IT Expert Voice

Gartner predicts data center power, cooling and space problem are worsening. Cloud computing exec Mark Thiele weighed in on the problem—and the solutions.

According to a recent report from Gartner Research, 2009 saw the most significant drop in server deployments ever. Now this trend is in reversal: In the next few years, server deployments will increase, and the results won’t be pretty. Those data center power, cooling, and space problems you’ve been having? Take a deep breath and start strategizing — because they’re about to get worse.

To help you with that task, IT Expert Voice checked in with Mark Thiele, vice president of Data Center Strategy at cloud computing vendor ServiceMesh, president of the nonprofit organization Data Center Pulse, a member of Green Industry Advisory Board at CSU Fullerton, and strategic advisor at sustainability management software vendor at CSRware. We got his thoughts on the Gartner report and its recommendations, and discussed how companies can cut their data center costs. READ MORE

Windows 7 upgrades. Downsizing. Standardizing platforms for mergers and acquisitions. System refreshes.

These are just a few of the situations that create the need to dispose of old computer hardware, or IT asset disposition, a term Forrester Research defines as “processes to redeploy, remarket, donate, recycle, or dispose of IT assets in compliance with data security, environmental, and industry regulations” which you and I might call, “Getting rid of our old computers.”

This area of IT asset management can no longer be an afterthought or a “waste-management” issue. Cost-savings imperatives, and security and environmental accountability have pushed IT asset disposition to the forefront.

That’s a good thing. Caring for your corporation’s IT equipment in the proper way is an opportunity for IT to generate savings and to protect the company’s brand reputation both in terms of privacy and green reputation. READ MORE

According to Aberdeen, large companies have three computer-related losses per week. Aside from the physical cost of the hardware, businesses need to cope with data loss, security vulnerabilities, user productivity – and a very cranky boss, I’ll warrant.

I’m going to go out on a limb: Your IT department is understaffed and overworked, and you don’t have enough money in the budget to cover all the things you need. As a result, there’s a good chance that your end user computing hardware (for example, PCs, laptops, netbooks) and their associated applications, connectivity, and data on which employees depend on to do their work — also known as “endpoints” — can get  lost in the shuffle. Employees leave for another job, they get laid off, they move to another department, and so on. What with all the work to do, it’s fairly low priority (not to mention difficult) to keep track of where all those laptops and applications end up.

But that lack of awareness is dangerous. Security may be tough to justify. It costs a lot to prevent something that only might happen. However, IT administrators need to consider the many recent well-publicized and costly data breaches to realize some of the reasons ignorance is decidedly not bliss. READ MORE

Getting users excited, creating concrete communication plans, and creating an application map are just three key factors in a successfully testing Windows 7 in your company. READ MORE