The most recent articles from Computing

V&A exhibits huge thirst for storage

Ian Williams — 2008-11-19T13:53:00.000Z

Ian Williams, Computing, Wednesday 19 November 2008 at 13:53:00

Hitachi Data Systems prepares museum for data explosion

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), one of the most famous art and design museums in the world, has turned to Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) to migrate its digital asset library to help cope with growing storage demands.

HDS takes over the contract from a previous EMC installation which had reached the limits of its capacity and was unable to support further expansion.

The new deployment aims to tackle the growing needs of the museum's huge collection of digital images and other media.

In response to strong demand for online access to its exhibits from design and art lovers and students across the globe, the V&A has implemented a Digital Asset Management System in order to create and archive electronic images of its entire collection.

The museum holds a catalogue of very high resolution images and media such as 3D models, and expects to add other digital content such as recordings of west end shows and historical footage. The new system is designed to scale as the data requirements grow with the addition of new media.

This will give those unable to visit the museum access to the pieces on display, as well as giving everyone access to the wide range of items not on display at any given time.

Images of objects range from antique jewellery to the latest furniture designs, and demonstrate the richness and diversity of the V&A collections.

The V&A's main website currently attracts four million hits a month. As the website typically features multiple images of each item, the V&A expects eventually to hold more content digitally than it does physically.

"The V&A is a world-class museum famous for its eclectic exhibits and dedication to bringing design, art and popular culture to the public," said Steve Murphy, managing director of HDS.

"We are very proud to be associated with these efforts and look forward to seeing an increasing number of people worldwide benefit from online access to these incredible images."

The new system can scale up to 200TB of potential capacity and will last the museum at least seven years. The platform comprises two Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage 1000 models, each currently equipped with 60TB.

As well as offering increased capacity, the new system has also consolidated the V&A's storage systems, thereby reducing energy consumption and management overheads as well.

One Hitachi system sits at the main site in Kensington while the other is located at a secondary site a few miles away with data replicated between the two to ensure full protection in the event of a disaster.

"Scalability was of paramount importance to us," explained Sarah Winmill, head of information systems services at the V&A.

"We have hundreds of thousands of images that we eventually want to put online. As we move further into the 21st century, we are seeing more digitally native works being created that the V&A may wish to acquire, so we need a safe place to keep and display them."

London School of Economics outsources disaster recovery

Angelica Mari — 2008-11-18T10:38:00.000Z

Angelica Mari, Computing, Tuesday 18 November 2008 at 10:38:00

University signs third-party deal with SunGard to ensure data security

The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) has signed a five-year deal with SunGard for the provision of business continuity services.

Under the agreement, which will come into force by the end of 2008, the university will use two facilities managed by SunGard in West London and Docklands, as well as its software, to backup and recover 40TB of critical systems and data currently held on 97 servers.

The deal also includes the implementation of a new email archiving platform and a reprioritisation of the LSE's recovery strategies to store and backup data more efficiently.

"As with most organisations, our data is very much our crown jewels so it was imperative that we found the right partner to help protect and ensure 24/7 availability of our critical systems," said Adrian Ellison, assistant director in IT services at the LSE.

"The events of 7/7 brought home to us the importance of having alternative backup sites away from our campus in central London. We are now very much leading the way among our peers by adopting an outsourced and multi-location approach to data recovery and email availability."

Will poor integration derail smart tickets?

Angelica Mari — 2008-11-13T11:23:00.000Z

Angelica Mari, Computing, Thursday 13 November 2008 at 11:23:00

Next year could prove to be make or break for plans to have a nationwide smart ticketing scheme in place in time for the 2012 Games, writes Angelica Mari

Integration issues are threatening the delivery of smartcards as the key technology legacy for the UK’s transport system after the London 2012 Olympics.

Experts are warning that the lack of an organisation to supervise the delivery of separate smartcard systems may lead to a situation where some parts of the country will have their own schemes up and running ahead of the Games, but poor integration will mean event visitors need a mix of different paper tickets and smartcards to travel across the UK.

“The question is where the leadership should come from,” said Roger Willison-Gray, business development director for public transport at Logica. “Despite the fact that some organisations will offer fully functioning schemes by 2012, there should be a forum in place to steer the community, as there is a vacuum caused by the lack of a general plan.”

It takes an average of two years to put a smart ticketing scheme in place, said Willison-Gray, so organisations that are lagging behind in their smartcard implementations will need to give a sharper focus to project delivery during 2009.

“Smart ticketing has a huge potential to increase mobility, cut journey times and improve public infrastructure. The Olympics are an obvious goal to work towards,” he said.

Implementation of smartcard schemes based on the national Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation (ITSO) standard are currently underway in areas such as the West Midlands, South Yorkshire and Manchester. In the capital, Transport for London (TfL) is replacing Oyster card readers to accept ITSO passes and aims to complete the DFT-financed replacement by 2010-11.

Earlier this year, a Commons Transport Committee report on ticketing and concessionary travel said that ministers must not force ITSO onto the London Oyster system as this could discourage commuters’ reliance on the smartcards and cause integration problems.

In response to the report, the Department for Transport said it is “essential” that the government-backed standard is in place for passengers using public transport to travel to, from, or through London, but said that proper trials are imperative to prevent any loss of operational efficiency or customer confidence.

“We need to make sure that the national ITSO smartcard [standard] will work effectively in London, which we aim to achieve by adding ITSO interoperability to the Oyster network,” said the department.

Train operators have smartcards incorporated in their franchise agreements and will need to deliver the infrastructure to read ITSO-based cards, but bus companies are still hesitant about investing in smart ticketing.

“The situation is somewhat stagnant with bus operators, as any financial payback is relatively intangible,” said Willison-Gray.

Stagecoach Group is working on various smartcard schemes in Scotland and England and Go-Ahead is also working on replacing paper tickets by smartcards and similar functions accessible using mobile phones at its bus fleet in the West Midlands.

Which system will be just the ticket for tomorrow’s travellers?

The convergence of different technologies is a challenging aspect of the delivery of an interoperable smartcard platform to businesses and local authorities.

The Department for Transport (DfT) has mandated use of the ITSO standard for all free passes issued under the Concessionary Bus Travel Act, but bus operators are not required to have the necessary onboard card-reading equipment until 2010, when the standard will be enforced.

In the meantime, alternatives being considered include mobile ticketing and the DfT is carrying out hardware tests using ITSO-compliant technology. Bus operators are also carrying out trials, such as Arriva and its mobile ticketing project, which allows passengers to pre-purchase barcode-style tickets through their mobile phone.

But widespread opinion across the industry suggests that while mobile ticketing is an appealing alternative to paper tickets, it is not yet commercially viable as the technology is costly and suitable mobile handsets are not widely available in the UK.

Another option is further integration of tickets with bank cards, as used in the OnePulse partnership between Transport for London (TfL) and Barclaycard, which offers Oyster, credit and cashless functions in one card. “It would be much more effective for TfL to not have to mess around with ITSO integration and just offer the Oyster function to banks. By 2012, it could be possible that all cards issued by banks to their customers will have the ticketing function incorporated,” said smartcard expert David Birch.

“There are strong synergies proved by the Barclaycard example, but there are serious co-ordination issues between transport companies, banks and local authorities. This means that despite the benefits that technology convergence can bring, those solutions may come later than expected.”

British Heart Foundation checks in new inventory system

Angelica Mari — 2008-11-12T15:39:00.000Z

Angelica Mari, Computing, Wednesday 12 November 2008 at 15:39:00

Mobile-based tool will increase accuracy in stock taking and support compliance

The British Heart Foundation has implemented a stock management system to improve the accuracy of inventory at its furniture and electrical appliance shops.

Previous paper-based systems have been eliminated as a result of the new software, which enables staff to record goods as they are received via mobile computers and generate unique barcode references for printable price labels.

"We needed a mobile stock control solution to ensure we have accurate inventory management, stock identification and stock recording," said Steve Biddle, head of finance, IT and project development at the British Heart Foundation.

"[The system] allows us to analyse in detail what is being sold, and eases the management of store transfers, price adjustments, stock write offs and customer returns."

The application also allows the charity to record additional data about individual products, and enables the team to record portable appliance testing certificate numbers, required by law for the resale of second-hand electrical items.

"Now that the information is stored electronically we have a complete audit trail," said Biddle.

The system was supplied by Codegate.

Microsoft places its bet on lucky seven

Computing — 2008-11-06T06:45:00.000Z

Computing, Computing, Thursday 6 November 2008 at 06:45:00

Will Windows 7 be good enough to redeem Microsoft after the disappointment of Vista?

Microsoft simply has to get things right this time.

The early buzz around Windows 7, the next version of the software giant’s most important product, seems to have been positive. This is just as well, since Vista proved to be such a huge disappointment among business users.

Microsoft may have touted impressive sales for the most recent version of Windows, but much of that seems to have come from the inevitable purchases from consumers, most of whom have little choice but to use the system pre-loaded on their home PCs.

Among enterprise users, Vista adoption has been something of a damp squib. Companies whose regular refresh cycle and software licensing deals made a Vista upgrade relatively inexpensive and timely were probably the only ones to make the jump.

Certainly Vista offers few advantages over Windows XP in terms of business benefits. A whizzy new interface that hardly anyone uses because it is so resource-intensive and better multimedia features are not top of the list for many IT managers. And given the problems with application compatibility that many people experienced, it just became an upgrade that IT departments could do without.

Microsoft says it has listened to the criticism, and Windows 7 is the result. The emphasis at first glance seems to be more on business productivity and easier manageability.

But looking further ahead, what will Windows 8 be like and will it even exist, other than as a minor functional upgrade? Critics point to the unwieldy nature of the product, and the fast-growing code base is at odds with the trend to strip complexity out of the user device be it PC, laptop or mobile and put more of the applications on the web.

The newly named Azure, a cloud computing infrastructure, gives perhaps the best idea of where Windows will go in the future, as a hybrid PC/cloud environment.

But for Microsoft to ensure the continued commitment of enterprise users to Windows in the long term, it simply has to be lucky seven this time.

Fujitsu buys Siemens' stake in FSC

Angelica Mari — 2008-11-05T12:43:00.000Z

Angelica Mari, Computing, Wednesday 5 November 2008 at 12:43:00

Sale driven by need to reduce costs and refocus activity

Technology giant Fujitsu is to buy the 50 per cent stake held by Siemens in the Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC) joint venture for €450m (£364m) in the latest chapter of consolidation in the IT sector.

FSC supplies PCs, servers and other IT hardware in Europe. The move was prompted by a need to reduce expenses at both firms since operating profit at the jointly-owned company represented only 1.6 per cent of total revenue in the past financial year.

Another driver behind the sale is Siemens' intention to use the spare cash to concentrate on projects aimed at the energy, industry and healthcare sectors.

Widespread opinion in the industry is that Fujitsu will retain FSC's server division, while the PC and laptop business is likely to be offloaded, Lenovo being one prospective buyer.

However, keeping FSC as a separate entity from the group may prevent Fujitsu from driving post-acquisition growth, according to Lionel Lamy, research director at IDC.

"It is bewildering to say the least. We believe this is a mistake, compounded by the fact that Fujitsu's experience in keeping an arm's length relationship with an autonomous division did not work well as far as ICL was concerned in the late 1990s," he said.

The acquisition could have put a stop to the competition between FSC and both its parent companies, according to Lamy, but Fujitsu and FSC are instead likely to compete with each other for business.

"Cannibalisation could have been avoided by integrating the two service entities. This is now going to be made worse," the analyst said.

"And the acquisition of FSC does nothing to position Fujitsu higher up the value chain in terms of innovation, or in high growth services segments such as security services, network convergence and transformational outsourcing."

Top 10 best features found in laptop computers

Computing staff — 2008-10-24T10:42:00.000Z

Computing staff, Computing, Friday 24 October 2008 at 10:42:00

If you can buy a computer carved out of a block of metal, you can buy one to do anything. Almost. We look at the top 10 claims for laptop quality

With the recent release of the new Apple MacBook Air, which is apparently crafted out of a single block of metal, we've decided to have a look about for some other impressive sounding laptops.

If you have a niche requirement such as: "I only want a laptop that is carved from a piece of aluminium", then this is the place to look. The products below are neat devices that could get you out of a spot of bother - whether that is at the oversized baggage counter, or on the top of a cliff in a heavy downpour. Here you will find laptops that can stand falling off desks; laptops that could save the planet; and notebooks that can survive the British weather.

Which is the toughest?

Is the Panasonic Toughbook the toughest notebook? It certainly looks like it. Not only does it look like a briefcase that could withstand a bomb blast, but it can stand a fall of almost a metre. We think that this means that it could fall off the top of Jeanette Krankie's head without breaking. Disturbingly, the web site has a picture of an elephant stamping on one (a Toughbook, that is, not a Krankie). We presume that this is to demonstrate its toughness, rather than the fact that one disgruntled user happens to be an elephant.

Which is the most waterproof?

On its web site Getac shows its notebooks being exposed to a multi-directional shower - putting us in mind of certain other online videos that you wouldn’t find on our site. It certainly looks waterproof, everything is sealed and the water just runs off the keyboard. Unless they are prepared to send one in, we can't say whether it would withstand a large dose of cider, and at almost £5000 you could not call it a drop in the ocean either.

Which is the thinnest?

There is a lot of competition here, but the aforementioned MacBook Air is so thin it is almost not there. According to Apple it is almost as thin as your index finger which is presumably the digit that Apple chief Steve Jobs sticks in the air in the direction of his competitors - at least those competitors that might be as slim, but only get a thin slice of the sales pie. But really, how thin is too thin? Do you actually want to lose your laptop down a crack in the pavement?

Which laptop is most likely to be used to save the world?

The fact that an Apple iBook in the film Independence Day was used to send a computer virus to marauding aliens prompted blog comments such as: "Are the aliens using RS-232, or USB 1 or 2, or maybe Firewire. Maybe Ethernet or maybe Token Ring. I can't believe the aliens would use our physical interface specifications." Of course, we believe everything the former Fresh Prince says or does. Speaking of the Prince, his song Boom, Boom Shake the Room reminds us that the next entrant is:

Which laptop is least likely to blow itself up?

A tough choice this one, quite a few vendors have been forced to withdraw their devices following battery-based explosive incidents. In this case it was made even harder by the fact that our own piece of equipment decided to turn itself into an incendiary device during the research process. Feel free to contribute your own experiences so we can compile a definitive list.

Which is the most powerful?

CompAmerica appears to lay claim to the title of most powerful laptop. It's Orca Extreme is certainly pretty consistently harpooned by our researchers. Although the firm has given itself a name that surely is the first out of the end of a screenwriter's fingertips, it actually calls itself the best little computer company in the world. Which is nice. When it comes to the Orca Extreme in question, it's specifications are anything but little.

Which is the most expensive?

The Ego notebook is surely a major contender here, and cream of the crop is its Bentley model. The laptop is clad in Bentley leather and stamped with the iconic Bentley logo. It even has what looks like a Bentley door handle on it. There are only 250 in the world, and it will most likely set you back £10,000. Still, at least its never going to get you a parking ticket.

Which laptop really should never have been lost?

Is the Ministry of Defence’s infamous lost laptop the most inappropriate device to find itself in the wrong hands? Possibly. Unfortunately, we are loathe to write too much about government bodies and their laptops in case they start investigating us. And we would hate to find our personal information falling into the wrong hands.

Which has the strangest keyboard?

Sony has a Vaio with the snappy title VGC-LJ25L, that looks the least like a laptop out of all the ones we've seen so far. Sure, it has a 15.4in wide display, but below that everything goes a bit odd. Ever specifically wanted a laptop with only half a keyboard? Then this should go at the top of your Christmas list.

Which is most likely to act as a girlfriend repellent?

NEC's Himitsu Kitchi Type No-1, which it co-designed with the toy maker Takara, looks like the ultimate gamer boy’s-toy laptop, which surely can’t ever be seen as a good thing. It looks like something that would fill the centre of a control panel in a tank, and even has an LED message panel and emergency alarm button. If you are on the look out for one, be warned, there were only ever 300 made, which is somewhat less than the number of single guys out there.

Google profit up 26 per cent

Iain Thomson in San Francisco — 2008-10-17T00:24:00.000Z

Iain Thomson in San Francisco, Computing, Friday 17 October 2008 at 00:24:00

Search firm sees opportunity in the downturn

Google’s third quarter results have shown profit increased 26 per cent from the third quarter of 2007.

Profit for the third quarter rose to $1.35bn and the company’s overall revenue is now $5.54bn, of which 51 per cent comes from non-US markets. The UK contributed $776 million to the company, around 14 per cent of its revenue.

“Thanks to everyone’s hard work we’ve had a good year,” said chief executive Eric Schmidt.

“These results reflect that as marketing budgets are squeezed targeted advertising is more attractive. Similarly consumers are using the web to search for lower prices online helps drive business.”

Although growth has slowed somewhat from the last quarter Google's net income was $1.35bn or $4.28 per share, up 26 per cent from the same period a year ago.

Some specific industries were showing signs of weakness due to economic conditions, notably real estate and home financing. However others were picking up, such as home equipment and job vacancies.

"It is pretty clear the economic situation today globally is worse than people were predicting a month ago," Schmidt said.

"When I talk to other chief executives, in Europe and in America, it is clear that the economic situation is so fluid that we're all sort of in uncharted territory."

The company has however taken a hit by movements in the currency markets according to chief financial officer Patrick Pichette. The company had paid $80 million in hedging costs, primarily against the euro, Canadian dollar and British pound, and this would be rolled out to other currencies next quarter.

“Currency was working against us this quarter,” he said.

“But the hedging programme is working well. It’s essentially an insurance policy.”

In order to further streamline the company expenditure was being kept low, with an 18 per cent cut this quarter, with the bulk of spending going on modernising data centres. The company employed just 500 more staff this quarter, predominantly engineers, bringing headcount up to 20,123 full-time employees.

“We’re managing costs very closely,” said Schmidt.

“Sergey likes to say that scarcity focuses clarity. But overall we’re optimistic about future power of the web.”

The stock markets reacted well to the financial report and Google shares rose over eight per cent.

Intel prepares for uncertain fourth quarter

Iain Thomson in San Francisco — 2008-10-15T00:08:00.000Z

Iain Thomson in San Francisco, Computing, Wednesday 15 October 2008 at 00:08:00

Issues broadest ever range of expected revenues

Intel has revealed record third quarter results and said that while it is confident about the forthcoming quarter it is nevertheless preparing for a wide range of possible scenarios.

The company reported that it had had another record quarter, pulling in revenues of $10.2bn with an operating income of $3.1bn. However the company made its widest ever range of revenue forecasts for the fourth quarter, between $10.1 and 10.9bn, reflecting the uncertainty about global markets.

“The range of revenues is broader than we’ve ever given you before,” said chief executive Paul Otellini.

“That covers all possible situations within the market.”

He said that he expected the corporate side of the market to be soft as businesses restricted spending on systems and cut back, although the Asia/Pacific region wasn’t suffering. Consumer spending was expected to be light but continued interest in notebooks and netbooks remained strong.

Overall Otellini said that the company was in good shape to weather any financial downturn. The company has 20,000 staff less than its peak in 2006 and cash reserves of over $12bn with very little debt.

In an unusual step he also said that the company would issue a mid-quarter earnings statement on December 4th to update the markets on progress as the financial situation developed.

Overall Intel could come out of any financial downturn stronger than it went in, said chief financial officer Stacy Smith. Intel’s corporate structure and strong financial position should insulate it from a serious downturn and its competitive position would be strengthened he said.

“This is not a dot com style downturn,” said Otellini.

That was principally people selling computers cheaply on eBay from companies that melted down. Here emerging markets make a difference, as the cost of computing has come down there based on growing income levels. Technology will probably do well from a downturn, because we sell the tools of productivity.”

Overall mobile revenues accounted for 45 per cent of revenues for the company, with strong demand for the Atom range of processors. In the third quarter demand had outstripped supply he said but Intel would be able to meet demand by the end of the fourth quarter.

He also commented on AMD’s restructuring, saying that it didn’t change the fundamentals of the business.

“From my perspective nothing has changed,” he said.

“You still have someone having to build the capital and build products and sell them to someone else. The food chain hasn’t changed; there’s just one more person in the chain looking for a profit.”

Looking to the future the uncertain economic climate would not harm spending on new technology, such as the forthcoming 32 nanometre line of chips. The bulk of the costs of shifting to the new manufacturing process would come in the first half of next year but there were no plans to cut funding.

Saatchi Gallery invests in virtualisation

Madeline Bennett — 2008-10-09T05:00:00.000Z

Madeline Bennett, Computing, Thursday 9 October 2008 at 05:00:00

High-availability virtualised IT system in place for new gallery opening today

The Saatchi Gallery reopens its doors today in a new Chelsea location, with a high-availability virtualised IT system in place from software development consultancy Octavia Information Systems.

The IT infrastructure features a disaster recovery system based on technology from VMware and Double-Take, along with new voice and data communications technology, Microsoft Exchange 2007 and Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

The new technology is designed to give the art gallery greater control over its file, database and email security, while providing additional storage capacity for core systems, such as the gallery’s extensive image repository.

“This system for the Saatchi Gallery reduces the amount of hardware required, whilst providing increased resilience and future proofing options that will significantly reduce downtime,” said Octavia chief executive Giles Sirett.

The gallery has relocated to the Duke of York's HQ building on the King's Road in Chelsea. The first event in the new 70,000 square foot space will be The Revolution Continues: New Art from China, an exhibition of recent paintings, sculpture and installation from 24 Chinese artists.

How storage technologies can make your organisation more competitive

Bryan Glick — 2008-09-29T16:24:00.000Z

Bryan Glick, Computing, Monday 29 September 2008 at 16:24:00

This Computing web seminar discusses the challenges for cost-effectively managing fast-growing data volumes

Click here to register for this web seminar

For many organisations, the ability to store and use innovative forms of content such as audio-video, photos, imaging, online communities and other emerging information sharing technologies is opening up new business opportunities. But the rapid growth in adoption of such content presents major challenges for IT managers – and in particular in the ability to cost-effectively manage the large amounts of data storage needed to support users wanting more and more access to this information.

Issues such as affordability, scalability, integration, manageability and the availability of storage hardware are common concerns that organisations need to address to capitalise on the popularity of these types of data. High-performance storage is becoming essential to firms’ competitiveness and their ability to deliver the benefits of such high-capacity data to user and customers.

In this Computing web seminar, we examine how IT professionals can build storage infrastructure to support the rapid growth of these forms of data. Our panel of experts will discuss the emerging tools, technologies and best practice, and a real-life case study will look out how one organisation met these challenges.

Click here to register for this web seminar

IT speeds BA aircraft turnarounds

Angelica Mari — 2008-09-25T06:45:00.000Z

Angelica Mari, Computing, Thursday 25 September 2008 at 06:45:00

Digital pens have cut the time it takes to prepare flights for departure

British Airways (BA) is using digital pen and paper technology to speed up the turnaround time of aircraft landing at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

The tool allows dispatchers to communicate information from airside to the control centre in real time and helps avoid delays.

Following a trial started in April last year, the Anoto-supplied devices were introduced at departures for Heathrow’s terminals Four and One at the end of 2007, and have been used at Terminal Five since its opening in March, as well as Gatwick airport since earlier this year.

BA’s operations head of IT, Neil Clark, said that the technology was introduced to support the newly created role of turnaround manager.

“Managing the aircraft turnaround at an airport such as Heathrow is extremely challenging because of the infrastructure, congestion and other factors that make operation very tight within the timescales that our schedule allows,” said Clark.

“So we needed to have a role in charge of managing that critical area of the business effectively and new technology to support their work.”

With the digital pen system, a built-in infrared camera reads handwritten information and transfers data to the airline’s back-office systems via a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone. The information is then made available to the pilot and the dispatch team on a secure web page.

Previously, staff working at departures would need to record information about all the cargo and baggage loaded onto the plane and the location of those items using a manual process.

Workers would then need to find a computer to load the data onto a legacy system that would transmit flight load information to the operations team, a procedure that risked missing take-off slots and incurring fines.

“One of the key benefits of introducing innovation is that while turnaround managers are able to perform their job effectively, they do not need to leave the aircraft’s side during the departure process as all the data is transmitted in real time to our centralised load control,” said Clark.

Everton FC follows Liverpool's lead on IT

Bryan Glick — 2008-09-23T14:01:00.000Z

Bryan Glick, Computing, Tuesday 23 September 2008 at 14:01:00

Advice from the Reds leads rival team to new online backup technology service

Just days before the first Merseyside derby match of the 2008-09 Premier League season, Liverpool Football Club has been helping out its rivals from Everton with a bit of IT advice.

Everton has implemented a new online data backup system from Backup Technology - a service already being used by Liverpool.

According to the vendor, "Everton acted on the advice of Liverpool Football Club", a show of generosity that fans will not expect when the two teams meet on Saturday.

Everton had previously relied on a tape backup system for its two terabytes of files, including emails and databases for ticketing, merchandising and customer relationship management.

But the old system was proving too time consuming, according to Everton's head of IT Stephen Fell.

"A member of staff had to spend about two hours every morning ensuring that the overnight backup had gone OK and that there were no errors," he said.

"There was also a security concern because tapes were stored at the office and transferred to another site once a month, making them potentially vulnerable to damage, theft or loss."

Data is now transferred automatically to Backup Technology's data centre, improving disaster recovery as well as saving money.

"If an email server fails we can restore the data to another server and have the whole lot up and running within 24 hours," said Fell.

"If someone loses a file, even a single email, it can be recovered within minutes rather than the couple of hours it used to take. So I have peace of mind and can sleep at night without worrying.

"In addition to reduced administration time, there are cost savings in not having to buy tapes, backup hardware and software licences.

"Another advantage is that instead of building up massive tape archives we can have all the data archived and available online for as long as we need it."

Liverpool FC has been using the online backup service since early 2007.

Mainframes still matter

Martin Courtney — 2008-09-19T06:00:00.000Z

Martin Courtney, Computing, Friday 19 September 2008 at 06:00:00

Many companies have migrated to Windows servers, but the mainframe is not dead yet

The mainframe has been written off more times than an underperforming England national football team. But while many organisations are migrating process-intensive applications off expensive-to-maintain legacy systems onto increasingly powerful Windows servers or clusters, the mainframe can still retain a few customers by hook or by crook.

International Masters Publishing (IMP) for example, a publishing company specialising in mail order books and magazines, recently decided that its IBM zSeries mainframe operations were no longer cost effective. The firm is in the process of migrating its core enterprise resource planning (ERP) application onto two Windows Server 2003 systems, a four dual-core application server and a database server based on dual-core processors. By its completion, the move will have ported 850 online programs and 4,700 batch jobs onto the new system.

IMP chief information officer David Ives said cost was certainly the primary driver for the move, particularly the system’s monthly maintenance bill, though the need to future proof IMP’s application development and perceived better reliability of Windows systems were also taken into account.

“We were seeing cost going up in the mainframe environment while simultaneously seeing other solutions in the marketplace. We have on average 350-400 million instructions per second (MIPS) outsourced to systems integrator Logica, and the IBM licensing cost was going up every time we came to negotiate it. We did not have sufficient volumes or negotiating powers to get those costs reduced,” said Ives.

Buying the necessary software cost IMP around €500, said Ives, though hardware expenditure on two servers was virtually negligible. The rump of the cash was spent on professional services, which came to a bill in excess of €1m.

“This should pay itself back in around two to two-and-a-half years,” said Ives, who expects cost savings in the region of €1m per year.

“The business case is fairly fluid and may turn out to include some unexpected things, but the payback might be earlier as well. A lot will depend on how quickly we can turn off the mainframe completely. The first year will be a learning curve for us as well but things might look different going forward and we’ll go down the virtualisation route with suppliers as an outsourced commodity,” he said.

Martin Boakes, the resident mainframe specialist at IT services provider Logicalis, admits to seeing a continuing trend towards migrating legacy systems off the mainframe and onto distributed servers, but said high maintenance costs are largely the result of operating system licence costs.

“The costs associated with maintaining mainframes are perceived to be high and the monthly license charge for IBM z/OS is very expensive,” he said.

“IBM justifies this by saying that it delivers better performance and uptime backed up by 40 years of development, but the end result is expensive regardless, and we are seeing a number of people move away from legacy mainframe systems as a result.”

But Boakes said mainframes do not have to be the expensive, bloated monstrosities which many people perceive them to be. He said that an entry-level mainframe system can cost as little as £60,000 if it runs an open-source operating system such as Linux. It can also use less electricity than the equivalent number of Windows servers required to handle the same application load.

“This shocks people because they think that mainframes are large, cumbersome and expensive, but it is possible to consolidate 350 or more servers onto one mainframe, which sends out a good virtualisation message and helps drive down the carbon footprint in terms of less heat generated and less power and space used in the datacentre,” he said.

Even so, it is hard for any organisation running 500 MIPS and below to justify the cost of using mainframes for such a relatively low volume of transactions, especially with so many companies pushing a single outsourced service based on a distributed server virtualisation model, said Ives.

“A lot will come down to the volume of transactions and size of applications concerned – I have lots of colleagues in the financial and travel industries who are buying MIPS in the thousands, for example,” he said.

The physical process of migrating applications off mainframes and onto Windows servers can be time consuming and fraught with difficulty, especially with legacy applications based on CICS, DB2, or COBOL for example, which were developed with the mainframe in mind.

“There are problems sometimes and many find it hard to come off the mainframe at all. Unfortunately it is not until they do it that they realise what those problems are,” said Boakes.

“It takes a long time to migrate the workload over, especially where they are running core applications and porting data can be a huge risk.”

IMP sought the help of enterprise application modernisation specialist Micro Focus for its migration, with Tata Consultancy Services providing integration.

But irrespective of any one organisation’s individual circumstances or how much they are willing to spend on third-party assistance, a lot will depend on the state of the firm's relationship with IBM.

Having acquired its last remaining mainframe rival, Platform Solutions Incorporated (PSI), earlier this year, the IT giant now dominates the market and is in a position to dictate terms to business partners and customers alike.

“There is only one mainframe market player [IBM] which is disappointing for me because I would like to see a competitive solution that would improve some of the mainframe cost figures,” said Boakes.

“It is fairly obvious why IBM will not reduce its software costs though, because they constitute the bulk of its revenues and all the shareholders would hit the roof.”

Statistics suggest that these high costs are not damaging IBM’s mainframe sales yet, however. According to researcher IDC, revenue from the sale of IBM System z servers running z/OS grew 31.7 per cent year on year in the second quarter of 2008, accounting for 11.8 per cent of all server revenue in that quarter.

But Windows-based systems still account for over a third of the total market (36.5 per cent), with Linux servers taking a 13.4 per cent share.

Why IT is getting greener

Tom Young — 2008-09-18T08:30:00.000Z

Tom Young, Computing, Thursday 18 September 2008 at 08:30:00

New research reveals that energy costs and regulatory pressure are among the main factors driving green IT strategies

Reducing IT energy costs has become the most important factor for companies looking to implement green computing initiatives, according to a survey by analyst Forrester Research.

Extending the lifecycle of hardware and regulatory compliance were also cited by IT leaders as important motivators, but cutting power consumption is very much the primary driver.

“Cost savings are always going to be the focus of any big change programme within IT,” said Forrester analyst Euan Davis.

Some 53 per cent of respondents to the survey of delegates at the Green IT 08 conference earlier this year highlighted reducing energy costs as their main objective.

Respondents pointed to energy saving schemes in a number of areas, but were missing some obvious shortcuts.

Eighty-seven per cent are implementing or exploring server virtualisation, while 83 per cent are looking at storage consolidation.

But while 69 per cent of those surveyed are pursuing improvements in cooling, only 57 per cent are changing their datacentre floor layout which can significantly reduce costs.

Depending on environment, cooling a datacentre can consume more energy than running the computers themselves. A hot aisle/cold aisle layout, coupled with blanking panels and correctly located vented floor tiles can make a big difference, according to Forrester.

Extending the lifecycle of IT assets was the second-highest priority for 41 per cent of respondents, and many IT managers thought they could kill two birds with one stone looking for both efficient and long-lasting hardware.

But Forrester pointed out that savings are not just made in the datacentre. Recent research from The Climate Group found that desktops and related peripherals may consume up to 50 per cent of IT’s total energy use. And companies seem to be catching on.

More than a third of firms 37 per cent have centralised power management systems in place, and a further 10 per cent are considering them. But only 34 per cent have deployed thin client systems, despite the technology being around for some time.

“Thin client is easier to secure, easier to manage and can be up to 25 per cent more energy efficient,” said Davis.

Regulation was another key driver for green IT, with 34 per cent of respondents pursuing green IT to “stay ahead of forthcoming regulations”.

“With a carbon cap-and-trade system coming in, the focus is really going to be on cutting energy use for many companies that are keen to avoid buying too many extra credits,” said Davis.

And the introduction of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) legislation last year seems to have had a major effect on many companies.

Three-quarters of respondents have desktop disposal and recycling policies in place for end-of-life equipment.

But internal initiatives are still more important than external ones, according to blue-chip user group The Corporate IT Forum (Tif). A survey of Tif members in May found that 62 per cent of respondents named corporate social responsibility (CSR) schemes as an important driver towards green IT. Legislation was viewed as being fourth out of seven issues.