Andrew Lark

NZ Prime Minister On Letterman

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IT Efficiency

Robin Johnson, Dell’s CIO, speaks to how we are driving efficiency through virtualization.

Two years ago, the company was considering building an additional datacentre at the cost of $200m to $300m.

Now, thanks to virtualisation, the company has boosted processor utilisation rates beyond the 20 per cent it was getting previously and it plans to decommission about 8,000 servers by January 2010 - just under a third of its 25,000-strong server estate.

"The question was 'How can we use the 80 per cent of the server [processing power] that is not being utilised?'.

"We went down a very aggressive virtualisation path and are achieving consolidation ratios between 5 to 1 and 10 to 1, depending on the class of application.

"We have gone from an ever-expanding infrastructure footprint and needing an extra datacentre, to closing down two datacentres this year."

.. The company has also invested in other efficient technologies, with thin client devices used by about five per cent of its 10,000 desktop users and virtual desktop software deployed in all of its call centres.

Johnson said the company is approaching the point where only 50 per cent of the IT budget is spent on running its systems, lower than the industry norm of 70 per cent.

Barnes Shocker

For any Kiwi rugby fan, watching referee Wayne Barnes walk onto a rugby field is a cause for concern. That concern was reinforced Saturday night when he delivered a shocker in the Australia vs. Sth Africa game. Now the right side won, but at what point does this bumbling idiot be removed from refereeing international matches?

Paul Lewis says it all:

Somehow he missed the ugly, flying crunch that Springbok flanker Heinrich Brussouw put on Wallaby hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau which was, at worst, worthy of a yellow card and, at best, a penalty. It led to Polota-Nau leaving the field with injured ribs. Jeez, Wayne.

He also remarkably missed Matt Giteau's drop goal before halftime. Barnes was standing in front of the posts but had to ask the video ref if it had gone over. It had. Clearly. Hmmm.

Somehow Barnes missed at least two forward passes as the Springboks pressed the Wallabies hard towards the end of the first 20 minutes. Many New Zealanders will not be able to help comparing them to THAT forward pass in the 2007 World Cup quarter-final.Barnes was the referee then and he still looks a bit like a frightened schoolboy - but this match was more about the rejuvenated Wallabies than any referee with the wobblies.

The old adage in NZ goes like this - "I support the men in black and anyone playing Australia". But with a load-mouthed coach and a spectacle destroying game plan, we might replace Australia with Sth Africa.

Which will make for a much anticipated game next weekend. A game I'm going to have to get up at 3am to watch given my Dish Network's receiver's new trick of switching off 13 minutes into Tri Nations recordings...

I just hope Wayne Barnes won't be there...

del.icio.us Tags: All Blacks,TriNations,New Zealand

Sad Day…

One of my team lost her Dad. I know how terrible it can be to loose a family member.

And I just read that Jeffrey Walker – a good mate of mine passed away. He was the trail blazer and leader of Atlassian here in the US and around the world.

Jeffrey was someone I’ll never forget. He was genuine. He was humble. He was inspiring. And he will always be all these things to me. We chatted every now and then. Ours was a punctuated friendship – it happened, paused, happened again. But is was always on. And I’m going to miss him. A sad day.

Tonight, I’ll definitely drink a martini for Jeffrey – grey goose gibson, straight up with a twist. I hope it will make him smile.