There definitely are. Do you have a question?

posted September 4, 2008

I'm not sure how new it is, but there seems to be a big trend towards thin client and virtual desktop service provision. The nice thing is that instead of having to implement some sort of software management service and provide updates to huge numbers of desktop computers, all you have to worry about on the client side is a firmware update or so. On the server side, everything is centralized, you only have a few installations of each product to worry about, and you can really save money on expensive licenses. The down side is you're more liable to bring down a large population of users if something goes wrong on your central architecture/server farm.

posted September 4, 2008

1. Green administration: many hw products are actually not just a piece of metal, but something that if well configured can bring costs savings on power, cooling, etc. (I'm thinking about products that support power and cooling management functionalities).
2. Unified Communications to consolidate old IT methodology with the mobile computing.
3. Business Process Management, Mashup & Metadata Management: the huge quantity of data is going to require tools that will easly allow to access enterprise and external data. (IT Governance & Compliance)
4. Business Intelligence: Data is continuously growing within enterprises and there is a need of 'control'. (IT Governance & Compliance)
5. Web Oriented Architecture & Real World Web: the integrated solution of these functionalities would allow people to access information of ANY kind from REALLY ANYwhere.
6. Enterprise Web 2.0 / Social Software: communicate, share info and get connected to people around the globe based on the type of information you need to access instead of a previous contact with the person is the new era of technology.
7. Computing Fabric & Virtualization: the 'pooled' data center is going to take place: virtualization of servers, storage, desktops, devices, etc. is going to get into the enterprises. Application virtualization AND the streaming capabilities of Operating Systems and Applications (think about ThinApp from VMware, and XenApp from Citrix as well). These functionalities can bring to the REAL Computing Fabric, where everything (hardware, OS, Apps, data, profiles, etc.) are not dependant from the system where it is supposed to run, but can be spread across servers, data centers, building, cities, countries, etc.
8. Security & Privacy. The web-ification of EVERYthing is going to require more security to protect data and identities. Identity & Access Management is already an item that most companies are taking under consideration. This will require secure accesses (SSL), and therefore a Web acceleration (SSL) is slower. (IT Governance & Compliance)
9. Blades: no matter which hw vendor you choose, this is going to be THE solution for everything that is not really HPC.
10. Open Source: plenty of solutions from the office productivity to the ERP, across the Identity Management, virtualization management, servers deployment, teaming & collaboration, Business Intelligence, BPM, CRM, groupware, monitoring, management, etc., are coming out on the market.

posted September 4, 2008

Recent trend in virtualization has been used for server consolidation ... as both hardware and management cost ... but also for "green", reducing power and cooling loads.

However, in the area of information security, virtualization is also being used for things like virtual appliances ... basically further decomposing existing operating system environments into much simpler components ... with the reduction in complexity and partitioning being able to significantly improve security.

recent reference in this archived answer
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#67 Is Virtualization a Fad?

and reference to quite a bit earlier use (I admit to working on the product while an undergraduate ... but not actually being aware of this particular use at the time)
http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/list-archive/0409/8362.cfm

and this medical security information related topic ... archived here:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#66 With all the highly publicised data breeches and losses, are we all wasting our time?

Links:

• http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#67
• http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/list-archive/0409/8362.cfm
• http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#66

posted September 6, 2008