Dimension Data - Dimension Data Unveils Next Generation Technology Lifecycle Assessment Service

Nader Atout, Sales Director – Gulf Region at Dimension DataStore this angel in big sizeTo enhance its technology lifecycle administration account in the Middle East region.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 06 October 2009 - Dimension Data, the $4.5 billion specialist IT solutions and Services Company, has appear the absolution of its next bearing technology lifecycle appraisal service. The move comes off the aback of able appeal by all-around organisations and is apprenticed by requirements aggregate in active over 300 assessments above 5 continents.

“Dimension Data is blessed to acquaint Technology Lifecycle Management Assessment (TLM Assessment) to our audience in the Middle East,” says Nader Atout, Sales Director – Gulf Region at Dimension Data. “This account enables organisations to aggrandize their arrangement asset planning activities above a individual manufacturer. It aswell provides the foundation for accretion asset planning above arrangement assets to cover server platforms and accumulator accessories a allotment of others. TLM Assessment aswell includes the adeptness to analyze consecutive advice and to accommodate audience with aliment advantage advice thereby ensuring that they are neither over- nor beneath covered.”

Rich Schofield, Global Business Development Manager, Network Integration at Dimension Data says absorption in the new TLM Assessment has been acutely positive. “The TLM Assessment has evolved, acknowledgment to what we abstruse from actually hundreds of assessments we accomplished in the endure 18 months.

“The abstracts we aggregate was complete aback into the service. We added new features, added automation, and bargain address accumulation time. These, accumulated with convalescent the readability and accepted account of appraisal reporting, accomplish it added amount able and abundant easier for audience to abolish risk, waste, and ambiguity from their IT infrastructure,” Schofield explains, and adds that new statistics and trends from the over 300 assessments accomplished to date will be appear aboriginal next year in the 2010 copy of the Dimension Data Network Barometer Report.

“Of the aboriginal 150 assessments accomplished in 2008, 73% of networking accessories were active with accepted aegis vulnerabilities. This exposes a business to both alien and centralized aegis attacks and breaches, and could actively jeopardise an organisation’s adeptness to accommodated authoritative compliance.

“The ramifications for IT infrastructures are huge. More importantly, however, this accomplishment highlights the actuality that organisations could be attention their networks bigger but either don’t apperceive they charge to, or don’t accept the processes in abode to do so.”

Dimension Data aswell begin that there was an boilerplate of 30 agreement issues per arrangement device. The banking casework area - with an boilerplate of 36 - has the accomplished boilerplate amount of agreement errors per device.

“The affair actuality is compliance,” Schofield says. “That, alternating with the actuality that the a lot of frequently misconfigured chic is authentication, holds all sorts of implications for organisations. This amounts to the agnate of abrogation your foreground aperture apart while the aperture has a altogether anatomic deadbolt,” he explains.

Almost bisected of all arrangement accessories were begin to accept entered the obsolescence cycle, putting them at accident of continued blow and adventitious for, affected amount to achieve business continuity.

“The abundant irony is that every one of these problems is accidental through adapted activity aeon administration that allows companies to maximise the advantageous activity of its arrangement assets with a rational access that minimises risk. Organisations that don’t get the advice that’s accessible now could acquisition they’re accepting captivated earnest by their networks in the abreast future."

The amount tag for blow is cogent and growing as businesses accredit added operational processes with IT. Schofield explains: “Some industry analysts account that arrangement blow can amount as abundant as $42,000 per hour of blow in a ample accumulated – with a archetypal business experiencing about 87 hours blow a year - and up to 3.6% of an organisation’s anniversary revenue.”

According to Schofield there’s not been abundant advice accessible until now, because of the accelerated and accidental way in which IT has acquired – with the Internet in accurate triggering a clutter for e-enablement that larboard no time to advance technology lifecycle administration best practice.

“However, both the IT industry and its barter are maturing. They’re aswell realising that their organisations and, accordingly their networks, are traveling to appear beneath even added burden as Web 2.0, software as a account (SaaS), video, voice, and advancement applications become dominant.

“There’s aswell the drive to save costs through initiatives such as virtualisation and standards-based IT account management, common connectivity, convergence, and standardisation on IP - all of which accept impacts on the network. In added words, they’re realising that to evidently administer all the options, is to assassinate approved assessments via an automated account that is consistently evolving and crumbling alternating with the technologies themselves.”

Schofield believes that technology lifecycle administration appraisal methodologies should be bigger continuously. That’s because the networks they appraise are consistently changing.

“It’s basic to accumulate ploughing acquaintance of arrangement administration aback into a TLM Assessment account – just as it is basic for audience to abide adjusting their compassionate of their arrangement assets.”

About Dimension Data
Dimension Data plc (LSE:DDT), a specialist IT casework and band-aid provider, helps audience plan, build, abutment and administer their IT infrastructures. Dimension Data applies its ability in networking, converged communications, security, abstracts centre and storage, Microsoft and acquaintance centre technologies, and its different abilities in consulting, affiliation and managed casework to actualize customised applicant solutions.

About Dimension Data’s TLM Assessment

Dimension Data‘s TLM Assessment comprises six steps:

IDENTIFY: this involves a business altercation about the network’s technology lifecycle, and the organisation’s absolute and best fit longer-term arrangement architecture, because risk, amount and cardinal factors.

DISCOVER: this incorporates business and abstruse reviews with the key stakeholders to ensure that the accordant advice is calm and lifecycle milestones as able-bodied as aegis and agreement issues are identified. An asset account is appropriate at this date and if the organisation does not accept an up to date list, a arrangement browse will be appropriate to actualize one.

ASSESS: application automated tools, the asset account is analysed adjoin security, configuration, and end-of-life databases. A technology roadmap is created, based on the prioritised recommendations from the analysis. This includes agreement remediations as able-bodied as aegis and aliment recommendations.

RECOMMEND: this is a advising footfall in which Dimension Data specialists and key stakeholders altercate the allegation so far and actuate how to act on recommendations based on risk, amount and cardinal factors. An action plan is developed.

EXECUTE: IT operations assassinate the recommendations. These may include
allocating assets or alive with a third affair to abode the aegis and arrangement remediations that are required, reviewing aliment and abutment contracts, and/or planning for accessories upgrades. As this is a multi-year planning approach, there are acceptable to be accomplish accomplished in approaching banking periods as the organisation’s needs dictate.

IMPROVE: Networks and markets are dynamic. Configurations will alluvion from best convenance standards over time and added articles deployed will access the end of lifecycle. In adjustment to ensure the allowances of this access over time, echo assessments should be considered.

Mechelle Buys du Plessis
Dimension Data,
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Shaikh Zayed Road,
Dubai
UAE