» AIG Private Client Group Diagnoses SOA Glitches With BMC Solution
AIG Private Client Group speeds diagnosis of system glitches by deploying BMC's problem resolution tool.

» AFL Tele 'ruggedizes' fusion splicers, fiber cables
April 24, 2008 -- The company has 'ruggedized' its Fujikura series of fusion splicers for field applications, and recently redesigned its line of indoor/outdoor breakout fiber-optic cables.

» Speed Up! Curves Ahead
TIA President Grant Seiffert delivers a keynote address at Semicon West 2008 and describes the ongoing evolution in wireless technology, including the latest trends and drivers in the information and communications technology industry.

» VMware's security chief leaves to run OpenDNS
Nand Mulchandani, who headed VMware's security group, is the latest executive to leave the virtualization vendor after the July ouster of its CEO, although Mulchandani says there's no connection.

» Outmoded BPM resources an issue for businesses

A recent study has found that organizations are showing a growing interest in BPM, but some are challenged by the lack of standards between process modeling and execution, amid other issues.

According to research by industry association AIIM of 354 end-users, 56 percent of respondents indicated they have implemented BPM projects ranging from departmental and cross-departmental to enterprisewide. The remaining 44 percent said they hadn't implemented a BPM project but plan to begin in the coming year.

[ Discover the top-rated IT products as rated by the InfoWorld Test Center. ]

Among the drivers behind this increased interest in BPM, said AIIM director Bob Larrivee, is the fact that advances in technology are allowing end-users capabilities like remote information access and "when you look at streamlining or automating business process in general it's becoming more and more of a driver that we need to do that, but also do it with some rules associated with it."

And applying business rules to an automated workflow will not only streamline the process, but will also automate decision-making, added Larrivee.

That said, many organizations remain "process ignorant" when it comes to BPM, said Larrivee, because "many still don't necessarily understand exactly how things are getting done [within the organization]." Moreover, he said organizations are relying on outdated documentation that exists on business processes.

Adoption aside, among the survey respondents who had implemented BPM technologies, some cited issues such as a lack of interchange standards between process modeling and execution tools, which can render system interoperability difficult, said Larrivee.

One reason that this issue exists, according to Mohammad Ketabchi, CEO and founder of Santa Clara, Calif.-based BPM vendor Savvion Inc., is that organizations are using modeling-only tools that lack an execution component. And even if they are able to import the model into an execution tool, "you will not be able to do a round-trip process improvement which is very, very important."

That round-trip process entails modeling, execution, monitoring, and improvement of the process again, explained Ketabchi.

But many organizations are using outmoded BPM tools that were developed before the Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) standard existed, noted Ketabchi.

Besides a lack of interchange standards, respondents also cited exception processing and interfaces as additional challenges.

Specifically, organizations have difficulty creating an ad hoc workflow process that can also be monitored. Michelle Warren, business consultant and technology analyst with MW Research and Consulting, said this particular challenge stems from the fact that BPM is "a series of processes that an organization must systematically work through." Implementing BPM takes time, said Warren, and is not a "one-install solution."

As for interfaces, organizations are finding the breadth of available BPM systems confusing in that each vendor interface will dictate how business processes are to be designed and applied. But "it will flesh itself out," said Warren, in that customers will decide which interface works best and by the end of approximately an 18-month time period, some vendors will adjust their business models to suit demand.

ComputerWorld Canada is an InfoWorld affiliate.

» TIA in the News: SUPERCOMM—What's Old Is New Again
FierceTelecom editorial on the re-emergence of SUPERCOMM

» New HP division makes datacenters green

Bill Kosik knows a thing or two about building efficient datacenters. As managing principal of consultancy EYP Mission Critical Facilities in Chicago, Kosik helped HP plan its global project to consolidate 85 datacenters into just six.

HP liked EYP's work so much that it decided to buy the consulting firm a year ago, transforming it into a new Critical Facilities Services division that helps HP clients plan the building of energy-efficient datacenters or retrofit existing ones.

[ For more green tips also read "Datacenters explore novel ways to cut energy use" and "The three principles of datacenter energy efficiency." And keep up on green IT trends with InfoWorld's Sustainable IT blog and Green Tech newsletter. ]

Financial institutions are particularly interested in reducing energy use, as datacenters can use 30 percent of an organization's energy even while taking up just 5 percent of its square footage, Kosik says. Retrofitting existing datacenters is often worthwhile but extremely difficult, he adds.

"It's expensive and you can't turn the thing off. You're basically doing open heart surgery on a patient that's running around the block," Kosik says.

Going after low-hanging fruit can sometimes have a big impact, though. Kosik notes that many datacenters waste power simply by keeping the thermostat too low.

"In traditional datacenters, you walk into them and they're like refrigerators," he says. "That's really not the way to do it. If we raise that temperature five of 10 degrees you could save easily close to 40 percent on power for your cooling systems. Climate has a huge impact on datacenters."

Efficient power distribution systems are vital as well. More than 10 percent of a power supply can dissipate while it travels from the edge of a building to its destined target inside the datacenter, according to Kosik.

"It's not sexy stuff, but it makes a big difference," Kosik says. "Right now, there's huge momentum in the industry to push energy efficiency, but from a more pragmatic standpoint."

In many cases, retrofitting isn't feasible from a financial perspective, and it's better to build a datacenter from scratch. In addition to helping HP plan two new U.S.-based datacenters as part of the 85-to-6 consolidation, EYP has provided consulting services to many of the world's top financial institutions, major Internet and software companies, and high-performance computing centers.

A 1-megawatt datacenter's energy needs can reach $2 million a year, Kosik says, adding that some of the bigger Internet companies need datacenters of 20 to 30 megawatts.

Many datacenters are burdened with out-of-date servers, power supplies, and building designs, notes Mark Linesch, vice president of marketing for an HP software division that focuses on managing and automating use of servers and storage. (Compare server products. )

"You could walk across a datacenter and see half-empty racks, and yet you're out of power," he says.

Besides using old equipment, datacenters often waste energy by over-provisioning power, giving a particular system more electricity than it really needs, according to Linesch.

HP this month announced new technologies that measure and control power and cooling systems, while placing limits on power used. The idea is to identify how much power is needed to run each server and set limits based on the actual usage.

More intelligent use of water for cooling systems also is important, Kosik says. For some large datacenters, getting enough water from public sources is challenging, so they build their own wells.

"We're working on projects lately where they have the power, but they don't have the water," Kosik says. "We're looking at on-site wells and running new water and sanitary lines that are basically big enough for a small city."

EYP has about 400 employees, including about 50 consultants and 250 people in design and engineering, Kosik says. Linesch says buying EYP was a natural choice for HP. The new division's consultants can provide a comprehensive assessment of a customer's datacenter, identifying areas where money can be saved by being more efficient. Then HP comes in with equipment, infrastructure designs and datacenter management software to help eliminate problem areas, he says.

Datacenters can save hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes even millions, by using more efficient servers and power supplies, and by not over-provisioning power to each server, Linesch says.

While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is planning to develop an Energy Star rating for datacenters, a lack of a real benchmark today makes it hard for datacenter operators to judge their level of efficiency, Kosik says.

"Utilization of power is probably worse than a lot of people think," he says.

Network World is an InfoWorld affiliate

» TIA Member Intertek Releases White Paper
TIA member company Intertek released a white paper that provides general guidelines to telecom equipment manufacturers who modify a product to enhance its energy or environmental attributes. These changes will likely affect compliance with NEBS and require re-testing.