InOne Concept Design

The InOne concept computer is really a cool looking design and as the name suggest its a All in one Desktop (not a laptop as it may look like one) with a 22 inch screen, keyboard, enormous touch pad. My design/engineering thought on this one is as I wonder is it would be a cool idea to take the touch-pad and use gestures to light up and bring up a keyboard, or turn into a second dual screen for display, for comparing of data  images, pull and pinch and throw stuff (minority style) from the top screen to the touch-pad screen. 

Thoughts,

Sam Kurien

Concept Yacht

Look at the picture below; This actually is a Yacht? Well in concept anyway but this one can be on the high seas as well as take off into air (now that is cool.. unfortunately no space yet according to the design schematics and non-availability of alternative unlimited fuel sources). I have slight issues with the design but ah alas ...every ship designed cannot be an "Enterprise" after all  but it's cool nevertheless. These concepts of hybrid air-sea-ships come from the ekranoplanes originally invented by the Scandinavians.

However the credit actually goes to Russian hydrofoil engineer Rostislav Alexeev who perfected the art of building these behemoth air-sea-ships.There are several you-tube videos out there if you do a search on "ekranoplanes".

As I look at it again...hey it almost does looks like the..."Enterprise" almost!...or I am just dreaming

Enjoy!!

Sam Kurien

P:S My four year old daughter saw this post and she said it looks like a "Killer whale". I agree more like killer whale than an Enterprise

Anti-Pirate Laser Developed, Captain Jack is now alerted!

I am really pissed at this news, alas my hearties your favorite pirate's pillaging days are over. At least that's what I want you to think mates! BAE systems is the responsible company with this new laser targeting systems that will blind attackers and intends to make the Somalians miss when they take aim with their weapons. The technology is said to be low-cost but when it comes to deployment the cost is expected to escalate. The laser low cost distraction system as the folks at BAE call it can send the signals up to 1.5kms to let the pirates know they have been spotted. A beam will be send if the pirates comes closer that will dazzle or shock them. I wonder why wouldn't they come up with a zero point energy phaser. Then I can carry one too and quote from one of my favorite Star Trek quotes: "Phasers: Because sometimes Diplomacy fails"

Cheers,

Sam Kurien

Inference - "Significant"

Statistical Inference is all about using and applying the language of probability to say how trustworthy are you on the conclusions you make out of your data. When we talk about inferring from the data we naturally talk about the significance level. How significant is a claim on to the true side of a proposition? The simple idea is an outcome that would rarely happen if a claim were true is good evidence that the claim is not true.

"Significant" therefore in statistical sense necessarily does not mean how "important". It just simply means "not likely to happen just by chance" represented by an alpha  makes "not likely" more exact.

Now what kind of weird logic is that...LOL

Cigarette companies in their advertising campaigns have an internal rule that if they show a woman model smoking she needs to be of an average age of 25, realistically its always been lower than 25 as revealed by a famous statistic experiment through tests of Significance. I find this interesting. Was just discussing this that you can have knowledge of all statistics and formulas but its application to make sense in the real world is one of the forms of Godly Wisdom.

Thoughts...

Sam Kurien

Change Management Process

True to my previous post entry the service transition phase heavily depends on the the Change management process and can be enumerated to have the following, I have attempted to keep my explanation blurbs small and self explanatory:

1) Steps : The steps are the actions an ITIL implementer will take in handling a change, including handling issues and unexpected events during the service transition

A good idea to remember here is why is the change implemented, what benefits will it derive, the risks associated to it and what impact will it bring in the service delivery.

2) Sequence: as the word suggests is the chronological order in which steps should be taken with any dependencies and co-processing that is or may be involved.

3) Responsibilities: Include the definitions and descriptions of tasks undertaken by individuals and teams.

4)  Time Definitions: Will encompass the timescales, thresholds, and schedules for the actions to be undertaken.

5) Escalation Procedures: Escalation procedures specify who should be contacted and the timing for this contact.

The primary goal of Change management is to respond to change and the sources are mostly customers, competition and market threats or opportunities. The objective of the CM process then becomes that all changes are recorded, evaluated, authorized, prioritized, planned, tested, implemented and documented.

Thoughts for today...

Sam Kurien

Service Transition

I want to record some key processes and activities involved in the Service transition of ITIL implementation and as time goes by will talk about these topics on different contexts and case studies. For now the main activities I can think of are:

• Change Management
• Service Asset and Configuration Management
• Transition Planning and Support Management
• Service Validation and Testing phases
• Release and Deployment Management
• Evaluation of Change
• Knowledge Management

Thoughts,

Sam Kurien

Availability Manager Functions & AM Metrics

Availability Managers ensure that the service provided from the service catalog are met and delivered to the customer's utmost satisfaction. The primary responsibilities of the availability manager include:

1. Ensuring that all service deliveries fulfill and match the established SLA's
2. Ensure and categorize that all levels of availability of services, escalation and solutions are provided in time
3. Validating that final designs meet minimum required levels of availability
4. Assist in the exploration of all incidents and problems that cause availability issues.
5. Participate in the IT infrastructure design that entail hardware and software in relation to availability fulfillments.
6. Finally establish and use Availability metrics to measure availability, reliability and maintainability of services.

I think the last point entails a major percentage of the Availability manager's job and its important then to list the most commonly used metrics that a AM uses. To measure availability of a services one can subtract the amount of downtime from the Agreed service Time (AST), divide the result by the AST, and then multiply this number by 100 to obtain a percentage.

The reliability of a service can be measured in either MTBSI or MTBF which is mean time between service incidents and mean time between failures. To calculate the reliability of a service in MTBSI you divide the available time in hours by the number of breaks in service availability.

The maintainability of a service is measured in MTRS which is the mean time to restore a service. You calculate the MTRS by dividing the total downtime in hours by the number of service breaks.

On the note of delivering  the best service.

Sam Kurien

Availability Management

On continuing to discuss infrastructure management processes - the objectives of Availability management process can be summarized as the following:

• To produce and maintain an appropriate and up-to-date Availability Plan that accurately reflects current and future needs of the organization.
• To offer advice and guidance to all other areas of the organization and IT on availability-related issues.
• To ensure that availability achievements meet or exceed targets.
• To assist with the diagnosis and resolution of availability-related incidents and problems.
• To evaluate the influence of any changes on the Availability Plan and on the performance and capacity of all services and resources. 
• To ensure that all cost-effective measures to improve the availability of services are implemented. 

I like the fact that Availability Managements processes incorporate reactive and proactive activities.  We can't get away from reactive activities as service level activities are dynamic in nature hence involve monitoring, measuring, fulfilling, analyzing and fixing problem on unavailability. Proactive activities refer to more into planning, designing, re-designing  and process improvement steps. So we see reactive activities are operational in nature whereas proactive activities of Availability management process fall under more planning functions.

Thoughts on Availability Management.

Sam Kurien

SLM In a nutshell

On reviewing the 14 activities of SLM in my previous post, I couldn't help summarize in a nutshell what SLM is all about. Its a note that I need to remember for the future so here it is:

Service Level management process compromise main phases that cover different activities and they are

• Negotiating
• Monitoring
• Reporting &
• Reviewing

The negotiating phase involves activities likes designing SLA frameworks, documenting, OLA's, and obtaining agreements of requirements while developing contacts and relationships. The monitoring phase involves monitoring the performance of SLA's, collating measuring and improving customer satisfaction. The reporting phase involves producing service reports and logging + managing complaints & compliments. Finally the reviewing phase of SLM is all about revising underpinning agreements, revisiting OLA's, conducting service reviews, and instigating continuous improvements. 

Thoughts,

Sam Kurien

14 Activities of a SLM

OK I didn't want to post something on service level management on the very first day of the new year but here it is. I find it fascinating that Marketing Management and Service level Management implementations within the IT framework are so similar.The end result of any SLM process is satisfying the customer's requirement for that specific time not over-delivering.  So here is the run down on the the 14 activities of a good SLM.

1. Confirming stakeholders, managers in key business areas and customers
2. Maintaining accurate information within the Service Catalog and Service Portfolio
3. Being flexible and responsive to the needs of the customer
4. Developing a full understanding of the customer, customer's organization and strategies
5. Regularly sampling the customer experience (This is an interest area for me because metrics will reveal treatments in the service level adjustments, development of new products/services and new strategies)
6. Conducting customer surveys and acting on the results
7. Ensuring that the correct relationship processes are in place to achieve objectives.
8. Marketing and exploiting the Service Portfolio and Service Catalog
9. Assisting with the maintenance of a list of outstanding improvements.
10. Ensuring that the organization and customers understand their responsibilities
11. Facilitating the negotiation of SLR's and SLA's
12. Raising the awareness of the business benefits when using new technology.
13. Promoting service awareness. (this is important because that will produce the appropriate perception)
14. Ensuring that IT provides the most appropriate levels of service.

Thoughts on new year's day.

Sam Kurien