This is my research site for articles, resources, etc. that either have been involved with our found of interest. If you have questions, please email me at george@spaffordconsulting.com.
News
02/15/2010
Belated Happy New Year!! I've b een posting on Twitter mostly. Still updating the articles section.
11/13/2009
Well, the site has become somewhat dusty as I haven't had time to update it. My intent is to add in articles and other links as time permits now that I have web authoring configured on my new notebook. Also, please note that I have stopped the newsletter for now and am mainly doing updates/thoughts via Twitter. I'm at http://twitter.com/gspaff.
03/15/2009 Looking for Books on Governance, ITIL, Green IT, and so on??? Be sure to visit the IT Governance UK now. They have both of my Green IT books published and ready for ordering plus books on many other topics available in hardcopy and downloadable formats. http://www.itgovernance.co.uk/MicroSite/?site=158
03/14/2009 New Green IT Book: Greening the Data Center: A Pocket Guide This is a new pocket guide I wrote that is intended to give managers an overview of technical areas to look at to reduce power consumption in a data center. The book has been published and is now ready for ordering.
Soft cover edition: http://www.itgovernanceusa.com/product/1907.aspx
Download edition: http://www.itgovernanceusa.com/product/1908.aspx
02/26/2009 Received my Amazon’s Kindle 2.0 I received my Kindle on February 26 th. It’s sleek, easy to use and thinner than the business books I usually have crammed in my carry on bag and can charge from my notebook’s USB port. Furthermore, the screen’s clarity and contrast is truly remarkable. For me, the issue isn’t about cost savings – it’s about convenient access to new magazines and books in a very small form factor. So my recommendation is especially aimed at travelers who want access to a library without carrying all the books. I bought the two year warranty and leather case. I can’t speak to the warranty but the case definitely will help protect the Kindle when it is in my computer bag. Learn more and/or order it Amazon
02/22/2009
Second Green IT Pocket Guide Completed - Greening the Data Center The second book is now through editing and will be published on April 2nd. Whereas the first book dwelt on governance and process issues, this pocket guide will focus more on high-level technical improvement opportunities. Once I have the URL for it at the publisher, then I will pass it along.
01/18/2009 Feedback on The Governance of Green ITBook I sent a copy of the new Green IT process book to James Hamilton at Amazon. He was kind enough to review the book and sent me a quote I can use - “George Spafford's Governance of Green IT is a concise and easy to read summary of the key processes required to operate a resource efficient data center.” For those of you who do not know James, he is a data center guru and for him to say that about the new book means a great deal to me. James was responsible for a lot of the industry-leading data center design work coming out of Microsoft and recently moved to Amazon’s web services group. He has a blog where he posts his thoughts at: http://perspectives.mvdirona.com/SyndicationService.asmx/GetRss
For more information on the Governance of Green IT book or to order it, please visit: http://www.itgovernance.co.uk/products/2106
For a free high-level introduction to the Green IT process, please visit: http://www.spaffordconsulting.com/webinars.html and view the December 2, 2008, webinar
There is also a PowerPoint of that webinar at: http://www.spaffordconsulting.com/Governing%20IT%20in%20a%20Green%20World_120208_v1j.ppt
12/28/2008
Newly Published Book: The Governance of Green IT “The economy and environment have combined to create quite a challenge. On one hand, there is a push to reduce capital investment and operating expenses. On the other, organizations are implementing green strategies to reduce the environmental impacts. Within this context, information technology is struggling to provide services that support the organization. To sustain support, IT must implement processes to ensure proper value creation and protection of organizational goals. To this end, this book sets forth a Green IT process that will enable value creation and protection in the areas of data center power and cooling.”
Note: The original posting had the book at Amazon and they haven't started carrying it yet. It can be ordered directly from IT Governance UK at: http://www.itgovernance.co.uk/products/2106
8/16/2008
Pepperweed has made their process guides freely downloadable to the public. The Pepperweed Process Model is a process is best practice “jumpstart” kit for over 20 core IT processes is being released into the public domain. These core processes represent the foundation intellectual property that we use when engineering customized processes. The intent of this move is to provide this documentation, which doesn’t exist for free today, to the market and collect feedback to strengthen and continue to evolve the processes, much in the same way that open source software does. http://www.pepperweed.com/consulting-services/pepperweed-process-model.html
Both Green IT webinars are online now.
Access the archived webcast or the source PPT files at on the webinars page.
07/14/2008 Check Out Amazon’s Kindle This is an amazing reading device that you can load your PDFs on and it is connected to Amazon using an included wireless 3G phone connection. The feedback I am getting is very positive and plan on buying one shortly. Even if you aren’t thinking of buying one, go to the webpage, read the features and look at the marketing. It’s very impressive. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FI73MA/?tag=georgespaffor-20
07/09/2008
The webcast "Governing IT in a Green World" was recorded today and the recording URL, PowerPoint file, and a US State Energy Cost variance analysis spreadsheet are now available on the webinar page.
06/06/2008 Click here for a link to Goldratt books at Amazon. People often do not realize how prolific Goldratt has been and the contributions of others to the Theory of Constraints and the Thinking Processes.
The menus are being updated as well. Note the old article pages such as "IT" and "Business" are no longer linked to. Instead additional organization is being added for webcasts, etc.
06/03/2008
The site is in the process of being refreshed with links to the latest articles, etc.
Articles and blog posts will be in the Articles section of the website organized by date.
Webinars and Podcasts have a dedicated page organized by date
Newsletters still have a dedicated page organized by date
George is regularly contributing to the ITSMWatch blog. Other contributors include Sharon Taylor, the chief architect of ITIL v3, and Valerie Arraj. Check it out at: http://blog.itsmwatch.com
