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A colleague of mine recently remarked in frustration that IT often finds itself in the worst possible position: taking the blame for a host of problems -- including increasing costs, growing capacity needs and poor responsiveness -- while being limited by a lack of real influence and control over the solutions. ...

Recent events have added further credence (if more was needed) to the growing body of evidence that -- despite the boundless hype -- cloud computing is a game-changing phenomenon that is having an impact on how people think about enterprise storage. ...

Several years ago analysts began trumpeting the finding that operational costs had surpassed capital costs as the dominant source of expense in IT infrastructure. Despite evidence supporting this claim, many IT managers for a time continued to focus primarily on capex. However, over the past few years, server virtualization and other data center consolidation efforts have squeezed costs from the capex side of the equation, resulting in a broader awareness of operational costs along with a greater impetus to address the problem...

It was inevitable. With the new year have come indications that, at least to some degree, cloud euphoria is beginning to ebb and is being replaced with perspectives that range from cynicism to realism. It is true that in the past year cloud hype managed to get ahead of the reality. Recent surveys have suggested slow adoption rates in the enterprise, providing cynics with "proof" of failure. ...

As we approach the end of 2009, the hands-down winner of the hot IT trends award continues to be cloud computing. Yet the reality is that for many, cloud deployment strategies remain somewhat ethereal -- part theoretical, part vendor/marketing hype, and part vaguely defined future model. ...

The free market is a wonderful thing. With regard to IT, I've always been impressed by the ability of vendors to rapidly identify and respond to market trends and customer demands. Whenever a new concept emerges onto the scene and a glimmer of interest begins to take hold, it's not long before we're inundated with offerings that strive to embrace this concept and, hopefully, make it more viable. ...

When the economic crisis hit last year, much of the government response was targeted at shoring up public faith in what once had been perceived as rock solid institutions. We all are now highly aware that these foundations were not as sturdy as once believed, and as a result, many are justifiably skeptical when being asked to trust the same organizations with their now-diminished portfolios. ...

In the world of IT, it's important to maintain an open mind and be willing to consider new approaches to addressing problems. People often have a tendency to get locked into a particular approach and hold onto it long past the point at which it has ceased being a best practice. On the other hand, it's also important to maintain a certain level of skepticism, and a key trait many IT veterans have developed -- out of necessity -- is the innate ability to apply a "reality filter" to vendor technology claims. ...