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?