Cloud & Telecom Security

Gartner, the leading marketing analysis and strategy firm, released its newly-brew TOP 10 technology list today. They are:

• 1 Cloud computing. Cloud has been the top buzz-term in the past months. Gartner raised it from No.2 at 2009 to TOP1 at 2010.  With no doubt, this statement will be quoted by tons of articles and vendor solutions in the following seasons.
• 2 Advanced analytic.  I would rather explain it as data correlation and data mining tech. This seems to be similar to “business intelligence” (No.9 at 2009).
• 3 Client computing. Mostly client computing is critical for the security impact to the whole Internet.
• 4 Greet IT. It was No.1 at 2008, and No.10 at 2009. Anyway, it’s a concept, containing a lot of technologies, customs, culture, etc.
• 5 Reshaping the data center, with new designs and approaches that include building out incrementally in pod-based approaches, adding only power, chillers and generators to support initial needs.
• 6 Social computing. It has been deeply involved into daily life. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
• 7 Security activity mornitoring.  A variety of complimentary (and sometimes overlapping) monitoring and analysis tools help enterprises better detect and investigate suspicious activity – often with real-time alerting or transaction intervention. Personally,  I think this is similar to the No.2.
• 8 Flash memory. It’s a new face to TOP 10.
• 9 Virtualization for availability. While virtualization has been melted into cloud computing and other diverse areas, Gartner leaves “availability”.
• 10 Mobile applications. No comments at this moment. There have been a lot of developers and app stores you can find at the web. It reflects the hotness. Read more…

In a service economy, knowledge is a critical asset, and Google has more knowledge than anyone in history. In our opinion, anyone who is not taking advantage of Google’s offerings soon will be fighting an inherent disability.

- What Does Google Know?  Gartner

1. Improving business processes
2. Attracting and retaining new customers
3. Creating new products and services (innovate)
4. Expanding into new markets or geographies
5. Reducing enterprise cost
6. Improving enterprise workforce effectiveness
7. Expanding current customer relationship
8. Increasing the use of information/analytics
9. Targeting customers and markets more effectively
10. Acquiring new companies and capabilities (M&A)
(Source : Gartner EXP Survey 2008)

1. Delivering projects that enable business growth
2. Linking business and IT strategies and plans
3. Attracting, developing and retaining IT personnel
4. Improving the quality of IT services
5. Implementing IT process improvements
6. Improving IT governance
7. Building business skills in the IT organisation
8. Using information/intelligence in operations, products or services
9. Reducing the cost of IT
10. Managing IT risk and exposure
(Source : Gartner EXP Survey 2008)

1. Business Intelligence (No. 1 for 2006 and 2007)
2. Enterprise applications (ERP, SCM, CRM)
3. Servers and storage technologies
4. Legacy modernisation, upgrade or replacement
5. Technical infrastructure
6. Security technologies
7. Networking, voice and data
8. Collaboration technologies
9. Document management
10. Service Oriented (SOA)
CIOs continue to invest core technologies that can drive distinctive solutions
(Source : Gartner EXP Survey 2008)

读到下面这则Gartner发布的分析报告，一丝凉意从心里悄悄地弥漫到周围。金融风暴之IT冬天要来了吗？中国的IT会怎么样？IT安全有会怎样？从新闻上来，华为在国内超低价拿下中国电信C网大合同，又刚刚在北美加拿大斩获无线大单，而中兴也在海外收颇丰。联想作为中国公司全球化的先锋，最近负面消息不断 – 股价下跌，分析公司下调预期，裁员，不一而足。从数字上看似乎已经在开始体会金融风暴的冷风，但是CFO也讲了，这也正是业务拓展的机会啊，该出手时还是要出手。

扯远了，回来说Gartner和IT。 Read more…

2008年10月16日，Gartner如期推出了今年对于2009年前十位最重要的战略性技术的瞻望和预测。以下是我的不算翻译的一个翻译，希望方便大家的阅读分享。

1 虚拟化 Virtualization。 虚拟化这个词已经流行了较长一段时间了，还有更早些的按需(On-demand)计算。大概五年前，我刚刚加入CA后一个月，还特地赶到CA在美国的总部，参加了一次管理按需计算的Workshop和培训。时光荏苒，白驹过隙，当下服务器厂商已经将虚拟化功能技术特色作为重要的售前方案元素来推荐和比较。
2 云计算 Cloud Computing。按照Gartner的描述，云计算具有以下几个关键特征：a 将容量能力按照服务交付；b 服务的交付高度可扩展并充满弹性；c 使用互联网技术和技巧来开发和交付服务；d 用以对外部客户交付服务的设计。可以认为，设计之初就具备的高度弹性和扩展性是“云计算”能够带来的最大收益。 Read more…