What's in a name? Do we call ourselves Infrastructure and Operations or IT Production?

"Infrastructure and Operations" appears to be a recognised market segment these days. It is a useful descriptive term, since it covers the main aspects of the IT Production role:

• Infrastructure - looking after the equipment, hardware, software, networking and other technical stuff which modern IT needs to have in order to run day-to-day
• Operations - the processes and behaviours required to look after the "stuff" (the Infrastructure).

However, I personally prefer the term "IT Production", for a number of reasons. In my view, it ...

• Is simpler and easier to remember
• Highlights a logical contrast between "Development" and "Production".
• Implies a single organisational structure dedicated to a single purpose.
• Defines a clearly recognisable marketplace for tools and services.
• Recognises the importance of the "after go-live" part of IT, as a discipline in it's own right.

The last point is the most important: Whilst IT Development enable a business to gain competitive advantage by using technology, it is the IT Production side which actually ensures that the competitive advantage is realised.

One of the areas we are speaking to Gartner about at the moment is the importance of terminology, and the use of IT Production as the recognisable term for what we work in.

Names do mean something. They confer expectations, and status. And IT Production needs to receive the status which it deserves.

Which, of course, means that we have to start delivering to a higher set of expectations.

Understanding and Managing People who Manage IT

For some time, we have advocated using the four "MOPS" as a means of identifying how to improve the management of IT Production.

However, although these "MOPS" are necessary in order to improve the management of IT Production, they are not sufficient.

IT Production Management is also significantly a people skill. Technical Managers can often benefit from a scientific approach to understanding and managing people.

The use of personality profiling is not particularly common in the IT industry at the moment. However, it may be gaining ground. It can enable IT Managers to ask questions such as “How can I…

• Improve the way I communicate with my team and peers?
• Enhance the motivation of my teams?
• Identify the strengths and weaknesses of a person/team and maximize his/her performance?
• Best manage a specific person/team?

One such technique is the Birkman Report, an internet-based assessment system. It describes your unique style of leadership - your goals, your approach, what motivates you to lead, and what happens to you under stress.

Armed with this information, the IT Manager is able to develop and refine their leadership skills.

Legal Stuff

The MOPS ™ acronym is trademarked by Dennis Adams Associates Limited. The acronym stands for Metrics, Operational Tools, Processes and Standards, the four foundational requirements for IT Production Management.

Birkman Direct ® is a registered trademark of Birkman International, Inc. Copyright © 1989 – 2002, Birkman International, Inc, Houston, Texas. All rights reserved. Only BIrkman-certified consultants or persons working under the direct supervision of such consultants, are authorised to give you information relating to the BIrkman Report.

How is the economy impacting IT Consulting?

How bad is it really?

We have all heard a lot of feedback over the last few months about how dire the IT consulting market is. I have to say that, at the moment, things don't appear to be as bad as some people are saying. Of course, there is always the effort in trying to get new prospects to part with their money, but that's part of business !

We certainly haven't been inundated with requests for work, but there does appear to be an appetite among some companies to bring in people. Who knows, maybe the worst is over?

Having studied economics (a long time ago !), I am aware that many of the economic indicators are subject to a "lag". In other words, we only know that we have come out of recession about 6 months after it actually happened. The same occurred when we entered recession, as you may recall. We kept getting economics reports saying that we were already facing a crises, and that it had been going on for months.

Consequently, I think that a more accurate indicator of the state of the economy is typically the extent of the "feel good factor". Speaking to CTOs and others, I get the impression that they are feeling more positive, and have more budget to spend than previously.

Meanwhile, it's a case of chasing people to close the next business deal...

Oracle Buys Sun. A Natural Progression, or Unnatural Mistake?

Can the Software Giant make sense of Hardware?

Java and Solaris are the prize.

The announcement that Oracle will be taking over Sun Microsystems has generated a huge amount of reaction in the blogs and within the IT industry generally. There have been questions about what Oracle's strategy is, what the future will be for Solaris on Sparc, where the free MySQL database lives etc. etc. There have also been been some questions in some minds about Larry Ellison's sanity. It has certainly been a bold move. Some claim to have seen it coming - I certainly did not.

My own interpretation is that Oracle are being opportunist. There was an ailing company - Sun Microsystems - whose heydays in the .COM boom were long gone. They had a huge commitment to R&D without much to show for it. They have some distinctive products (the Sparc chips), some OEM market (Storage from Hitachi), and some very interesting free, or nearly free software and commitment to the Open Source world (Solaris 10, Star Office which forks development in Open Office, and MySQL). They also own the JAVA stack. Maybe they are worth a few billion, even if they don't currently make a profit.

The Profit Motive

And that is the key point. If Oracle is about anything, it is about a business that exploits their assets to make a profit. I suspect that there was no "grand strategy". Charles Wang, the former head of Computer Associates, once said that at the level he worked, people "make it up as we go along". Oracle is driven by a Profit Motive. That, and a hatred of Microsoft. Add to that the fact that IBM and Cisco are circling around Oracle's historical profit levels, and the deal makes sense.

More than just a database company

Oracle has been more than a database product company for many years. They started with the database, but over the last years have positioned the company as an Application Platform. Oracle Financials was one attempt. Then add PeopleSoft, and myriads of other acquisitions. So they have diversified away from the database. If you look at their latest figures, you see that the Oracle database itself is less that 50% of the revenue of the company as a whole. So this is an exercise is diversification. Move up and down the software stack to ensure that you can offer everything the customer could possibly want. All at a profit.

Hardware is not Software, Larry

Oracle has tried to move into the Hardware space before. They created a product called "Raw Iron" which was an embedded hardware product for running the Oracle database. Coincidentally (maybe?) this was based on Sun hardware. There is a very interesting FAQ released by Oracle yesterday which says "Oracle's ownership of two key Sun software assets, Java and Solaris, is expected to provide our customers with significant benefit.". This suggests strongly that Oracle are still seeing Sun as a software vendor. Whilst Oracle have lots of experience in integrating companies, they have always been other software companies. Running a Hardware company is a different thing. The sales model is different, the lead times are different. And you have to ship physical equipment all round the world. It will not be an easy integration.

Predictions

Everyone else is making predictions. Usually, these are based on what the author would do. However, these are my predictions on what Oracle themselves will do. Whether they are accurate predictions, I will leave history to determine. Whether they are good business, that will be the realm of Economics.

Product	Prediction
Java	I doubt if Oracle want to upset the Java community. In fact, I suspect that Java will become more open. Oracle's view will be - why do the work ourselves when there are so many willing volunteers to do it for us? Oracle want Java so that they can ensure that all their applications have a good strong application server stack. But watch out for "Oracle Extensions" to the main product.
Solaris	Oracle claims that it can now optimize the Oracle database for some of the unique high-end features of Solaris. It has always had this option, but was afraid of "lock-in" to another vendor's product. I predict that there will be some new features of Solaris that Oracle can exploit. But there won't be much. They don't want to alienate the Linux users.
Sparc Chips	This is the nub of the question. Oracle have said that they will grow the business. Oracle salesmen may clinch deals by selling integrated hardware alongside the application. They will be able to point to Oracle-specific APIs in Solaris to show performance gains. However, if Fujitsu decide to come calling, I would not put it past them to hand over Sparc development, and OEM the solutions.
Sun Storage	If Oracle can sell storage at a marginal profit, they will do so. Particularly if it means software license sales.
Star Office	Maybe this is a product that can be stacked against Microsoft. But you have to sell a lot of Star Office licenses to equate to a single Oracle DBMS license. Is it worth it? I suspect that, as with Sun, Star Office will be a sideshow.
MySQL	Who cares? The fact is that MySQL generates relatively little profit. So R&D will be cut back. The product will still be there, but will rely on the OpenSource community to develop it. Oracle knows that MySQL is not much of a threat. It will be allowed to stand, or fall, on it's own.

It will be worth watching this one...