This, then, is the utility-computing mandate: Lower costs, make IT more responsive, and make it more accountable in its use of funds.
To take the pulse of the utility-computing trend, we spoke with a cross section of vendors about their definitions of, and plans for, utility computing. EMC, HP, IBM, Microsoft and Veritas Software claimed to embrace all three goals, albeit with varied emphasis and approaches. As you might expect, vendors as a whole are much more enthusiastic about helping to create a more responsive and accountable IT department than they are about reducing costs. When vendors did talk about reducing costs, they almost universally emphasized reducing human costs or using existing resources more effectively.
This makes sense. No vendor is going to develop a product strategy with the intent of shrinking its market share year over year. None of the five was even willing to confess that what it would lose in margin it would make up in volume. As far as vendors are concerned, if they are going to save you money, it's going to be for stuff they don't sell--read: human resources.
But this will be an uphill battle: Changing the human-resource equation means changing what IT does, and that means fighting inertia, which alone will quell any mass conversion. Universally, vendors cite the need to eliminate time-consuming, repetitive IT tasks. They understand that systems need to be more self-healing and that management tools, particularly those with a broad scope, need to become far more effective. Vendors also realize that many changes will be organizational; and to the extent you'll let them, they want to help make those changes, too.
In fact, if you get nothing else from this article, realize that the notion of utility computing is largely about changing the organizational dynamics of IT. Creating a more responsive organization means changing the organization; and that's hard. IT grew up the way it did for a reason. The disciplines within IT require training, experience and dedication; therefore, a relatively narrow skill set is highly valued, while big-picture thinking is usually dismissed or reserved for a very few "architects." Divide and conquer has been the way to IT success.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
