Welcome to August – and back to school, at least in Florida. I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing all the "back-to school" displays in stores by July! School, for SemCo™, goes all year round, but we do actually start the formal review of all our seminars and materials at this time every year. We've just updated the TR (Technical Recruiting) and UITJ (Understanding IT Jobs) seminars and materials, and will take a structured look at CSTA (Computers: Systems, Terms, and Acronyms) next. Also, we'll be deciding whether to add additional specific technologies (45 minute Web sessions). We'd love to hear from you about what you'd like to see. We're considering:
Development Architectures (SOA [Service Oriented Architecture],
Open Source and EA [Enterprise Architecture])
Development Tools (Java EE and .Net)
Business Management Systems (BPM [Business Process Management],
[Business Performance Management], [Business Process Modeling])
We'd love to hear if you need any of these topics – or if you have other topics you'd like to see us address.
Here's the schedule. Or you can view the complete Schedule on our website.
CSTA Web sessions:
August 22, 23
September 19, 20
October 17, 18
November 14, 15
December 12, 13
CSTA classroom sessions:
DC area - August 30
Atlanta area - September 12
New York City area - October 24
Chicago area - November 28
UITJ (Understanding IT Jobs) Web sessions:
September 20
November 15
TR Web session:
September 27
November 8
Networking Web session:
August 15
Wireless Web session:
August 23
Keep in touch . . .
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The Present State of Wireless*
Wireless is officially standard technology today, and it is, typically, continually changing. Wi-Fi remains the standard in wireless data transmission and the latest Wi-Fi news is 802.11n. Bluetooth has released version 3.0, and short range wireless includes RFID, Zigbee, and Wibree.
802.11n is the hottest technology in wireless today. The draft 2.0 specification was approved in March, 2007, and products are available now. The complete specification will be draft 3.0 with approval expected by April, 2009, but analysts are recommending companies start using it now.
802.11n includes MIMO (Multiple Input/Multiple Output) technology and will eventually raise speeds up to 600 mbps (megabytes per second). MIMO is a signal processing and smart antenna technique for transmitting multiple data streams through multiple antennas. This creates up to five times the performance and up to twice the range compared to the earlier 802.11g standard. Does it work? eWeek Labs tested Linksys products based on the 802.11n draft and said "These are the fastest wireless LAN devices eWEEK Labs has tested." Apple already includes the technology in most of their Macintosh computers and Apple TV. And Intel's Centrino chips support 802.11n. These products are not all problem free (the Linksys routers eWeek tested had trouble with interconnectivity with legacy systems), but problems do get solved!
Bluetooth's Version 3.0 was announced this year and increases speeds to 50mbps (from the original 1mbps in 2003). Transmissions will operate in the 6-9 GHz (Gigahertz) range, which will allow the transfer of 8-megapixel pictures in 1 second. This means streaming video and photos – necessary in today's cell phone world.
The technologies that are really both changing and growing are the short range technologies. While Bluetooth is often considered short distance with its 30-35 foot range, these technologies are usually defined within a few meters.
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is the most talked about of the current short range (or distance) technologies. Wal-Mart put it in the news when they announced that their 100 top suppliers had to be using RFID technology by 2005. They missed that date, as installing RFID proved to be more complex than expected, but are still moving towards that goal. The complexities of installing RFID are based on its struggles with getting accurate reads through or near liquids and metals. This has been the most significant obstacle to its widespread cost-effective deployment, as these problems have to be solved in some environments.
RFID in the supply chain (where manufacturers and retailers get their goods) is the most common use, but its other uses are also growing:
The Orlando/Orange County Expressway Authority (OOCEA) is using an RFID based traffic-monitoring system, which uses roadside RFID readers to collect signals from transponders that are installed in about 1 million E-Pass and SunPass customer vehicles.
RFID chips for animals are extremely small devices injected via syringe under skin. Under a government initiative to control rabies, all Portuguese dogs must be RFID tagged by 2007. When scanned, the tag can provide information relevant to the dog's history and its owner's information.
RFID systems are being used in some hospitals to track a patient's location, and to provide real-time tracking of the location of doctors and nurses in the hospital. In addition, the system can be used to track the whereabouts of expensive and critical equipment, and even to control access to drugs, pediatrics, and other areas of the hospital that are considered "restricted access" areas.
RFID is being joined by RuBee (IEEE 1902.1) Rubee is not described as a replacement for RFID, but as an alternative technology that works very differently. Rather than using radio signals, Rubee uses magnetic signals. Radio signals (thus RFID) have problems in some environments, especially liquids and metals. Rubee's magnetic signals are not affected, so it works in any environment including harsh environments with networks of many thousands of tags. These tags can be low in cost, near credit card thin (1.5 mm), and fully programmable using 4 bit processors. Despite their high functionality, RuBee tags have a proven battery life of ten years or more using low-cost, coin-size lithium batteries. The RuBee protocol works with both active tags and passive tags that have no battery. Rubee was introduced early in 2007 and products are expected in 2008.
Zigbee (IEEE 802.15.4) is used with long-life (years) battery powered devices and with applications that require reliable, cost-effective, low-power, monitoring and control such as sensors that automate household appliances, air conditioning and heat, and security systems. The key is low power and long life. Zigbee is compatible with both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and some devices successfully support multiple standards. Zigbee was introduced in 1998 and the ZigBee 2006 Specification was announced in September, 2006.
Wibree is even newer and was introduced by Nokia in October, 2006. It's is an offshoot to Bluetooth, and in fact was turned over to Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group) in June of this year and specifications are planned to be finalized in the first half of 2008, with products on the market in 2009. Wibree uses the same frequency band as Bluetooth and the same hardware, but uses less power to send small streams of information over short distances. As a result, the devices that will be capable of communicating wirelessly are getting smaller. It allows devices that use button-cell batteries--like a wristwatch, wireless keyboard or toy--to communicate with other devices via sensors. Wibree is considered by many to be competitive with Zigbee.
I've often mentioned the great changes in IT predicted over 2005-2015. Certainly wireless plays a big part in this. Picture what 2015 will look like. We'll be able to get on the Internet from anywhere, at any time (Wi-FI/Bluetooth), we'll be living in Jetson-like houses completely controlled by wireless systems (ZigBee/Wibree), and we'll be able to find anything we lose, as everything will have a chip (RFID/RuBee).
*For more information on wireless, check out our online seminar. Next session is August 23rd, from 2:15 - 3:00pm.
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1. What part of IT has grown over 60% since last year?
2. What system uses traffic light colors to indicate: replace the device (red) – start paying attention (yellow) – and all is fine (green)?
3. What's the newest TLD (Top Level Domain)?
4. Which of the following doesn't belong:
a. Oracle 9i
b. Oracle 10g
c. Oracle 11i
d. Oracle 11g
5. What's the difference between deduplication and data cleansing?
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One of the confusing aspects of Information Technology is the merging of systems and technologies (it's right up there with corporate merges – but that's another topic). SCM (Supply Chain Management) systems were introduced as stand-alone packages, and now are merged into ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and manufacturing systems. In fact, many people now refer to all manufacturing systems as SCM. BI (Business Intelligence) systems are evolving into BPM (Business Process Management) and the functions of both are merged.
One of the newest is the merging of SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) with Web 2. Basically companies are starting to use Web 2 technologies such as mashups, AJAX, RSS (Really Simple Syndication), REST (Representational State Transfer), etc. That means techies are talking about two major NEW technologies in the same breath. It makes life very difficult for business people. We have to have a basic understanding of the separate technologies in order to understand how they're used together.
How to keep up with all the changes? First, concentrate on the systems and technologies that come across your desk regularly. At the same time, prepare for tomorrow. Keep abreast of the changing IT world, and get at least a basic understanding of what's new. Then, when it hits your desk you've got a head start.
Remember, TechRef® is updated 24x7. All the words in this article (and in fact in everything in this newsletter) are covered in TechRef® – with a lot of attention paid to the new. Remember to keep checking on the articles on Technical Shorts in TechRef®, too.
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ITIL
One topic that is appearing more and more frequently in the news is ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library). Service is becoming an important part of any corporate operation, and standards and best practices are important. ITIL is continually updated to provide just that.
ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) Set of standards for best practices in IT service management. ITIL provides a series of books describing quality for IT services and facilities and includes training modules and competency testing through ISEB (Information Services Examination Board). Originally started by the British government in the late 1980s, and currently used throughout the world. Companies including Hewlett-Packard, Remedy, Computer Associates, and Peregrine have all developed service desk software following ITIL best practices. Current version, Version 3 was defined in May, 2007. Version 3 consists of five core volumes:
• Service Strategy
• Service Design
• Service Transition
• Service Operation
• Continual Service Improvement.
ITIL Certification Certification program for ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) practitioners. There are three levels of certification:
• Foundation Certificate The Foundation Certificate enables people to understand the terminology used within ITIL. It focuses upon foundation knowledge with regard to the ITIL Service Support and Service Delivery sets as well as covering generic ITIL philosophy and its background.
• Practitioner's Certificate This is a qualification on the specific disciplines within the ITIL Service Support or Service Delivery set, including customer and IT organization communication.
• Manager's Certificate This is aimed at experienced professionals, who will be involved in the management of service management functions.
ITSM (Information Technology Service Management) IT practice used to align the delivery of information technology (IT) services with needs of the enterprise, emphasizing benefits to customers. ITSM shifts from managing IT as stacks of individual components to focusing on the delivery of end-to-end services using best practice process models. ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a globally recognized collection of best practices for information technology (IT) service management. ITSM audits are based on analysis of four key performance indicators in specific ways:
• Growth and value, which involves tracking revenue growth against investment and utilization.
• Budget adherence, which involves optimizing the use of available funds and avoiding unnecessary expenditures.
• Risk impact, which involves identifying and evaluating the consequences of risks taken or avoided.
• Communication effectiveness.
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1. Lots of things come to mind, but the one we're thinking of is storage capacity shipped each quarter. For the second consecutive quarter storage devices with a total capacity of over an Exabyte of data (a billion billion bytes) shipped. This is over a 60% growth since 2006.
2. Drobo is a storage device from Data robotics. The system contains four disk bays which can be filled by any SATA disk drive from any manufacturer. A system of lights will show the status of the device (red, replace the disk; yellow, the disk is filling up; green, all is well). When disks fill up, they can be swapped out for a larger size. Released: June, 2007.
3. The TLD is the part of the Web site address that identifies the basic domain. TLDs include .COM, .NET, .ORG, .GOV, .EDU, etc. The latest is .JOBS. This identifies a Web site that has job postings and job information. Many companies are adding .JOBS sites to their Web presence. For more information, www.goto.jobs.
4. The answer is c), Oracle 11i. The other three are names of Oracle DBMS systems. Oracle 11g is the latest release of the Oracle database system, and just released in July, 2007. Oracle 11i is their ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) application software, whose full name is E-Business Suite 11i, It, too, has been updated to Oracle 12, or E-Business Suite 12.
5. Deduplication is a data cleansing technique. Data cleansing is the broader topic, and is used to ensure data accuracy. Removing duplicates is certainly part of data cleansing, and deduplication is a technique that eliminating duplicate data by merging together duplicate information.
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