Database management is crucial for organizations

In the simplest sense, as the term suggests, database management is the management of data. Of course, it is implied that database management became a major discipline mainly because of the humungous amount of data that need to be managed. Organizations typically have not just huge amounts of data; their data is diffuse and complex, too. This is why database management has evolved into a full field.

Database management can be considered “…the monitoring, administration, and maintenance of the databases and database groups in (an) enterprise”. From this, and given the nature of the huge volumes of databases that organizations typically handle; it is clear that a database management system: a) manages very large volumes of data; b) efficiently supports access to this huge amount of data; c) supports multiple sets of data without causing mayhem by understanding their relationship with each other.

Important elements of database management

Database management is of critical importance to organizations, since sensitive data are stored in the databases. There are two aspects that database management needs looking into: a) monitoring these databases; b) assessing the strength and performance of the databases. A brief looksee into each of these:

Monitoring: A database monitoring system has to be comprehensive, because it has to monitor the entire data across the organization. The aim of having a monitoring system is that it helps the organization identify the problems in its database environment that is hindering its performance. Most database management systems use data from the Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) for displaying performance information and starting database alerts.

Assessing the performance: The key to assessing the performance of database management systems is to first monitor, from where assessment takes off. A comprehensive diagnosis, which is what monitoring does, is the basis for assessment. Database management systems usually allow users to access the Automatic Database Diagnostic Monitor (ADDM), which allows the AWR to give snapshots of database activity for a set period. This is used to provide recommendations for better usage.

References:

http://www.eitaglobal.com/control/w_product/~product_id=300075REC

http://infolab.stanford.edu/~ullman/fcdb/slides/slides1.pdf

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B19306_01/em.102/b31949/database_management.htm

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/database_management_system_DBMS.html

Understanding product line architectures

A product line architecture (PLA) can be defined as a set or family or group of elements that coordinate with each other to provide a defined product functionality. It defines not only element types, but also how they interact, in addition to how these are mapped to the product functionality.

Additionally, product line architecture could also define a few instances of the architectural elements. We could use this term to refer to a set of products within an organization.

How do we define PLA?

We can think of product line architecture (PLA) as being a draft for creating groups or families of related applications. Product line architecture proceeds on the premise that it is wiser for organizations to produce sets or groups of intimately related products than to build individual products.

Why should organizations need to go for PLA?

Product line architectures are important for a very critical reason: software keeps becoming obsolete and complex at a breakneck speed. This calls for very strong effort in keeping the costs of software development and maintenance down. With product line architecture, an organization can make good the effort it puts into software design and development, which it can implement across a variety of products, leading to major reduction in costs.

It is for this simple, commonsensical reason that creating multiple products is more prudent and cost and time saving than individual ones. This principle has some correlation to economies of scale: just as how it makes greater sense to build a mold that manufactures more products than have one mold for each; PLA too creates standards or frameworks on which smaller and more diverse products can be built with lesser effort and time.

Since about four decades, the benefits of having multiple software families are being experienced by organizations.

References:

http://www.upedu.org/process/glossary.htm#P

http://www.cs.utexas.edu/ftp/predator/stja.pdf

What is computer architecture?

Computer architecture can be thought of as a protocol by which the various technologies that go into a computer are designed to interact with each other. It can be described as a specification which details the way in which all the software and hardware technology standards in a computer interact in forming a computer system or platform. To make a simpler understanding, it can be referred to the way a computer system is designed, as well as the technologies it can work with.

Why “architecture”?

Why do we have the word “architecture” in this terminology? It is used to denote the method by which the needs and requirements of the all the elements related to computers, such as the user, system, or technology work with each other. Architecture relates to the standards and designs that are based on those needs and requirements.

Computer architecture can be said to have originated with Von Neumann. The Von Neumann architecture, dating to the end of World War II, is still valid and is used by almost all kinds of computers to this day. A creation of the mathematician John Von Neumann; it explains the core design of an electronic computer and its parts, and the way they interact with each other: the CPU being the heart of the system, in which is included the main functions of the computer.

The three categories of computer architecture

Computer architecture consists of three categories:

System Design: System design has in it all the hardware components of the system. These include the CPU, memory controllers, the graphics processing unit, data paths and other items such as virtualization and multiprocessing apart of course, from the data processors.

Instruction Set Architecture (ISA): The ISA is the embedded programming language that goes into the CPU. The ISA gives a clear definition of the CPU's capabilities and functions, which are based on the programming it is capable of performing or processing. The important elements of ISA are the processor register types, memory addressing modes, data formats, word size, and the instruction set used by programmers.

Microarchitecture: This is another word for computer organization. Data processing, data paths and storage elements, in addition to how they have to be implemented in the ISA are defined by this type of architecture.

Reference:

http://www.eitaglobal.com/control/w_product/~product_id=300140REC
http://www.eitaglobal.com/control/w_product/~product_id=300142LIVE
http://www.techopedia.com/definition/26757/computer-architecture

Virtual Seminar on ECM Integration with Microsoft PowerShell By EITAGlobal

Instructor :  Dave Kinchlea

Product Id :  300108

Overview: ECM suites often provide the ability to direct address and solve many business problems directly, however there are many more problems that cannot be directly solved by an ECM suite and, instead, require some 3rd party solution. 

When native or reasonably inexpensive integrations between these solutions and the ECM repositories where the content should reside do not exist, then there are only a few options available:

• Do nothing and leave the content unmanaged, unknown, and at risk.
• Create bespoke integration solutions writing whatever modules, functions or code is required to accomplish the required integration. This option is almost always the most expensive, usually exceeding any existing 3rd party solution. It means long-term development, support, maintenance, and training. While this approach can lead to a superior solution, it is one that will almost always take longer than expected and be over budget.
• Work locally and force the users to change the way they work, manually storing and retrieving the content from the ECM system using other tools like, for instance, WebDav or Windows Explorer. For some problems, this is the ideal solution when there are only a few users requiring the integration. However there is on-going training required to assure the integration over the long-term and there is a real risk that the ECM system may not get used 100% of the time.
• Work locally and use scheduled tasks to synchronize content between local storage and ECM solutions. This loose integration approach requires almost zero training, limited development and long-term support and is easily maintained over time. The difficulty is in creating the synchronization solution; it too can often turn into a full-blown be-spoke application.

Areas Covered in the Session:

• Problem space - a discussion as to where CLI and scripting fit within an enterprise
• Powershell description - a look into relevant portions of powershell
• ECM Integration - the meaning of; the choices available along with the tradeoffs associated with each type of integration
• MS Integration - the meaning of; some examples of
• File System Archiving / Synchronization example Integration Solution
• Workflow Word Robot example Integration Solution
• ECM content migration (ETL) example Integration Solution - SharePoint to Content Server
• Automation / Task scheduling
• Powershell / ECM Error Handling, Pitfalls and Gotchas

Who Will Benefit:

• Enterprise Solution Architects
• Application Integrators
• System Administrators of all levels
• Application & desktop support (site administrators)

Speaker Profile: Dave Kinchlea

 is a 25 year veteran in managing the growing content problem. He holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Western Ontario where he also worked in the core Information Technology administrative department. Being part of the team that brought the Internet to Canada, Dave has had an interest in content management for longer than the discipline has existed. Dave spent nearly 12 years, from 1998 through to 2009, working with Open Text Corporation defining and building out Enterprise Content Management tools and expertise. He is recognized around the world for his technological expertise in respects to ECM deployments having designed and helped organizations maintain some of the largest and most complex ECM systems in existence. 

Internal or External? Cloud Service Brokerage Fundamentals - Virtual seminar By Kevin L Jackson

Instructor : Kevin L Jackson

Overview: Across all industry verticals, cloud computing has become a strategic imperative for IT organizations by redefining the standards for cost effectiveness, scalability and speed to market. As cloud computing becomes mainstream, these organizations are now struggling with the task of managing multiple cloud services providers. This task, referred to as Cloud Service Brokerage (CSB), manages the consumption and maintenance of cloud services and deployments that span multiple Cloud Services Providers (CSPs). To keep up with the explosive growth of cloud services, IT departments now need to either build cloud service brokerage expertise in-house (Internal CSB) or partner with an external brokerage service provider (External CSB).

According to the National Institute of Standards a cloud service broker "provides a cloud-user a unified and enhanced management interface to multiple cloud-providers." The institute also identifies the essential features of a CSB as a unified interface, federated cloud-subscriber credentials for multiple cloud-providers, and federated access to multiple cloud-provider programming interfaces. A CSB can make cloud services more valuable because they work closely with cloud providers to get price breaks or access to more information about how a service works. In addition, they have more experience working with multiple providers and across many consumer scenarios. Instead of spending time and money to address these problems internally, consumers can leverage solutions offered by CSBs that allow organizations to focus on other pressing business needs instead. A viable CSB provider can make it less expensive, easier, safer and more productive for companies to navigate, integrate, consume and extend cloud services, particularly when they span multiple, diverse cloud services providers.

The State of Texas Department of Information Resources has used a CSB for over four years. Among the lessons learned, this multi-year project showed that the use of a cloud broker can:

• Help organizations screen their applications for cloud feasibility and prioritizing cloud migrations accordingly;
• Address the challenges of cloud model comparisons due to the variables in product offerings, including the business models, service levels, and package inclusions;
• Translate capacity requirements into provider line items, thus allowing for accurate estimation of cloud cost;
• Provide a cloud service order review or approval workflow facility, a function not normally provided by cloud service providers; and
• Provide a means to regulate payment across the different organizational entities.

Why should you attend: In a cloud computing world, IT is locked into a real-time operational linkage to the delivery of products and services. Operational requirements now include:

• Tracking and management of shadow IT activities
• Reducing cloud and cloud service sprawl
• Coordination of multiple cloud management tools
• Extension of IT governance to multiple external cloud service providers
• Rapid acceleration and distribution of application development and deployment activities
• Integration of cloud services with existing management processes

Be it internally or externally based, the lack of a cloud service brokerage strategy will exacerbate all of these functions leading to revenue loss or mission failure.

A defined CSB can make cloud services more valuable because it helps the organization work well with cloud providers in order to get price breaks or access to more information about how a service works. In addition, they gain experience working with multiple providers and across many consumer scenarios. Instead of spending time and money to repeating mistakes, organizations can leverage the skills and expertise of their CSB. Internally or externally based, a viable CSB can make it less expensive, easier, safer and more productive for companies to navigate, integrate, consume and extend cloud services, particularly when they span multiple, diverse cloud services providers.

Areas Covered in the Session:

• Improving cloud service efficiency
• Tracking and management of shadow IT activities
• Reducing cloud and cloud service sprawl
• Coordination of multiple cloud management tools
• Extension of IT governance to multiple external cloud service providers
• Rapid acceleration and distribution of application development and deployment activities
• Integration of cloud services with existing management processes
• Avoiding consistent budget overruns
• Establishing a secure self-service IT model
• Create a unified cost model across all computing sources
• Incorporate cloud services into capacity planning models

Who Will Benefit:

• CEO
• CIO
• CFO
• CTO
• Chief Innovation Officer
• Head of Research & Development

Kevin L. Jackson is a senior information technologist specializing in solutions that meet critical commercial and government operational requirements. Currently working as an independent consultant, prior positions include VP & General Manager Cloud Services NJVC, VP Federal Systems at Sirius Computer Solutions, Worldwide Sales Executive at IBM, Vice President Global IT Project Office at JP Morgan Chase, and CTO at SENTEL Corporation. Through his “Cloud Musings” blog, Mr. Jackson has been recognized as one of Cloud Computing Journal “World’s 30 Most Influential Cloud Bloggers” (2009, 2010), a Huffington Post Top 100 Cloud Computing Experts on Twitter (2013) and the author of a FedTech Magazine “Must Read Federal IT Blog” (2012, 2013). In 2012, he was also named a “Cyber Security Visionary” by U.S. Black Engineer and Information Technology magazine.

Kevin is also the founder and editor of Government Cloud Computing on Ulitzer electronic magazine. His first book, GovCloud: Cloud Computing for the Business of Government was published by Government Training Inc. and released in March 2011. His second book, released in 2012 by the same publisher, is titled “GovCloud II: Implementation and Cloud Brokerage Services”. He is also a co-author of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance whitepaper “Cloud Computing: Risks, Benefits, and Mission Enhancement for the Intelligence Community”. Kevin L. Jackson has been deeply involved in the broad collaborative effort between industry and the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology on the federal government’s adoption of cloud computing technologies. He is the Rapid Deployment Executive for the Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium and also serves and the consortium’s Cloud Computing Working Group Chairman. His formal education includes a Master of Science, Electrical Engineering (Computer Engineering); a Master of Arts degree in National Security & Strategic Studies; and a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering. Mr. Jackson is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Applied Information Technology at the George Mason University Volgenau School of Engineering.

Getting Your Business Started with Open Source - Webinar By EITAGlobal

Overview: This session will serve as a primer for individuals and organizations interested in open source software, and its ability to meet their business needs. Attendees will gain a better understanding of what open source software is, how it is developed, its characteristics that may be beneficial to their organization, and considerations for successful adoption. 

Non-technical managers will enhance their ability to work with and support their technical staff in planning and implementation. This session is delivered in non-technical language with an emphasis on helping you determine the business case for your organization. The session will also provide a basic framework for planning. Materials include resources for further investigation.

Why should you attend: If your organization isn't levering open source software to improve its operational efficiencies and maximize its investments in technology, you need to ask yourself why. Open source is enterprise ready and likely already used by your peers and competitors alike. But where do you start, or how do you build on what open source you may already have deployed? What are the pitfalls? Where are the easy wins? Getting Your Business Started with Open Source is a practical primer that will send you back to your organization ready to develop your own approach to adopting or improving your open source capabilities

Areas Covered in the Session:

• Open source software defined
• Why businesses are turning to open source
• Open source licenses in a nutshell
• How open source software is developed
• Open source business models in a nutshell
• Where support comes from when the software is free
• Participating in open source communities
• Where to start (if you haven't already)
• How to evaluate a solution for your organization
• Organizational readiness and staff skill set
• Example Open Source alternatives for a range of enterprise needs

Who Will Benefit:

• CIOs
• IT directors and managers
• Operations Managers
• Business Managers
• Contract and Acquisition Managers
• Business Analysts with a responsibility for recommending technology solutions
• Technical Writers with a desire to add to their general knowledge base

Speaker Profile:Deborah Bryant

 is a seasoned technology business professional with a special focus on open source software and the ecosystem that supports it. Her background includes senior management experience in the high-tech sector; program management at a leading university open source lab; senior management in state government with oversight responsibilities for design and implementation of the state’s first eGovernment program. In addition to P&L responsibilities for an internet subsidiary of a publicly traded company, she has served as a universal translator and shuttle diplomat for executive management and investors, engineering staff and product development, policy makers and program directors. 

Click here to know more about : Getting Your Business Started with Open Source

Live webinar on IT Policy Development: Why You Need Them and How to Write Them By Alan Baldwin

Overview: Regardless of the size of your IT operation from a staff of thousands to just a few members, having good, well-written policies can make an IT leader’s job easier. All too often policies are written because they are required and a valuable tool in solid IT management is overlooked and underutilized. Many IT leaders fail to recognize the potential value or ROI from the resources and effort required to implement good policy. The down side of not having policy creates a struggle to get agreement or even acknowledgement of the processes IT leaders try to enact in order to realize some modicum of control. Good enterprise leadership should understand the need for acceptance and compliance from the user base if they are to provide dependable IT services and security with a predictable budget. 

Many times the policy process is over complicated with layers of unneeded procedures and poorly designed processes. IT policies should be targeted at the entire user base and written clearly enough for all to understand. Learn how to simplify the process and the language in order to reach the maximum number of users. This webinar will take you through the ABC’s of good policy structure and best practices that provide for a maintainable set of policies. We will also share outlines and ideas for wrapping up policies in a logical and meaningful package. We will review rationale behind the justifications as well as how policies can give stability to your budget. A good policy also has to have buy in and acceptance from stakeholders. IT support is a service and without clearly communicated expectations for both user and IT there is bound to be confusion and operational inefficiencies. You will learn why revamping or creating a viable change management process is essential for effective policies and how IT oversight can be more of a blessing than a curse. We will discuss the key techniques for gaining approval and acceptance. Learn how to clearly define the problem area or risk and how policies can solve or mitigate it.

A point of discussion will be why creating and maintaining service levels along with an effective issue resolution process can strengthen user buy in. Learn the importance of maintaining good system documentation and why you should have a policy saying so. Once the users discover your IT operations not only follow the policies but live up to posted response times, your IT support burden will become much more predictable. One of the most overlooked areas of good policy is the importance of Marketing your IT Policies and making the user population aware. Coupled with a good security awareness program, regular communications with something as simple as a newsletter can improve your relationship with the users and gain good will. By understanding some basic marketing and informative writing techniques, the users will become much more invested and engaged with the process.

Finally we will discuss how to modularize policy components for reuse in new or revamped policies as well as the importance of a regular review and update of your policies The webinar is not geared for a single approach and will incorporate multiple scenario based discussion that will help revise existing or create new IT policies. The webinar will run for 90 minutes +/- with a Q&A session to follow. Please join us for an informative and webinar that can improve any IT operation regardless of size.

Why should you attend: Policies are an absolute critical component for IT operations and support. Without them you have no baseline to measure your productivity and effectiveness; no way to enforce user compliance; no way to ensure information security. This webinar is much more than your typical ‘how to write policy’ workshop. In this webinar you will learn how to make Policy your friend and ally. Not only will you learn how to write effective and understandable policies but why you should write them and how to convince leadership of their absolute necessity. A well written and thoughtful policy can not only ease your IT support pains, but add some budget stability and some real cost savings.

Whether you are starting from scratch or would like to revise and improve your policies, this webinar will help you understand the important elements and structure of good, effective IT Policies.

Areas Covered in the Session:

• Policy Fact & Fiction - misconceptions, myths and truths
• Policy Types and uses
• Justification - Identify, define and sell the need
• Change Management and IT oversights - Key Components
• The trade off - Service Levels and following your own policies - Insurance for Compliance
• Basic Policy Structure
  • Purpose
  • Scope
  • Policy
  • Procedures
  • Enforcement
  • Documents
  • References
• IT Policy elements
  • Charter - Organization and Responsibility
  • Management & Administration
  • Risk Management
  • IT Support/Computer Center operations
  • Access Controls and Authorizations
  • Workforce Compliance and Acceptable Use
  • Physical Security and Inventory
  • Budget
• Writing the Policies
• Getting the Policy approved
• Policy Awareness, Communications and Marketing
• Documentation
• Wrappers
• Modules and reuse
• Revisions and policy maintenance

Who Will Benefit:

• CIO, CFO, CISO
• IT Director/Manager
• ITSM team leaders
• HR or other persons involved in policy development

Speaker Profile: Alan Baldwin

 is an independent consultant with over 30 years of technology experience in mission critical technology engineering and support. He holds a CISSP and PMP certifications with extensive experience in telecommunications, security and network infrastructure. He has developed, written and implemented IT operational and security policies for numerous clients. Alan has over 10 years of training and teaching experience in the higher education field. He has worked as an IT and Technical Director as well as providing management consulting to companies for looking to implement operational and security policies.

Click here to know more about IT Policy Development: Why You Need Them and How to Write Them

Improving Your IT Service Delivery Results - What do organizations do When Successful - Webinar By EITAGlobal

Overview: When IT service groups deliver excellent results there are common fundamental practices that are followed. It doesn't matter whether frameworks such as CMMI, ITIL or ISO are used or not. What matters is how to speed up your progress and results by learning from others. With examples based on our experience since 1989, this webinar shows how to define goals that directly address the needs of your organization, use improvement frameworks (e.g., CMMI for Services, ISO and ITIL) appropriately, and devise a pragmatic action plan. 

The webinar covers: 

• Developing a Plan
  • Setting compelling goals for your improvement program
  • Directing all improvement towards achieving business goals and solving the organization's problems
  • Developing an action plan based on the defined goals and problems
  • Using an improvement model or standard to address the goals and problems
  • Deriving metrics for the goals
  • Identifying potential future problems (risks) with the action plan and mitigating the highest priority risks
• Implementing the Plan
  • Applying selling strategies to deploy new practices
  • Increasing the speed of deployment by working with the willing and the needy first
  • Reducing the risk of failure by building and deploying solutions in increments
  • Delaying policy document creation and edicts until each solution has been practiced and is well tested
• Checking Progress
  • Using metrics to track progress based on defined goals
  • Determining corrective actions needed to get the improvement program back on track
  • Clarifying lessons learned and actions needed to make future executions of the improvement cycle more effective

Areas Covered in the Session:

• Defining goals that directly address the needs of your organization
• Practices that are fundamental and common in successful organizations
• Using improvement models (e.g., CMMI, ITIL, ISO) to address goals and challenges - making a direct mapping and learning from others
• Creating a pragmatic action plan
• Defining processes as small useful checklists, and using the practices for problem solving and maintaining organizational gains
• Deploying organizational change
• Essential metrics for tracking progress - making sure you get the results you want

Who Will Benefit:

• Senior managers of IT service teams
• Service providers (technicians and support staff)
• Internal company Project Management Office (PMO) leaders and members
• Team supervisors of IT service teams
• IT project managers
• Internal process improvement coaches tasked with improving the organization's cost, schedule, quality performance

Speaker Profile: Neil Potter

is co-founder of The Process Group, a company formed in 1990 that consults on process improvement, CMMI, Scrum, software engineering and project management. He has 28 years of experience in software and process engineering. Neil is a CMMI-Institute certified lead appraiser for SCAMPI appraisals, Intro to CMMI instructor (development and services), Six Sigma Greenbelt and Certified Scrum Master. He has a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Essex (UK) and is the co-author of Making Process Improvement Work - A Concise Action Guide for Software Managers and Practitioners, Addison-Wesley (2002), and Making Process Improvement Work for Service Organizations, Addison-Wesley (2012). The Process Group consults to software, IT, systems and hardware organizations.

Click here to Improve Your IT Service Delivery Results

Virtual seminar on Comparing and Adopting Enterprise Architecture Frameworks By EITAGlobal

Overview: The use of enterprise architecture frameworks is essential in delivering value to the organization from EA. However, there is very little guidance on how to choose, adopt and implement an EA framework within existing best practices. In addition, many EA frameworks do not successfully integrate with other standards such as COBIT, ITIL or development methods. This topic will give the audience an in-depth view of architecture methods and where and how they should integrate across the EA landscape. 

Why should you attend: Many organizations utilize enterprise architecture to augment their strategic capability and deliver further value to their companies. And many of these organizations use EA frameworks such as FEAF, MODAF, TOGAF and others. However, many fail to adopt the frameworks fully or even choose the wrong one for their company. In this presentation we will cover the method for successfully selecting and adopting enterprise architecture frameworks in your organization.

Areas Covered in the Session:

• A methodology for comparing frameworks
• What to look for in an enterprise architecture framework
• Successful techniques for adopting these programs in your company

Who Will Benefit:

• Enterprise Architect
• Solution Architect
• Technology Architect
• IT Management
• CIO
• Project Manager
• Asset Management Manager

Speaker Profile: Paul Preiss

 is the CEO and Founder of the Iasa, one of the largest Enterprise and IT architect associations in the world. Through his time at Iasa, Paul has taken the association from a single user group in Austin Tx to an international organization with chapters in over 25 countries. Paul's vision is a unified architecture profession with effective education, credentials and ethics which fully supports corporate strategy and delivery. He is a tireless advocate for the field and speaks on topics ranging form architecture ethics to best the best setup and structure for architecture teams. Paul has spoken at hundreds of events as well as held conferences and training for architects all over the world. He is an expert software and enterprise architect in practice and continues to work with companies on optimizing their technology strategy. 

Click here to know more about : Comparing and Adopting Enterprise Architecture Frameworks