Sun is having a hard time at the moment; we are making more changes, people are losing their jobs, stock prices are not good and this is a difficult time for everyone involved.  We hear these changes are necessary and that to be successful we must improve/change and change can be painful for many people.

Perhaps in Sun we should pause for breath and "Listen to our own advice". Whenever we help a customer transform their infrastructure we are honest and tell them, there will be disruption, things will change, there will be problems, but at the end of the project there will be significant business improvements. When we introduce best practice to a customer much of it is new to them and requires new skills and a different approach to their day to day job. In this difficult finanical climate surely we can ask no less of ourselves.  Many of us will be asked to undertake new roles or focus our activites in a different way but if Sun is to be successful this is a process that must happen. I like sayings and one of my favourite is;

 "If you always do what you always did;
you will always get what you always got!"

Sun is going through a period of extensive change and like any "birth" it wont be easy but for those of us lucky enough to have families we all know how rewarding it can be. All this change will make Sun more successful in the long run.

I was recently very intrigued by an article I read in eWeek on the top 10 Disruptive Technologies affecting the Datacenter. According to eWeek they are;
1) Unified Communications
2) Web Platform
3) IT Operations Process Automation
4) Server Fabrics
5) Metadata Management
6) CMDB'S
7) Mashups and Composite Applications
8) Virtualisation beyond Consolidation
9) Social Software
10) Green IT
Wikipedia says "A disruptive technology or disruptive innovation is a technological innovation, product, or service that uses a "disruptive" strategy, rather than a "sustaining" strategy, to overturn the existing dominant technologies or status quo products in a market"  Well I for one as someone who is currently working on 4 of the items listed above would like to think that what we are doing, in particular, around Green IT and Virtualisation is based on a "sustaining strategy and values; or did I miss the whole point of Eco...........

When I first heard we were planning to put together a Virtualisation/Eco practice I was a little concerned that we were "jumping on the band wagon". However, we had a presentation recently about Sun's new Virtualisation Practice and I have to say I was really pleased to see that we are putting such an emphasis on this area. Sun has a fantasitic portfolio of  offerings in this space, Eco and Virtualisation Consulting, Data Center Strategy and Implementation and Virtualised Operations Management. We can do everything from general IT consulting to build contemporary global data center infrastructure, and help achieve a wide diversity of business goals, ranging from of carbon-neutral mandates to practical data center performance and real-world cost savings in their heat, power or cooling utility bills. In fact everything you need to architect, implement and manage a virtualised environment. For many of our customers this is story they havent heard and we should be out there shouting about it.

The reason I am particularly excited about this is because for years I have been espousing the merits of a "service lead" portfolio and it seems we have now built one that is fully integrated with the product pitch. Sun has significant mind share in this area and the launch and success of this practice will only increase this.

About three years ago I worked for a year as the Global IC Manager of Advanced Services since then I have become very interested in the field of Knowledge Management. Capturing, organizing, assessing for quality and using knowledge is an extremely powerful toolset for Sun to master.

With the increasing rate of change in the industry, a more open global economy and increased access to information over the internet good knowledge management is the key to enable us to optimise the benefits of these changes.

I am convinced that effective Knowledge Management is the key to the overall viability of Sun, from capturing the competitive advantage in the industry  to decreasing cycle time and the cost of providing technology and services to a customer. Sun is in an excellent position to capitalise on these as the two essential components of successful knowledge management are an open culture and the infrastructure to support the sharing of information. Many cultures foster an environment where "knowledge is power" the more you know that others do not the more valuable you are to the company. This type of "knowledge hoarding" is not the sort of behaviour that should be or is rewarded at Sun. Another element of an open culture is an individuals willingness to learn, growing an individuals knowledge base should and is rewarded and facilitated by open support and opportunities.

Even in a culture of openess and sharing without the right tools to support it any efforts to significantly share knowledge are doomed. With IC Create, MySales, MyMarketing, AIM, CEPedia and many others Sun has to be in a fantastic position to capitalise on this area. All we need is to change our behaviours to ensure we constantly share what we learn and what we are working on.

I quite enjoyed the UK Kick Off last Thursday, even the rain did not ruin the day. I had a chance to catch up with old friends and new friends that I hadnt seen for a while. I caught up on all the gossip and found out who had resigned and who was still with us. This to me is always the great benefit of these occassions. I am not very athletic and really am not the sort of person who enjoys "games" team ones or otherwise, so I dont participate.

The presentations were the usual stuff and given the current UK position they were what I expected. But as I looked around the big top I do wonder though why so many of our good people are leaving. Most the people I started working with at Sun seven years ago are no longer here. I joined the UK Managed Services team and there were eleven of us at that time. Of that eleven only three of us our left today some have moved on to new pastures, one retired and others were RIF'd. Still I suppose that is life everything changes.

What with one thing and another it has been a really long time since I last made a blog entry. In that time the group I was working for has been disbanded and we have a new structure in its place.

I am now working back in Managed Services but in a new group called Managed Services In-Market which seems to be quite an interesting area. I am also very busy as a member of the CEC Content review team. I always enjoy reviewing the CEC content as I find out so much about what is happening in Sun.

On a more personal level I am busy researching a new white paper, which has a working title of "The Feasibility and Desirability of running a mission critical environment entirely on Open Source". So if you have any views I would be interested in hearing from you.

I have been asked by many people both inside and outside of Sun whether or not I blog I normally come up with one of two excuses "I dont have the time" and "I dont have opinions".

Well firstly I figure if Jonathan and Scott can make the time, I should be able to and secondly anyone who knows me knows I am not short of opinions nor the ability to voice them!!

So what will I blog about, what do I care about!

I have old-fashioned ethics, I want to do the best job I can with everything I do. I want Sun to be the best it can be (and better). This quest for "the best" has lead me to an unnatural interest in Industry Standards and best practice; ITIL, cobIT, BS15000, ISO20000, ISO17799, ISO9000:2000 to name a few. So no surprise I have set up a category for Best Practice and intend to talk about the relative merits or otherwise of different industry standards.

I have spent most of my career as a consultant of one type or another and feel strongly about providing real solutions to customers business problems. So I have set up an IT Consulting category.

I have also set up a Personal category as I know many people are interested in my quite unusual life style........more on that later.