Services

Foskett Services is a provider of information technology and business strategy solutions.

Our Story

The world of information technology is at a crossroads. Traditional IT systems face disruption not seen since the open systems revolution of the early 1990’s: The rapid adoption of Internet-scale services, the proliferation of a new breed of computing devices like the iPhone, and a wholesale shift in application development approaches threatens the very foundation of IT infrastructure in the enterprise.

After spending over a decade providing consulting and analysis services to enterprise IT organizations and infrastructure vendors, Stephen Foskett launched his own services organization to face this wave of change head-on. This group applies core best practices for managing IT systems to the emerging post-PC world.

Our Services

Our goal is to help enterprise information technology transition to a new service-oriented world.

Areas of expertise include the following:

Enterprise data storage
Email and communication systems
Server virtualization
Cloud computing and cloud storage
Community and social communication
Mobile technology

On Retainer

Stephen Foskett is available on a retainer basis to provide ongoing advice, support, and assistance for both IT organizations and hardware and software vendors.

The following ongoing commitments illustrate our abilities:

Community Relations Advisory for a service provider
Social Media Coaching for a hardware vendor
Storage strategy for an end-user IT department

Seminars

A top-ranked speaker and educator, Stephen Foskett provides on-site seminars to help groups of any size get up to speed on the latest information technology topics. These sessions typically last from one to three hours and are tailored to the needs of the audience.

Past seminar topics include the following:

Introduction to Enterprise Storage
The Next Wave of Storage Technologies
Strategies for Email Archiving
Social Media Approaches for IT Businesses

Workshops

Interactive sessions are one of the best ways to deliver consensus. For years, Stephen Foskett has facilitated in-person workshops for groups of 5 to 20 people to consider all aspects of a challenge and determine the best course of action. These sessions can be combined with a short seminar to lay a foundation for the discussion.

Foskett has led workshops on the following topics in the past:

Enterprise Cloud Strategy
Email and Record Retention Policies
Tiered Storage Strategy
Development of Service Catalogs and Service Offerings

Strategy Development

Sometimes an outside perspective is needed to bring a big-picture view of enterprise challenges. Stephen Foskett has spent over 10 years working with enterprise IT organizations to determine architecture and strategy. These projects range from a few weeks to many months and involve a wide variety of internal disciplines. Foskett Services can bring numerous experts to bear, from both the IT and business side.

Ranting and Raving About the 2018 iPad Pro

I remain enthusiastic about the iPad Pro, despite getting a scratched screen and my concerns about durability. It’s a worthy successor to the original and offers enough improvements that I’d recommend the upgrade for just about anyone who uses their iPad for serious work. It’s still not yet a laptop replacement, but this is due more to a lack of desktop-class software for iOS than anything in Apple’s control.

The 2018 iPad Pro is a Beast!

The third-generation iPad Pro is a great machine but also a bellwether of change at Apple. It will be very hard for the rest of the mobile and client computing industry to keep up with this kind of progress!

Not All 802.11n Networks Are Alike

July 2, 2011

Buyers of 802.11n wireless network equipment should not assume they will see a great benefit right out of the box. Most will have to enable by hand a high-performance configuration including wide channels and 5 GHz operation. And some client devices may never reach the levels of performance expected by consumers due to hardware limitations.

Ten Terrible Apple Products

June 14, 2012

I’m often accused of being an Apple fanboy. While it’s true that I love my vast selection of fruity products from Cupertino, I’m not blind when the company makes mistakes. In fact, I think Apple’s mistakes are as enlightening as their successes: They reveal a company that is fallible, sometimes learning but often allowing the junk to rot far longer than other companies would.

The Myths of Standardization

December 15, 2011

I certainly benefit from standardization of the world around me, and I welcome interoperability and interchangeability as well as the price and product selection advantages. But I am not blithely focused on standardization above all else. I will happily use a proprietary solution if the alternative is inelegant, ineffective, or insufficient.

Replacing Google Reader With Feedbin and Reeder

May 5, 2013

I am an avid Google Reader user, so I’m thoroughly annoyed by Google’s decision to kill it as of July 1. But there’s no stopping the tide, so I’ve made the move to Feedbin as a Reader replacement as of today. It’s a slick, snappy web application with a committed developer and, critically, support for Reeder, my favorite offline RSS reading application. Let’s hope this works!

My 2012 Project: Improving Energy Efficiency

January 3, 2012

I am in the process of upgrading my own home to make it more energy efficient. I do this mainly as an exercise of faith and science, since my electric and gas bills are not currently all that expensive. But I just can’t countenance burning 10 times more electricity than I need to, even if I can afford it. It’s also an exercise in geekiness, since today’s lighting alternatives and appliances have an undeniable techno-cool factor about them.

The Four Horsemen of Storage System Performance: The Rule of Spindles

August 25, 2010

Why do some data storage solutions perform better than others? Mechanical performance, RAM caching, I/O capacity, and the intelligence of the system all have a part to play. Today we examine the rule of spindles: Adding more disk spindles is generally more effective than using faster spindles.

It’s Time To Speak Out Against Sexism In IT Recruiting

May 6, 2013

I have waged a long-standing battle against the sexist and offensive use of scantily-clad, non-technical “models” at technical trade shows. Sometimes known as “booth babes”, the use of women in this way harms our entire industry and makes companies look stupid, to boot. But when a recruiting firm uses such offensive tactics, it does even more harm, verging on illegal!

Free as in Coffee – Thoughts on the State of OpenStack

May 2, 2016

Last week I headed to Austin, Texas to attend the semi-annual OpenStack Summit there. Along with the usual socializing, I was looking to understand the current state of the technology: What does OpenStack really mean these days, and where is it going? Let’s start with “free”. As “the Internet” is quick to point out, this critical word has multiple […]