Articles
Are We Facing The End Of Business As Usual Or The Start Of A New Way Of Doing Business? 
Thu, 24 Jul 08
The successful businesses of tomorrow are not currently slashing their IT budgets in a knee-jerk reaction.They are investing now in order to be first out of the traps when market conditions change.
Celona's CEO, Charles Andrews, looks how smart businesses approach IT investment in the current, challenging, economic climate.
Incremental Migration
Mon, 07 Jul 08
Martin Fowler (www.martinfowler.com) looks at incremental data migration.
Real-time goes green
Fri, 04 Jul 08
Real-time data integration has become more and more of a significant issue over the last few years, supporting predictive analytics, operational business intelligence, real-time dashboards, risk management, zero-downtime migrations, service oriented architectures and so on.
Philip Howard, Research Director for Data Management at Bloor Research, looks at the values real-time data integration can bring to buisnesses.
How to maximise CRM ROI
Mon, 23 Jun 08
Spending on customer relationship management software is high and growing, but with increasingly tough economic conditions, how can companies ensure they maximise the return on this investment? Whilst it is often overlooked, data is the essential foundation for an effective CRM application, argues Tony Sceales.
SOA World Viewpoint - Don't Put the SOA Cart in Front of the Meta Data Horse
Tue, 03 Jun 08
I'm not for one minute suggesting that SOA isn't a very good way of building enterprise systems, but I think it's important to recognise that SOA is not a magic bullet, and is only one part of the overall solution. As Anne Thomas Manes has outlined, SOA may integrate application silos but it does not in itself transform organisations, break down organizational barriers or streamline processes. Neither does it guarantee that the services created are useful.
Survival of the Fittest: Ensuring IT Is Providing You with an Innovative Edge
Mon, 02 Jun 08
Seemingly it's the old, old problem of how to have your cake and eat it. Chief information officers are being asked to ensure that IT is continuing to function efficiently, to comply with legislation and regulation, and to be secure against an ever-wider range of threats. They're also expected to perform the usual upgrades, renewals and maintenance on legacy infrastructures, and to "manage" (as in maintain or reduce) IT budgets. But as if doing all of this were not enough, IT is now required to "innovate" to support businesses that are being fundamentally re-engineered for the new economy.
IT's innovative edge
Thu, 29 May 08
Analysts tell us that IT innovation is high on the CIO's agenda. But in the next breath say that IT is increasingly being asked to do more with less. What's a CIO to do? Celona Technologies' Paul Hollingsworth looks at how some CIOs are managing to do both.
How to avoid your SOA initiative becoming a big ‘So What?’
Wed, 30 Apr 08
For the last few years service-oriented architectures have been promoted as the panacea of the IT world, but cracks in the SOA hegemony are already beginning to appear. Celona Technologies’ Tony Sceales examines the hype, hope and reality surrounding SOA, and points out some home truths that anyone embarking on a SOA programme would be well advised to take note of.
Four golden rules of successful data migration
Thu, 27 Mar 08
Your company is implementing a new set of applications that better meet your changing business requirements. Or else you have been instructed to remove duplication and inefficiency in your IT infrastructure. You know that you can no longer avoid the inevitable: you are just going to have to bite the bullet and migrate your business-critical data. You are also well aware that while failure is not an option, industry failure rates for complex migrations are worryingly high. Perhaps it might help to know that successful data migrations share a number of common characteristics. In this article Celona's Tony Sceales and data migration expert John Morris outline the four golden rules of successful migration.
British Computer Society meeting puts spotlight on need for standardisation in data migration 
Wed, 30 Jan 08
A packed British Computer Society (BCS) meeting heard BT’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Technology Phil Dance, data migration expert Johny Morris and Celona Technology’s Paul Hollingsworth highlight the challenges and importance of data migration in large enterprises.
Psst…want to know the best kept secret in telecoms?
Thu, 17 Jan 08
Most service providers are doing it and have been doing it for some time. It’s well known for causing anxiety and frustration in equal measure. Recently it’s an area that major vendors have been quietly investing in, and it’s what everyone ‘in the know’ is talking about. Want to know the best kept secret in telecoms?
CIOs and CIOs may be talking the green talk, but IT is still not walking the green walk
Thu, 06 Dec 07
A new survey just released shows that while CEOs and CIOs may be championing green IT, the reality is that many companies are still in the ‘talking’ phase or still have no plans to green up their data centres. Tony Sceales, Celona Technologies CEO, looks at the key findings and examines what this means for business and wider communities.
Maximising data centre performance by consolidating applications and data
Wed, 28 Nov 07
Business managers are waking up to the high, and increasing costs, of running their data centres. A recent report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in the US, for example, estimates that powering and cooling servers in data centres costs businesses an estimated $7.2 billion per year.
Does data migration have to be like a game of Russian Roulette?
Tue, 16 Oct 07
We’re standing on a threshold in telecoms, a fundamental pivot point in our industry. Behind us lie the halcyon days of relative tranquillity when change was slow and profit margins plentiful, while ahead of us lies the uncertain future of cut-throat competition with increasingly complex services delivered at increasingly fast speeds.
Application Data Migration Survey Results
Mon, 24 Sep 07
A new industry survey from telecoms application migration specialists Celona Technologies has found that 93% of telecoms IT managers fear data migrations
New Opportunities for SIs
Mon, 30 Jul 07
Industry surveys demonstrate that CIOs would do pretty much anything rather than undertake a complex application-level migration. But while market drivers mean they are being forced to grasp the nettle, they’re no longer willing to take the sting. In this article, Celona Technologies’ Tony Sceales looks at the effect this is having on the SI and migration market.
Leaner and meaner can mean greener as well
Fri, 15 Jun 07
As corporate Britain jumps on the green bandwagon – with 40 top British companies pledging in March that they will shrink Britain's carbon footprint by cutting their own energy use and turning "green consumerism into a mass movement" – one leading British company has reason to feel slightly smugger than the rest. BT hasn’t jumped on the bandwagon, it’s helped build it. And being ahead of the pack means it’s in a prime position to benefit from the green pound.
Three Approaches to Application-Level Transformation Projects
Wed, 13 Jun 07
There’s a lot of talk at the moment about the application-level transformation and renewal projects that are currently being undertaken by many of the world’s largest telcos. In this article, Tony Sceales, CEO of Celona Technologies, identifies the three very different approaches that large service providers are using to take on these transformation projects.
Have you got a dirty data problem?
Thu, 01 Mar 07
Paul Hollingsworth looks at the mismatch between business and technical issues of data migrations and the challenge of continual data and business transformation.
Removing the BSS/OSS Bottleneck
Thu, 30 Nov 06
Telecoms BSS/OSS architectures have travelled down a number of trails and by-ways over the years. Paul Hollingsworth considers whether the current BSS/OSS blueprint is now leading service providers down a blind alley, and suggests an alternate route that offers a proven solution to the pressing problem of time-to-market.
Sink or Swim
Wed, 25 Oct 06
The trillion dollar question: as industries collide, will telecoms players swim to a rosy future, or sink beneath the rising tide of convergence?
Failure is not an Option
Tue, 01 Aug 06
Telecoms companies will, at some point, need to move information from one or more systems to another. Paul Hollingsworth offers some advice on achieving a successful migration.
Are we 'risk' junkies?
Wed, 31 May 06
Most Telcos live with support systems and processes that are too costly and insufficiently agile. As voice revenues diminish, Telcos are looking firstly, to replace lost revenues with new products and increased service levels and secondly, to reduce their historic cost base. The desired target requires transformation across the business and IT.