The future of the history will be “Finally, humans became social animals”

Since no body has visited planet Boron, you may take your skies or bikes  or  ski jet or new toys or all of them.  Again, it sounds simple and intuitive.   The same simple and intuitive concept applies to technology landscape. When you have clear direction on  business and IT strategies , it is straight forward to pack your technology landscape  for your business venture.  If the business/IT  strategy is not clearly defined,  it is better to have multiple options in your technology landscape.

Let us say, the business strategy of a captive finance company is to support the parent automotive company to promote the product sale through financial services to dealers and consumer. Assume that the IT strategy of the captive finance is to simplify IT landscape, reduce cost, be agile and be efficient.  In the highest level, business and IT strategy are clearly defined. For this instance, the Model T technology landscape is very suitable. Let us say the made up business & IT strategies apply to companies like BWM Finance, Daimler Finance, Toyoto Financial and etc.  They requires Model T technology landscape.

Model T –  Technology Landscape:

Build all application landscape based on one technology platform. One technology platform that supports multiple fronts like web application, desktop, desktop, virtualization, database, operating system, middle ware, collaboration, enterprise applications, backend systems. The technology platform which support all fronts is Microsoft platform. Develop every thing on Microsoft platform. It means, there is no mainframe, no Unix (- HP-Ux, SUN, AIX) , no AS/400, no Linux, no open source. End to end technology will be under one platform. It will provide significant cost advantage and  efficient from operation stand point. Microsoft platform is just an example for Model T – Technology landscape. It could be OpenSource, IBM (no desktop option), Oracle (no desktop option), AS/400 (no desktop option), Z/OS (no desktop option).  The risk is, if the platform provider changes their strategy or go under, it posses significant risk to the organization. At the same time, probability of risk becoming an issue in next 5-10 years is very low for company like Microsoft.

Model Perp – Technology Landscape

Perp is a math symbol looks like inverted ‘T’. Model perp is opposite of Model T. When the business strategy and IT strategy can’t be clearly defined for any unforeseen reasons, then model Perp is more suitable. Model Perp is to have combination of platforms in your technology landscape. It includes but not limited to open source, Microsoft platform, Enterprise resource planning software, cloud based solution, ASP, enterprise platform – Mainframe, AS/400 and etc. The risk is lower, cost is higher (cost of MIPS for mainframe is higher than cost of Intel processor to run Windows or Linux) and flexibility is higher.

If you are getting ready for your trip to planet boron in your organization, select Model Perp technology landscape. If you are getting ready to Denver for a skiing trip during x-mas holidays, just pack your Model T skies and forget your bike.

After few more hours, I realized, I almost encountered this kind of question at work every day in last few months. I’m responsible to implement few enterprise projects at work and due to laser focus to implement those projects, for the first time,  I found no time to blog in last few months since I started blogging. For some of those  enterprise projects, I have been having status  call every day for last few months. In those calls, I had various stakeholders including my team, existing hosting provider, new hosting provider, technology provider, solution provider and etc. In those conference calls, we discussed about  few technical problems, issues, challenges and at few instance, we discussed few items which were show stopper to the project.

The same questions occurred to me in those calls, is it true that no body in the call does not know the solution? Or is it true that some body knows the solution but I don’t know who that is? When there were twenty technical experts on the conference call, and there was no solution for a technical problem then I started asking the following question:

• Are we asking the right questions?
• Do we have the right person?
• Are we asking the right question to the right person?

I asked these questions to myself and changed the direction of conversation in the conference call and there was an instance where I was told that there was zero probability to solve a technical problem in next 10-15 business days which was a show stopper of the project but the problem was fully solved, validated and verified before end of the one hour conference call.

Bottom line is,  are we asking the right questions?

“Google runs critical business systems with MySQL and InnoDB. The systems require 24×7 operation with minimal downtime. The systems support large OLTP and reporting workloads. We are very happy with the scalability, reliability and manageability of this software.”

Chris DiBona, Open Source Programs Manager, Google Inc.

Yahoo Financial runs on MySQL

MySQL at Yahoo!
Some Technical Details:
Operating system used: FreeBSD and Linux, synchronized using MySQL Replication
Size of database: 25 GB
Average number of concurrent connections: 60
Max number of concurrent connections: 250

Ticketmaster runs on MySQL

“We migrated the Event database from Microsoft SQL Server to MySQL for lower costs and higher scalability. Thanks to MySQL, we are able to scale 4 times better while constantly maintaining the replication latency of less than 1 second across our 250 MySQL servers.”

Ed Presz, Sr. Director of Database Engineering, Ticketmaster Entertainment

 It is time for all other innovative companies in financial, retail, manufacturing, health care, services sectors to look into MySQL as their database..

Note: This page is used for google’s page rank emprical analysis. The links will be created based on the random graph created.  This is node #3 which has the key word:  xysivabodzinyx , xysivabodzinxy . As per the graph, it links to page 1, page 5

Differentiating Technologies:

• Security Technologies
  • Identity Management
    • User provisioning & de-provisioning
    • Access management
    • Role Management – Role mining, engineering
    • Federation - Service & Identity
  • Data loss prevention
  • Network security - intrusion prevention, firewall, load balancer, proxy server,
  • Managed File Transfer
• Integration Technologies
  • XML Appliance
  • SOA/Cloud security appliance
• Internal tools for compliance
  • Service Desk
  • incident & problem management
  • Release Mangement  – Source code control management
  • ITIL
• Collaboration Platform
  • Web 2.0  – blog, wiki, corporate twitter – for both internal and external users
  • Email – integration with iPhone, blackberry
• Next generation platform
  • Application running in iPad, iPhone,
  • Virtual desktop

Note: This page is used for google’s page rank emprical analysis. The links will be created based on the random graph created.  This is node #2 which has the key word:  xysivabodzinyx , xysivabodzinxy . As per the graph, it links to page 1

Page rank is used to decide the sequence of search results for a google search. Companies want their page to be at the top of the search result. The easiest way to be at top of the search result is to pay google for the adwords. The sponsored web sites appear above and to the right hand side of its regular search results. 

Not all companies can afford to pay google for their Adwords. There is cost effective alternative which requires an understanding of how google works.  Google’s internal working knowledge will aid to define  analytical (or mathematical) strategies and implemented in the web site to improve the page rank and eventually with more visitors to the web site.

To validate the theory with emprical analysis, a plan with following steps drafted.

1. Find a key word that is not in google’s index server
2. Create a graph (random graph) and find the initial transition probability
3. Evaluate the steady state of transition probability matrix using power methods – Which is the page rank of the graph (I will post the technical/mathematical details in a pdf. It is time-consuming to write matrix and other math notation in word press editor)
4. Develop a set of web sites (pages) adhering to the random graph and each web site to contain the new key word
5. Allow google crawler to include the new sites in their index server for the new key words
6. Search for the new key word and absorb the order of search results
7. Report the results

1. A new key word was selected and  is given below.   There is no google search result for the key word.

2. The random graph  (a representation of how web sites are linked to each other) and the graph will be implemented  with various blog post and  each blog post will have the key word  adhering to the graph. Each node of the graph denote a blog posting. The links connecting the nodes are the hyperlinks connecting the nodes.

Note: This page is used for google’s page rank emprical analysis. The links will be created based on the random graph created.  This is node #1 which has the key word:  xysivabodzinyx , xysivabodzinxy . As per the graph, it links out to page 2, page 4

Migration steps are given..

1. Check the applications in the landscape uses COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) product). Verify from the vendor, the COTS product is supported in the VmWare environment.  If COTS are not supported in the VmWare environment, understand the vendor’s product road map and see if there is any VmWare support in the horizon. Explore ASP model for COTS model.  If it is not feasible, then follow the exception process. (An organization should define an exception process to deviate from private cloud)
2. Study the technology stack of current application landscape. Verify the technology stack can run in the new host operating system (Linux or Windows).  For instance, if an organization runs the application server BEA WebLogic in HP-UX, in this step, verify if BEA web logic can run in Linux or windows.  There are some technology (like Oracle DB) does not support or perform in VmWare cloud operating system. When a technology is not supported, it is an opportunity to consider that technology for migration to a comparable technology with lower cost and risk and higher or equal benefits.
3. Even when a current commercial technology stack (like IBM WebSphere, IBM DB2) runs in VmWare platform, still perform a risk assessment of running the native technology stack instead of migration of existing technology stack to private cloud. For example, perform a risk assessment comparing IBM Websphere and native application server JBoss.  The net benefits between these technologies may be equal, in most case, there is a significant license cost differences between these technologies.
4. Study the migration cost from current technology stack to new technology stack in the cloud. For instance, study how the current technology stack (application server, database server) are currently being used. Look for any proprietary module used by applications in the landscape. For instance, IBM provided CICS transaction gateway jar files in older version of websphere. The applications in the landscape may be still using it. Watch for it. CTG jar files are not part of J2EE specification when IBM bundled with their product. Later, Java connectors for CICS are made available. If there are applications in the landscape using more proprietary modules/tools, then migration of application from websphere to JBoss will be a significant effort.  Total cost of migration must be taken in to consideration. It is a not a best practices to run any vendor proprietary technologies in the mission critical application in the landscape.
5. Repeat step 2,3,4 for all elements in the technology stack. (like database, security access management, data ware house, back office systems and etc)

Popularity, acceptance, and adoption of social networking platforms like web 2.0 indirectly helped IT leadership team to rethink about their perception on the CISC based servers for data center operations.  The popular social network sites like facebook runs on Linux platform and the number of users in social networking sites exponentially growing.  It is empirical proof that CISC processor based server are ready for high volume and high-speed data center operations.

With current economic climate, IT leadership team in all sectors have the following objectives.

• Reduce infrastructure cost (Capital Expense, CAPEX)
• Reduce over all data center operation cost  (Operational Expense, OPEX)
• Utilize more energy-efficient (for both Green and cost purpose) devices
• Minimize lost revenue due to down time

The above objective can be met by developing a cost-effective private cloud. It will additionally provide more flexibility and enable the organization to become  more nimble and agile.

How to architect the private cloud?

First and fore most, cloud operating system is required to manage a set of hardware to virtualize it to create virtual image.  There are two types of cloud operating system available.

1. Hosted Server cloud operating system
2. Bare-metal server cloud operating system

1. Hosted server cloud operating system requires a host operating system. The cloud operating system runs on top of the host operating system. The devices are directly managed by the host operating system. It is not designed to clone the operating system and create an image. It is primarly dessigned to clone an application. It is not recommended to run the data center operation like data ware house.

2. Bare-metal server cloud operating system has a micro kernel to manage all hardware directly. Generally the micro kernel is developed very effectively. There are open source cloud operating system available. If you are running mission critical  system, it is highly recommended to run under the commercial cloud operating system. VmWare ESX Server is one of the popular commercial cloud operating system. The micro kernel of VmWare ESX  written very effectively and does a great job of managing the resources.

What are the hardware requirements for private cloud?Well, it depends. There are quite a few certified hardware providers supply servers to  run under VmWare ESX Server. All major manufacturers like Dell, HP, IBM, Fujitsu hardware both blade and racks runs under VmWare ESX Server.  Similarly major manufacturers in storage area network, SCSI controllers, RAID controllers, Fiber Channel adapters, Ethernet Nic support VmWare ESX. Select the hardware, memory and storage based on your needs. There are guidelines available to select the hardware units. Those guidelines will be followed based on the need.

What are the target operating systems ?Well, again, it depends on the requirement. It supports both Linux and Windows. It support all major flavor of Linux (like Redhat, Novel SuSE) and Windows server platform. VmWare ESX can support both operating system at the same time.  The size of the image can be selected based on the requirement.

Results

With the private cloud architecture using Intel/AMD processors, all the above objectives are being met.

Predicting monotonic events are trivial, whereas,  preciously predicting the continuous non-monotonic events are impossible. For instance, , it is possible to predict that the Sun is to arise on east the next day. Well, assuming that our star, the Sun, is not sucked by an external moving black hole (Yes, black holes can move!! and it was recently proved). The probability for a black hole to swallow the Sun on next day is almost zero.  Like wise, preciously predicting continuous non-monotonic events like weather,stock market for next ‘n’ days are impossible.

Any profit organization events are non-monotonic and preciously predicting the organization future is impossible. but, strategist can define it or approximate it.

A strategist or chief architect can shape up a small state and make it as an empire. Strategist lays a strong foundation for growth and road map to flourish. He (or she) uses abstract and vertical thinking skills to study the past, analyse the current, and approximate the future.  Chanakya, was an strategist, who lived 2500 years ago,provided thought provoking ideas to Maurya Emperor Chandragupta and defined strategy to transform the entire kingdom.

Strategy in an organization starts with people. A strategy can be made successful only if the strategy has an exemplary communication management plan.  In communication plan the following questions must be answered..

• Why do we have the new strategy?
• What are the expected results of the new strategy?
• Will we be successful?

- IBM/Tivoli Identity Management
- Oracle Identity Management (or Oblix/COREid/Thor)
- Computer Associates Identity Management (or Netegrity)
- MIIS (Microsoft Identity Integration Server or MMS (Microsoft Management Server) or Zoomit)
- SunOne Identity Management
- Novell Identity Manager
- BMC Identity Management (or Passlogix)

Before any organization implements IDM, it is best practice from program management office standpoint to develop a business case and return on investment.

How to create a measurable ROI for IDM investment?

If help desk operation is expensive in an organization, measurable ROI development is possible whereas if help desk operation is already lean, it is challenging to develop a TRUE ROI for IDM investment.

IDM solution provides holistic solution for compliance and security requirements. Even when there is no TRUE ROI for IDM investment, still it is worth considering IDM for  its elegant user provisioning, user de-provisioning, user management, access management, password management, work flow, single sign on solutions.

The open source products OpenSSO, OpenDS (directory server) supported by SUN provides most cost ( total cost of ownership) effective solution among the solution landscape. Identity managers supported by SUN, which eventually will become an open source product provides all connectors to integrate various directory services and build work flow for custom provisioning and de-provisioning.

Message: If there is no TRUE ROI for IDM, consider OpenSSO/DS/Identity Manager solution before dropping IDM from your technology road map.

Note: This page is used for google’s page rank emprical analysis. The links will be created based on the random graph created.  This is node #4 which has the key word:  xysivabodzinyx , xysivabodzinxy . As per the graph, it links to page 3, page 5