CIO Magazine: Five Disruptive Techs CIOs Should Watch

This past year has seen some fairly big technology changes, largely the result of the confluence of a series of trends with new Web-based applications, new processor technologies, and new ways of managing networks. And sometimes the best ways to learn how to cope with change is to face it squarely and understand which way the winds are blowing.

We looked for technologies that change the way IT delivers services to the enterprise; new technologies that change the relationship of supplier and customer; new computing applications that have large infrastructure implications; or trends that are top of mind for the industry. We polled various experts and have come up with five technologies that have the biggest implications for causing changes in the way your IT department does business for the rest of 2006 and the coming years:

1. Multicore CPUs. New computing platforms from Intel and AMD have arrived that take price/performance to new levels, with reduced power requirements making clusters of computers and more distributed processing now within reach of everyone.
2. Server consolidation and virtualization for free. Now that the leading virtual server software vendors give away their product, more and more IT shops are consolidating their servers using VMs.
3. Radio frequency ID (RFID). After years of promise, Wal Mart and the Defense Department have made it happen, tracking everything from pill bottles to palettes to people.
4. Software as a service. The Web has become a force of nature and a solid applications delivery platform. While AJAX is the latest buzz, Web applications have changed the way we can deploy enterprise software.
5. Managing endpoint security. Can you really be sure that your networks are protected from the outside world? Consolidated security approaches are all the rage, but getting there won’t be fun.

Let’s examine each technology and show you how you can be better prepared to transform your own business.

Trend 1: Multicore CPUs
Leading vendors: Azul, Intel, AMD, Sun
Old style thinking: One chicken in every (processor) box.
Disrupted IT: Distributed processing allows for more hidden servers outside the reach of the data center
Tech tip: Balance AC power and cooling requirements carefully.

Intel and AMD are hard at work at stuffing more cores into a single processor package, and that means trouble for your datacenter. It will be easier to buy a powerhouse of a PC that can run complex applications outside the chain of IT control.

Densely-packed PCs are also having an impact in the data center, especially in centers that were constructed long ago on mainframe designs that aren’t able to withstand the cooling requirements of distributed PCs. And the technology is so disruptive that Sun is suing one vendor over its intellectual property, claiming that Azul has stolen Sun’s secret sauce.

“For every watt of server power consumption we pay twice – first for powering the server and second for the air conditioning that cools it down,” said Rene Wienholtz, the CTO of a Germany web hosting provider called Strato. “The first chip that delivers an enormous throughput computing performance and has the focus on low energy consumption is the Sun T1 and that is what we are using in our datacenters.”

Trend 2: Server consolidation and virtualization
Leading vendors: Microsoft, EMC/VMware, Sun, Liquid Computing
Old style thinking: PCs running a single OS
Disrupted IT: Quicker software development and rapid applications deployment
Tech tip: Take advantage of standard VM images wherever possible

The concept behind virtual servers is simply stated but harder to implement: take a single server, divvy it up into separate “virtual” machines with their own memory, virtual hardware and drive images, and other resources. It isn’t new: IBM has been doing this on its mainframes for close to 30 years, and we’ve had blade servers for the past five years too. But what is new is that the power of VM can be delivered to the PC platform, and there is a more compelling argument now that Microsoft and EMC are literally giving away their VM server software.

The idea is to run multiple operating systems and applications on the same box, making it easier to provision a new server and make more productive use of this hardware, just like our mainframe antecedents used to do in the 1980s. But unlike the mainframe era, having multiple VMs means IT shops can cut the cost of software development and simplify configuration as they deploy new servers. “We started switching to blade servers to do multiple tasks a few years ago, now we are looking at Liquid Computing as a way to configure multiple virtual machines on the fly and lower our TCO,” says Don Dunbar, Manager of Franchise Engineering, for oilfield applications service provider Landmark Graphics in Houston, TX.

EMC has established some pre-built VM-appliances — really, just virtual disk images — that come with ready-made applications that can be up and running in minutes. This is just another way to gain leverage by using virtual servers. “We plan to use virtual server management to reduce our server support efforts, minimize downtime, and reduce the ongoing costs of server replacement — enabling us to support more hardware with existing staff,” says Karen Green, the CIO of Brooks Health System in Jacksonville, Florida.

“Two years ago, it wouldn’t have been possible to handle so much workload in a datacenter. Now we can, thanks to this new virtualization software,” says Strato’s Weinholtz.

Trend 3: RFID
Leading vendors: Reva Systems, Symbol, Scansource
Old style thinking: Automating the production line was all about making cheaper finished goods
Disrupted IT: Supply chain and ERP can integrate down to the loading dock
Tech tip: Understand the consequences of integration before you leap in here

Trading information between suppliers and distributors will never be the same, thanks to the maturation of RFID in the past year. While the technology is a decade old, new developments in the integration of supply chain infrastructure, more solid standards, and products such as Reva Systems’s Tag Acquisition Processor have made it easier to manipulate RFID data directly into inventory, supply chain, and manufacturing systems. And with Wal Mart and the US Department of Defense making RFID information exchange mandatory for their suppliers, tens of thousands of vendors are implementing these solutions.

“Wal-Mart galvanized the RFID entrepreneur and offered the potential of a market. They created a nucleus of change, forcing RFID products to come to life,” says Harold Clampitt, CEO of American RFID Solutions and a top RFID VAR.

But more importantly than America’s largest retailer is what is happening in ordinary enterprises. “RFID computerizes the “edges” of the enterprise. Essentially, what ERP did to the enterprise, RFID will do to the supply chain. It’s all about centralization, visibility and automation,” says Marlo Brooke, senior partner at Avatar Partners, an Irvine, CA-based systems integrator.

Trend 4: Software as a Service
Leading vendors: Google, Amazon, and millions more you have never heard of
Old style thinking: Build your apps one at a time
Disrupted IT: Multiple pieces that can mix and match, all happening inside the browser
Tech tip: Learn to layer your apps delivery, just like the OSI model.

We all know the seven-layer OSI protocol model that separates the network and physical layers from the higher-level ones dealing with applications. And now there is a very practical implementation that has major consequences for how IT organizations deploy their applications. Call it the Web 2.0 mashed up version of Office, Software as a Service, or Service-Oriented architectures, it all amounts to the same thing, becoming more flexible and nimble, and saving a boat load of dough in not having to write code from the ground up for each application. (see sidebar)

By using these tools, says Rod Boothby, a management consultant in San Francisco, “We are on the verge of experiencing a jump in the capabilities of office tools that is just as significant as the jump that occurred when the first PCs landed on people’s desks.”

If you think this is a lot more work than the old fashioned methods, think again. Doug Neal is a research fellow with the Computer Sciences Corporation Leading-Edge Forum Executive Program. “We finally have a layered series of services that can meet the changing biz requirements. You can pick the right layers to match your needs. The business model for selling these services creates relentless pressure on the vendors to improve, today —
not next month or next year. With SaaS, we’ve seen this movie before with the invention of the PC. Now we finally we have a software development model that can meet our agility requirements.”

Trend 5: Endpoint security
Leading vendors: Cisco, Lockdown Networks, Consentry
Old style thinking: Security point solutions from multiple vendors
Disrupted IT: Thinking broader strokes and really protecting roaming laptops from infecting your networks
Tech tip: Get behind either Cisco or Microsoft’s plan if you can.

Our last trend is a real challenge, delivering a consolidated endpoint security across the enterprise. You buy single-purpose products that do one or two things well, such as anti-virus, firewalls, intrusion prevention, policy enforcement, authentication systems and the like. Trouble is, there is no single product that delivers a complete solution, and meanwhile roaming laptops are coming into your network and spreading infections daily. There are three major architectural efforts underway to define some sort of standards in endpoint security, and picking the right players will consume a good part of your IT budget and time. Cisco and Microsoft have their own takes, and an open standards group is behind door number three. Before you get behind any approach, understand the differences and which vendors implement which pieces of the endpoint puzzle.

“We wanted an effective way to manage security but not be so limiting to restrict how doctors and nurses needed to do their jobs,” says Mark McGill, a network engineer at
Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, NY. The hospital found technology from SecureWave to meet their needs.

“We deployed our desktop imaging technology as a “PC, heal thyself” concept,” said Brooks Health’s Green. “We were skeptical at first, but it works well. The user can reboot and automatically repair their PCs without calling our helpdesk, and we have managed to avoid having IT physically onsite with the hospital users in the evening and on weekends because we have identified and prevented many of the typical configuration issues.”

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