business value & ICT - Telecommunications - Green IT - Orange Business Live blog

A new report from analysts Ovum has identified major global telecommunications companies, including Orange Business Services, as a major force in cloud computing. It says that over the past year telcos have expanded their services to compete with the established players from the IT industry.

Analyst Peter Hall says that telcos background in data centers, hosting, networks and security are proving decisive in developing cloud computing services. "All of the players reviewed in the report see cloud computing as leveraging their core competencies and Orange has coined the term 'IT operator' to reflect its new role in IT services by analogy with its traditional role as a network operator," he says. "We believe that the global and major regional telcos will become strong players across the full spectrum of cloud computing services including Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)."

Ovum and the other analyst firms in the Datamonitor Group are also holding an interesting session in October on the benefits of moving to a cloud computing model, and I'll report back from the session in due course. 

I wonder if some of the basics we learned early in our careers have not been forgotten. In my case, I learned these when cell phones, instant messaging, tweets... did not yet exist, and also  at a time when telecoms costs were much more significant than Today. This may explain why some of these basics may seem a bit outdated. However, I personally still find them very very relevant in my day to day communications. I think that they also are a display of my respect towards the person I'm calling and for the time he or she dedicates to discuss with me.

It is not rare that project dates, in particular the end date, are forced on the project manager and his team. Are they realistic? How were they estimated and approved? What is their foundation? Here are some ideas to better handle this somewhat frequent problem.

The arbitrary...

Let's keep in mind the 3 parameters of projects: any project can be represented as a triangle which summits are time, costs and contents. To freeze or force one of the summits often implies sacrifices on one of the other two. Thus, fixing a completion date in an arbitrary manner can lead the project team to try to reduce the contents (the scope) to fit the timeframe. It can also drive costs up with the use of more resources to reach by all means the time target either with more resources, or superior skills or more expensive ones due to time pressure (reduced negotiation position) or all three. Naturally, these changes should generate the necessary discussions with sponsors and stakeholders to reach an agreement. If the compulsory date is absolutely unrealistic, it is of the duty of the project manager to pull the alarm bell and even consider refusing the project (must read: « Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct » of  PMI).

 
On the sponsors' side, it is necessary to be capable (I would even say that it is a duty) to explain the reasons behind the forced dates. These reasons can very well be valid and the project team, once it will have integrated them, will be motivated all the more to reach them. A real life example was the implementation of a new accounting system at a big multinational firm. The sponsor of the team dedicated the necessary time to explain to all the stakeholders, project teams, future users, and management, the necessity of a launch of the new processes and application software on January 1st. Any delay would have caused big difficulties in data conversion and reconciliation at any other time during the year, i.e. additional pain for each person... The whole company was mobilized from then on; the deployment took place in time and was a success.

• Green IT, Server Virtualization and Mega Data Centers: back to the future ?
• "Green IT", or "IT for Green"?
• France: Is A Carbon Tax a Threat or Opportunity for Green IT?
• Green ICT focuses on fix to economic crisis
• Is the credit crunch a threat or opportunity for sustainable development?
• Is ICT a 'good guy' or a 'bad guy' in Sustainable Development?

Virtualization has increased the efficiency of data centers by improving server utilization, but continued demand for new applications means data centre operators will have to look at other options for reducing their energy needs.

While there is plenty of data that underlines the efficiency savings achievable through virtualization, there is also evidence that growth in demand for cloud computing and other outsourced solutions is outstripping improvements in server utilization. A report published earlier this month by Frost & Sullivan suggests there was more than 108 million sq ft of data centre space at the end of last year and that the total by the end of 2010 could be as high as 177 million sq ft.

Another reason why virtualization on its own has not prevented a rise in data centre energy use is that enabling companies to move workloads between different sets of servers creates demand for power and cooling at the new location as well as the previous data centre.

Adjusting these environmental factors in real time as workloads are moved around is beyond the scope of most data centers. As a result there is an increasing realization that IT and building management systems will have to work together if this trend is not to scupper future prospects of reducing data centre energy demand and a number of projects have been established to address this issue.

One of the most interesting was undertaken at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where a team of engineers fed temperature readings from sensors that are built into most modern servers directly into the data centre building controls, allowing the air conditioning system to keep the facility at just the right temperature to cool the servers.

In the meantime, the Carbon Trust hopes that a new building standard for data centers service could help cut energy in this sector use by half. Testing and approvals organization BRE Global says it has made 'far-reaching' revisions to the BREEAM method for assessing the environmental performance of buildings to tailor it to data centers.

The BREEAM Data Centres 2010 scheme has been developed in conjunction with a number of organizations including Digital Realty Trust, HSBC, Hewlett Packard and EDF Energy. The new standard uses data centre infrastructure efficiency and power usage effectiveness metrics to gauge the energy efficiency of each facility.

There are other steps companies can take to minimize energy usage. Forrester's 'State of Green IT Adoption Q2 2010' report states that companies could improve the efficiency and therefore reduce the energy demands of their data centers by eliminating redundant applications. It found that fewer than one in four companies planned to eliminate redundant applications in 2010.

The inexorable rise of social networking has moved it firmly onto the radar of the marketing industry. But there is little consensus on the extent to which social media users are prepared to receive or and act upon advertising messages.

Customer relationship management vendors have been busy building social networking capabilities into their products, integrating the likes of Twitter with client interaction processes, utilising forums and search engines for feedback.

Wainhouse Research's second annual enterprise social networking survey revealed that 53% of respondents believed that developing a social networking presence was very (or extremely) important to building an organisation's brand although only 37% reported that their organisation had a public-facing social networking presence.

Various surveys have referred to the extent to which purchasing decisions are influenced by information from social networks. Just this week, a Gartner report suggested consumers increasingly rely on information gleaned from online social networks to make decisions about new purchases. It claimed that one-fifth of consumers influence the purchasing activities of three-quarters of the population and that it is vital that retailers and distributors understand how social networks affect their sales and marketing operations.

But while customers can be encouraged to share information among themselves over social networks, this does not mean they will also accept commercial information from companies on new products and services. There will inevitably be scepticism around material that comes directly from commercial sources, particularly from those who see social networks as being outside the commercial world.

For this kind of 'direct' marketing activity, there is some evidence to suggest that social networks are not necessarily the best vehicle. A survey of UK shopping habits published by Econsultancy earlier this month found that 38% of consumers do not use social networking sites and that only 6% of internet users surveyed had asked for recommendations on a social media site. The survey also reported that only 5% of consumers preferred to receive advertising messages via these sites, compared to more than 60% who said they would be happy to receive such messages by email.

Research from affiliate network Linkshare suggests that fewer than 4% of consumers find adverts on personal social networking sites helpful in assisting their purchasing decisions. Of those surveyed, half said promotions and offers were the most useful form of online marketing, followed by direct email (22%). 

Linkshare's UK marketing director, Liane Dietrich was quoted as saying that more needs to be done by brands to improve the quality of adverts within social networking sites to further encourage click-throughs and consumer interest. "Those brands and affiliates looking to get in on the trend must ensure adverts placed on social networks are specifically targeted to meet consumer's individual needs and enhance their online shopping experience," she said.