Dale Vile is CEO and research director at Freeform Dynamics, a business he founded in 2005 to help guide IT pros on which technology to buy. Prior to this he was a director at market researcher QuoCirca and also headed the wireless consulting group within Nortel Networks.
Office Software Checkpoint
Tech Panel Results Reg readers speak out on changing requirements
The desktop productivity space has been dominated for many years by Microsoft Office.
Open source alternatives and cloud services like Google Apps have made some inroads, but most mainstream businesses are still hooked on Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel to one degree or another, with Exchange acting as a back end hub for …
SaaS: Plugging the communications gap for small businesses
Distributed thinking
Yahoo!’s decision last month to axe home working prompted much debate. Common reactions ranged from outrage through incredulity to the sad shaking of heads over the fact that CEO Marissa Mayer is clearly out of touch with the modern world.
Some of the reasons cited for this controversial move, however, are worth noting. The …
There's more to cloud computing than just hosting
It's all about choice
There’s a trick we use at Freeform Dynamics when trying to figure out the true significance, if any, of the latest Big Thing being promoted by IT vendors and pundits. We ask ourselves what will be left when the marketers get bored with the current buzz words and move on to the next Big Thing, as they inevitably will.
As an …
How to decide when to pass on PaaS
A changing cloudscape
Most forms of cloud computing are starting to find a place in mainstream IT delivery. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), for example, is providing greater flexibility and better economy for those wanting to grab server or storage capacity from the cloud.
It might not be totally replacing other forms of infrastructure hosting …
The gaming habits of Reg readers revealed
The rise of the silver gamester and the impact of wedding vows
A recent research study carried out by Freeform Dynamics we looked at the activities of Register readers with respect to smartphones, tablets, gaming and TV viewing.
In this article we willf ocus on what you told us about your gaming habits (that’s gaming in the sense of playing electronic games rather than gambling). In total …
Prepare to greet the data centre of 2023
The road starts here
To some, the idea of enterprise data centres still being around in ten years’ time is anathema. By then, they assert, all enterprise IT will be running in public clouds. The only people who can’t see this are insecure box-huggers frightened for their jobs and IT dinosaurs with no imagination.
We, however, are going to assume …
Mobile devices bring back that old client-server feeling
It's deja vu all over again
If you see the phrase “any time, any place, anywhere” in relation to mobile access, and are tempted to point out the language redundancy (any place, anywhere), then you are probably not old enough to remember the birth of client-server in the late '80s and early '90s.
If, however, cheesy music from a Martini ad is now running …
It pays to study the habits of your email users
Spot the filers and the pilers
How many email messages do you receive in the average working day: 20? 30? 50? More? And what volume of email have you accumulated over the past year: half a gig, a gig, two gigs?
Whatever the exact amount, it is safe to say that most of us have to deal with a lot of email traffic and that an increasing proportion of it comes …
Good news for Relational DBAs
Comment Looks like there will still be demand for your services
Those advocating emerging technologies and ideas often talk as if IT is a zero sum game. When something new comes along, the assumption is that something old needs to move aside to make way. We have seen this happen on a number of occasions in the data management space, with frequent claims relational databases becoming less and …
Windows 8 and the ‘Dad test’ stunts
Comment Let's get real
Out and about shopping yesterday, I spotted a PC magazine in the newsagent advertising the ‘ultimate guide’ to Windows 8 in the form of a ’33 page special’.
As well as reminding me of reports that Microsoft is planning to spend over $1.5bn on Windows 8 marketing, it made me think of those horribly contrived YouTube videos in …
Reg readers love Private Cloud (true)
Playing the SLA long game
When IT is your day job it is easy to lose sight of why you are doing it. Alright, it’s to pay the bills, fund your next holiday, buy nice stuff and so on.
But from the point of view of whoever is paying your salary, the point is to enable and add value to the business. You and your colleagues in the IT department are there to …
The Great El Reg Private Cloud survey: Results are in!
Applications must work for the cloud to float
We were surprised at the strength of positive feedback from the 570 readers who participated in our recent Reg reader survey on private cloud.
It was quite a contrast to surveys on hosted cloud services, or even cloud computing in general. Whenever we run these, readers tend not to be shy about telling us how much they think all …
Relationship between private and public cloud
Tech Panel help us to explore this further...
We were really surprised by the positive sentiment that surfaced in relation to private cloud during our recent survey on the topic. The stark contrast between this and the mixed reaction we usually get when asking readers about public cloud was very noticeable, and the differences too great to be accounted for by the bias we …
Six of the best ways to mess up IT change management
How many do you recognise?
We at Freeform Dynamics have been running surveys and interactive workshops with The Register’s readership since 2006 on a wide variety of topics. Looking back, we see the same themes coming up time and time again.
One of these is the perpetual problem of IT staff feeling they are not able to respond quickly enough to change …
Has virtualization really ended all your worries?
The very real limits of happiness
OK, so you’ve virtualised a bunch of servers and saved yourself a bit of money on hardware. Life is a little easier because you no longer have to go through the server procurement and provisioning cycle quite so often to meet new requirements.
But has anything fundamentally changed in the way you manage systems and deliver IT …
Roll up to the great Register Private Cloud survey
Research Buddy, can you spare some time?
The Register has constructed a lovely survey about Private Cloud, which will form the basis of a number of research-based articles to be published in coming weeks. The survey is a one-pager and will take a few minutes of your time. Please take part!
Here's some background to our thinking. Without getting bogged down in …
Public sector imperatives
Reader Research Sneak peek of poll results
We’ve just had a little look at the results so far from our currently running public sector poll.
As a reminder, the aim of the exercise is to flush out insights, tips and tricks that can be of use to those involved in reporting and performance management in a public sector environment.
The poll so far is confirming the need to …
Keeping score in the public sector
Share and share alike people
Hardly a day goes by without news coverage around whether some public sector organisation or other is delivering against expectations, making the best use of funding, or otherwise performing adequately.
This is something we are exploring in our latest reader survey. Apart from enlightening the rest of us as taxpayers, there is a …
Beyond the relational database
Tech Panel Help us make sense of 'Big Data'
As many marketeers switch their attention from the word 'cloud' to the term 'big data', you can almost hear the groans as another bandwagon starts to roll.
It's now getting to the point where, yet again, we are being bombarded with terms and messages that are ambiguous at best, meaningless at worst. So in true Freeform Dynamics …
It's the BIG email and office study
Reg Tech Panel How important are your productivity apps?
There's been a lot of talk recently about the imminent death of traditional email and office applications to be replaced by shiny new web apps all served from the Cloud. Now, we know the world changes slowly and this won't happen overnight, or be suitable for all.
But there are a lot of old Exchange or Notes installations out …
The effects of Consumerisation results
Reg Research The readers speak
The results of our mega-survey on consumerisation are in. It was a big sucker, and all those who completed it should be congratulated for their stamina and commitment. And your efforts really are appreciated, because we learned a lot.
In the first part of the survey, we asked readers to tell us about their own use of personal …
Are you slaving away on the wrong projects?
Get your priorities straight
One of the hardest decisions that the IT department faces was highlighted in a very lively Regcast a few months ago.
Terry Dewhurst, the streetwise director of transformation at Lastminute.com, talked about how hard it can be to call time on a project that is on track to deliver something that nobody wants any more.
This can …
Complexity killed the IT quality of service ...
So many dependencies, so much to go wrong
“Ring, ring...”
“IT support. How can I help you?”
“The system’s really slow. It’s taking about a minute to save stuff. Normally it’s only a few seconds.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“About 20 minutes, and the backlog is building up. It slowed down yesterday too, but then seemed to right itself after about 10 minutes so …
The Network is the Problem: Barriers to cloud adoption
Reg Research Survey results
How can cloud computing be a sensible option when it makes you so dependent on the network, and often even the public internet? If the comms slow down, the user experience takes a dive. Lose the link completely, and you’re stuffed.
We have been hearing such questions and objections from nay-sayers ever since commercial hosted …
The Impact of Cloud on IT
Tech Panel 'All change' or 'Steady as she goes'?
if you've got a few minutes to spare, take a crack at our Cloud impact survey.
"Cloud" has been the marketing buzz word of much of the last two years. Many IT vendors now fear to talk about any product or solution without squeezing the term into usage at least three times a minute, even if they have nothing to do with any type …
End user productivity revisited
Survey Five minutes of your time, please
Productivity is a concept that sometimes appears to have been hijacked by IT vendor marketing people.
We hear everything from smartphones and slates, through unified comms, to full blown cloud-based collaboration offerings positioned as the key to getting more from the workforce.
But which technologies and services have the …
Cloud connectivity: Five minutes of your time, please
Reader poll WAN! Bam!
As business has become more mobile, the ability to connect to business applications and communications has become more critical and is turning applications into services.
Meanwhile, as cloud services provided by third parties become a bigger part of the IT service delivery, connectivity becomes one of the cornerstones of the …
The Great Reg Cloud Survey
Reader Poll Cloud and Proud?
With all of the noise generated around Cloud, we thought it was time for a reality check with one of the world's largest communities of IT professionals - that's you, by the way.
We're trying to understand if Cloud is really the future of computing and if it is, how much? Do you think you'd trust them to host any of your apps, …
Optimising IT isn’t all about the cloud
Have you had enough of the rhetoric?
Are you sick of cloud computing being shoved down your throat as the answer to all IT delivery problems? Or perhaps you are a convert and can't get enough of the 'C' word.
Well we at Freeform Dynamics are pretty fed up with having the same sorts of discussions over and over again. It's getting a bit wearing having to keep on …
When information sharing goes wrong
Workshop Trust in the supply chain
One of the most troubling phone calls I have ever received was from the irate managing director of an IT reseller. I was working as a channel manager for a major software company at the time and the complaint was that we had a leak.
Extreme carelessness
After a bit of investigation, we figured out what had happened. A few days …
Help! I'm in an abusive relationship with my supplier
Workshop Let's talk about it
In a previous article we highlighted the various ways in which sales and service functions can be broken. If you are on the receiving end, then you have a legitimate right to protest and demand that things be made better.
But some customers are troublesome for no good reason. They have been supplied with a good product or …
Timeless principles of sales
Workshop And how modern technology can optimise classic techniques
When I first moved into software sales about 20 years ago, my then boss gave me a book to read called How I raised myself from failure to success in selling.
It was written by Frank Bettger, a former baseball player who had quit the sport due to injury and found a new career as an insurance salesman. It could have been really …
The changing nature of end user computing
Tech Panel Remember those days?
Life used to be pretty straightforward. An employee joined the organisation, and they were allocated a desk with a PC on it. The IT department controlled what was on that PC, always knew where it was, and generally had pretty easy access to it.
Today it's different; at least for most organisations. The PC is now likely to be a …
Mind mapping for IT pros
Workshop Draw something meaningful on those whiteboards
Let’s clear up a couple of things to start with. The term mind mapping doesn’t come from a Spooks plot line. It isn’t about poking around in people’s noggins to extract secrets or reconfigure their brain. Nor is it some esoteric practice used solely by intellectuals enjoying the luxury of sitting around and thinking a lot.
Mind …
Better trading practices
Workshop Time to challenge the notion of business-as-usual
It’s 2011, the age of high-speed electronic communications, and we still see companies faxing orders to suppliers and insisting on paper invoices. Banks are still struggling to recognise the real person among the tangle of account records they maintain, and calling a telco customer services line with even the simplest of …
The good, the bad and the ugly
Hosted apps How SaaS providers measure up on managing info risk
Interested in software as a service (SaaS) but worried about the risks to your information? That’s understandable, given the chatter and FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) that surrounds this area. What are the risks you really need to consider in making an objective assessment?
The answer will depend on your own situation and …
The weakest link in Software as a Service
Is that an elephant I see in the room?
The delivery of cloud based application functionality via the Software as a Service (SaaS) model frequently sparks security-related concerns. In our latest workshop on hosted apps, Reg readers have been very forthcoming about their nervousness in this area.
In parallel with the workshop, however, we have been gathering data …
Whose data is it anyway?
Hosted apps Don't lose control - or get paranoid
Losing control of one’s data is among the first concerns that arise when software as a service (SaaS) is mentioned. Fans may point out the merits of applications running in the cloud, but it’s not the software we worry about, it’s what happens, or might happen, to our data.
As one Reg reader put it in a recent survey:
“I'm sure …
SaaS and Security
Tech Panel We want your views
The security discussion around Software as a Service (SaaS) is pretty lively. It is common to hear IT professionals question whether service providers can be trusted to look after business data. We are trying to determine how real the risk actually is, and how it compares to risks currently associated with data storage in house …
Is cloud data secure?
Hosted apps Because your datacentre probably isn't
Would your data be more secure in the hands of Google or left where it is? Your answer to that depends on where you store business information at the moment and, of course, whether you feel Google can be trusted.
We’re picking on Google here because it is the “cloud” player that, rightly or wrongly, receives the most criticism …
A question of performance
Hosted apps In-house does not equal reliable
Software as a service (SaaS) promises a lot but many are still nervous about relying on it for business use. The concerns we hear most centre on security, privacy and operational risk. The first two are the most important and we will be covering these later in our workshop. In the meantime, we will start by considering …
Trust and risk in the cloud
Hosted apps Are cheap megahosters good for your business?
Stick enough kit and multi-tenant software in one huge data centre and there is no arguing with the economies of scale that can be achieved. Megahosters like Google and Microsoft playing this game can deliver web search capability and online consumer services such as email, office and social networking tools at minimal cost per …
Will the cloud mean joblessness for you?
Cut the hype and keep it real
You’ve heard the rhetoric: Cloud computing changes everything. The days of the enterprise data centre and the small business computer room are numbered. At some point in the not too distant future, you’ll be switching off the last server, turning out the lights, and looking for a career change.
The sad thing is that some people …
Desktop pleasure, desktop pain
Evolution and management of the client computing environment
Let's face it, the desktop and laptop environment is one of the major points at which the rubber meets the road when it comes to business computing.
From a user perspective, the machine they use is the gateway to IT, and its performance and reliability plays a big part in determining levels of satisfaction. But if you’re …
The pain and promise of x86 servers
Reader Study What's it been like for you?
Advances in x86 server technology have been relentless. Year-on-year improvements in price-performance and advances in power efficiency have driven down the costs of commodity-based infrastructure. At the other end of the spectrum, you can now pretty much build your own virtual supercomputer or mainframe with modern x86 clusters …
Should your data centre look more like Google’s?
Reader Study Or is that just a stupid idea?
With all the talk of cloud, some are predicting the death of the enterprise data centre. The argument is that renting capacity from a service provider reduces costs and therefore owning your own facility in the future will become an extravagant luxury that few will be able to justify.
For those not buying this line of thinking …
Those demanding mobile users
Workshop Please IT, can we have some more?
For years, when we asked Reg readers what worried them about mobile, "security" was top of the list. Now business mobility has become a victim of its own success in many organisations, at least when looked at from IT's point of view. The problems of managing user expectations, integrating kit or compliance are familiar if you …
Policing personal calls on business mobiles
Workshop Responsible employer or miserly git?
Communications technology makes it easy to mix up personal and business calls. If you want to keep track of what you pay for, and minimise your mobile bills, then you should be able to monitor personal use at some level - either independently, or with the help of your service provider.
Giving employees a mobile phone or handheld …
Apple in the workplace
Mini Poll Do you love it or loathe it?
Apple's success as a manufacturer of consumer electronics is beyond question. The kit has become an accepted part of many people's lives, and the brand is one of the most well respected and desired on the planet.
You might think this is good or bad. You might not care. This is secondary to the fact that the Apple phenomenon is …
Mobile: what they need - and what they want
Workshop Will users ever be happy, safe and productive?
Many years ago an IT manager, responding to one of our research studies, said one of the saddest and most pathetic sights he had ever seen was a 100Kg salesman coming into his office telling him that his 120g mobile phone was too heavy. He needed an upgrade to something smaller and lighter.
That was back in the days when mobiles …
