George Spafford

Our digital world floats on a sea of energy. Data centers and workstations are powered by electricity and countless trillions of bits traversing the globe are done so by electrons. Even optical networks and processors are made possible by electricity powering the transmission infrastructure. It’s amazing to stop and ponder it all. Digital information technology […]

Most people who acknowledge the reality of global warming tend to focus on its environmental and meteorological effects. But rising temperatures also can have a serious impact on modern computing technology, creating a number of physical and economic challenges for organizations and networks. Excessive heat can wreak havoc on equipment and personnel. Most server rooms […]

With all the pressures on IT to deliver effective, efficient and economical services that also are compliant, process design is more important than ever. In understanding current processes, as well as designing new processes, it is vital to recognize the roles and responsibilities required. To this end, processes can be flow-charted and then mapped using […]

Organizations concerned with surviving a disaster have undertaken Business Continuity Planning (BCP). Studies have shown that without adequate planning, some organizations will not be able to continue operations. Indeed, BCP is should be performed by all organizations with the time and resources invested commensurate with the risks and constraints of the organization. In cases like […]

Many IT groups become very frustrated when proposing upgrades for business systems, only to be denied. The problem is that while IT may see many benefits, that doesn’t mean that senior management feels the same way. First off, many management teams still are jaded by failed promises during the dot-com era. Far too many magical […]

Sarbanes-Oxley compliance has caused a lot of pain and suffering in IT organizations. The controls put in place to mitigate risks to financial reporting were adopted for unknown reasons, obtusely defined and onerous. A recurring theme over the past year has been one of “I don’t want an ‘A’ — I just want to pass.” […]

I’ve had a rather frustrating time with my ISP. The company paid to host my website provides services that includes email and a Majordomo email list server. As part of my publishing and research efforts, a newsletter is sent out twice a week on events and resources in the worlds of security, regulatory compliance, risk […]

The measurement of availability sounds so easy. You merely take the amount of time the service responds relative to the amount it should have — right? Well, unfortunately the answer is nowhere near that simple because “availability” must be defined in order to have consistent understanding and application. It is worth getting right, though. Availability […]

In a recent embarrassing disclosure, there were plenty of pictures on the news services of the U.S. Army going to the bazaars in Afghanistan buying memory sticks (the solid state USB thumb drives) by the boxload. As with many news events that I run across, this one caused me to stop and think about the […]

When we consult on IT Service Management [1], everyone wants to jump into Service Level Management and set their Service Level Agreements (SLAs) right away. While the SLAs get a lot of press, they are part of the Service Level Management (SLM) process and we need to step back and discuss how SLAs should be […]