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Sorting truly sustainable tech from greenwash
Friday 23 February 2007, 2:35 PM
Internet downtime still up there
The fabled five nines of Internet uptime is just that according to Steve Broadhead, director of testing lab Broadband Testing.
The penultimate panel debate at NetEvents Geneva on Friday was based around a recent study of downtime across European and US sites which revealed significant downtime for most sites.
Broadhead said that sites such as those operated by the FTSE top 20 showed 43 percent of companies with significant downtime. The study showed that 40 percent of UK PLC sites failed to achieve industry targets of uptime. The best effort goes to airline sites which had 10 percent downtime according to the research.
Where is the failure occurring? There are two bottlenecks – just in front of the servers and out at the edge of the network, according to Broadhead.
Paul Di Leo, boss of Zeus, speaking on the panel, said that his company provides a new form of load balancing that should help the kind of endemic downtime described by Broadhead.
At the end of the day, organisations aren't spending enough or on the right kind of technologies to maintain what is effectively their online store-front, said Di Leo.
"It basically because some companies do no take there web services seriously enough. The reason they fail is that they do not put any resiliency in them. E-retail is a classic – the retailers spend a fortune in the high-street store but when it comes to their e-site – consumers can't get in etc," said Di Leo. "Companies should spend the same amount percentage wise on their site as they do in the high-street. There is no reason that a 404 site should exist anymore. It is about the importance of the website to the business."
Thursday 22 February 2007, 11:23 AM
Virtualisation is about politics not technology?
Discussions at the NetEvents conference in Geneva have moved on to all things virtual with a panel led by Yankee Group analyst Camille Mendler who claims that terminology is one of the things holding back the wider uptake of the technology.
"There is a ridiculous term – hypervisor – which is basically virtualisation management software – this kind of language that can make it hard for IT mangers to get the board on side for these kind of projects. The term virtualisation is being used in all sorts of ways and some of them not very helpful," she said.
Panelist Steve Broadhead from Broadband Testing Labs said that virtualisation is the something that should always have been in operating systems. "Why should you be limited to one instance of an OS?," he said.
Nowadays any company can make use of virtualisation but originally some major applications would run fine but smaller ones would not. But it has now become so commonplace now that it actually works, according to Broadhead.
But there are still many things that can go wrong, Broadhead warned. "If you're using mainstream software on a mainstream operating system then it is usually fine but if move out of that then things get more difficult."
Paul Di Leo, boss of Zeus Technology said that the basic issue is that virtualisation is growing but hasn't reached the real vision where it can automatically replicate applications across multiple servers and sites. "Once we arrive there – then mass adoption will happen. The other challenge is how application vendors are going to charge for that model," he said.
But despite the promise of virtualisation the panel was at pains to point out that you can't take advantage of it until you have done the basic auditing and organisation of your systems. "The management of the complexity – in terms of application performance – many companies have not done basic auditing of what they have got. Step one is to audit your servers and applications," said Yankee's Mendler.
"Servers have been so cheap to buy that people have deployed them without thinking about it. But now power consumption is becoming a limiting factor so now there is some auditing going on," added Di Leo.
Ultimately the panel concluded that virtualisation is less of a technology issue and more of organisational and political issue.
Check out our Virtualisation Toolkit for more on this issue.
Thursday 22 February 2007, 9:07 AM
Virtual insanity in Geneva...
It may have been around since the 1960s but virtualisation is one of IT's hot topics at the moment. I'm currently out in Geneva attending a two day conference called NetEvents which basically brings together analysts, journalists and industry types to chew over some of the big issues in tech and virtualisation is one of the subjects on the menu today. I'll keep you posted on what we unearth – which should be plenty given some of the panellists discussing the issue which include Paul Di Leo, boss of Zeus Technology as well as analysts from Yankee Group and BA Test Labs.
(If you're interested in Virtualisation then check out our Virtualisation Toolkit .
Other highlights of the event – apart from the great views of Lake Geneva and some fantastic catering – include a keynote on Friday by Alireza Mahmoodshahi, CTO of Colt who is going to be discussing next generation networks. IP Multimedia Systems (IMS) is about more than just Voice over WiFi according to Colt – I'll keep you posted on exactly what this all means for business communications.
Thursday 8 February 2007, 11:10 AM
Computer Aid cycle challenge - Day five and six
It's over. We've managed to cycle 400km from Mount Kenya to Lake Victoria - including a trip down and a steep climb out of the Rift Valley - in just six days. Everyone is really happy to have finished and even happier to see the back of the oldest bikes in Africa which somehow held together (mostly) through our trip. Thursday, the final day, was still tough even though it was only 60kms. In typical fashion, our guide Claude, said that we'd experience a few hills but by now we have learned to times whatever he says by at least ten. But despite some steep descents and even steeper climbs - we managed to make it to Lake Victoria largely unscafed apart from a few punctures, one wasp sting and a few near misses with suicidal taxi drivers who seem to enjoy buzzing European cyclists!
Yesterday, Wednesday was a tough 100kms with the worst reserved for the afternoon. The downside of a lovely off-road ride through a forest reserve - with monkeys and other wildlife -- was steep 15km descent over rocks and boulders which shook our antique bikes and tired arms and legs to the core. We were not happy with Claude who, as usual, forgot to mention how evil this part would be.
But its all over now and we can look forward to some R&R before a celebration meal tonight. Tomorrow morning, while the rest of the team take a 7 hour minibus ride back to Nairobi, I am flying back early so I can check out some more Computer Aid projects in the afternoon including a trip to see how a flash memory stick can be used as an aid for the blind.
Wednesday 7 February 2007, 6:31 PM
Kenya cycle challenge Day Three and Four...
Day 3 - Today was meant to be our most challenging yet, and it definitely proved one of the toughest.
We started out in a place called Kabernet, on the edge of the Rift Valley. The day got off to a great start as we made our descent into the Rift Valley, a journey of around 18km and downhill all the way.
Then, after a short stretch of cycling along the bottom, came the scary bit – a 26km climb out of the Rift Valley, climbing what was more or less a sheer edge broken up by hairpin bends. This climb took around three or four hours, quicker than we were anticipating, but still really, really tough.
There was a great feeling of elation and achievement when we finally reached the plateau, and after lunch we headed on. Our next destination was a place called Eldoret, another 40km away. But this was a nice easy end to the day, downhill all the way through fields and plains, and a chance to take stock and enjoy the scenery.
Day 4 - This morning's journey was a bit of a change for us – around 60km of road cycling, from Eldordet to Kakamega. Then after lunch a real contrast – around 30km of offroad cycling through jungle, which was a fantastic experience but hard work.
After this came what was probably the most gruelling section yet – a really tough downhill journey, rattling along on our boneshaker-bikes across uneven surfaces with rocks everywhere.
It certainly hasn't been easy, but that was our last 100km stretch, and tomorrow should be just 60km down to Kisumu, hopefully a fairly easy run. The end's in sight now – only one day of cycling to go.
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