Newspapers were originally fed on presses manually one sheet at a time. 

Telephones were once connected via legions of operators connecting callers (one at a time) with cables and plugs; and today computer networks are still managed by legions of manual administrators who configure network appliances and manage IP addresses as endpoints are added or moved or networks are acquired.   Yet can cloud computing really take that pain away?

Read more...

Infrastructure 2.0 and related automation technologies are poised to change not only the way we manage our infrastructure, but the very organization and culture of our IT departments. Like the once ubiquitous role of clerk that dominated business functions before the computer arrived, system administration--especially network administration--will see a reduction in tactical roles and an increased reliance on strategic skills in the coming years.

Read more...

The economic decline we are in is proving like others in history, that market bubbles, false profits and extreme leverage are not sustainable and ultimately wreak havoc on the economy. Now we face a broad and deep global recession along with a revamp of global financial markets. The world is different. Today’s world is characterized by layoffs, budget cuts and cost cutting measures across all sectors and spanning every aspect of business operation.  Enterprise IT managers along with Cloud and Managed Service Providers are increasingly under pressure to do more with less; all while the cost and complexity of operating enterprise networks, data center environments and network security continue to increase. Here lies the market catalyst for I2.0.

Read more...

When folks are asked to define the cloud they invariably, somewhere in the definition, bring up the point that “users shouldn’t care” about the actual implementation. When asked to diagram a cloud environment we end up with two clouds: one representing the “big cloud” and one inside the cloud, representing the infrastructure we aren’t supposed to care about, usually with some pretty graphics representing applications being delivered out of the cloud over the Internet.

But yet some of us need to care what’s obscured; the folks tasked with building out a cloud environment need to know what’s hidden in the cloud in order to build out an infrastructure that will support such a dynamic, elastic environment.

Read more...

The cloud computing meme continues to billow as Juniper and IBM announce a cloud management partnership rumors swirl about heavy petting between VMware and shareholder/partner Cisco.  A few months ago it seemed like every cloud discussion included Google and/or Amazon; now it appears that “the network infrastructure issue” has finally reared its head and ushered in networking and management leaders into the cloud conversation.

Read more...