Traditional computer networks are complex and very hard to manage. To express the desired policies, network operators need to configure each individual network device, one by one, either manually or with the use of low-level scripts. In addition to configuration complexity, network environments have to endure the dynamics of faults and adapt to load changes.

For over a decade, the US Navy has been modernizing many of its large-scale, mission-/safety-critical, and software-intensive national security systems using an open systems architecture (OSA)1 approach, which leverages capable and reliable standards-based commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software infrastructure components and modern software development practices for iterative and incremental development. As with other mission-/safety-critical domains, such as air traffic management, power grid, and automotive systems, a key goal of the Navy's OSA strategy has been to field and manage affordable and superior capabilities more rapidly at reduced cost.

In this article, we provide eight recommendations to ensure that applications run fast for users. The first four recommendations apply to Web-based applications in general, including cloud-based applications, and the final four are specific to cloud-based applications. All of these recommendations are geared toward measuring the most important performance metric: how a user actually experiences an app.

The IT infrastructure management landscape is being transformed.

Fortunately in the last few years, cloud platforms have become more standardized and instrumented, virtualization has become more pervasive throughout standard platforms, and automation frameworks have become available that enable us to manage virtualized resources automatically.2 This allows organizations that plan to adopt or are already are using SDIs to leverage a strategy already in use in many other complex environments: dashboarding.

In this Executive Update, we explore the process of building out a project team and what differentiates good and bad teams, as well as what it takes to lead that team and get it to follow you into any battle.

For too long, discussions about the value of Enterprise Architecture have been hijacked into a debate about whether or not EA is necessary. This type of discussion misses a key point: if you have an enterprise, then it must have an enterprise architecture. Enterprise architecture isn't optional.

In this on-demand webinar, Cutter Senior Consultant Roger Evernden explains why EA isn’t optional, and how the debate should be more about whether we need to actively manage enterprise architectures.

Watson Analytics provides immediate analytic processing from the cloud for business-related queries. The most interesting aspect, however, is not in its application of big data to the solution of queries -- a process that is handled by IBM's Cognos TM1 as a back end -- but in its application in simplifying the user interface and making analytics accessible to a wider range of business professionals.

Watson Analytics provides immediate analytic processing from the cloud for business-related queries. The most interesting aspect, however, is not in its application of big data to the solution of queries -- a process that is handled by IBM's Cognos TM1 as a back end -- but in its application in simplifying the user interface and making analytics accessible to a wider range of business professionals.

The quest for knowledge has played a major part in the intellectual development and evolution of individuals, societies, and cultures. Socrates viewed knowledge as a virtue, a path to perfection. Prometheus was punished for bringing knowledge to the world, and Faust for wanting it too much.

Yet knowledge has continued to feature as a defining commodity and a sign of progress. Aristotle, reflecting the height of Greek philosophy, observed that "all men by nature desire knowledge," while Socrates proclaimed that the only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.

Containerization gives an organization more than just a reduction in redundancy by eliminating resource-hogging services that do not need to be replicated. 

This Advisor explores some of the exhibits highlighted at Internet of Things World 2015, such as Intel's interactive model of a smart city, Samsung's Artik hardware-software modules for IoT devices, and Microsoft's Azure IoT Suite.

Cutter’s modern analytics in software development consulting, led by Cutter Senior Consultant Dr. Murray Cantor, delivers real-time knowledge about your software development operation and the adjustments you can make to deliver optimal business value — whether the goal is better financial outcomes, faster time to market, or operational efficiency.

IT service leaders are under constant pressure to deliver reliable and available services within the budgetary constraints of the business. They look for opportunities to optimize their support model, extracting repetitive, nonvalued inefficiencies and effort that inflate support costs. As we discuss in this Executive Update, the shift-left service strategy focuses on moving issue resolution and request fulfillment to the lowest cost level in the tiered-model service organization, with a focus on "one and done" -- providing the internal customer with resolution at the service desk (Level 1) or self-service portal (Level 0).

"The annual IT trends issue deals with a very complex and hard- to-predict environment that is extremely important to our daily experience and endeavors."

—Joseph Feller, Editor

I was recently invited to give a technology forecast at a partner company's annual user conference. I agreed but made it very clear at the start of my presentation that I was going to provide the forecast in the style of Met Éireann.

"The annual IT trends issue deals with a very complex and hard- to-predict environment that is extremely important to our daily experience and endeavors."

—Joseph Feller, Editor

I was recently invited to give a technology forecast at a partner company's annual user conference. I agreed but made it very clear at the start of my presentation that I was going to provide the forecast in the style of Met Éireann.

Not so long ago, the top conferences attended by IT professionals revolved around organizations sharing arcane technical aspects of particular technologies or venues where manufacturers tipped their R&D hand to loyal purchasing departments. Some of these gatherings have gone by the wayside much like some of the information systems highlighted in them (e.g., COMDEX).

Not so long ago, the top conferences attended by IT professionals revolved around organizations sharing arcane technical aspects of particular technologies or venues where manufacturers tipped their R&D hand to loyal purchasing departments. Some of these gatherings have gone by the wayside much like some of the information systems highlighted in them (e.g., COMDEX).

A picture is truly worth a thousand words. As I write this, I'm looking at the results of Cutter's 2015 IT trends survey and musing over the observations of my CBR co-contributor Cutter Senior Consultant Dennis Adams.

For me, there are a few key points coming out of this year's IT trends issue (or, more accurately, over the last several IT trends issues).

This survey explored interest in and adoption of various relatively new IT technologies and initiatives and investigated staffing and outsourcing trends in 80 organizations worldwide. Fifty percent of responding organizations are headquartered in North America, 19% in Asia/Australia/Pacific, 14% in Europe, and 11% in Africa, with the remainder in South America and the Middle East.

This survey explored interest in and adoption of various relatively new IT technologies and initiatives and investigated staffing and outsourcing trends in 80 organizations worldwide. Fifty percent of responding organizations are headquartered in North America, 19% in Asia/Australia/Pacific, 14% in Europe, and 11% in Africa, with the remainder in South America and the Middle East.

Hadoop can store and process huge amounts of social media and other unstructured data practically and cost effectively -- making it possible for organizations to perform analyses multiple times over in order to measure changing consumer or public opinion over time (e.g., comparing several months or years worth of findings).

Hadoop can store and process huge amounts of social media and other unstructured data practically and cost effectively -- making it possible for organizations to perform analyses multiple times over in order to measure changing consumer or public opinion over time (e.g., comparing several months or years worth of findings).