the training and exams can provide employers and students with great value when compared with some vendor based training, or as an adjunct.
OPEN UNIVERSITY introduces LPI More recently the Open University has approved the LPIC1 level syllabus and exam and now offer them alongside their IT degree courses. This has generated significant interest and take-up. In addition LPI is offered by Comptia, FE and HE colleges are increasingly offering LPI,
and there are also two long standing commercial training providers in the UK – TDM and QA, more information at www.tdm.info and www.qa.com Peter Dawes-Huish of LinuxIT, LPI – UK Affiliate said ‘’We are delighted to have the Open University offering LPI to students enrolled in their introductory Linux course. The interest and demand for LPI is growing as employers across the UK with mixed environments, or looking to embrace Linux and the benefits that flow from Open-Standards and Open-Source based technologies, are increasingly recognising the value of their staff pursuing LPI based courses and exams, or setting it as a condition of recruitment. It is the time for Linux and LPI.’’’
! W NO
LPIC 1
LPIC 2
LPIC 3
The LPI 101 tests capabilities in:
LPI 201 exam tests capabilities in:
The LPI 301 tests advanced capabilities in:
• Hardware & Architecture • Linux Installation & Package Management • GNU & Unix commands • Devices • Linux File systems • File system Hierarchy Standard • The X Window System The LPI 102 tests capabilities in Kernel: • Boot • Initialisation • Shutdown & Runlevels • Printing • Documentation • Shells • Scripting • Programming & Compiling • Administrative Tasks • Networking Fundamentals • Networking Services • Security
• Linux Kernel • System Startup • Filesystems • Hardware • System Maintenance • System Customisation & Automation • Troubleshooting LPI 202 exam tests capabilities in: • Networking • Mail & News • DNS • Web Services • Network Client Management • System Security • Network Troubleshooting Combined the LPI 201 and LPI 202 Certification is one of the accepted prerequisites for the HP Accredited System Engineer (ASE) on HP BladeSystem and HP ProLiant ML/DL servers.
Survey reveals more than 50% have adopted Open-Source Lower cost of ownership continues to be a major driver, but respondents are increasingly looking to OSS to provide competitive advantage A recent survey by Gartner, Inc. found that more than half of organisations surveyed have adopted Open-Source Software (OSS) solutions as part of their IT strategy. Nearly one-third of respondents cited benefits of flexibility, increased innovation, shorter development times and faster procurement processes as reasons for adopting OSS solutions. However, the survey revealed that only one-third of responding organisations had a formal OSS policy in place. Gartner conducted a primary research survey of 547 IT leaders in organisations in 11 countries from
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Although a search for reducing costs by adopting OSS continues to be a major driver, with this survey we see more respondents looking at OSS as having much-greater value than simply getting something for free.”
For further information please visit www.lpi-uk.org or call 01454 333004
Additional information is available in the Gartner report ‘Survey Analysis: Overview of Preferences and Practices in the Adoption and Usage of OpenSource Software.’ The report is available on Gartner’s website.
Competitive edge
“As external service providers emerge to support commercial offerings, OSS is and will continue to be used in both non-mission-critical and missioncritical environments,” Ms. Wurster said. “With greater indepth understanding and access to the necessary skill sets, end-user organisations will continue to find new deployment of OSS.
LinuxIT are advocates of OpenStandards in technology and the interoperability that flows from it and are proud to be the UK Affiliate responsible for managing LPI across the UK, alongside the training and certification provided by their vendor partners, including Red Hat and Novell.
percent within the next 18 months. In that same period, the rate of proprietary software has decreased at about the same rate as OSS usage has increased. However, internally developed software has also increased, suggesting that OSS is used most often in conjunction with internally built software rather than as a complete replacement for proprietary software.
July 2010 through August 2010. The goal was to determine current and future OSS adoption and usage habits.
“Gaining a competitive advantage has emerged as a significant reason for adopting an OSS solution, suggesting that users are beginning to look at OSS differently — if they can customise the code to make it unique to their company, they have created a competitive advantage,” said Laurie Wurster, research director at Gartner.
• Authentication and Naming • Capacity Planning • Lightweight Directory Access Protocol • Pluggable Authentication Modules • Troubleshooting • Integration with Core Network Services
“Gaining a competitive advantage has emerged as a significant reason for adopting an OSS solution, suggesting that users are beginning to look at OSS differently."
OSS evaluation Gartner’s survey indicated that just over one in every five responding organisations (22 percent) was adopting OSS consistently in all departments of the company. However, a much-higher number of respondents (46 percent) used OSS in specific departments and projects. In addition, 21 percent of respondents revealed that they were in the process of evaluating the advantages of OSS usage. The top corporate wide Gartnerdefined key initiatives supported by the use of OSS were: data management and integration; and application development, integration, architecture, governance and/ or overhaul. Other key initiatives
About Gartner
supported by OSS were business process improvement or reengineering; security, risk and/ or compliance; data center modernisation and consolidation; and Virtualization.
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day.
“Based on these results, we see that OSS components and building blocks are utilised together with internally developed software to augment and enhance existing systems through integration and automation, as well as to improve business efficiencies and security,” said Bob Igou, research director at Gartner.
From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors.
With each Gartner OSS survey taken in the past five years, the amount of OSS that makes up responding organisations’ portfolio has increased, from less than 10 percent five years ago to more than an expected 30
For more information, visit www.gartner.com
The
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Business as Unusual CIO Connect editor Mark Samuels summarises last year’s radical CIO annual event and looks to this year’s conference with its focus on consumerisation.
This is no time for ease and comfort. It is a time to dare and endure.
said Winston Churchill famously as an inspiring leadership call to the nation.
Churchill’s words chimed loudly during our planning for CIO Connect’s Annual Conference of 2010. After all, his advice still resonates at the start of the second decade of the twenty-first century, as modern IT leaders work to harness collective knowledge in the creation of an action plan for their organisation. What we could not have predicted was the strength of that resonation. More than anything else, CIO Connect’s Annual Conference at the start of October 2010 demonstrated that IT leaders must have radical and realistic answers to modern business challenges around leadership, economy, innovation, regulation, management and business.
CIO ACTION PLAN
LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE
This brief conference write-up is a starting point, presenting an outline for the CIO Action Plan for 2011. This action plan emerges as a result of discussion in and around the main event and is grouped across six headline themes:
Something has changed, recognised leadership guru René Carayol in an inspiring presentation to the conference. Your board, which used to find technology baffling, now finds IT fascinating.That opportunity is a compelling challenge, especially given the context of the recession: “Most organisations will get the recovery they deserve and this is the moment for the CIO,” said Carayol.
• Leadership • Economic environment • Innovation and agility • Regulatory pressures • Personal self management • Business fusion Action is already being taken. Encouraged by conference moderator and BBC World News anchor Nisha Pillai, some CIOs were even brave enough to conclude the event by suggesting actions they will take immediately as a direct learning experience: • “I will make sure I achieve at least one single aim every day – and I’ll start tomorrow by saying ‘hello’ to everyone in my team.”
Conference Summary “The big thing for me is that there’s a real desire to make a difference in your business,” said CIO Connect chief executive Nick Kirkland, when asked to summarise the conclusions of an interactive and invigorating two-day conference. CIO Connect’s annual event is always stimulating and interesting but 2010’s conference seemed particularly bright. Whether it was the record attendance, the automated polling technology from audience response specialist IML, the new vendor sessions from leading suppliers or the excellent range of speakers, something felt different. As we predicted, business is now unusual; a confluence of new economic realities and fast-emerging technologies present CIOs with an astonishing opportunity. As our extraordinary event demonstrated, IT leaders must not be afraid – now is a time to be brave.
• “I’m going to take off the mask and by myself. I’m going to be open, honest and enthusiastic.” • “I’m going to lead with even more passion and I’m going to really believe in what I do.” • “I’m not going to say anything that’s remotely negative.” Over coming months, we’ll be keen to hear CIO action plans for 2011 and will return to some of the themes that have emerged through the event. Below, we delve more deeply into one of those key themes.
“Leadership is not about management; it’s about how you energise your people towards a vision. Winners don’t quit and quitters never win. You cannot hide from culture, because the behaviour of a leader sets up the entire organisation.” Carayol encouraged CIOs to think differently: invite under-25s to management meetings; think of the value you add to the organisation and how you as a CIO could give more. The good news, according to poll results at the conference from IML, is that 75% of CIOs believe they work for organisations that do encourage creativity. And on a scale of one to four, the majority of attending CIOs (77%) rated themselves on the creative end of the spectrum. But it was also recognised that something unusual is taking place. Companies are yearning for creativity, but it somehow gets crushed. “Mistakes can be made,” said executive coach Chris Hadfield – and creativity is about understanding how you can do something better. CIOs need to exhibit flexibility if
Business is now unusual; a confluence of new economic realities and fast -emerging technologies present CIOs with an astonishing opportunity.
Leadership is not about management; it’s about how you energise your people towards a vision.
they are really going to think about doing something differently. The more engaged you are, the more opportunities you will have to influence the business.
INSPIRE THROUGH VISION “Your epitaph is up to you,” agreed Ellis Watson, chief executive of Syco Entertainment and a man that expressed clearly how leaders can inspire through passion, and how CIOs must work towards the establishment of a clear goal. Culture, suggested Watson, is everything. A leader that gets the most from his or team will be able to give the most to the boardroom: “Your job is to lead and make ordinary people do extraordinary things,” he said. “If you allow average, it affects everything. If it goes unchecked, the infection will spread. Get appropriate processes and make sure you are right – you just need to be determined and know that you’re going to make a difference.”
CIO Connect Conference 2011: Power to the People? CIO Connect’s annual event is different from other conferences available to the IT leader. There are numerous technology conferences in the market place, events which tend to concentrate on the wellrehearsed debates that surround areas such as Cloud computing and social media. We aim to be different by not concentrating on technology. Our priority is business opportunities and we show how CIOs and nextgeneration leaders can make the most of technology for the benefit of the business.
The 2011 conference aims to focus on the growing effect of consumerisation: • How are consumers shaping enterprise IT? • How will the choices employees make at home affect the way technology is used in the workplace? • How is innovative and consumerled IT set to revolutionise the way in which business is conducted? The theme is “Power to the People?” and the 2011 conference will show how the conjunction of new technologies, new business models and new social situations mean we are in yet another transformational stage for organisations. This year’s star-studded event will take place on 4 and 5 October at the Grange St Paul’s Hotel in central London. If you are interested in business and technology, you really should be at CIO Connect’s 2011 annual event.
If you are interested in attending this year’s event, please contact CIO Connect at events@cio-connect.com The majority of this article appeared in the Autumn 2010 edition of CIO Connect magazine, the publication of the network for IT leaders. For more details on the magazine and CIO Connect, please visit www.cio-connect.com
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For Ambitious Managers of Linux and Mixed IT Environments.
Mini Case Study 3 Another shining example of a tailored solution, that worked...
Lush UK refreshed their email infrastructure with Scalix, and a Hosted service. The Background With more than 600 stores in 43 countries worldwide, exchange of information at Lush UK, the cosmetics specialist, needed to be quick and reliable. Lush UK had outgrown the features of its existing email solution. They needed a robust, feature-rich, and open solution that lowered the total cost of ownership of messaging and collaboration.
The Challenge To provide Lush UK users with an email solution which enables them to be highly productive, whatever desktop OS they run. And to provide the Lush UK technical team with rapid implementation, reduced administrative overheads and consistent high performance.
The Solution
The Benefits
Support Program
Lush UK chose to work with LinuxIT to mitigate the risks of the IT infrastructure through the provision of a securely hosted Linux environment, and the delivery of comprehensive technical support and managed services.
The LinuxIT project team planned and delivered a successful, low-risk migration that was completed on time and within budget.
Lush UK chose the LinuxIT customised solution to maintain their IT infrastructure. Following a free scoping exercise to measure business and technical requirements they used LinuxIT to deliver a bespoke package designed to meet the criteria, defined by the client.
Delivery Services: • Project Definition Workshop • IT Infrastructure Analysis • Systems Deployment
More information at www.linuxit.com
IT Service Quality explored... Mike Curtis, head of service delivery LinuxIT, gives a personal perspective on IT Service Management Quality based upon his experience of managing multi-million pound projects in the public and private sectors.
Of course a relentless pursuit for quality can serve to disadvantage an organisation if the cost of the quality product or service it has to provide exceeds the amount that the customer is prepared to pay, so it’s a balance. But the client invariably gets the quality of service they pay for.
Of course Quality itself is not a system or process. At LinuxIT we believe it’s an approach to delivery and an aspiration and commitment to service a customer’s wants and needs, in the most cost effective way. So at the heart of our ethos are ways by which we ensure the service is delivered via proven and robust process and procedures, whilst remembering that it’s not just about the processes themselves. It’s about good communication and relations too.
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Sometimes the effort required to manage the Provider to ensure they deliver on their promises, or the ongoing purchase cost, becomes more than the customer organisation is willing, or able, to invest in at some point into the relationship. This can lead to the goals and benefits of quality IT service delivery not being achieved, this can then be interpreted by management as the quality management framework failing to deliver, and not being something the organisation needs to, or should, invest in.
Quality Management System
Quality Failure
To achieve a quality approach it is a question of planning, designing, delivering, reviewing performance and evaluation. Then following through in the plan with a do, check, act quality mantra to ensure the quality improves
Even worse, organisations sometimes do achieve a certification standard pertinent to their business and then sit back (commercially speaking) believing they are now a quality organisation. A great and simple paradoxical example for me is the trade “white van” (rusty) that cuts
• Build private Clouds, utilising Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization or VMware ESX Server. • Run and manage applications, inside your datacentre, and on Red Hat certified Public Clouds, such as Amazon EC2.
• It’s all packaged so it’s easy to implement and use. See interview inside with Red Hat vp Petra Heinrich, page 3.
management approach. What is referred to as the “service lifecycle”. The lifecycle is now very much one of the prevalent themes within LinuxIT and has a noticeably higher profile for us.
Standards
Just what is IT Service Management Quality if you’re a Systems Integrator or an IT Outsourcer in general for that matter? Well to my mind it has to be all about delivering demonstrable value to the customer, so the customer recognises high quality services when they receive them.
Red Hat Cloud Foundations aims to help you plan, build and manage a portable Cloud – private or public - today. Red Hat claims that it delivers the most complete and comprehensive Cloud solution in the market. The first in a technology family that can:
• Leverage existing infrastructure, through Red Hat’s unique OpenSource, interoperable Cloud architecture - that doesn’t lock you into a single vendors stack.
continually over time. At LinuxIT we do this through our Quality Management System that underpins all our services offerings.
The aim/desire for quality is often achieved through certification “standards” such as BSI 9001 or ISO 20000. Some service delivery organisations will choose to attain these standards and embark on a quality improvement project for the sake of nothing more than what can only be described as “badge collection”. There can be a misconception that the badge is a ‘silver bullet’ to the quality IT Service delivery the provider wishes to deliver.
In a market full of hype technology that aims to make the Cloud real and compelling... now
you up on a roundabout and has the “how’s my driving sticker” next to the proudly displayed (dirty and faded) BSI Sticker!
to us. In essence we work to become their ‘approved supplier’.
Quality can be seen as a job and finish exercise and all ones efforts can go into achieving a quality standard. The continual improvement framework is forgotten and the incorrect notion prevails that quality management is the prevailing management activity. This can then lead the organisation into difficult times and can be very dangerous to the organisation.
Service Strategy is at the heart of all services; its purpose is to ensure that an organisation understands it must provide services of value to the customer. At LinuxIT we focus on ITIL v3 as the basis of our delivery processes. ITIL defines a service as “A means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks”.
LinuxIT and its customers Customer driven quality and listening to the “voice of the customer” dictates to us the notion of customer relationship management. There is without question a positive and measurable impact in this as it achieves what I refer to as a “customer centric quality management focus”. This is at the heart of what we do at LinuxIT. Whether you choose to measure the amount of repeat business, the amount of initial business, or the retention of business a marked improvement can be seen, that can be attributed to the relationship management - underpinned by quality management. We have found that customers have become confident in the abilities of LinuxIT to meet their needs and they then become closer
Service Strategy
At LinuxIT we work hard to understand individual customer’s needs their challenges and opportunities, their business – so we maximise our value to them. This enables us to measure that which is important to them. As the sayings goes “what gets measured gets done” and “to improve it, you have to measure it.” ITIL v3 also focuses us on greater service design and is far better at assisting us with service construction including service level management, management tools, technology architecture, processes and availability/ capacity management. This has the positive effect of assisting us to continually mature as a service provider. At LinuxIT we look at the holistic view of services and the way to improve them through a cyclical service
Service Transition Service transition is all about passing from the design phase to the live operational service and is helping us to mature our approach to acceptance into service. This in turn helps us to preserve greater change and release management activity. Continuous service improvement is now an even higher profile component to keep the service aligned with the changing needs of our customers. It forces us to improve the value of the service and demonstrate improvements. Consequently we are now continually looking to improve our service management lifecycle processes. In summary, the topics that I have highlighted have been adopted by LinuxIT making us an even more service centric organisation and improving our ability to effectively provide the right services, monitor and measure the correct service elements, identify improvements to service, implement service improvement, and explore possible benefits of new services for customers. I believe this is the key to being a successful IT service provider today. Mike Curtis is interested in hearing from CIOs and IT Managers interested in service quality and effective IT outsourcing, his email is mike.curtis@linuxit.com