Archives for: June, 2010

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Featured Job Post: Rock Star Scrum Master – Reston, VA

If you feel like this position is for you, please respond ASAP. If you know anyone who might be interested, please forward.

Our customer is looking for a true Scrum Master. This is a full time consultant position with Navstar, Inc. You will fall under my division of Enterprise 2.0. If you would like to apply, please send your resume to abaker@navstar-inc.com.

Duties: Provides a total systems perspective including a technical understanding of relationships, dependencies and requirements of hardware and software components for a project. Must be knowledgeable in computer systems and gathering/identifying requirements. Must be knowledgeable in life-cycle support, including maintenance, administration, and management. Creates, drafts and/or reviews program documentation, generates formal review documentation, and participates in system and program reviews. Reviews program plans, identifies inconsistencies. Coordinates, supports and participates in program meetings and reviews.

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Cloud Computing (aka Internet based Services)

…and that Cloud looks like a highly redundant, geographically dispersed computer cluster…

Technology marches forward and the paradigm changes. The latest new paradigm – Cloud Computing! Cloud Computing is going to completely change the way we design our computing infrastructures, again.

Cloud Computing is the concept of using Internet services to support users. In general the term is applied more toward business users, but I would say that we all use Internet (or cloud) based services. One of the best and most successful cloud computing services is web-based email or webmail. Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail are all examples of webmail services – and these services are examples of Cloud Computing.

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Network Management – The Art of Enterprise Monitoring

“That which is not monitored is not managed.” – A wise System Administrator

Failure is a part of life. This is especially true in the world of IT. It is not a question of if, but when. The key to successful enterprise management is to know when things fail. This can only be accomplished through monitoring. The name of this art – Network Management. Well, actually it is more than network management, but I guess this is the title it gets because of its roots; kind of like the way we still say we are dialing the phone.  A better name would be – Enterprise Management, which is starting to catch on, but the old IT folks won’t understand what you are talking about.

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What is Enterprise Architecture?

I typically try to avoid “buzz” terms like Enterprise Architecture, but sometimes you just need a term. This is one such case. It is either use a term, or paragraphs of explanations. This is intended to be the paragraphs to define the term, Enterprise Architecture.

The term Enterprise Architecture (EA) is not well defined. A quick look at Wikipedia makes this fact more than evident. There are several competing interpretations of EA. But all of these interpretations have a common element – The structure of components to address the needs of a larger system. Typically in these definitions the larger system is the business goals or processes. However, for the IT staff, business goals are not really the system they consider. And if they say that it is, look for their ITIL coffee cup and it will probably be full of ITIL Kool-Aid. No, for the IT folks, Enterprise Architecture is all about services and systems.

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