Freeform Comment on IT-Director.com

Backup and Recovery - Still Imperfect After All These Years

Tony Lock, Freeform Dynamics — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:00:00 +0100

Some things in life, for example taxes, taxis and the music of younger generations, seem to have been around forever yet we are still not comfortable with them. The same can be said of some areas of IT, with Backup and Recovery springing [Read More...]

Clouds yet to fill the IT skies

Tony Lock, Freeform Dynamics — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 07:00:00 +0100

Should organisations expect their IT systems infrastructure to become hazy with numerous Cloud offerings? [Read More...]

The Price of Free

IdaRose Sylvester, Freeform Dynamics — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:15:00 +0100

A couple weeks ago, OpenOffice.org 3.0 was released, and millions of consumers downloaded it, including me. [Read More...]

Storage Expo - What happened in 2008?

Tony Lock, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:21:00 +0100

In 2007 the UK's large exhibition focussed on the storage industry found itself parroting all things green, frankly often flying in the face of any or all material evidence to the... [Read More...]

Is IT offshoring ready for "Designed in India"?

Jon Collins, Freeform Dynamics — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:35:00 +0100

There's an interesting article in India's Business Standard newspaper this week, about the impending plans for the World's Largest Democracy(TM) to promote itself not just as a place... [Read More...]

Socialtext Launches Socialtext 3.0, Battle for Enterprise 2.0 Heats Up

IdaRose Sylvester, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:55:00 +0100

Socialtext, known for its enterprise wiki solution, made a serious play for the enterprise 2.0 space, by launching Socialtext 3.0 on Tuesday. The application trio includes the new Socialtext People,... [Read More...]

The Fear of Buying

Tony Lock, Freeform Dynamics — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:43:00 +0100

Even when times have been good, when the economy is strong and everything looks rosy, those lucky folk charged with buying IT solutions frequently exhibit signs of reluctance, if not downright fear... [Read More...]

BT in tune with the market on UC?

Josie Sephton, Freeform Dynamics — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:49:00 +0100

Although the Unified Communications (UC) propositions from the key vendors in the market encompass a lot of very clever functionality, the market is dragging its heels in embracing UC in all its... [Read More...]

IT Budgets, Clouds and Virtualisation

Tony Lock, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:57:00 +0100

Currently there is a lot of noise being generated regarding Cloud Computing and flexible IT infrastructures based on virtualised platforms. There is no doubt that the technologies to be found at the... [Read More...]

Time To Take the Tablet - Vista's unsung platform

Tony Lock, Freeform Dynamics — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 12:59:00 +0100

Several years ago Microsoft launched its Tablet software with much fanfare. Today the platform has almost vanished from corporate marketing programmes despite the fact that Windows Vista Tablet is a... [Read More...]

Public VoIP for business - a viable option?

Josie Sephton, Freeform Dynamics — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:33:00 +0100

My previous post explored my very positive experience with public VoIP. My views haven't diminished since then, but I was left wondering how far, realistically, public VoIP could penetrate a... [Read More...]

The long and winding road to application service availability

Tony Lock, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:48:00 +0100

Strange as it may seem today the days of hyper-resilient systems have yet to arrive. Applications today suffer service disruption events on a reasonably frequent basis. Our research shows that some... [Read More...]

Cloud Computing - Costly Storm or Gentle Breeze?

Tony Lock, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:32:00 +0100

It's hard to read an article on the web these days without either Cloud computing or Software as a Service (SaaS to those in the know) being proffered as the answer to... [Read More...]

Public VoIP for cheap long distance calls

Josie Sephton, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:12:00 +0100

I had to prepare for a research project recently that would involve conducting lengthy telephone interviews with service providers around the globe. As a home-based worker with a small company, I... [Read More...]

Desktop Virtualisation - Where to Begin

Tony Lock, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:38:00 +0100

There is increasing discussion in many organisations, across a broad range of geographies, industry verticals and sizes, concerning the subject of Desktop Virtualisation. Even without... [Read More...]

Is there a business case to be made in favour of virtualising the desktop?

Tony Lock, Freeform Dynamics — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:33:00 +0100

If you are looking at desktop/notebook replacement or optimisation now, what are the options and considerations that should be on your mind as you weigh up the options? As one of my colleagues stated... [Read More...]

Behind the scenes at the National Gallery provides plenty of food for thought.

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:46:00 +0100

I recently had the pleasure of attending an event which took a group of analysts and journalists 'behind the scenes' at the National Gallery to see some of the work HP is involved... [Read More...]

Not If or When, The Question is What?

Tony Lock, Freeform Dynamics — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:03:00 +0100

A few weeks ago I pointed out that IT management tools are finally, after many decades of masquerade, ready to deliver the functionality that their product descriptions infer, namely capabilities to... [Read More...]

Asset + IT asset management = enterprise service management. Perhaps.

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:38:00 +0100

The IBM Tivoli Pulse event a few weeks ago left me with a clear thought. Convergence between enterprise asset management and IT (asset) management) is a long haul. This is not a bad thing -... [Read More...]

Microsoft's virtualisation story was pretty cool at MMS, so why's it all gone quiet?

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:53:00 +0100

I had a few days in Vegas at MMS (Microsoft Management Summit) at the end of April, just before I moved house and then took some time off to get things straight. When I got back it was like the whole... [Read More...]

Missing Meta Data Needed for Effective Storage Management

Tony Lock, Freeform Dynamics — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:56:00 +0100

Ever since time, or at least Computing time, began most of the focus has centred around the processing of data. Until recently it would be straight forward to argue that too little attention has... [Read More...]

Finally "Management" Not Just "Monitoring"

Tony Lock, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:12:00 +0100

Almost since the world was created, at least the IT world, computer systems and all the associated, and increasingly complex, plethora of associated equipment has required feeding and watering. Few... [Read More...]

Welcome Josie

Dale Vile, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:01:00 +0100

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Josie Sephton into the fold as the latest addition to the Freeform Dynamics team.Josie may be a fledgling Freeformer, but is a highly experienced telecom... [Read More...]

Security solutions seeking problems

Tony Lock, Freeform Dynamics — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:58:00 +0100

The last few days have involved me in a number of meetings with both vendors and end customers of all sizes. For much of the week I spent time at the Infosec security show in London but I also... [Read More...]

Why is IT still not communicating well with business?

Tony Lock, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:08:00 +0100

For many years now there has been intense discussion within the IT industry highlighting the absolute need for IT to get much closer to the business clients it supports and whose daily activities... [Read More...]

Let go and relax. Information management is about trusting your tools

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:03:00 +0100

I'm not a major player when it comes to gadgets and tools. I often download things and they remain unused, and whenever I get around to it, cleared out. A recent invite to download something... [Read More...]

Virtualisation Management - Vendors See the Light?

Tony Lock, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:41:00 +0100

At the end of last year we carried out a survey on all aspects of virtualisation and, whilst the results were interesting, there were few 'knock me over' surprises. However the findings did show, very,... [Read More...]

Storage Vendors for All Sizes

Tony Lock, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:23:00 +0100

I have spent a lot of time over the course of the last few months with a number of storage vendors. What has struck me most forcibly has been the continuing energy and effort being applied to the... [Read More...]

##@%$��~!!! Yep - I'm buying a house...

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:34:00 +0100

Analyst invents novel scoring system for rating the people he's paying to buy a house. And squeezes Theory of Constraints in sideways. [Read More...]

Get a Life..Cycle

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:11:00 +0100

Meetings with two different vendors recently got me thinking about 'opposites' and how it's probably quite uncommon for organisations to think about IT solutions aimed at opposite... [Read More...]