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The News - November 23, 2008
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”” – Calvin Coolidge
Top Picks
New Webinar: Governing IT in a Green World
“IT is a key stakeholder in the definition of an organization's green strategy and therefore must work to support the strategy. In order to do this, IT must be aware of the issues facing the organization and then come up with measures that make business sense. This webcast will cover a number of high-level topics for environmentally conscious organizations to consider. You'll understand the risks facing IT, such as skyrocketing energy costs, Global warming and the potential for new regulations and learn about developing and implementing "green" strategies in IT, including how IT can help the organization and what approaches are relevant to IT.”
http://solutions.internet.com/5341_default
Energy Versus Water: Is Blue the New Green?
“There is a growing recognition that there are two convergent crises facing the world: energy and water. Scientific American launched a dedicated environmental publication this month, Earth 3.0, with the cover story Energy Vs Water. The article explores the dichotomy between the fact that we need energy to produce water and we need water to produce energy.”
http://cleantechnica.com/2008/11/10/energy-versus-water-is-blue-the-new-green/
[A forthcoming water shortage is all but inevitable and needs management.]
Economy, not rights, rules the new China-US world
“China now owns over half-a-trillion dollars in U.S. government bonds, more than any other country, and Washington needs Beijing to continue buying them to help finance the national debt and the $700 billion financial industry bailout. And while China's economy is heavily dependent on exports to the U.S., it is also a growing market for U.S. products, making trade retaliation — long a threat wielded solely by Washington — more of a two-way street.”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j2ZxyVtR_dPyd75yfIAMpV4QNXOgD94K3EE00
The Global Economy's Big Fear Becomes Real: Deflation
“At the core of the mounting concerns about deflation is this: the global financial system is going through a vicious process of deleveraging. Financial institutions are reducing debt and raising capital, either directly from governments or from private-sector sources. By desperately trying to rebuild their battered balance sheets and regain some semblance of investor confidence, banks and investment banks are not doing much lending.”
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1861105,00.html?imw=Y
[Definitely read this article.]
Book and Product Recommendations
George’s New 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.”
US Page: http://www.itgovernanceusa.com/product/1827.aspx
International Page: http://www.itgovernance.co.uk/products/2106
Visible Ops Security, Phase 1
Dr. Mich Kabay continues his review of VOS: “Phase 1 provides a chilling reminder of how badly information assurance implementation can go wrong.”
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/sec/2008/111708sec2.html?hpg1=bn
Order the VOS book at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0975568612?ie=UTF8&tag=georgespaffor-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0975568612
IT Audit / Internal Audit / Compliance
Dan's Resource Email List
Leading resources covering subjects such governance, leadership, risk management, compliance, control, internal audit, IT security, project mgmt, and numerous others.
http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/DansResource_EmailList/
IT Process Improvement / Quality Management
Green Grid Proposes a 'Miles-per-Gallon' Metric for Data Centers
“Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, Green Grid director Jim Pappas said that having successfully launched a measure for assessing the efficiency of data center cooling and power supply units in the form of its Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) metric the consortium is now working on standards for measuring the efficiency of the IT equipment itself.”
http://greenercomputing.com/news/2008/11/17/green-grid-proposes-mpg-metric-data-centers
Understanding the Green SPECpower Benchmark
“In the middle of this year, the Standard Performance Evaluation Council (SPEC) released the final version of the SPECpower_ssj2008 benchmark --- a new suite of tests that details power and performance in a single number. SPEC is a vendor-neutral industry council that has a long tradition of coming up with impartial benchmarks and strict compliance constraints that prevent vendors from monkeying with their systems to inflate or otherwise game their results.”
http://greenercomputing.com/blog/2008/10/28/understanding-green-specpower-benchmark
The SPECpower_ssj2008 benchmark web page is: http://www.spec.org/power_ssj2008/
Hidden Risks of Virtualization
Michael Lohr of Tripwire blogs about why virtualized systems still need change management.
http://www.tripwire.com/blog/?p=200
Experts see data center through green lens
“It might surprise some CIOs how inefficient data centers still are when it comes to energy consumption, as many look and operate the same as they have for years, said Ruth Harenchar, vice president of Consulting Services at TechnoDyne, a privately held strategic technology consultant.”
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/111708-experts-see-data-center-through.html?hpg1=bn
Calculating the Costs of Downtime
“As companies become increasingly dependent on technology, the probability of experiencing system failures or unavailability also increases. Downtime translates into real costs and losses and, depending on the nature of the company, these costs can be quite significant.”
http://datacenterjournal.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2249
Pitfalls of data center consolidation and relocation
“No C-level executive, whether it's the CIO or CFO, wants to invest in his company's data center, especially not now, when the economy is executing an almost perfect swan dive into an Olympic-size recessionary pool. But an optimally (or even an adequately) functioning data center is not a luxury; it's a business necessity. If it ain't right, it's got to be fixed.”
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyId=14&articleId=9120860&intsrc=hm_topic
Security and Risk Management
GTISC’s “Emerging Cyber Threats Report for 2009”
“GTISC research and advance interviews with key information security experts from government, industry and academia uncovered five specific trends and some profound questions that will drive threats and countermeasures in 2009 and beyond, including: Malware, Botnets, Cyber warfare, Threats to VoIP and mobile devices, and the evolving cyber crime economy.”
http://www.gtiscsecuritysummit.com/pdf/CyberThreatsReport2009.pdf
A Wealth of Data, and Nobody in Charge
“It's not unreasonable to ask why privacy protection cannot be simply added to the responsibilities of information-technology departments. After all, the siphoning of personal information from online databases looms as a common threat, and educational institutions regularly appear on lists that track security lapses around the country. More than a dozen data breaches in higher education are reported each month, according to Educational Security Incidents (http://www.adamdodge.com/esi) an online catalog compiled by Adam Dodge, assistant director of information security at Eastern Illinois University.”
http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i13/13a00103.htm
Express Scripts data breach is bitter medicine
“Express Scripts is one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits managers. The company, with headquarters in St. Louis County, handles approximately 500 million prescriptions per year for 50 million workers at 1,600 American companies. Early in October, it received an extortion letter, the details of which it released on Nov. 6.”
http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-platform/published-editorials/2008/11/express-scripts-data-breach-is-bitter-medicine/
[Still no details on how the data was breached.]
Call for strengthened security during economic crunch
“Professor Howard A Schmidt, president of the Information Security Forum, has urged organisations to strengthen security rather than reduce it in today's uncertain financial environment.”
http://www.info4security.com/story.asp?sectioncode=10&storycode=4121035&c=1
Obama's Cell Phone Records Breached in Verizon Inside Job
“Most large organizations take strong measures to keep outsiders from accessing their customers' data, but when it comes to insiders, they're lackadaisical, to say the least. Verizon Wireless apologized to President-elect Obama after learning that employees had been snooping into his cell phone account records, but whether the company will change its access procedures is unknown.”
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/65249.html?wlc=1227304619
Healthcare / Bio-Informatics / Care Delivery Organizations (CDOs)
Flu season approaches, and Google is ahead of the curve
“Google will use information pulled from its users' search engine queries to help the Centers for Disease Control track the influenza virus. The CDC has its own tracking system, but it takes one to two weeks to collect and release the data, according to Jeremy Ginsberg and Matt Mohebbi, the Google software engineers who blogged about Google's new endeavor.”
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=10404
Banana bread story offers glimpse into Google co-founder's healthcare venture
“Google co-founder Adam Bosworth has parted the curtain on KEAS Inc., the new healthcare enterprise he is poised to launch early next year. If he's successful, it could mean fat Americans would become fit and healthy.”
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?
15 senators write a health care letter
“The seven Republicans, seven Democrats and one independent joined in a letter to Obama on Friday saying they have hammered out seven principles they believe should be the goal of health care reform.”
http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705265066,00.html
Human Error / Safety / Environment
'Jelly balls' may slow global warming
“The jellyfish-like animals are known as salps and their main food is phytoplankton (marine algae) which absorbs the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the top level of the ocean. This in turn comes from the atmosphere.”
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/jelly-balls-may-slow-global-warming/2008/11/16/1226770256757.html
Tuberculosis: A new pandemic?
“Many people think of tuberculosis as being a disease from the past. The truth is far from it: Tuberculosis is mutating into dangerous new strains for which there is no known cure. One of the most frightening strains is XDR-TB, which stands for extensively drug-resistant TB.”
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/11/17/tb.pandemic/index.html
Global warming data blunder: Worth the fuss?
“Despite broad consensus on the existence, origins and potentially catastrophic effects of global warming, a vocal minority continues to question the motives, methods and assumptions of climate scientists sounding the alarm. So when temperature data released by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), one of the leading monitors of climate change, showed an unusually warm October, climate change skeptics cried foul.”
http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=global-warming-data-blunder-worth-t-2008-11-18
Obama commits to action on climate change
“President-elect Barack Obama pledged yesterday that the United States will move quickly to adopt national greenhouse-gas emissions caps, and would be willing to work closely with other countries to battle climate change.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081119.OBAMA19/TPStory/Environment
Global News / Business / Economics
EU’s Code of Conduct on Data Centres Energy Efficiency
This document outlines a non-binding code of conduct that the EU wishes that data centers in member states would follow.
http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/energyefficiency/pdf/CoC%20data%20centres%20nov2008/CoC%20DC%20v%201.0%20FINAL.pdf
Best Practices for the EU Code of Conduct on Data Centres
This is a very interesting 27 page document that identifies a number of practices that the EU feels data centres should pursue.
| http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/energyefficiency/pdf/CoC%20data%20centres%20nov2008/Best%20Practices%20v1.0.0%20-%20Release.pdf
Prices in Canada Decline, Raising Fears of Deflation
“Prices in Canada fell by 1 percent on an unadjusted basis from September to October, the largest such decline in 49 years, Statistics Canada reported on Friday. But the report provoked a mixed response from economists about the prospects for deflation in Canada.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/22/business/worldbusiness/22canada.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
$2.5 Billion Is Added to Bailout for Iceland
“Iceland finally received international backing for its bailout plan on Thursday, while Turkey appeared to be heading for a rescue package of its own. Nordic countries followed up a $2.1 billion loan to Iceland by the International Monetary Fund with an additional $2.5 billion.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/business/worldbusiness/21icebank.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Putin Vows to Fight Economic Collapse in Russia
“Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, mindful that Russians have already been traumatized by two financial crises in the last two decades, tried to assure the country on Thursday that it would be able to weather the current one.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/world/europe/21putin.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Europeana Website: Connecting Cultural Heritage
“Europeana, Europe's digital library, museum and archive, will re-open as soon as possible. We'll be bringing you digitised books, films, paintings, newspapers, sounds and archives from Europe’s greatest collections.”
http://www.europeana.eu/portal/
[The sight crashed due to overwhelming interest and, apparently, poor capacity planning. The site plans to re-open by mid-December.]
Economy: Golden era of growth in double figures ends
“The Chinese economy is slowing rapidly – so fast that some observers fear it could be more than just a temporary dip. Only a huge programme of public spending, say economists, can prevent the economy from dropping below the psychologically important level of 8 per cent growth. The golden era of the past five years, when growth exceeded 10 per cent each year, has ended.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f8fbbe2c-b761-11dd-8e01-0000779fd18c,s01=1.html
China Will Be a Winner in the New Economy
“In the new system the United States will still be the largest economy but no longer the sole determinant of global economic health. The new winners will be cash and China.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122731205200449375.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Uncertainty, Climate Change, And The Global Economy
“What will the climate be like in a hundred years’ time? The answer depends on both how human activity affects climate change and how a warming climate alters the economy’s productive capacity and human welfare. There is uncertainty about those links, but this column shows that, absent policy action, global warming will be a major problem even under very optimistic circumstances.”
http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=48185
Why Beijing Is In A Risky Place
“As the factory to the world, China may be the nation most vulnerable to collapsing global demand.”
http://www.newsweek.com/id/170305
Sinking global economy looks to China
“With the global financial crunch topping the agenda at recent international conferences, China is increasingly being seen as an important factor in resolving the crisis and creating stability. China has been in the spotlight at several recent meetings including the Asia-Europe Meeting in Beijing, the prime ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Astana, the Group of 20 summit in Washington, and the ongoing Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economic leaders' meeting in Lima.”
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/23/content_10399633.htm
US News / Business / Economics
A Cash-Poor And 'Sensitive' GM to Give Up Two Planes
“Struggling General Motors, which was blasted and mocked for using one of its corporate jets to fly chief executive G. Richard Wagoner Jr. to Washington this week to beg Congress for a bailout, is preparing to give back two of its leased corporate jets, the company said yesterday [Friday].”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/21/AR2008112103498.html?nav=rss_business
[The Lesson: Don’t fly a private jet to a bail out hearing. Dolts. Involve marketing and other stakeholders with an understanding of perception to discuss image impacts in a crisis, what to do and as the Big 3 learned, what not to do.]]
Obama Picks New York Fed Chief to Lead Treasury
“President-elect Barack Obama has selected New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy F. Geithner as Treasury secretary, handing the post to a primary architect of the Bush administration's response to the financial crisis, according to Democratic and industry officials yesterday.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/21/AR2008112102811.html?nav=rss_print/asection
Financial System Suffers Relapse
“After a few weeks in which credit started flowing more freely through banks, giving relief to financial markets, prices continued to plummet yesterday for all but the safest investments, dragged down by fears of a deeper and longer recession than even many pessimists had expected.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/20/AR2008112004157.html?nav=rss_business/economy
Falling Prices Raise a New Fear: Deflation
“This week's news of a drop in consumer prices may sound on the surface like a good deal for financially strapped U.S. households. But economists warn that sustained deflation -- a period of falling overall prices -- would deepen the nation's economic troubles. Such a period would make it harder for people to repay debts and would prompt consumers to delay purchases in anticipation of lower prices and harder times.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/20/AR2008112000949.html?nav=rss_business/special/3
Technology & Science
Data Center In A Parking Lot
“Planning a data center expansion may be as simple as taking out some parking spaces in the corporate parking lot. The newest approach taken by all the big server makers is modular expansion using trucking containers filled with some of the most sophisticated computing equipment on the planet.”
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/11/14/cio-data-module-tech-cio-cx_es_1117datamodule.html
Red Rocks Data Center Leverages Mountain Air for a Green Advantage
“RRDC is hidden behind the hog back in Morrison, Colorado and was chosen because of its location in a low lying frost hollow that contains abundant cool air much of the year. Housed in a former NASA satellite uplink facility, the center now draws cool, filtered mountain air into the building throughout the year, virtually eliminating the need for expensive air conditioning. Tom adds, ‘We will also be adding duct work to capture hot server air and use it to heat our office space during the winter months. This allows us to virtually eliminate our heating costs.’”
http://www.sunherald.com/454/story/959059.html
UPS saves $30M and goes Green with new HP printing and scanning handheld
“UPS estimates it will save 93,000+ hours of worker productivity, over 1.3 KILOTONS (1,300+ tons) of paper and reduced carbon emissions by 3.8 KILOTONS (3,800+ tons) each year by switching to this process.”
http://blogs.zdnet.com/perlow/?p=9322
Indian Data Center Footprint to Reach 5.1 Million Square Feet by 2012
“Gartner, in its recently released report has predicted that the total data center capacity in India is expected to reach 5.1 million square feet by 2012 and is projected to grow 31 percent from 2007 to 2012. The research company also estimates that the data center industry in India is expected to double its capacity in the next two years, and captive and hosted data centers capacities will grow at comparable rates.”
http://networkcomputing.in/Storage-019Nov008-Indian-Data-Center-Footprint-to-Reach-5-Million-Square-Feet-by-2012.aspx
Zero-carbon data centers for green computing
“Since cyberinfrastructure allows for relocation of data facilities to anywhere in the world, the ICT industry can greatly reduce its emissions by relocating computing resources to zero-carbon data centers powered by windmills, hydroelectric or geothermal sources. There are currently at least 100 zero-carbon data centers around the globe and substantially more expected in the next decade.”
http://www.isgtw.org/?pid=1001498
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