Ovum Butler Group Review

Organisations quite rightly continue to highlight security concerns as one of the top inhibitors of remote application delivery. The range of users that demand access to today's business systems and their various connection requirements cover the whole connectivity spectrum. However, a downside is the lack of effective authentication. Mobile Authentication ... read more..

Justification of SOA is made complex by the fact that it provides an architecture and infrastructure that will be used by successive projects, and where the benefits are likely to be long-term and often intangible. In order to make the business case for SOA adoption, the sponsor will need to ... read more..

The principles of lean manufacturing and related quality systems have been migrating into the areas of services and business processes for some time and it is unsurprising, given the increasing degree of process automation, that these concepts are now also being applied in the IT domain. The main notions of ... read more..

The rise of x86 virtualisation has introduced many new terms to the IT manager's lexicon, but one in particular appears to have adopted an 'it just does' understanding: that term is Physical to Virtual (P2V) migration. However, the whole process of converting a workload needs to be clearly understood as ... read more..

When considering the opportunities for IT cost savings, it is important to appreciate that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' solution. Organisations will need to be selective and initially opt for those initiatives that will achieve the best returns in the shortest time period. Managing IT Costs ... read more..

As IT functions are increasingly expected to 'deliver more with less', portfolio management tools and techniques are required to reconcile corporate strategy and scarce IT resources, and facilitate better decision-making across the enterprise. Importantly, portfolio management can help address two of the key challenges facing CIOs in 2009 and beyond ... read more..

2009 sees the 50th anniversary of a project being established to formulate a common business programming language, which would eventually conceive COBOL (the well-known acronym for COmmon Business-Oriented Language). COBOL has been the prevalent language for developing business applications throughout the greater part of five decades since, although less so ... read more..

Since 2005, the virtualisation of IT resources, services, and applications has achieved levels of adoption that have exceeded the expectations of even the most passionate of virtualisation evangelists. Specific areas where strong take-up in the use of the technology has been achieved include: network virtualisation, storage virtualisation, and server and ... read more..

In 2009, a value and conservation-based mindset will underpin organisations' strategic and tactical investments in the enterprise application space. Historically, IT spending shrinks during recession but certain application areas emerge as investment opportunities because they can deliver value in terms of a clear return on investment or competitive advantage. Butler ... read more..

It is self-evident that for a large part of the world, and in most industry sectors, economic conditions will play a part in determining buying patterns for application infrastructure during 2009. The nature of IT projects means that there is a lag in the effect of major financial events feeding ... read more..

As analysts we operate in a privileged position, commenting on new technologies and seeing the benefits they can bring. However, back in the real world, CIOs are for the most part dealt a particular hand, which has either been inherited or grown as needs must. Very few have been able ... read more..

If the headlines are to be believed we are into recession, with even the suggestion of a depression skulking on the horizon. One thing that is certain during these dark days is that companies will need to look at ways to reduce overheads, be smart with their diminishing budgets and ... read more..