Martin Atherton on IT-Analysis.com

Email resiliency and the SMB - Protecting business critical applications

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 06:00:00 +0100

Email, a business critical application for smaller businesses needs the protection its status demands. [Read More...]

Are your systems falling down on resiliency?

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:00:00 +0100

Few outside the IT department realise just how much effort goes into making sure systems don't fail. If more board members understood that, we might see a greater business emphasis on robust systems. [Read More...]

Behind the scenes at the National Gallery provides plenty of food for thought.

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:46:00 +0100

I recently had the pleasure of attending an event which took a group of analysts and journalists 'behind the scenes' at the National Gallery to see some of the work HP is involved... [Read More...]

Asset + IT asset management = enterprise service management. Perhaps.

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:38:00 +0100

The IBM Tivoli Pulse event a few weeks ago left me with a clear thought. Convergence between enterprise asset management and IT (asset) management) is a long haul. This is not a bad thing -... [Read More...]

Microsoft's virtualisation story was pretty cool at MMS, so why's it all gone quiet?

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:53:00 +0100

I had a few days in Vegas at MMS (Microsoft Management Summit) at the end of April, just before I moved house and then took some time off to get things straight. When I got back it was like the whole... [Read More...]

Let go and relax. Information management is about trusting your tools

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:03:00 +0100

I'm not a major player when it comes to gadgets and tools. I often download things and they remain unused, and whenever I get around to it, cleared out. A recent invite to download something... [Read More...]

##@%$��~!!! Yep - I'm buying a house...

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:34:00 +0100

Analyst invents novel scoring system for rating the people he's paying to buy a house. And squeezes Theory of Constraints in sideways. [Read More...]

Get a Life..Cycle

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:11:00 +0100

Meetings with two different vendors recently got me thinking about 'opposites' and how it's probably quite uncommon for organisations to think about IT solutions aimed at opposite... [Read More...]

Corporate concepts and slogans

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 12:18:00 +0100

On Citrix's 'Transform your datacentre into a delivery centre': Last week Citrix held a series of calls / presentations to announce / re-state its positioning and messaging, with a couple of product... [Read More...]

A silver lining in the public sector's IT cloud?

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:11:00 +0100

It's easy to criticise the way that publicly funded bodies seem to be good at making very hard work of things like IT, while private sector organisations only make hard work out of them. While... [Read More...]

Of course we're rubbish at protecting your data - we're not even trying.

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:10:00 +0100

I rarely get wound up at what I read in the IT press, but the headline and some of the content of this gem got me going. Its not so much the speculation of a once every 5 year screw up, (once every 5... [Read More...]

Dongles aren't new but your mother in law will love one

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:59:00 +0100

While Jon finds cool apps to help him continue not quite drowning in the information ocean, I'm happily playing in the other end of the pool, while being slightly pre-occupied with reducing the... [Read More...]

'Decoupling' demands the utmost faith in your IT kit

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:40:00 +0100

I had a most enjoyable session with Jon Pyke, Chief Strategy Officer with Cordys, Jan Baan's (relatively) new outfit this week. I attended the UK 'coming out' lunch a few months ago but I have... [Read More...]

A list of one thing to do in 2008: Find the balance.

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:17:00 +0100

It's the season for grand predictions, of forecasting the future, of top ten lists of the next big thing. I don't really believe that a new year creates a magical desire to explore an... [Read More...]

Is 'community spice' the perfect recipe for small business IT management?

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:52:00 +0100

I had my first briefing with IT management provider Spiceworks today. I use the term 'provider' rather than 'vendor' because currently, at least, it does not sell anything to... [Read More...]

GXS's cloak of shadows may be slipping off / when things start to look the same

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:25:00 +0100

A stealthy operator is starting to catch the eye.I enjoyed my second biannual catch up with GXS this week. I have a soft spot for it because its Orlando event was the first I attended as an official... [Read More...]

Slow and careful wins the race to ITSM

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 12:55:00 +0100

IT vendors need to be more careful with their audience, and the audience needs to shout up more, especially when they don't get it. I found myself at a CEO round table event in Reading last week... [Read More...]

(Fish) Food for Thought

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:29:00 +0100

I thought I'd start my post holiday blogging in the same manner as I ended my pre holiday blogging - with an ever so slightly fishy tale. The thing about diving is that you get down there, you... [Read More...]

So who let me down? people, process or IT?

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 17:25:00 +0100

I'm due to fly to Australia in a couple of hours so thought I'd post my last blog from London for a few weeks. There is a danger this will turn into a rant, so frustrating has my last couple of weeks... [Read More...]

Death and Taxis: Sat Nav sends New York cabbies round the bend

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:05:00 +0100

I'm in New York for the Interop show, but i didn't need to even get that far to witness a technology drama unfolding right in front of me.On Sunday New York was as usual - people, noise and of course... [Read More...]

HP, managing IT via SaaS and Nigella Lawson

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 21:06:00 +0100

HP held its EMEA software analyst conference recently, showed us a lot of interesting stuff and then announced the expansion of the availability of its Business Technology Optimisation (BTO) suite... [Read More...]

Would you outsource ITSM if your service provider nailed it properly?

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 11:00:00 +0100

File under 'thinking out loud' I thought I'd post on a couple of ideas which occurred to me while sitting though some presentations by an IT services firm (LogicaCMG) on Friday last. The ... [Read More...]

IBM Maximo (asset management) event / shock horror - vendor defines service

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 06:00:00 +0100

This all happened a few weeks ago, so in my usual up to the minute style, here's my take... I spent my Sunday morning battling through most of southern England at Gatwick airport as it... [Read More...]

Boots, House of Fraser not renewing IT director posts poses some interesting questions

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 09:05:00 +0100

Last week, David Freidlos of Computing asked me to comment on the fact that two major British retailers are not renewing their Director of IT posts once the incumbents leave. [Read More...]

A circular tale...

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 06:00:00 +0100

I came across this article / blog piece while out surfing yesterday: [Read More...]

ITSM / BSM - can we make all this a bit easier to engage with?

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 31 May 2007 06:00:00 +0100

I need to make this clear - we don't have the answers to the stuff I'm talking about below yet so this is almost an 'intro to an intro' of some interesting things we have in the pipeline, plus the ... [Read More...]

Informa + Datamonitor

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Thu, 17 May 2007 06:00:00 +0100

My old employer gets bought. Here's my thoughts. Informa's cash offer/whatever (don't ask me about the specifics) of ₤6.50 per share is the culmination of CEO Mike Danson's ... [Read More...]

What does an F1 IT Manager really want?

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Wed, 02 May 2007 07:00:00 +0100

What does an F1 IT Manager really want? Martin Atherton and Jon Collins were lucky enough to have recently been invited on a tour of the ING Renault FI Team factory. ... [Read More...]

HP Labs, the near future, and a shot of reality

Martin Atherton, Freeform Dynamics — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:00:00 +0100

Hello, this is my first ever blog, which I'm ashamed to tell you comes a full two months after joining Dale and co here at Freeform Dynamics. Hopefully now I've broken my duck I'll have more... [Read More...]