When Watts Humphrey designed the framework underlying the Capability Maturity Model, his purpose was for the CMM to have positive aspects in organizations. His intent was that the CMM should help organizations improve the ability of their workforce and develop, motivate, organize and retain talent. Even though the Capability Maturity Model has constructive parts in organizations, it also has destructive parts when it is applied to organizations.

In this article by Kerime Ataker, Superb Internet Corporation Product Marketing Specialist will focus on the negative and positive aspects of the Capability Maturity Model.  Kerime intends to provide both sides of the CMM and the reasons why this model may or may not function well in a particular organization.

Negative and Positive Aspects of the Capability Maturity Model in Organizations

How disappointing it is to read that, according to research, seven out of eight information technology projects fail to meet the original time, cost, and requirements criteria (McManus & Wood-Harper, 2008). According to McManus and Wood-Harper, the key finding from studies of successful and unsuccessful projects is that no single factor is the overriding cause of project failure; however, instead, a number of factors contribute to failure, and some of them interact with each other. The most important reasons why projects fail are poor communication, lack of user or customer involvement, ineffective project managers, insufficiently managed requirements, undisciplined project definitions or baselines, and uncontrolled scope (McManus & Wood-Harper, 2008). A project that has senior-level sponsorship has a higher chance to be supportive of the strategy and goals of the business. Also, it has a higher chance to have an experienced and disciplined control team that will be actively involved in confirming the project’s objectives against those goals. Of course, this kind of involvement requires good communication within the project team as well as good management requirements. Thus, the Capability Maturity Model was established to avoid all of these failure factors and help projects succeed. Even though the Capability Maturity Model is designed to help organizations not overrun schedule and budget constraints to complete a project, the model has negative and positive aspects when applied to organizations.

The Capability Maturity Model has a well organized structure for managing the software process. When Watts Humphrey designed the CMM, he made sure that the model consisted of five levels. Kashif Manzoor, software engineer, on his website, has explained these five levels of the CMM. Initial is the first level. At this level, processes are disorganized and chaotic. Also, success is expected to depend on individual efforts and is not considered to be repeatable since processes would not be sufficiently clear and documented to allow them to be replicated. Repeatable is the second level, and at this level, basic project management techniques are established. Also, success could be repeated since the essential processes would have been established, defined, and documented. Read the rest of this entry »

In the early days of the Internet a business site was a simple brochure of products and services. More likely than not, it included a contact form and a phone number if the site visitor wanted to request more information. As time went by, Web sites evolved to include online ordering and full e-commerce capabilities.

While most Web sites evolved to include a lot of information for the visitor as well as easy e-commerce ordering they were impersonal. There was a certain anonimity to all Web sites. For all you knew, you could be buying your widget from a guy in his underwear living in his moms basement or from a huge multi-million dollar corporation.

Say Hello To The Blog.

I don’t remember the first time I heard the word ‘Blog’, but I am guessing it was around 2004. Regular people used the blog as a personal diary of sorts and shared knowledge and memories with friends and family. As blogging caught on, the SEO value began to resonate in marketing minds.

High search engine rankings fueled by a new style of web design often drive the masses towards adoption of concepts the average business owner would not ordinarily consider. The blog is a prime example of  adopting a concept one would not necessarily pair with a business Web site.

How Can A Blog Help Make Me Money?

Most business owners will ask how can a blog help increase our sales? The answer is simple – transparency. Letting potential customers get to know you and your staff personally creates a special bond that’s very hard to create on the anonymous Internet.

Imagine creating an open and friendly environment. Imagine telling customers what your plans are. Imagine asking customers for feedback on new idea’s and engaging them to participate. Most business owners cringe at the idea of exposing company secrets or how they maintain a competitive advantage. In reality, it seems that Web sites who feature an open and informational Blog see increased sales. Some Blogs like Google’s Apps even have a following and new feature requests from readers.

Most Blogging software also offer the ability for readers to obtain RSS feeds through their email clients such as Outlook. This is very important for one simple reason: People read email every day, all day. Customers who subscribe to RSS feeds from your blog don’t even have to visit your site to be informed of a new product launch or service upgrade. Read the rest of this entry »

Managed and Semi-Managed Web Services

Web hosting has never been more affordable—or more complicated. Rich media, social networking, sophisticated eCommerce platforms are all making the Internet experience incredibly dynamic and profitable. Still, security threats are greater: last year alone, the number of viruses, worms and trojans in circulation topped the one million mark—that’s in addition to ever-growing levels of spam, phishing scams and malware. The Open Security Foundation added more than 11,000 new vulnerabilities to its database in 2008. Critical OS patches and software updates never seem to end. Data loss? That’s on the rise as well, due primarily to hardware or system malfunctions or human error, but also corrupted software, power outages and malicious programs. And messaging, always critically important to organizations, carries a huge and mounting cost due to email downtime resulting from system failures.

Managed hosting services as a concept promises a coordinated, comprehensive solution to address many of the time-consuming tasks facing small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) looking for a web presence—particularly those without the necessary expertise or in-house resources to maintain and optimize their own web servers. Semi-managed plans offer a less expensive option compared to traditional, fully-managed services. Yet in terms of scalability, flexibility and the ability to deploy services quickly, both approaches present a viable alternative for server management in meeting today’s web hosting challenges.

Overview of Managed/Semi-Managed Hosting

Why Use Managed/Semi-Managed Hosting?

The cost and complexity of web hosting keeps rising: domain management, expanding server loads, ongoing software updates, and security monitoring, along with increasing demands for messaging encryption, archiving and reliability. In addition, site owners must address the critical nature of backups and data protection/restoration in the event of power outages and other disruptions, natural or man-made.

In short, it’s becoming more complex and more confusing than ever for SMBs to efficiently maintain a stable, secure web presence. The biggest challenges site owners face today include:

• Increased messaging is more difficult to manage: maintaining email functionality, data retention, and protection against spam, phishing, viruses, worms, spyware and other threats.
• DNS services are increasingly complex: DNS records configuration and management, administering multiple domains, vulnerabilities from DNS-based buffer overflow attacks.
• Server and software patch management is time consuming: consistent, regular OS patching to minimize exposure/vulnerabilities, controlling and managing software and security updates.
• Storage, data backup and data recovery requirements are growing: continuous data protection, incremental backup, off-site data management, and database and application backup and recovery (SQL, Exchange, Sharepoint, CRM).
• Network and security management will continue to command more attention—and resources: firewall configuration, scanning for malware, check sum changes in software on the server, bandwidth and port monitoring to assess ongoing risks.
• Disaster recovery and business continuity are essential, but rarely planned out thoroughly in advance: protecting against loss of sensitive data and network connectivity, downtime, reboots, service failures, power outages and other disruptions.

Server Hosting Defined

To understand further the merits of managed—fully or semi—managed services as an option for SMBs, it’s important first to understand more closely how they compare to other available types of hosting (beyond shared hosting).

Co-Located Hosting involves the purchase of a server from a hardware vendor; the server is then delivered to a web host and connected to the host’s network and redundant power systems. The host is responsible for the network, while site owners are responsible for server support, maintenance and software updates. The biggest issue with co-location? If hardware fails, the customer must ship new hardware to the data center—potential long periods of downtime outside of the SLA.

Unmanaged Dedicated Hosting is similar to co-location except the host owns the hardware, while it is the customer’s responsibility to manage and administer its operation. Support contracts may be available, but it generally falls to the customer, not the host, to install and update server software and OS patches, data backups, monitor security, manage email, etc. In this scenario, the web host is responsible for failed/defective hardware, network, and power systems.

Managed Services involves leasing one or more servers from a host, which then proactively provides support and maintenance on that equipment, usually backed by quality guarantees. Additional services then provided by experienced system administrators on staff typically include server uptime monitoring, OS patching, operating system restores, security monitoring, and more.

Market Trends

Tier1 Research:
“Managed Hosting: Market Overview Spring 2008”
(April 15, 2008)
“…the managed hosting sector has experienced tremendous growth in the past 12 months—in excess of 30%—driven by several trends. These trends include virtualization, business continuity services and security technologies, driven both by enterprise demand and regulatory compliance. Despite the dipping economy in the US, there has been increased managed hosting adoption by SMBs and mid-tier enterprises in both the US and Europe.” Read the rest of this entry »