Posted on Fri, Aug 06, 2010 @ 09:10 AM
Do you know which of your servers are good candidates for server virtualization? Do you know what it will cost to implement wireless networking in a particular building? Do you know if you are spending too much on software licensing or maybe not enough? Can you reduce the amount of power your desktop computers use, hence reducing your carbon footprint and saving energy costs?
These are all common questions and they all have a common answer: To find the answer, your best bet is to perform a technology assessment.
Merriam-Webster defines the word assessment as “the action or an instance of assessing” and it defines assessing as “to determine the importance, size or value of.” Now that is about as clear as mud. I think a better definition would be “to collect concrete information about something so that educated decisions can be made about its present and/or future state.”
For example, let’s look at one type of assessment: evaluating the power consumption by the desktop computers in a business environment.
It Ain’t Easy Going Green
Over the past few years, companies have begun to recognize that being “green” should be an important part of their business practices. One way a company can do this is by reducing its carbon footprint or reducing the amount of power that is used by the business as a whole. One type of assessment that is helping companies reduce their carbon footprint is a desktop power assessment.
A desktop power assessment is simply the monitoring of the computers in your environment to see when they are being used and when they are sitting idle. The assessment involves installing a small piece of software, called an “agent,” on all of the computers and then allowing that agent to collect data about the actual usage of those devices. After a data collection period (normally 30 days), the data can then be used to determine what the usage patterns of your computers are and if you can save money (and the environment) by adjusting their power settings to better match their usage patterns.
Most computers in office environments are only used between 8 A.M. and 5 P.M. and then, if not powered off, sit idle for the rest of the day and night. However, just because a computer is sitting idle doesn’t mean that it isn’t using any power. Now, one computer sitting idle for 15 hours might not seem like that big of a deal. But what if instead of one computer it is 1,000 or 5,000 computers? Average cost savings can be as much as $75 per year per PC. The savings around optimizing the power usage of the desktop computers in your environment can only be realized if you first assess the situation and then act on the data collected through that assessment.
Would you buy a house if you knew no inspection or appraisal had ever been done? I hope not. Inspections and appraisals are forms of assessments and they provide valuable information about the state and value of a house and the property it is on. The same concept should apply for most Information Technology projects.
Can a wireless networking project be successful without a site survey (building assessment) as its foundation? Can a desktop virtualization project be successful without a comprehensive desktop computing assessment? Can you know if you are wasting money on licensing that you do not need or power that is being eaten up by idle computers without assessing these areas of your business? The answer is no.
Technology assessments provide the concrete data that serves as the foundation for making educated decisions about your IT environment.
Jason Dell is a Converged Network Solution Consultant at MCPc, and is responsible for developing and programming custom solutions for clients. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn.
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Posted on Fri, Jul 16, 2010 @ 01:48 PM
Years ago, mobile computers were the exception in most businesses. They were overpriced, under-powered, and you had to meet very special requirements —such as spending a high percentage of your time on the road — to have them. Rather, most business data was stored on desktop machines that remained in the building at all times and was protected behind multiple layers of security such as:
- Network Firewalls
- Network DMZ
- The walls of the building
- The physical security system of the building
- The security guards
- The security gates
Each of the above attributes represents an obstacle that must be overcome for one to access the data that is contained within your business’s on-site computers and network. If the network is properly tightened and hardened and your physical security is what it should be, then you have a fighting chance to keep your data secure. With this kind of security, you know what lines you need to defend — the doors need to be locked, the windows need to be shut and ports be secured and/or closed.
What I mean to say by all of this is that the battle lines are obvious and defendable. But what happens when someone can pick up a computer and take it outside of these layers of protection? What happens when all of this inherent security can no longer effectively protect your company’s information? What happens when the battle lines get blurry?
The Mobile Workforce
In the third quarter of 2008, laptops shipping from manufacturers surpassed desktops for the first time in the history of the industry. The workforce is becoming mobile and it doesn’t seem to be trending in any other direction. If this is the future of our workplace environment, why and how do we deal with the inherent problem of securing the data on these mobile computers?
The “why” question is easy to answer: It is the obligation of every business to protect the private information of their customers. This holds true for every industry and every sector. Everybody has heard of HIPAA, Sarbanes Oxley and GLBA. However, most people don’t know that as of December 2008, forty-four states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands have enacted legislation requiring notification of security breaches involving personal information.
This means that in most of the United States, if a suspected data breach occurs it must be reported. This makes mobile computers without full disk encryption high-risk assets. For example, an incident reported by the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2006 involving the personal information of 26.5 million veterans had an estimated cost of 1.59 billion dollars to remediate. How much do you think a good full disk encryption solution would have cost them? This isn’t just an issue in the United States either — in the United Kingdom, for example, they have the Data Protection Act of 1998.
As far as the “how” is concerned: For businesses using mobile devices, full disk encryption is a security practice that should be implemented. Full disk encryption is the process by which your entire hard drive is run through an encryption process. Once complete, the hard drive is unreadable without the proper decryption keys. When the proper decryption keys are presented, only the data that is needed at the time is decrypted and presented to the user, thus keeping the process of accessing data fast and reliable while increasing security exponentially.
It has become quite evident that mobile computers are here to stay and the task of properly securing those computers should be directive number one. The first step in a proper mobile data security plan should be full disk encryption. Though it is not the only security measure to be taken, it certainly is the top priority for most organizations. It is the only way to ensure not only peace of mind, but also full compliance with all necessary regulatory bodies. Full disk encryption is the first line of defense for your data because it protects your data during the times you are not directly engaged with your mobile computer. These are the times loss and theft are more likely to occur.
Full disk encryption is not the only mobile data security technology that should be considered. There are technologies like personal software firewalls, file level encryption for highly sensitive data and GPS based asset tracking systems, but they all speak to point problems. The most secure systems must have a strong foundation and that foundation is full disk encryption.
For more information on the reality of data breaches visit: http://datalossdb.org/
Jason Dell is a Converged Network Solution Consultant at MCPc, and is responsible for developing and programming custom solutions for clients. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn.
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Posted on Fri, May 21, 2010 @ 02:19 PM
Application virtualization in and of itself is not very exciting, but the benefits of it are - particularly the ability for application virtualization to reduce malicious software installation and virus infiltration.
You heard it right! Application virtualization can greatly reduce the number of viruses in your environment. How does it do this? All application virtualization platforms run in user mode (non-privileged mode).
To understand user mode you must first know what admin mode is and how it works: Admin mode is when a user, and all processes spawned by that user, have both read and write access to all areas of the file system and registry. In short, they are running with administrator rights. Why would an end user be running in this mode? There are many applications that were written in such a way that they require read and write access to these critical system locations.
The problem is that those critical system locations are also where viruses like to live.
Alternatively, when a user is running in user mode, they only have read access to those critical system locations. The read-only access is what keeps viruses at bay, by not allowing any processes started by the user (intentionally or not) to write to those system critical locations. This read-only access is not bulletproof, but it will stop the vast majority of virus and malicious software from infesting your computers.
To the points above, application virtualization will allow you to create a more secure environment by closing most of the doors used by viruses and other malicious software.
The way application virtualization accomplishes this is by giving the virtualized application a virtual registry (i.e. system and application settings) and file system (i.e. files and folders) that run in isolation. By providing this isolated "sandbox," the application can do what it needs and never affect the real registry and file system.
The exact details of how this is done vary from vendor to vendor but this "sandboxing" is a critical part of any application virtualization solution. It is that isolation that gives the user the ability to run an application in user mode even though it may require access to the system critical locations.
How has application virtualization improved your environment?
Jason Dell is a Converged Network Solution Consultant at MCPc, and is responsible for developing and programming custom solutions for clients. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn.
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Posted on Fri, Apr 16, 2010 @ 01:05 PM
I recently blogged about
client hypervisors as the future of desktop virtualization. However, it has become obvious that we will have to wait a bit longer for that evolution than anticipated.
Originally slated for release in late 2009 and early 2010, both Citrix and VMware have delayed the launches of their client hypervisors (Citrix XenClient and VMware Client Virtualization Platform) until, at least, the end of this year.
I mention only Citrix and VMware because they have emerged as early leaders in the client hypervisor space, but that does not mean they are the only players. Will the Citrix and VMware delays open the door for the others to swoop in and capture the client hypervisor market? Only time will tell.
Why the delay?
It seems that those who are trying to get into the client hypervisor market should take a look at the history of operating systems in the x86 desktop world (i.e. desktop computers).
One of the biggest issues that the PC hardware model, named "Open Architecture" or "IBM Compatible," has always brought with it is the need to support a large number of component manufacturers. Anyone can build devices that will work in this hardware model, which is why it is called "Open Architecture." Each hardware component from each hardware manufacturer requires a unique piece of software called the device driver. Device drivers are the biggest problem in the traditional operating system world and, it seems, are going to be an issue in the client hypervisor world as well.
How much of an impact will this delay have on the desktop virtualization market? Likely, not much. Currently, those who are looking at desktop virtualization are looking at shop floors, computer labs and the like. These are considered the safe and least critical computers in a business environment. You would never use the CEO of a company to test a new technology.
End users with mobile needs will continue to be a part of the decentralized computing model for the next couple of years, and this is fine. Some end users will continue to need local access to a local computer with the operating system and software installed directly to it. All new technologies take time to be adopted into the market, and the client hypervisor will be no different.
Looking ahead
By the time the client hypervisor is ready for primetime, the need for it will be present as well. The decentralized model that we know today has been stretched as far as possible and it is no longer scalable or sustainable. There are two few people supporting too many computers in too many different geographic locations. IT departments know this but, until now, there was no other option. Desktop virtualization, in general, and the client hypervisor, in specific, will provide the IT staff the ability to centralize - i.e. bring into the datacenter - the technologies, while still allowing for the offline access of that virtual desktop. For now, the plethora of desktop virtualization technology that exists should be enough keep everyone busy and organizations supported with what we have at our disposal, so it is business as usual for IT professionals.
The best advice I can offer is to start your strategic roadmapping now, and keep an eye on the progress of client hypervisors and other developments in the desktop virtualization market. Ours is an industry that changes rapidly, and without staying abreast of the latest technologies available, we're only doing ourselves, and our companies or clients, a disservice.
Jason Dell is a Converged Network Solution Consultant at MCPc, and is responsible for developing and programming custom solutions for clients. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn.
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Posted on Mon, Mar 01, 2010 @ 06:55 PM
Are you getting out of your x86-based server hardware what you are putting in (return on investment)? Is the size of your datacenter shrinking or growing (carbon and physical footprint)? How quickly can you recover from a disaster (disaster recovery and business continuity)? How long does it take, and how much does it cost to bring a new server online (flexibility and adaptation)?
The Datacenters of Yesterday
The datacenters of yesterday are not the datacenters of today. In years past, mainframe and midrange servers ruled the datacenter. In the datacenters of yesterday, the AS400 and UNIX operating systems were preferred.
Today, it is a different story as X86-based servers are beginning to dominate the datacenter, and the preferred operating systems are Microsoft Windows and LINUX. With that said, the rules that governed the datacenters of yesterday need to be adjusted to meet the needs of quickly advancing business and technology demands.
The Datacenters of Today
For a business to stay relevant in today's market, it must adapt quickly to change. If you are not moving forward then you are falling behind! The demands of business and technology do not wait for anyone. The datacenters of today have become more like an aircraft carrier than a jet fighter - powerful but difficult to manage and navigate (i.e. multiple servers and multiple locations without a centralized management system can make for inefficiency in IT).
Although different in appearance from the datacenters of yesterday, the static nature of today's datacenters make change and adaptation difficult to say the least.
What does the Static Datacenter look like?
- Single Application X86-based servers utilizing, on average, 15% of available resources.
- Rigid and costly disaster recovery (DR) run books are difficult to manage and test.
- Power and cooling costs are going up, not down.
- High carbon and physical footprint caused by too many underutilized physical x86-based servers.
- Adoption of new technology and the retirement of old is a long and drawn-out process, requiring downtime and the potential loss of productivity.
The low utilization of resources, costly DR run books, large carbon and physical footprints, and the drawn out adoption and retirement process makes change difficult, if not impossible, in a static datacenter.
The Datacenters of Tomorrow
The datacenters of tomorrow must be agile and flexible. The highest possible uptimes, even when faced with a disaster, are critical. The datacenters of tomorrow must have a smaller physical footprint as well as a smaller carbon footprint, and must provide an aggressive ROI. They will also require strategic and efficient policies and procedures for the adoption of new technology, as well as the retirement of old physical assets and technologies that are no longer relevant to the strategic goals of your business.
How will all of those things be accomplished? The answer to that question lies in the creation of a dynamic datacenter through X86-based server virtualization and consolidation.
Server virtualization is not a new concept. It was developed in the 1960s by IBM as a way to partition large mainframe systems so that multitasking could be used to run multiple applications and processes on the same physical mainframe. X86-based server virtualization is no different. The consolidation of x86-based servers onto individual hypervisor based physical server(s) will not only increase server resource utilization but also shorten the capital expenditure ROI.
What else can you expect from a dynamic datacenter?
- 75% to 85% physical resource utilization when you virtualize and consolidate your underutilized physical x86-based servers onto a host server.
- Flexibility, reliability, and lower-cost DR run books. This includes the ability to test your run book at anytime and on almost any x86-based server hardware.
- Reduction in the number of physical servers, resulting in the reduction of power, cooling, and physical space requirements.
- The ability to bring new virtual servers online quickly for production, development, and troubleshooting increases your ability to change proactively with your business, and not just reactively as others move ahead of you in the market.
- The ability to retire or repurpose physical x86-based server assets with no downtime or impact on day-to-day operations.
- Centralized management of all x86 based servers is baked in.
As the speed of business increases, so must a business's ability to change and adapt. DR and business continuity are critical regardless of your organization's size. Plus, the business requirements around becoming more "green" (i.e. carbon footprint reduction through decreases in datacenter power and cooling) are a reality in today's world. Server virtualization and a dynamic datacenter can help you to achieve these goals.
Are you ready for the datacenter of tomorrow? How quickly can you recover from a disaster? How"green" is your datacenter? In today's economy, these are all very important questions.
If your management team asked you these questions today, what would be your response?
Jason Dell is a Converged Network Solution Consultant at MCPc, and is responsible for developing and programming custom solutions for clients. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn.
Posted on Sat, Jan 09, 2010 @ 03:38 PM
Author: Jason Dell
The current technology that makes up Desktop Virtualization is good if you sit at your desk all day but what if you travel and need offline access? To date the options for you are less than optimal, but soon that will change. There have been significant improvements in virtualization technologies in general and Desktop Virtualization technology in specific but none are as important as what is to come.
The Client Hypervisor
The Client Hypervisor is the next step in the evolution of Desktop Virtualization technologies and it is a big step. What is the Client Hypervisor and why should you care?
The Client Hypervisor is:
- A bare-metal hypervisor for the PC.
- A solution for the high-risk nature of mobile PCs.
- A security solution that will help you become compliant with the vast array of regulatory groups in all industries. For example:
- HIPPA
- Sarbanes Oxley
- FDIC
- SEC
Now I know the above assertions are grand, but in future blog posts I will provide the necessary proof for each of those assertions.
What are the more practical benefits of the Client Hypervisor?
- Offline virtual desktops without a host OS which will allow you to take your virtual desktop with you when you travel
- Check-in and check-out of virtual desktop, which will allow for the updating of server-based VMs. This will ensure that your desktop virtual machines remain current and in the backup rotation.
- Local VM snapshots for recovery and rollback which will keep your users doing their jobs and not on the phone with support.
- Encryption and Profile based security which will ensure that your customer's data is safe and secure whether in the datacenter or on the go.
In future posts we will also breakdown the above ideas as well as provide updates to the status of the Client Hypervisor. Currently Q1 of 2010 is the timeframe for its release, and as more information becomes available we will share it with you. So stay tuned.
Jason Dell is a Converged Network Solution Consultant at MCPc, and is responsible for developing and programming custom solutions for clients. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn.
Image courtesy of ajleon.