Fair Isaac Corp., located in Minneapolis, has used VMware for almost four years, which nearly qualifies the credit bureau as an early adopter of virtualization technology. Back then, few of its business units were willing to entrust their analytics-intensive applications to something that wasn't tried and true. An internal roadshow helped win over users, recalls Gary Tierney, senior manager of technology and solutions delivery for Fair Isaac.
In addition to credit scores, the company also does lots of data analysis in the area of fraud -- click fraud, telco and credit card fraud, and so forth. It builds system models to analyze that data and create algorithms for detecting fraud.
"Initially, no one on the business side was willing to put their analytics on those virtual servers," Tierney explains. "We eventually got a few people to buy into it. They saw the cost savings and eventually it started growing organically." Fair Isaac now has 100 hosts, running VMware's ESX 2.5 and 3.1, working in both Red Hat and Windows environments.
The natural effect of server consolidation is that users end up banging on the remaining boxes a lot harder than before. "You tend to see a lot of hardware and memory failures because you're using the machinery harder," Tierney reports. "Thats fairly common."
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
There are many network courses that can address your present job's priorities and help you gain the needed skills to keep pace with industry changes and new technologies.
