Is it time for flash?

What is flash?  Flash memory is solid-state computer storage. 


USB Flash Drive

Most of us are use to the USB flash disk drives that quickly replaced the floppy disk drive many years ago.  Today, the price is often less than $1 per GB.

RAM memory was originally used in main computer memory, and many of us always compare number of GBs of main memory, number of CPUs and the clock speed, and number of GB (or TB) of hard disk storage when evaluating computer performance.   Solid state memory, by far the better performer, was expensive and therefore was, in the past, relegated to small, high-performance memory on a computer while the low-cost, much slower memory was on spinning magnetized disks.  I remember in the mid 1990s when 4MB of RAM was $400 and disk storage was $.25 per MB.

For the past few years we have seen little progress in increasing the clock speed of CPUs and to improve performance we add CPUs to a machine (dual, quad and 8-core CPUs are the norm today).  The bottleneck or slow point on most computers today is in the Input/Output when accessing data.  So the next leap in computer performance will be in accessing data.  Today, solid state memory is the next leap in overall computer performance.

Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

Without the slowness created by moving parts - such as hard disk drives (HDDs) which use a spinning platter to store data - solid-state drives (SSD), using solid-state memory chips deliver much better performance.  SSDs can read and write data much faster than hard drives with most workloads and they access the data much more quickly as well. Furthermore, solid state drives, with no moving parts are much less susceptible to handling damage even when impacted during use thereby making them much more reliable.

Solid State Disk (SSD)

Flash is starting to grow up (and by that, I mean it has become affordable).  It is now a realistic replacement for hard spinning drives.  SSD is still more expensive (ten to twenty times more than HDDs) but compared to the overall cost of a computer and with its higher performance, it is becoming more popular.  All the major players offer low capacity (256GB SSD) for personal computers.  Apple on one laptop model, the Mac Air, only offers SSDs.

Other major vendors (IBM, Dell, HP) are getting into SSD for servers.  IBM is pushing to get into the data centre by offering high performing SSD with 24TB capacity.  Flash drives use much less power than HDDs.  For some applications that use a lot of random data accesses, performance can be from 10 to 60 times better.  IT administrators will need to take the price performance of SSD into consideration in the data centre and to do this they need to compare cost per workload instead of cost per GB.

Has the tipping point arrived for SSD?

Canada misses the top 10 in 2013 Global Innovation Index

It is no surprise to me that Canada didn't make the top 10 in the Global Innovation Index 2013 Report.  Years ago Canada was in sixth position. 

In so many organizations, I have witnessed a dearth of innovation utilizing IT.  Many businesses treat IT as a cost centre, with an attitude of cut, cut, cut. They don't look at IT as an innovator to propel the business forward. 

It all starts at the top.  Boards, more likely than not, pay no attention to IT.  If it does get on the board's agenda, it is likely once a year when the CapEx and OpEx budgets get approved.  But even then there is no discussion on getting value from IT.

Senior management often ignore IT as well.  They feel their CIO or senior IT manager has a handle on things.  Most senior executives cannot explain IT governance or IT strategy in their organizations.  They don't know if their investments in information technology are creating value or not.  Most organizations don't know how to utilize effective processes or governance to take advantage of IT.  To cap it off, many organizations don't even have IT at the Executive Committee table.

Although placing only 11th on the overall Global Innovation Index, Canada only managed 22nd place on Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) use.  The U.S. was no better, coming in at 23rd in ICT - it's a North American weakness.

With the lack of attention to IT at the top, it is no wonder that Canada is out of the the top 10 in innovation.

Eight characteristics of a successful IT project

How often have we seen in the media that 60% to 70% of IT projects fail?  What can we do to make them successful?

You'll have greater success with your IT projects if they exhibit these characteristics:

• a clear committed sponsor - a project sponsor has to be fully engaged in the project, be available throughout, make timely decisions, approve changes to scope, timetable or resources, and mobilize resources when required.
• a clear business case - a presentation on the reasons for a project including the strategic fit, an analysis of alternatives, a cost-benefit analysis, identify risks, and a justification of the proposed solution.
• a well-constructed project charter - this includes such items as the project purpose and description, goals, project scope, deliverables, schedule, milestones, budget estimate, change management process, team roles, success metrics, and more.
• a communications plan  - all successful projects have a clear communications plan.  Identify who needs to be notified of what and when.
• a change control process - all projects experience hiccups and you need to manage these unexpected changes in a clear, expeditious fashion with sign-off by the project sponsor. 
• project summaries - regular communications to all stakeholders on the project status.
• issues log - a detailed, managed list of all issues arising during the project and how they get solved.
• an effective post-implementation follow-up including lessons learned - after the project is completed, follow-up is required to ensure the project's stated objectives were met.  Be sure to document what was learned from this project so you can apply these lessons to future projects.

Furthermore, many organizations have implemented a Project Management Office (PMO) - a centralized office for keeping projects within scope, schedule and budget, that also ensures integration of business goals through the creation and enforcement of project management and IT governance policies and procedures. The PMO should help in achieving successful projects.

Question: in your organization does the Project Management Office just monitor IT-related projects or does it oversee all projects including business-related projects?

The IT Chauffeur drives to CIO Canada

In the June issue of Canadian CIO, editor Shane Schick interviews me about The IT Chauffeur.  I enjoyed having a chance to talk about what inspired me to write the book: the disconnect between CxOs and IT.

Here's the interview in the June issue of Canadian CIO: IT strategy, he wrote

Canadian CIO June 2013

What do you think the CEO should know about IT?

Have you ever wondered why there is a disconnect between IT and business in many organizations? Does it start at the top?  

Regardless of your position in any organization, can you explain how IT decisions get made?

Some business articles allude to a poor relationship between IT and other departments being a function of poor management.  Would this gap disappear if the C-suite had a better understanding of Information Technology?

What do you think the CEO or anyone at the C-suite should know about IT?  Here are my top items: 

• Clear understanding of how IT decisions should get made
• IT Governance
• How to integrate business and IT
• How to use the business case in IT and other divisions
• How project management methodologies for all divisions can make an organization more effective
• How data integrity is critical to the operation of the organization
• How to make the IT department's services efficient
• How to protect the organization from natural and man-made disasters 
• Why it's important to protect data
• Fundamental understanding of the cloud
• Basic understanding of big data and business intelligence
• Know that IT can be socially conscientious with green IT, and finally,
• How to undertake the development of an IT strategy

Recognizing that CxOs often don't understand IT as a starting point, I wanted to explore what the CxO should know about IT using a non-technical, easy-to-understand, conversational story. So have a read of the book The IT Chauffeur (Available at Amazon.com or at CreateSpace).

Ontario can't recover emails deleted by senior staff - Really?

In an article in this week's Globe and Mail, Ontario's Privacy Commissioner, Ann Cavoukian, reported that senior staff members in the offices of both the Ontario energy minister and former premier Dalton McGuinty intentionally deleted emails about the cancellation of gas generating plants in Oakville and Mississauga. The Privacy Commissioner's report throws more gasoline on the fire of the political fallout from the gas generating plant cancellations.

The opposition, and for that matter many taxpayers, are up in arms over the deletion (read "cover-up") of senior staff emails regarding the cancellation of the gas generating plants.  Ann Cavoukian determined that senior Liberal staff in McGuinty's office broke the law by deleting all emails sent and received on this issue.

What concerns me more than the alleged cover-up is the idea that no one can recover the emails.  What happened to good old basic IT practices?  Most organizations that have email perform regular backups daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and then send the back-up off site for secure storage.  

Can no-one at the Government of Ontario request recovery of emails from a backup?  Any organization that has an important need for transparency and security must go beyond basic data backup for emails. These organizations have email archival systems.  Email archival captures and stores email separately from the normal day-to-day email.  This ensures that the organization's email is always available: users can't delete archived emails. It is always there, searchable for e-discovery purposes.

Is IT governance absent from the Ontario government? What about all their other mission critical systems?

If the Ontario Government can't recover the deleted email of its senior staff, I think Ontario has bigger problems than its gas plant cancellations or even its burgeoning debt!

Press Release - The IT Chauffeur

The IT Chauffeur

By: Dale Mills

“The IT Chauffeur is a must-read for any CEO seeking a better understanding of the role and power of IT as an operational and strategic enabler in their business enterprise.  Dale Mills’ approach delivers.”

Meg Beckel, CEO, Canadian Museum of Nature

“The IT Chauffeur is a roadmap that steers senior business leaders through the complex and always changing landscape of information management, governance and decision making.  The entertaining approach helps anyone at the C-level deal with complex issues of governance and management that can otherwise be quite dry.  This book is a valuable resource for the C-suite, exploring topical issues ranging from IT project management, governance and security to social media and crowdsourcing. Well written, entertaining and comprehensive.”

Patrick McCarthy, President & Chief Executive Officer, OMNI Health Care Ltd.

What The CxO Needs To Know About Information Technology

Joe, a former CIO, is helping out his neighbour who runs a limousine service by chauffeuring Bill, CEO of Resolute Enterprises, a medium-sized company that has been experiencing difficulties with its IT.  During their regular limousine trips, Bill and Joe discuss the problems and potential ways to improve the use of IT in his company.  Many topics arise in their discussions, from IT governance to mobile technologies, all explained in a non-technical, conversational mode, giving readers, regardless of their technical ability, a solid understanding of how to use technology more effectively in their organization. Through an easy, readable dialogue the reader is engaged in learning basic technology management principles.

What Drives Your IT?

The IT Chauffeur will help CEOs, C-suite, board members, vice presidents, directors and managers get value from their IT investments.  The story focuses on a medium-sized company, but the discussion is relevant to executives in organizations of any size.

Dale Mills has been in the IT business since he was a high school student — from punch cards to the cloud and everything in between. For nearly 30 years, he’s been a senior level IT executive in both the public and private sectors, using his training — as a Professional Engineer, Master of Business Administration, certified Project Management Professional, and certified ICD.D from the Institute of Corporate Directors — to manage, guide and innovate.

The IT Chauffeur

By: Dale Mills

ISBN: 9781482508673

Price: $25.00

On Sale: May 27, 2013

For further information, please contact Dale S. Mills | 519-827-6393 | dalesmills@gmail.com

Available at Amazon or at CreateSpace