architecture

Enterprise software licensing is complex, costly and easy to lose track of, especially in these days of servers on demand via infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and rapid setup and movement of virtual machines.  Many organizations are finding that vendor software audits uncover under-licensing resul…

People are a company’s greatest asset, which is why Cisco is deeply committed to fostering a climate of innovation, professional growth, and business-focused enrichment. This commitment was especially evident in Cisco IT’s Architecture Talent Program (ATP). The FY16 pilot program was launched to ins…

I do enjoy the (sometimes irreverent!) perspectives of some articles on data center in the UK publication “The Register“, and the story of how a data center change went wrong made me laugh, cringe and cry at the same time – the change being when an electrician cut the wrong wire an…

A few years ago, I wrote a series of blogs on Cisco’s Domain Ten(SM)  framework.  Since then, we’ve used this simple yet powerful analysis tool to help guide many customers on data center and IT transformation projects.  I personally found it quite notable that leading market analyst firm IDC, recog…

Last week I attended the 2015 London Gartner Data Center conference. In my first blog (part 1) on this event,  I covered some of my main learnings and observations, #1 .. #5: Bi-modal IT, Anti-fragility, Shadow IT (and how Cisco Cloud Consumption Services can help you here, SDN, and Software asset…

Two weeks ago, in my previous blog, I invited you to consider ways in which you could initiate a “Save to Invest” program for your data center. That is, how can you save money from your current data center spend, in order to re-invest it into currently un- or -under-funded areas of your…

As a Scot, I have a natural predisposition – almost a gene – for money saving initiatives!  As I’ve been researching new initiatives in my work for Cisco Services over the past few months, I’ve become aware of – for the first time I am ashamed to say in some cases – some huge sinks of your cash in t…

Last week, here, I started my 2 part blog on some of the top SAN design and deployment challenges we see.  As I mentioned, I put this together with help from my SAN expert colleagues, Barbara Ledda and Wolfgang Lang.  We are all part of the Cisco Services professional services team, where we experie…

One of the aspects I really enjoy about my job is that I get to learn from some of the world’s top network and data center design engineers, and I get to hear about technology adoption challenges across the world. If there is a complex network or data center design being worked by our customers, if…