Newsletter Information Technology Department v2.0 - dbit moodle ...

7 ways cloud computing could be even
greener....
Summary: Pretty much everyone agrees that the
cloud brings substantial energy-efficiency benefits, but
Forrester Research offers 7 suggestions for how to make
your cloud computing agenda even greener.
Forrester Research is the latest organization to explore
the link between cloud computing and green IT.
Like others, it believes that the cloud approach can
be inherently more energy-efficient than other IT
infrastructure approaches. But it says that infrastructure
and facilities professionals should take a stronger
stand on the choices they make for private cloud
infrastructure strategies, or cloud infrastructure that will
serve a limited set of hand-chosen constituents versus
the public at large.
The research firm’s suggestions are outlined in a report
released at the end of June, “Cloud Computing helps
Accelerate Green IT.” Forrester notes that by its nature,
cloud computing is more efficient. But here are seven
ways that an IT professional can make his or her cloud
computing even greener — regardless of whether or not
the approach is public or private:
1. Make sure the data center is using
power generated by renewable energy
sources or that it uses “free cooling” methods.
As an example, Forrester cites the Microsoft data
center in Quincy, Wash, which uses hydroelectricity.
As you pick your cloud provider, ask the question:
Does the data center is uses take advantage of solar,
wind or other sources. Can it rely on free air cooling
at least part of the year?
2. Look for modular data center approaches.
That means the cloud service provider — or your
own organization, if we’re talking private cloud —
is using an “as you go” approach to designing and
building out the facility. Infrastructure should be
brought on and provisioned as necessary, in order to
keep utilization rates high. Forrester also suggests
looking for a provider that has invested in a green
certification, such as the Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) designation that was
developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.
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3. Get yourself more energy-efficient power and
cooling systems.
There has been a lot written about the need to make
computer hardware more energy-efficient. Now, it’s
time to extend that mentality to uninterruptible power
supplies, power distribution units, air-side economizers
and the like.
4. Think converged.
Forrester suggest that blade architectures that converge
server, storage and network architectures into a single
rack aren’t just easier to manage, they are far more
energy-efficient.
5. Virtualize and automate.
Sure, pretty much every company has done SOME
virtualization work. But how much is green enough?
Forrester suggests that 76 percent to 100 percent of a
company’s total server footprint should be virtualized
in order to deliver significant green IT benefits.
6. Measure and manage.
Energy information should be coupled with management
automation that consumption can be optimized. So,
for example, certain energy-intense workloads could
be moved (if appropriate) from daytime to night in
order to take advantage of better prices per kilowatt
hour. Likewise, an organization could affect its carbon
footprint position, but centering the most intense It
workloads in data centers that are more energy-efficient.
7. Set goals and strive for them.
You can’t really improve your green IT strategy unless
you have one. And you can’t make it better, unless
you focus on specific goals. There are three primary
areas in which a green IT strategy can be “greener”:
procurement (as in, buying the most energy-efficient
technologies), operations (taking advantage of software
and automation tools to provide the best experience) and
end-of-life (which means ensuring that technologies are
disposed of properly according to emerging electronicwaste
policy standards).
Bug allows Mac
OS X Lion clients
to use any LDAP
password
Summary: If you have Mac OS X ‘Lion’ clients and use
LDAP authentication, you need to read this.
Reports are circulating that Apple’s latest incarnation of
Mac OS X - 10.7 ‘Lion’ - contains a serious LDAP network
authentication bug.
The bug is a simple one, but
at the same time a serious
one - users logging in to
Macs running OS X 10.7 can
access restricted network
resources using any
password at all when LDAP
is used for authentication
(for example Apple’s Open
Directory or OpenLDAP).
At the moment it’s not clear what the problem is because
Apple doesn’t own up to bugs until it has a patch for
them but there’s a fair bit of discussion about the problem
on variousforums. Some users claim that they can log into
the network using any username and password while others
claim to be completely locked out when using the correct
username and password. Others are seeing a problem
where they need the correct password initially but then
other resources that require LDAP authentication are given
automatic credentials.
Bottom line, if you use LDAP for authentication, and you
have clients using 10.7 ‘Lion’ then this is a pretty big deal.
If that doesn’t describe your setup then you don’t need to
worry about this.
Despite the problem first being reported on July 25, five
days after Lion was released, Apple as yet to offer users
a fix. This issue was not addressed in Apple’s 10.7.1
update for Lion.
FACT FILE
Why 37 percent of projects fail!
Five top causes of troubled projects:
1. Requirements: Unclear, lack of agreement,
lack of priority, contradictory, ambiguous,
imprecise.
2. Resources: Lack of resources, resource
conflicts, turnover of key resources, poor
planning.
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3. Schedules: Too tight, unrealistic, overly
optimistic.
4. Planning: Based on insufficient data,
missing items, insufficient details, poor
estimates.
5. Risks: Unidentified or assumed, not
managed.
FACT FILE (CONTD..)
According to the survey, the most common obstacles
that interfere with recovering failed projects are:
• Getting stakeholders to accept the changes
needed to bring the projects back on trackwhether
they are changes in scope, budget,
resources, etc.
• Poor communication and stakeholder
engagement; lack of clarity and trust.
• Conflicting priorities and politics.
• Finding enough qualified resources needed to
complete the projects.
• Lack of a process or methodology to help bring
the project back on track.
Don Bosco Institute Of Technology- 19