"Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours. ” – Ayn Rand

 

Top Picks

The World's Most Influential Companies
“The core characteristics of influence are unchanged, whether it's inspiring a loyal following, spawning big ideas, or building up mammoth market share. What has changed is how players achieve it. A company's physical assets are less important now than the force of its ideas.”
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_51/b4113043336126.htm?campaign_id=rss_null
[ This is a great article and the interview on this page is very interesting too. ]

 

Amazon caught in cloud container craze?
“The word on the street is that James Hamilton - one of the chief nerds that has helped Microsoft plan its containerized data center strategy for its forthcoming Azure compute cloud - is leaving to take a job at Amazon.”
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/12/12/amazon_goes_containers/
http://www.techflash.com/microsoft/36057114.html

 

5 Myths About Our Sputtering Economy
“For months now, the nation's economic obituary has been splashed across the front pages of nearly every newspaper in the country. Journalists and pundits alike have warned that America's long-running global dominance has come to a screeching halt, eclipsed by growing markets in such places as China and India and frittered away by our own mismanagement, excesses and myopic approach to the future. We're long past due for a reality check. The United States and the incoming Obama administration face formidable challenges, but the country is by no means on its last legs. Here are a few key myths that need to be dispelled.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/12/AR2008121203364.html

 

Book and Product Recommendations

Visible Ops Security, Phase 4
“In Visible Ops Security, Kim, Love and Spafford exemplify the principles of TQM as applied to integrating security into all business processes. In Phase 4, they start by recommending the formation of an Information Security Oversight Committee (ISOC) which focuses on ‘whether information security is meeting the needs of the business.’ In my own lectures to students at the undergraduate and graduate level, I never fail to emphasize how important it is that security must serve the strategic goals of the organization: we don’t run the show!”

http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/sec/2008/120108sec2.html?hpg1=bn
Order Visible Ops Security at:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0975568612?ie=UTF8&tag=georgespaffor-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0975568612
[Thank you for the great review Dr. Kabay!  His web page is:  http://www.mekabay.com/index.htm ]

 

Outliers:  The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
Having taken several months off from serious reading to just read Science Fiction, I have hopped back into reality with Gladwell’s new book – Outliers.  It’s quite interesting as he picks apart the notion that hard work and innate talent create success.  He instead suggests that we need to focus on a number of other supporting factors that aren’t so obvious.  For example, that many top Canadian hockey players are born January – March due to an arbitrarily set date cut off for hockey registrations.  At any rate, in his typical fashion Gladwell gives the reader much to think about.  It’s a quick read and serves to give a person yet another perspective on how things might work.  I say “might” because I think the reader should always take what is said from any book and question what it means to them.  With that said, Outliers is worth reading.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316017922?ie=UTF8&tag=georgespaffor-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0316017922
There are a number of book reviews out there already where you can read more about the book and what others thought:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/books/review/Leonhardt-t.html
http://www.kickerstudio.com/blog/2008/11/review-outliers-by-malcolm-gladwell/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/3703795/Outliers-by-Malcolm-Gladwell---review.html
http://www.mercurynews.com/lifestyle/ci_11112137

 

IT Process Improvement / Quality Management

ITIL is Cultural Not Technical
“ITIL is a transformation rather than an implementation, i.e. the cultural change of the people is the ultimate objective and the most important part. Don't get fixated on processes or, worse still, technology. Make sure the major spend is on people-change else failure or atrophy is the result.”
http://www.itsmwatch.com/itil/article.php/3790896

 

InformationWeek Analytics: Tomorrow's Data Center
“While data center architects have weathered much change over the past decades, there's a transformation on the way bigger than anything we've yet seen as data centers decisively move from business necessity to strategic advantage. Meanwhile, IT is working to understand how trends--including virtualization, cloud computing, escalating power densities and equipment weight, and new environmental awareness--will mesh with explosive growth in demand, even as the cost of traditional models escalates out of control, consolidation projects notwithstanding.”
http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/data_centers/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212400439&subSection=All+Stories

 

Security and Risk Management

DHS Cyber-Security Too Blase About Citizen Info, Panel Says
“The government's latest cyber-security efforts are too wrapped in secrecy and its privacy assessments downplay citizens' interest in the privacy of their IP addresses, a government commission reported Monday.  At issue is a Homeland Security anti-hacking system known as EINSTEIN, software which monitors traffic into and out of government networks in order to detect abnormal use.”
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/12/dhs-cyber-secur.html

 

Symantec and HP Lose Employees' Personal Information
“According to security breach notices received by the Office of the Attorney General in Maryland, recent incidents at both Symantec and HP compromised the personal information of a number of employees. This was the result of two laptops containing sensitive, though unencrypted data, being stolen.”
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Symantec-and-HP-Lose-Employees-039-Personal-Information-99968.shtml
[ Given that both sell security software it just further highlights how security is a blend of people, process and technology. ]

 

IT Management Slideshow: Top 10 Security Breaches in 2008
Gives a brief overview of: Central Collection Bureau, Bank of NY Mellon, Countrywide, and seven others.
http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/IT-Management/Top-10-Security-Breaches-in-2008/

 

Healthcare / Bio-Informatics / Care Delivery Organizations (CDOs)

Just a third of U.S. adults got flu shots
“Fewer than a third of U.S. adults have received a flu vaccine so far this year and only about half said they intended to get one, according to a survey released on Wednesday.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE4BA0UL20081211

 

Fitch: Negative outlook for health care
“Hospitals and other healthcare industries will have a very difficult operating environment in 2009, Fitch Ratings predicts.  Weaker demand will be associated with the global economic recession and a U.S. governmental focus on reducing the consumer burden of health care spending, the company reports in its 2009 outlook for the healthcare sector.”
http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/stories/2008/12/08/daily52.html

 

Human Error / Safety / Environment

Drought parches much of the U.S., may get worse
“The value of water is starting to become apparent in America. Over the past three years a drought has affected large swaths of the country, and conflicts over water usage may become commonplace in the future, climatologists say.”
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/12/11/drought.problem/index.html

 

Concern for Climate Change Defines Energy Dept. Nominee
“The man tapped to be the next secretary of energy, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu, recently compared the danger of climate change to a problem with electrical wiring in a house.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/12/12/ST2008121200098.html

 

Next Climate Summit May Turn on Rich Nations' Approach to Poor Ones
“Poor nations had hoped to strike a deal in which some of the money raised by auctioning international pollution allowances in the next few years would go toward this effort, but industrialized countries resisted. While this sparked a slew of impassioned speeches in the closing hours of the two-week conference, it also underscored that a future global warming agreement will depend in large part on the extent to which developed nations address the needs of vulnerable countries and emerging nations that have become a growing source of the greenhouse gases responsible for human-induced climate change.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/13/AR2008121301913.html?hpid=sec-nation

 

Global News / Business / Economics

EU split on rescue plan
“EU member nations squabbled over how to rescue their economies from the credit crisis and recession as U.S. Republican senators opposed a bailout of the U.S. auto industry and the dollar entered rocky territory.”
http://uk.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUKTRE4B93IV20081211

 

Global economy rebalancing the hard way
“The credit crisis is accomplishing something that years of scolding failed to do: curbing U.S. consumption and paring the piles of excess cash amassed in China and oil exporting countries.  While economists have long argued that such a rebalancing was badly needed to safeguard global growth, it is happening so fast that it threatens to deepen the downturn.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSTRE4BB01K20081212

 

Falling apart
“Just how worrying are the figures, published on Wednesday December 10th, showing that China’s exports and imports plunged in November? Exports fell by 2.2% last month from a year ago; imports plummeted by an astonishing 17.9%. One analyst sums up the news as ‘a shock figure.’”
http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12758009

 

Huge U.K. data center gets green light
“The Saunderton campus will be built to Tier IV specification and will deliver 100MW (megawatts) of power from two separate grid points from Scottish and Southern Energy, apparently making it the only one of its kind in the U.K.”
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/121008-huge-uk-data-centre-gets.html

 

IBM, Dell, Intel stand out in Ceres study of climate change policies
“Reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas associated with global warming, has become a priority for many businesses as expectations grow that under Barack Obama  the US will eventually adopt a system that attaches a cost to carbon.”
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,24789272-5014239,00.html
The Ceres Report is at:  http://www.ceres.org/Page.aspx?pid=1002

 

China's Economy 'Losing Steam Very Quickly'
“Elizabeth Economy, CFR's director of Asian Studies, says that although China had, just a few months ago, thought it could escape the worst of the global recession, China is now being ‘hit hard.’ She says that China's economy is now ‘losing steam very quickly,’ and that ‘this global economic crisis is going to make it much harder for China to address its own domestic economic problems.’”
http://www.cfr.org/publication/17987/chinas_economy_losing_steam_very_quickly.html?breadcrumb=%2Fpublication%2Fpublication_list%3Ftype%3Dinterview

 

US News / Business / Economics

Fostering Innovation
“Learn how different types of innovation can promote growth and long-term stability in the articles and podcasts below. Our global chief executive officer (CEO) and leaders of the Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation, which explores emerging opportunities on the edge of business and technology, discuss how companies can generate and foster fresh ideas to become industry leaders and shapers. In addition, learn how Deloitte has enabled innovation for the benefit of our people, clients and communities.”
http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/article/0,1002,sid=26562&cid=237338,00.html?WT.mc_id=us_Themme_Innovation_1208

 

Data center earns record rebate
“Sunnyvale, Calif.-based NetApp (Nasdaq: NTAP) received a rebate of more than $1.4 million for the design of a new engineering data center and for energy saving measures to provide power and cooling for the facility.”
http://www.sustainableindustries.com/breakingnews/35933274.html
http://earth2tech.com/2008/12/08/netapp-grabs-14m-rebate-for-green-data-center/
[ They earned from PG&E. Take note that these incentives are out there and can help offset renovation and new data center investment. ]

 

U-M saves energy, cash with green computing
“Spurred into action by a phone call from Google cofounder Larry Page, the University of Michigan is on its way to becoming a leader in green computing, hoping to save money and the environment.”
http://www.freep.com/article/20081130/BUSINESS06/811300404

 

OMG to Acquire Green Computing Impact Organization (GCIO)
“Prior to the merger, GCIO and OMG already had a relationship for work on OMG's proposed Green Computing Maturity Model(TM) (GCMM(TM)). GCMM will be a formal industry standard way to define, assess and monitor the sustainability of an organization across all aspects of the business. GCMM looks at all facets of the business such as facility management, corporate procurement / supply chain, governance, business processes, business operations and business data and provides a means for companies to model and measure their ‘green’ maturity.”
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/OMG-Acquire-Green-Computing-Impact/story.aspx?guid={F8DC0A66-A887-4DB0-BB92-E82DAF3CFCCA}

 

Another Week, Another Financial Drama
“What a week: Detroit flirted with the precipice, the feds fingered a lion of Wall Street in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, news giant Tribune slouched into bankruptcy, investors loaned Uncle Sam $30 billion—interest free. And then there was Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, arrested on charges of trying to shake down Sam Zell and auction off President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat.”
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/dec2008/db20081212_597566.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

 

Technology & Science

3 types of apps play a role in 'greening' data centers
Power monitoring & management, Asset management & automation, and Server virtualization software.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/121008-idc-3-types-of-apps.html

 

Solid-State Drives In The Data Center
The blog post has statistics about how SSDs are faster, require less power and are cooler than traditional hard drives and the costs are still relatively high.
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/12/solidstate_driv.html

 

Using a Geothermal System to Cool Your Data Center
“Energy and cost savings of geothermal heat pumps will vary by region and type of conventional system to which they're connected. While the initial cost of installing a geothermal system is higher than traditional heating and cooling methods, the long term benefits and cost savings, not to mention the efficiency of a geothermal system, can be quickly realized in a short timeframe. “
http://datacenterjournal.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2318

 

Microsoft's Generation 4 Data Center Vision - the Architects' Perspective
“The goal of Gen 4 is to modularize not only the server and storage components, which a number of companies are already doing, but also to modularize the infrastructure, namely the electrical and mechanical systems.  The real innovation is around the commonality, manufacturing, supply chain and integration of these modules to provide a plug-and-play infrastructure along with modularized server environments.”
http://blogs.technet.com/msdatacenters/

 

Smart Energy Solutions: 'Free' Money for Taking Charge of Your Power
“Operating energy-efficient buildings and generating power using alternative, low-emission or clean technology may be highly desirable, but in the wide world of building construction, they still represent a niche. An expensive niche, at that. But there are a number of ways that businesses can lower their facilities' energy footprints while also saving money. Here's an overview on how.”
http://www.greenerbuildings.com/feature/2008/12/11/smart-energy-solutions-free-money?page=0%2C0

 

End Notes

The News is brought to you by George Spafford, Principal Consultant at Pepperweed Consulting, LLC.  Pepperweed is nationally recognized as a leader in IT Management Consulting.  For more information, check out our website at www.pepperweed.com or call 888-229-0145. Please let us know if you see stories you think should be included in the next issue of The News, and feel free to forward this email on to others.

 

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