“BYOD” Inspires FUD in IT Managers

By on January 27, 2012 in Uncategorized

There’s no doubt mobile technologies will drive change in IT shops in 2012, and a recent Cisco Systems sponsored survey shows that IT managers around the world worry about security, app access and the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend.

Cisco commissioned Redshift Research to survey some 1,500 IT managers and executives in the U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Germany and Spain to get an idea of the attitudes, fears and reactions IT managers are having to personal devices such as tablets and smartphones in the workplace. The survey found that more than half (51%) of those polled are experiencing an increase in the number of employees bringing their own devices to work. While nearly half (48%) said their companies wouldn’t authorize employees to BYOD, but 57% did admit that some employees use personal devices without consent. The highest reported use (64%) of personal devices in the workplace was in the U.S.

The fear, uncertainty and doubt the survey highlighted comes into play when employees expect to access company resources with their personal devices. IT managers surveyed said that access to company servers was a “huge problem” as was devices being lost or stolen (64%). And 44% indicated that “handling BYOD issues” diverts the IT organization’s attention away from other important projects.

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All Eyes on London’s Docklands

By on January 26, 2012 in CA Technologies on APM

CA Technologies is delighted to be a Gold sponsor at Europe’s premier technical education, technology evaluation, networking and thought leadership event for IT, networking and communications professionals. This has always been a great event, but as the lines between IT operations management disciplines continue to blur, Cisco Live! 2012 at London’s ExCel from 30 Jan – 3 Feb takes on even greater significance for the IT community at large. All eyes are on London for this one!

Twelve months ago Cisco welcomed nearly 6,000 delegates to Cisco Live! 2011 in the world’s coolest city and treated them to some outstanding sessions, an exhibition packed with real vendor talent and then topped it all off with aural and visual entertainment befitting the event. This year’s event will upstage that. Again CA Technologies will be there in force with IT Operations Management and Business Service Assurance experts from across the globe showcasing a bold vision for optimizing Cisco Network Infrastructure Performance. We will demonstrate how our solutions deliver the visibility, management and control needed to assure quality of service (QoS) across borderless networks, unified computing, collaboration and communications.

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It’s Happening Again to Service Providers

By on January 26, 2012 in Service Provider Focus

It is happening again to service providers – this time to cable providers. Subscribers are leaving their video services in droves. This has been reported fairly regularly over the past 6 to 9 months with the increase in streaming services. The downward pressures of over-the-top services like Netflix, Amazon and others is resulting in significant subscriber loss for those services. This was reported today in Light Reading here.

This is starting to resemble the loss of PSTN phone services for telcos. Fortunately cable providers have a leg up on that past situation and have invested heavily in Internet access services. In the near term, this may help plug what could turn out to be a giant hole in the dam that is holding back their overall revenues from collapsing. However, in the longer-term, cable needs to figure out a different strategy. Selling cold data access pipes is not a good way to make money – certainly not with the same level of margins that has been afforded to them in the past with cable video services.

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Employee Training Dollars on the Rise

By on January 25, 2012 in Uncategorized

In last night’s State of the Union address, President Obama discussed the need for better worker training to support the growing science and technology sector. While we could debate the merits of government training programs, there is good news from the private sector: U.S. businesses spent more on employee training in 2010 than they did the previous year.

SkillSoft, a provider of e-learning and performance support tools, sponsored a “State of the Industry” report by the American Society of Training and Development. The survey found that businesses spent $171.5 billion on employee training in 2010, up from $125.8 billion the previous year. This increase meant at 13.5% increase dollars spent per employee on training, though the number of training hours per employee remained flat, signaling an increase in costs for learning content. The data was collected from more than 400 companies, including 22 in the Fortune 500.

The report found that despite the current economic climate, the value of a highly skilled workforce continues to rise. Senior executives understand that a highly skilled workforce, and the continued development of those employees, can be a strategic differentiator in today’s competitive business environment. The data in the report, from more than 400 organizations across all major industries, demonstrates that learning and development is critical to drive growth and sustain a competitive advantage.

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Much “To-Do” About Nothing

By on January 25, 2012 in CA Technologies on APM

A new Harvard Business Review article says that to-do lists make you less focused and less productive.

If this is true, I’m in big trouble. I love my to-do lists. I start my day identifying the top three things I have to accomplish by close of business and focus my attention on those action items. I even have a to-do list for the weekend (my husband is far less enamored with this list than I am). As an achievement-oriented person, I firmly believe that my to-do lists help me prioritize, focus and get work done.

According to the article, to-do lists have the opposite effect because they are often too long and lack prioritization. As an alternative, the author recommends that you take your to-do list and put it into your calendar, giving you dedicated time to deliver on your key tasks. I often do this when I have a big project that requires a significant amount of my time.

While I’m not ready to give up my to-do lists, I understand the author’s point about prioritization, focus and productivity. With our over-scheduled families, looming deadlines and interruption-prone work environments, how do we prioritize those tasks that are most critical so that we can get more work done and be more productive?

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Negotiate Your Way to Higher Pay

By on January 24, 2012 in Uncategorized

Tough economic times and limited budgets could hinder some job seekers’ strategy to get more pay, but according to research released today, 2012 could allow for a bit of “wiggle room” as more than one-third of some 1,600 chief financial officers (CFO) said they are willing to negotiate on compensation with top candidates.

Robert Half International, a specialized staffing firm, developed the survey that asked 1,600 CFOs from American and Canadian companies about their willingness to haggle on salary with job candidates. While 38% of those surveyed indicated they were much more or somewhat willing to negotiate, 54% reported no change in their willingness to negotiate when compared with 12 months ago. Five percent said they were somewhat less and less willing to negotiate.

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Hockey Lessons, ITIL and IT Operations Game Changers

By on January 23, 2012 in Service Assurance & ITIL

Recently, in Toronto, Canada, I had the pleasure of meeting a number of IT professionals from a wide range of industries who have a common passion, common challenges and a common opportunity to bring their IT organizations to the next level of excellence.

Their common passion? Hockey. And they played a lively CA Technologies-sponsored game on the Toronto Maple Leaf’s rink at the Air Canada Center.

Their common challenge? Juggling increased business demands and getting squeezed by tight IT budgets in a tough economic environment.

Their common opportunity? With a modest investment in new game-changing IT management technology, they can tweak their operational processes to get a huge uplift in IT efficiency and service quality.

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Snowy Shadows

4-Day Work Week? Heck yeah!

By on January 20, 2012 in Uncategorized

Who doesn’t love a three-day weekend? They’re great for recharging, getting things done around the house, and generally relaxing. We had Monday off for Martin Luther King Day and I definitely felt more energized this week with only four days to work. So why can’t we have 4-day work weeks every week?

Imagine four super -productive days followed by three days off to mentally recharge, get those needed appointments done and get the time to do your favorite hobby. At Slingshot SEO, they’re doing just that: giving employees a 4-day work week and the company is seeing great results. As CEO Jay Love outlines in this Inc. column, the shorter, more productive work week has many benefits:

  1. More innovation;
  2. Better employee retention (who wants to leave a place where you get a three-day weekend ever week?!?); and
  3. A very cool perk for recruiting.

Obviously, if the company you work for or the role you’re in is customer service-oriented, there could be some issues with having an office closed on a weekday, so scheduling becomes a factor. But there are ways to work around that too.

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Services Must Adapt to Society’s Changing Landscape

By on January 19, 2012 in CA Services

Social business technologies have abolished traditional means of conducting business. Organizations must adapt to a collaborative, perpetual workforce to overcome inertia and deliver results that increase customer loyalty and satisfaction. The connected, converged world utilizes common components like presence, location and unified communications.

The mobile world has morphed into the mobile device world and we are quickly becoming a “bring-your-own-technology” (BYOT) world. This increases the dependence on IT to support business-critical processes, manage to more demanding service levels and minimize service downtime. The IT group must accomplish all this while still reducing costs.

According to a Gartner study on the 2012 top 10 Tech Trends and implications, by 2015 media tablet shipments will reach about 50% of laptop shipments. The likely result will mean a smaller market share for Microsoft client platforms.

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Service Assurance Daily Gets a Facelift

By on January 18, 2012 in Ask the Service Assurance Expert

Everyone knows that even the best things in life could use a little improvement from time to time. That’s why this week we unveiled the newly designed Service Assurance Daily blog and Web site.

We added a ton of capabilities — comments, e-mail alerts via the RSS feed, top posts, recommended reading and more. We also tweaked the design to be clean, simple and intuitive for site visitors and blog readers. Also if you are a regular to the site and have a favorite author or topic area, it’s now easier than ever to read all blogs by a specific author or to peruse posts on similar subject matter.

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Play to Win the Game with an Effective APM Strategy

By on January 17, 2012 in CA Technologies on APM

Former NFL Coach Herm Edwards delivers the best quote-worthy sounds bites – also known as “Hermisms” – in sports television. While most people recognize him for shouting, “You play to win the game!” during a New York Jets press conference, there are so many great quotes that it can be hard to find a favorite. Here are some of mine:

• In a speech to NFL rookies last summer, he advised players to steer clear of trouble off the field, explaining “Nothing good ever happens after midnight!”

• My all-time favorite is “When I say it’s Easter, start coloring your eggs!” This feels like the right place to admit I don’t always understand what Coach Edwards is trying to say, but this one makes me laugh every time. It also makes me want to run laps and do pushups.

What makes Coach Edwards so appealing is that his straight-talk advice, honest principles and passionate wisdom go well beyond the sports arena and guide us to achieve greatness in our personal and professional lives.

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Are You Ready For IPv6?

By on January 17, 2012 in Service Provider Focus

The trial (detailed here) demonstrated that most networks (corporate, transit and enterprise) were ready for IPv6. As a result of the success, those same participants and many more have banded together to launch the permanent usage of IPv6 on the Internet here today.

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