Hectic Eclectic

To Case Study or not to Case Study

Yours truly has been investigating and I just can't think of a reason not to complete a case study if

A) Everything has gone swimmingly for a client

B) Enough time has elapsed to prove (A) is indeed the case

C) Nothing being implemented is of a particularly sensitive nature

We've done quite a few but it amazes me how (certainly initially) few people are keen to do Case Studies with business partners and/or vendors. This position I've always found surprising as it is a great was to showcase the fact everyone did a good job --  client end user/ IT within client / business partner / vendor  --- and why would any of us want to shy away from that?

Oh - and this made me smile.

Been having a look at some of the Tivoli appliances...

...and they look not bad.  Not seen the commerical propositions yet so they may be pricey... some of the Tivoli stuff just is - in my opion.

Anyway - check this out - we are waiting on a trial unit and commercials here at Seric Towers...  Will report back once the demo has been ... well ... done!

The Trouble with IT

Well more like... the trouble many businesses have with their IT departments generally...  This is a pitch I've given to quite a number of clients.  Why?  Not because they don't know but to help them understand the issues IT can present to a business and to make sure they are avoiding falling into those common pitfalls...

I like this pitch because it gives a taster of how we work with clients...

The Trouble With It

View more presentations from Stuart Macdonald.

Snowboarding in Saalbach

Just spent a few days in fine company snowboarding in Saalbach Austria.  Had an absolute ball.  Sore bum from the hill and sore head from the beer but it's all good...

Anyone who thinks this pic is actually me - leave my blog - we can't be friends any more.  I also discovered Mozart's Balls - he sure has tasty balls - not just a composer you know a chef too.... who knew.

IBM Storage CTO visits Seric Towers

Steve Legg, IBM CTO Storage popped in to Seric Towers to give our team a briefing on the one of the more recent updates to the IBM storage portfolio VDS - and very interesting it was too.

Steve Legg (right) is pictured here along with Abdo Gadmour (left) who is heading up the charge on VDS in our region and our main technical lead here at Sericville Mr William MacLeod.  As I said it was all very interesting and once we have done our appropriate training (very shorlty) we will be taking the message out to folks around the UK though of course focussed on Scotland, NI and the North of England.

For anyone looking to do a bit of background reading you can do well to have a look at the UK VDS landing page in IBM land.

Thanks to Steve and Abdo for your time today at Seric Towers.

Lotusphere Comes To You 2010 - Edinburgh Date Announced

This year's (Scottish) Lotusphere Comes to you Event has been announce and the word on the grapevine is it will be a corker, with even more great demos.  I know David Hood has been working on bringing the right people to the show.  We'll be there along with the usual suspects and of course hoping to see many more new folks along.  Why not tell a friend...

You can get updates and register (not quite yet) for the Edinburgh event at http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/events/lcty2010/europe.html

If in the meantime you want to let your contacts know you're interested or are planning to attend I've created an event on Linkedin so you can let folk know you are going and get some of your own networking done at the event too.

Event on Reducing Datacentre Management Costs

Some of you folks may be interested to attend Avocent's Winter breakfast briefing at Murrayfield.  

You can find out about the Government's new CRC scheme, The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (formerly known as the Carbon Reduction Commitment) is the UK's mandatory climate change and energy saving scheme, due to start in April 2010. Joan Ruddock speaks about the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme
If you cannot see the video download the latest Flash player

And also find out about Avocent MergePoint® Infrastructure Explorer (AMIE) software which really makes managing data your data centre easy and extremely energy efficient.

 

AMIE has a great GUI and some delicious features for managing migrations.  Want to know what was/it/will be in Rack #7 rows 15-25?  Very interesting.  The visualisation, calendaring and librabry feeds are key, after all if you can see it, you can understand it... which allows you to know, plan and manage your data centre effectively.  It's no just pretty mind - there is sub-rack power management great for you hosting providers out there.  I've whacked a few pics in here to give you an idea... 

Project Planning

 

Putting some kit into the Data Centre
 

Rack front view of equipment

 

Rack rear view of the equipment

Seric have a little announcement to make...

...we have achieved...

        

STILL NOT GOT IT?????

Just an Eye, Bee Movie, M from James Bond, Air Jordon Premier, The less than Hindi classic "Partner", and finally two guys with three chords between them... Status (The) Quo. 


It is quite a big deal really. There aren't that many; certainly not in the Scottish Community, where the only other one is Versko.  So what does it mean?  It means we have a load of technical and certifications and have consistently delivered a high level of business in Scotland and across the UK with, and often on behalf of IBM.

Simply put our sales staff and technicans know what they are doing - honest.

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I will admit that the PREMIER clue was the toughest but I am a bit of a basketball anorak and they are pretty snazzy sneaks (in a retro stylee).  Talking of basketball - it may have been a while but as it was before I started this blog it is probably worth a mention to say "HOW BOUT THOSE HEELS!"

What do you mean I have to sit another exam?

Due to an administrative oversight at Seric Towers it seems yours truly is one exam short of a diet.  No ad libs please. Seems the BP Police at IBM Mansions have discovered this technicality and been diligent enough to remove any theoretical loophole I might have been hypothecating about.  Isn't life unfair?  I know dear reader, I know.

So what excitement lies ahead for lil ole me?  IBM Certified Specialist - IBM Storage Sales, Version 9.  It is a bit raunchier than v7 and has a better ending than v8 - so it can't be all bad.  On lamenting my prediction to SWMBO she informed me that she was as surprised as I that I didn't know everything already.  I'm sure if SWMBO just keeps searching her cheek her tongue will turn up.