Is ITIL being used as an excuse to slow change?

In many enterprise discussions ITIL is assumed.  But when have you ever heard Google, AWS, Facebook, Twitter, or Zynga say their success is built on an ITIL framework.

Here may be a reason why the most agile companies don't use ITIL.

ITIL and other IT management frameworks can take our genetic tendency to say "no" and codify it. "You want a new application installed? Well, you're going to have to go through the Change Management Process." Dilbert's pointy-haired boss couldn't have come up with anything better. Users who ask for the simplest things can be told "no," simply because the Rules support that position. Worse, in many companies, admins who step out of the change management framework to help a user with something small are chastised, written up, and put at the bottom of the list for promotions and interesting projects.

The author doesn't hate ITIL.

No, I'm not trying to beat up on ITIL. It's actually a pretty solid, comprehensive framework for managing IT. Given that most of us weren't doing much better of a job, ITIL offers some universal structure. My problem is that ITIL pretty muchabhors change. No, not on paper -- on paper, ITIL manages and controlschange. In practice, IT organizations use ITIL as a blunt instrument to haltchange.

How many of you have run into people who are all into process, and don't really focus on the business impact?

Cool Video of the Space Shuttle prepared for launch

The Space Shuttle is an interesting feat of engineering.  There is not a data center story in this, but I know many of you would enjoy this video.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

In Pacific NW, 1 nuclear plant is more expensive to maintain than 31 hydro-electric plants

Washington State has one nuclear power plant that is up for renewal.

Seattle Times science reporter

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RICHLAND — When Washington's only commercial nuclear-power plant applied for license renewal last year, the timing seemed charmed. Hailed as a clean alternative to carbon-belching coal and gas, atomic power was poised for a renaissance.

Operators at the Columbia Generating Station near Richland were so bullish on the technology they talked about expanding with small, modular reactors.

In another Seattletimes article discussing the cost and benefits of nuclear power, the maintenance cost is mentioned.

Looking only at operating and maintenance costs, Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) puts the price at 3.6 cents per kwh. Hydropower costs about 2.8 cents per kwh.

BPA has had to boost rates — including a proposed 8 percent increase for 2012-13 — to pay for upgrades at the nuclear-power plant. According to a 2009 BPA analysis, it costs more to maintain and operate the Columbia Generating Station than all 31 of the hydropower plants in the Columbia Basin combined.

But the plant provides about 10 percent of BPA's electricity, which would have to be replaced if it were shut down.

Organizational Charts- Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Oracle, and Microsoft

Here is a post a a friend shared on some tech companies organizational Charts.

I don't know about you, but I couldn't have done any better to add humor to how companies can look.

Google's shows a complexity in the hierarchy.

Amazon has simplicity that comes from a Retailer with separate business units.

Apple shows how the world revolves around the red dot - Steve Jobs.

Facebook is different version of a flat organization.

Oracle shows the power.  the power of Oracle Legal.

And, Microsoft.  This is one way to explain business units (Windows, Office, and XBOX) survival tactics.

The complete original post is here.  But, it was more fun to break up the sections.

CA Technologies, a cloud player most don’t think about

CNET has an article about CA Technologies focus on cloud computing.  Check out this statement.

As a side note, I've always thought of CA as a place where software goes to die--an image that the company is well aware of and working to fix. I was impressed with the focus and forward-looking comments from both Fry and Debra Danielson, senior vice president of mergers and acquisitions, and I expect to see them be more aggressive about marketing their cloud-oriented products.

The article is about a discussion with Jay Fry, VP of marketing for cloud computing.

At this week's Structure conference in San Francisco, I spoke with Jay Fry, vice president of marketing for cloud computing, about what the company is doing to address the burgeoning cloud marketplace. (The company changed its name last year from CA, and before that it was Computer Associates.)

According to Fry, this year is about figuring out what customers really want--not just from CA Technologies, but from any vendor focused on the emerging cloud market. Enterprise users are trying to keep things under their control while service providers are looking to get users connected to their services. The rate and pace of cloud adoption are very different depending on the use case.

I’ve known Jay Fry since his days at Cassatt, a company CA acquired and Jay came over.  Jay is a data center guy and I’ve chatted with Jay at Gartner Data Center, Uptime Symposium, Structure, and even at a Starbuck’s when we have been able to connect our schedules when we are both in the bay area.

It is nice to see a write-up on what I have learned in my conversations with Jay.  If you haven’t thought about CA Technologies as a cloud player, you should.