MCPc Blog

Prepare Your Network Infrastructure for Changing End-User Needs

During your Internet-browsing experiences at home, you’ve probably seen the “spinning wheel” or the dreaded “hour glass” — especially when visiting rich-media sites where videos download to your browser. You may blame it on slow bandwidth, the number of people using your wireless router, your children playing Halo with their buddies, or your Internet service provider. However, most times, you chalk it up to life in the Internet era.

Now, imagine you’re at work and hurrying to a meeting with your boss. You need to complete a critical task on your iPad prior to arriving, but the web-based application that you are using slows to a standstill. Your blood pressure rises, your face turns red, and you are ready to strangle the first IT staff member that you can find. But what is to blame?

Understanding Infrastructure Layers

There are many layers to this problem, as typical enterprise architectures combine:

• Hardware, including storage, servers, personal computers, laptops and mobile devices
• Software applications
• Graphical interface-driven, business-data manipulation solutions, and
• Networking (the fabric that connects everything together).

Since each of these ecosystem elements evolved independently, business-critical issues — such as performance, usage, security and availability — have typically been refined in a vacuum. As a result, infrastructure managers are spinning up virtual machines and clouds to offset hardware performance issues.

Infrastructure Challenges

While server virtualization offers performance, economy and consolidation, it also creates some critical challenges. For example, IT leaders require applications to be tracked as they move from one virtual machine (VM) to another. This is especially important when optimizing virtual infrastructures, responding to peak loads and managing VM failovers.

In addition to virtualization, massive data centers — called cloud-computing facilities — are being built to host applications at scale, and offer infrastructure, platform and other IT services.

At the same time, application-development groups have stepped up efforts to create richer product experiences, applying video and rich-interface applications liberally. These slick user interfaces provide end users with a multitude of options, but tax the network, back-end storage and server infrastructure, which have to manage large data influxes.

To further complicate the problem, developers are writing a new breed of code for mobile applications at a frenzied pace — thanks to Apple’s iPhone and iPad, and Google’s Android. Legacy enterprise applications are being extended to mobile platforms and virtualized desktop infrastructures (VDIs) are in motion with the assumption that the network is suitable for delivery.

While all of the previous is happening, applications are being centralized into consolidated data centers, creating greater distance between users, applications and data.

This modernization leaves the network grappling with the resulting dilemma: how to deliver the same level of productive experience for all applications, to all users, at any place and at any time. Talk about causing an IT manager to lose sleep!

Preparing Your Network and Infrastructure

The good news is that equipment manufacturers are working to solve this problem by looking at the entire ecosystem from a services perspective. Organizations like Cisco are taking the required network services and building them within switching, routing, security, wireless and wide area network (WAN) acceleration products.

By integrating these services into the existing network infrastructure, and providing the ability to control them via policy and management, organizations can enable a rich end-user experience.

These new network technologies work to eliminate the disconnect between applications and the network, by making the network aware of the applications that navigate it and the endpoint capabilities it connects. This revolutionary thinking enables any users, of any application, at any time, on any device, to remain truly productive.

It is a brave new world out there, in which your network needs to be prepared to provide traditional services on new platforms and devices. As a result, your network and the infrastructure supporting it are becoming more important everyday.

Your Thoughts?

• How do you deal with unhappy end users on your network? 
• What steps have you taken to enhance your network and prepare it for the future?

Darin Haines is Group President of MCPc's Advanced Technology Group - Delivery Division and has over 16 years of experience in leading the technology function in mid-sized and enterprise-level organizations. Connect with Darin on LinkedIn.

Photo credit: BasicGov

 

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Wellness in the Workplace

Have you kept your New Year’s resolution to work out more and be healthier? 

To help any of our associates struggling with this endeavor, last Friday at 6:45 a.m. a team of health and wellness specialists descended upon our Strongsville headquarters. They were there to take blood pressure, check height and weight, and measure cholesterol and glucose levels of any MCPc employee who wanted a screening.

Personally, I was apprehensive to subject myself to the scale where I would find out my actual body mass index, especially knowing that I needed to cut down on my sugar and fat intake. But at the same time, I figured it might be the kick in the pants I need to jump-start my own New Year’s resolution.

So, along with dozens of my colleagues, I participated in MCPc’s second annual complementary employee health screening, which is a part of our ongoing wellness initiative. (For employees at other MCPc locations, the company will reimburse anyone who wishes to get a health screening through their own physician.)

Wellness is a Lifestyle, Not a Yearly Resolution.

Study after study has shown that healthy people not only live longer, but also have more energy and lower overall medical costs. I have a great deal of respect for those people who are disciplined enough to take care of themselves as they should.

However, it’s often difficult to find the self-motivation to eat better and exercise more, which is why it’s so important to support others on their healthy life journey. Taking this to heart, after our screenings, a work friend and I decided to join Weight Watchers next Tuesday. (Don’t ask…Okay, we’re celebrating another co-worker’s birthday on Monday.)

I hope (and believe) that starting the program together will allow us to encourage each other on days we want to run out at lunch for a chocolate shake.

Developing a Work Environment that Promotes Wellness

At MCPc, we do our best to create an environment that encourages healthy activity. We participate in several walk-a-thons each year and always have a great time socializing with co-workers outside of the office. On fair-weather days, many of us take advantage of a neighboring outdoor track during our lunch hour. And we’re excited about the fitness center we’re building at our new corporate headquarters in downtown Cleveland. In fact, we’ve already purchased the exercise equipment that is ready to be stamped with our logo and installed!

Another way we show commitment to wellness is through the health savings account (H.S.A.) option in employee medical plans. HSAs encourage associates to be smart about their health needs on the front end to prevent problems down the road. Isn’t that what wellness is all about? MCPc even offsets the premium cost to associates to encourage participation, and deposits up to $1,200 in employee health savings accounts each year.

What Can You Do For Yourself?

Of course, good health ultimately starts with individual initiative. Now that I know my cholesterol levels and blood pressure are great (thanks to my free health screening), I can focus on shedding a few pounds and improving my glucose level. I’m also going to take a health-risk assessment on my benefit provider’s website to get further recommendations, and sign up for daily healthy tips that will be emailed to me in order to keep my own wellness at the forefront of my mind. I encourage you to do the same!

Your Turn

• What are you doing to promote your own wellness?
•  What are your struggles?
• How do you think your employer could facilitate a more health-conscious environment?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

 

Beth Stec is VP of Corporate Communications and Human Resources at MCPc, and is responsible for the development and management of personnel programs and policies. Connect with Beth on LinkedIn.

photo credit: the richardlife

 

 

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What CES 2011 Announcements Mean to Corporate IT

 

The 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was held in Las Vegas earlier this month (Jan. 6-9). With more than 2,700 technology companies and 140,000 industry professionals, the show was a whirlwind of activity and announcements that kept the industry a buzz.

Though I didn’t attend the show myself, I tried to stay up-to-date with the news most relevant to MCPc and our clients. Below is a summary of articles that caught my attention, as well as my thoughts on the following question:

What’s new in the consumer electronics industry, and how will these technologies impact the corporate world?

The Tablet War Has Begun

It’s estimated that more than 80 new products were announced to compete with Apple’s iPad. Among those are Motorola’s Xoom, Research in Motion’ Blackberry PlayBook and Dell’s Streak 7.

So, what does this mean for the business world? As we discussed previously in “How IT Pros Can Manage the iPad and Tablet Influx,” more employees will be looking to use their personal devices in the workplace, due to the increasingly robust business capabilities of these devices. In fact, corporate tablet use is expected to double from 2010 to 2011. The result is security, management and use challenges, which IT pros should be planning for now.

Mobile Takes Center Stage

Based on the number of announcements surrounding smartphones, it’s clear that mobile will continue to be a hot market in 2011. Announcements included Dell’s Venue Pro, Samsung’s Infuse 4G and Motorola’s Atrix 4G, among others.

The emergence of these 4G phones signals that “all carriers are investing in more bandwidth and higher speeds, which will at least keep up with the exploding demand for mobile Internet access and may at some point translate into more PC-like interactions,” according to InfoWorld.

This increasing speed is coupled with a powerful app market, where many apps provide important business functionality to mobile users. For example, at CES 2011, Samsung introduced a MobilePrint app that enables users to easily print from their mobile devices to any Samsung printer.

All of this translates into greater smartphone popularity among consumers. According to telecom vendor Ericsson, “the number of mobile broadband subscriptions will reach one billion before the end of 2011.”

A 2010 Pew Research study also found that 71% of technology stakeholders and critics agree with the statement "by 2020, most people won't do their work with software running on a general-purpose PC. Instead, they will work in Internet-based applications such as Google Docs, and in applications run from smartphones.”

While this could provide convenience and flexibility to employees, mobile corporate adoption also comes with its fair share of security, usability, access and ownership challenges. Therefore, IT pros should begin to strategize how mobile devices will be integrated into existing infrastructures and wireless networks, if they haven’t already.

Device Connectivity on the Rise

As device capabilities increase, there was also great interest this year in how end users interact with individual devices, and how the devices interact with each other. With Internet connectivity being added to a wide range of products — 2011 will see numerous cars connected to the web, for example — technologies are popping up that enable these devices (smartphones, TVs, gaming consoles, computers, cars, etc.) to “talk” to each other and create a more seamless end-user experience. Increased device connectivity is also likely to drive mobile adoption even further into the workplace.

In addition, we can assume that similar technologies will find their way into useful cases in the corporate world. For example, imagine hospital beds that text message nurses in case of a problem, or “smart” shelves that automatically order inventory when they start running low on product.

Growing Interest in 3D

The show also saw a range of 3D-based announcements, including 3DTVs, Blu-ray players, AV receivers, PCs and game consoles. For businesses, 3D could enhance “data visualization solutions, and virtual world asset management solutions in sectors that have large and complex physical assets.”

On the business side of this, we see 3D videoconferencing. In fact, Panosonic introduced a 3D videoconferencing solution at the show. This advancement could further improve telepresence, offering an even higher quality experience for corporate meetings. It could also be used for educational and training purposes within organizations. One niche example cited by Panosonic is that 3D “allows medical procedures to be viewed and demonstrated with greater clarity and realism for diagnosis and teaching.”

Your Thoughts?

• Did you attend the show? If so, what announcements and technologies caught your attention? How do they impact business operations? 
• How do you see new technologies fitting within your existing IT infrastructure?
• How are you preparing for increasing employee use of smartphones and iPads?

Ira Grossman, VP, Personal Systems Group, has more than 15 years of technology project management experience and is an expert in lifecycle management and mobile device management for the enterprise, including the iPad. Connect with Ira on LinkedIn.

 

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Image Credit: Consumer Electronics Show

Telepresence and Videoconferencing in Education

There was a recent story on Cleveland’s local NPR affiliate about the growth of online courses at colleges and universities. It states that Cleveland-based community colleges are experiencing record enrollments due to the down economy. And, to serve more students and lower costs, many are enhancing their online-learning capabilities.

In the report, Rob Evans, spokesperson for the Ohio Board of Regents, says that around the state, enrollment in online courses is up 25 percent since 2008, and community college students make up 60 percent of that enrollment.

As a result, there are growing opportunities for universities to enhance their distance-learning programs with telepresence and videoconferencing technologies.

But, it doesn’t stop there: videoconferencing can also benefit K-12 classrooms. In fact, according to Wainhouse Research, there are already almost 30,000 video conferencing systems in U.S. schools, service centers, district offices and departments of education as of April 2009.

Using these solutions, educators can connect with students via high-definition and fast connections. Live video improves the quality of distance learning through enhanced communication and collaboration, and opens the door to an array of innovative learning experiences that cannot be achieved in the traditional classroom. 

 

Benefits for the Classroom

In its whitepaper, Telepresence in Education, Cisco outlines some of the benefits that telepresence in particular can have on the learning process, including: 

• Increased access to students and experts, as collaboration can take place among geographically dispersed individuals. This results in the ability for distance learning, e-mentoring, remote access to AP classes for high school students, demonstrations, virtual field trips, guest lecturers and more.

• Reduced travel expenses and better use of time— Videoconferencing can be extremely beneficial during PhD-dissertation defenses when panel experts are needed, or for research teams that are globally dispersed but need to keep each other regularly updated.

• Maximized social contact — Students and instructors can capture nonverbal communication, such as gestures, tone of voice, posture and eye contact, enhancing the group’s coherence and collaboration.

• Genuine dialogue between all participants — With one central virtual location, students and educators can communicate with each other in real time. This includes collaboratively editing documents.

Videoconferencing and Telepresence in Action

So, how are schools implementing videoconferencing into their classrooms to improve education quality? Check out these innovative ideas below:

• Improving America’s teachers through video — The Gates Foundation is spending $45 million to videotape teachers across six school districts, then using the footage to identify effective teaching practices which can be passed along to other educators.

• Teachers using inverted learning — With the inverted learning teaching model, students become the focus of the class, not the teacher. Students watch a lecture at home and then apply what they learn with the teacher in the classroom. By absorbing the material via video the night before, students are more engaged and involved during class.

• Multimedia lecture halls to increase access — Duke University’s telepresence facility enables students to connect with professors, business leaders, other universities and guest lecturers around the world. This helps bridge the educational environment with the business world and offers students more real-world experience.

• Virtual field trips and innovative demonstrations — Virtual field trips let students “visit” places that travel and budget constraints usually would not allow. For example, the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) in Columbus regularly holds live knee replacement surgeries via videoconferencing for students, allowing them to view the surgery and ask medical personnel questions.

Your Thoughts?

How have you implemented videoconferencing and telepresence into your educational environment? What benefits have you seen as a result? How have you improved communication and collaboration among students and educators?

Bill L'Esperance is Regional Vice President of Sales for the Great Lakes and the leader of MCPc's State, Local Government and Education (SLED) vertical market. Connect with Bill on LinkedIn.

Image Credit: Virtual Learning Center

4 Total Print Management Tips to Eliminate Unnecessary Printing

Employees tend to print more often than they need to during the workday. This can cause unnecessary supply costs for companies, and also produces unnecessary waste.

In fact, the 2009 Government Printing Report, which provides a detailed look at the printing habits of federal employees across agencies, states that federal employees “on average print 30 pages every work day, totaling 7,200 pages printed per employee, per year.” And, that “the bulk of the employees — 92 percent — say they print more than they need.”

Similar statistics were found in a 2010 Lexmark and Ipsos survey of European employees, which found that on average, each employee prints 31 pages per day, with seven of those printed unnecessary.

So, what can you do reduce wasteful print practices, cut costs on paper and consumables, and employ eco-friendly practices across your organization? Below are four easy print management tips to get you started below.

 

1. Proactively Monitor Print Data

First, look at who within your organization is printing and how often. To do this, you will likely want to invest in print management software that can monitor your print environment on an ongoing basis. (Manual data collection tends to be time consuming and cumbersome.)

With the right software, you’ll be able to easily break data down at the company, department, and individual level, and identify where improvements are needed.

Make sure to schedule monthly meetings with your team to discuss the data and draw conclusions that drive down waste.  Make the monthly meeting a habit so it stays top of mind. Keep management up to date with your progress.

In addition to managed improvements, an added benefit is that users tend to employ less wasteful practices when they know their printing habits are being monitored. 

2. Eliminate Paper Processes

Software systems can be implemented that automatically route faxes to email inboxes instead of printing, or that allow for scanned documents to be emailed or faxed. Take a close look at your print environment to determine if any paper processes can performed electronically or simply eliminated. 

3. Create Default Print Driver / Device Settings

Reduce costs and the number of pages printed by forcing print driver defaults and by changing the device level settings. These settings can force automatic duplex (double-sided) printing and defaulting to monochrome on color printers. This eliminates the need for employees to manually select these options when printing, increasing the likelihood that they use them.

According to Gartner Research, (requires subscription) “organizations that select duplex printing as their universal default setting can potentially reduce annual paper costs by up to 30%.”

4. Require Users to Authorize Printing

By requiring users to input an ID number, swipe an ID card or provide a fingerprint prior to printing, you can better track who is printing most often and adjust business practices where needed.

In doing so, you can also set access levels for individual users. For example, employees may only be authorized to print monochrome, a certain number of pages per month, or may need their boss’ approval prior to printing documents with more then 30 pages.

By requiring the authorization at the device (instead of the user’s PC), you can also eliminate pages from being abandoned at the printer.

Your Thoughts?

What are you doing to curtail unnecessary printing in your organization, and cut printing costs? What challenges are you facing? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below. You can also read about the benefits of a managed print services program.

 

Jeffrey Goldstein is Senior Consultant at MCPc and is responsible for the delivery of hardcopy and value-added services within the Lifecycle Management Group. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn.

How IT Pros Can Manage the iPad and Tablet Influx

Tablets are quickly becoming the hot thing for both personal and professional use. In fact, Apple iPad adoption rate has surpassed both the original iPhone in 2007 and the DVD player in 1997, according to Bernstein Research retail analyst Colin McGranahan.

As a result of the iPad’s popularity, major players including Hewlett-Packard and Motorola are planning to release tablet devices in the coming months.

So what does this mean for businesses? A ChangeWave Research study showed that corporate tablet use is expected to double next year, from 7% in 2010 to 14% by 2011. Gartner Research also predicts that by 2014, “90% of organizations will support corporate applications on devices owned by workers.”

Benefits of Employee-Owned Devices

Employee-owned devices encompass all gadgets — including tablets and smart phones — that are used personally, but are also powerful enough for corporate use.

Increases in productivity alone are enough for some corporations to embrace the use of employee-owned devices in the workplace. In fact, according to an iPass survey of 1,100 mobile workers, “employees who use mobile devices for both work and personal issues put in 240 more hours per year than those who do not.”

In addition to improved productivity, employees also gain flexibility in device choice, enabling them to work on the devices that are most comfortable and convenient for them, wherever they are and whatever time of day.

Managing the Tablet and Employee-Owned Device Influx

But, are you prepared to handle the influx of employee-owned devices, and the security and management concerns that accompany them? A Network World article recommends managing mobile devices in a similar way as other corporate IT assets – through smart management of use, configuration and security.

Through desktop virtualization, you can enhance device security and simplify IT management. With it, your IT team can centrally manage and deliver corporate applications and desktops on employee-owned devices, without having to manage each device individually.

However, according to a CIO article, “security requires more than just virtualization. It requires limits on the kind of information end users can download to insecure devices, what they can do with that data, and where it can go.”

This often will involve the use of a mobile management platform or solution. For example, Airwatch and BoxTone allow IT managers to create separate profiles for employee- and company-owned devices, separate personal and corporate data, and remotely configure VPN, WiFi and other critical settings.

But, it also will require that the devices in use are able to meet the security needs of your corporate data. For more information on the security capabilities of seven popular mobile platforms (including Apple iOS) and whether they can adequately protect routine, important, sensitive and top-secret business information, check out InfoWorld’s mobile management whitepaper.

On the management side, it’s also important to consider how employee-owned devices will be financed. In its whitepaper, InfoWorld recommends considering how the device will be used — based on factors such as: employee time away from desk, sensitive data access, etc. — before settling on a strategy. From there, you can determine whether a subsidized or organization-wide plan makes the most sense.

Your Thoughts?

The trend toward employee-owned devices in the workplace is likely to continue, as more employees access corporate data from their personal devices, regardless of whether they have permission.

How is your company preparing for and responding to the influx of employee-owned devices into the workplace? What challenges are you facing with integrating smart phones, tablets and mobile devices into your existing infrastructure? How are you overcoming them?

 

Ira Grossman, Group President, Personal Systems Group, has more than 15 years of technology project management and supply chain experience. Connect with Ira on LinkedIn.

Image Credit: Yutaka Tsutano

 

Are you a business leader in Northeast Ohio interested in learning more about mobile devices and other advanced technologies for your organization? Join us on Wednesday, August 10 at 3:00 p.m. for a roundtable discussion: Mobile Device Explosion. This will be the second session of a three-session series that also includes Path to the Cloud (7/19) and Intuitive Collaboration (9/29). All three events will take place at our future headquarters, 1801 Superior Ave. in downtown Cleveland. You can attend all three or any combination of sessions. Click here to learn more and register.

The Future of Desktop Computing: 2011 and Beyond

Virtualization, cloud computing, and mobile devices are hot topics for IT professionals in 2011, with much of the chatter focused on how these technologies will be a disruptive force for the IT status quo. But what will that disruption mean for the desktop computer, in particular?

Will the Desktop Computer Become Extinct?

“Desktop computer” has come to mean a lot of things, but the definition I want to focus on is the original one: a computer that sits on a desk and is meant to be used by the lion’s share of your business users. This definition does not include laptops, mobile devices, workstations, or thin/zero clients.

Over the last couple of years we have seen a slow decline in the sales of desktop computers and, in contrast, a rapid increase in the sales of laptops and other mobile form factor devices. Mobility, once a luxury, is now becoming the norm. Gone are the days of having to justify the purchase of an overly expensive and underpowered mobile computer. In 2011, you might actually have a hard time justifying that eco-unfriendly and inflexible desktop computer.

Why the shift? Desktop and application virtualization makes the desktop computer — with its siloed hardware resources and locally installed applications — unnecessary. Why deploy a support-heavy desktop computer when you can simply put an eco-friendly thin or zero client in its place and deliver what is needed to the end user through virtualization?

In 2011, the traditional desktop computer will begin to go the way of the green screen terminal. They might hang on for a couple of years, but only until the value can be fully depreciated both on the books and in productive use.

The Shift in Desktop Standardization

In the IT industry, standardization based on price and configuration of the hardware has generally been the norm. This helps keep support costs down while maintaining the highest possible uptime for end user. Although this has been a workable model, it reveals the main flaw in the current desktop computing environment — lack of flexibility. 

I have worked with many IT organizations and have noticed this constant: When price and configuration are the drivers, you end up with users who have too much computing power and users who don’t have enough. This is largely because the standardization model does not take into consideration what the end user will be using the computer for. 

This year, I expect that we will hear more terms like “end-user segmentation” and “business roles,” and the job of IT will be to provide the right tools for the jobs being done by each end-user segment or business role.

From a Static to a Dynamic Personal Systems Model

Local hardware resources and locally installed applications have been standard practice in the industry for decades. In the days when most computers were housed in the same building or on the same campus, this was a reliable model. However, the reality of our global business world is that computers are spread across states, countries, and even continents, which has stretched this static IT model to its breaking point.

In 2011, a dynamic model must be adopted, in which the end-point device no longer matters. In a dynamic model, applications (the primary end-user tools) are seen as services to be provided on an as-needed basis. Desktop and application virtualization and cloud computing have made this concept a reality.

Consider the virtualization of an entire Windows desktop, and cloud-based delivery mechanisms that allow all of these things to run on a vast array of different end points, whether online or off, and you have the future of business desktop computing. In fact, the term “business desktop computing” itself might have to change just to reflect this new reality as we move forward.

Your Thoughts?

What kind of future do you see for the desktop computer, and IT in general, in your organization? Will the IT department be enablers of content, mobility, and flexibility? Or will it be seen as an anchor weighing down the business, and keeping it from moving forward?

Jason Dell is a Converged Network Solution Consultant at MCPc, and is responsible for developing and programming custom solutions for clients. His expertise includes network security and security for mobile devices in the enterprise. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn.

December Monthly Roundup: Top IT Industry Articles

Each month, MCPc shares articles from last month that provide insight on prominent IT topics. In this article, we take a look at: cloud-computing predictions for 2011, desktop virtualization and virtual networking, datacenter project planning, mobile communications, and how to achieve faster broadband.

Cloud Computing

In the Forbes article, “2011 Cloud Computing Predictions For CIO’s And Business Technology Leaders,” R. “Ray” Wang predicted that more companies will integrate cloud solutions into their IT strategies in the coming year. This is because cloud adoption is no longer constrained to companies of a certain size, or in a particular industry or geography. And, companies are realizing the ease of deployment and use, and cost savings that cloud platforms can provide.

With adoption expected to increase, CIOs will start looking realistically at security and how it can be achieved, instead of assuming that the cloud will always be an insecure option. Conservative CIOs may turn first to private clouds before moving into public clouds, and hybrid models will likely develop where apps are housed in the public cloud and data is stored in the private cloud. 

In 2011, you should expect the emergence of more open-platform solutions that are built by integrating SaaS technologies, and are not locked-in to one platform. These are expected to be easy to use, but also to scale based on a company’s needs. For the rest of Wang’s predictions, read his full article.

Virtualized Networking

To complement the above projections, Howie Xu, R&D director at VMWare, offered five predications for how virtualization will change networking in 2011. Included in the list are the following:

• L2 networks will take precedence over VLAN technology, becoming the building block for the public and private cloud. This results from the scalability, flexibility and multi-tenancy of L2 networks.
• Management of physical and virtual servers will consolidate so IT staffs can get the most out of their virtual environments.
• More virtual network services will be introduced, which may lead to initial scalability and resource management pains (similar to what happened with server virtualization and server sprawl).
• Instead of competing on price and performance like they did in the pre-cloud days, vendors will be evaluated more often on whether they support business agility.  
• Virtual switching will start to drive server virtualization adoption, due to its ability to enforce access controls, and improve performance and scalability.

Virtual Desktops

On his blog, Brian Madden posited the question: if desktop virtualization is so great, then why aren’t you using it? Based on his experiences, he predicted that VDI adoption will get to 10% at max (either 10% of all users, or 100% of users for 10% of their apps).

However, in response to Madden’s prediction, IT advisor Jonathan Eunice offered his counter opinion on CNET, where he argued:

• VDI needs time to mature (similar to the how the Internet, SMS texting and Facebook developed), but when it does, adoption will increase.
• Most mobile users aren’t the best use cases for VDI. Therefore, instead of concentrating on mobile users, enterprises should “focus on use cases … that cover large user populations” in order to get projects funded and approved.
• Pure VDI is not the only option. IT professionals can integrate virtual desktops with SaaS, cloud computing and rich Internet applications to create a more efficient and flexible user experience.

Datacenter Design

Due to the increasing complexity of new technologies, designing a datacenter requires extraordinary planning and technical expertise. In this Datacenter Journal article, Fred Jaeckle and Brian Nuehring recommend considering the following prior to designing and building your datacenter:

• Short- and long-term datacenter needs and goals — Examples include desired years of operation, security requirements, physical site selection and planned upgrades.
• Power, heating and cooling systems, and the implications these will have on your design.
• Information technology hardware and equipment needs, and purchasing lead times.

To ensure that your datacenter is properly planned, you may also want to consider recruiting outside support as needed. Knowledgeable and experienced construction managers and general contractors can help you make more fully informed decisions based on your business needs.

On a related note: If you’re interested in migrating data from one location to another, Matt Prigge offers a comprehensive overview in his post “How to Migrate Your Storage the Right Way.”

Mobile Communications

As Carl Weinschenk points out in his article “Many Shades of Gray in the Remote and Mobile Workforce,” employees can now work from the office, home or the road, and IT departments need to consider the implications of each.

With more people working away from their desks (62% of businesses employ remote workers), there are an abundance of opportunities for mobile to be integrated into unified communications (UC) solutions, according to Russell Bennett in his article  “Mobile Unified Communications: An Unfulfilled Market.” Examples include calls getting routed from the office to cell phones, one-click access to conference calls through calendar functionality and video conferencing.

However, the problem with integrating mobile devices is that right now, they are completely separate from the unified communications infrastructure. Other complications include: mixed personal and professional use of mobile phones, network operators not selling a UC feature set, and limits to UC functionality due to screen size, resolution, bandwidth and battery power.

As technology and operator services continue to evolve, there is a large latent demand for mobile UC to be answered.

Broadband Technology

In this CIO article, Mikael Ricknäs provides four technologies that will likely become more important in 2011 based on their abilities to increase broadband speed. The list includes:

• 10G GPON technology, which will increase download capacity by four and upstream capacity by eight, compared to current networks. These increases mean that the technology will be able to support either more users or more bandwidth.
• VDSL2 — To boost DSL speeds, vendors are sending signals over multiple copper pairs simultaneously, and then using vectoring to counteract crosstalk (noise that reduces signal quality and bandwidth).
• LTE (Long Term Evolution) — A step up from 3G telecommunications networks, LTE offers higher speeds and lower latencies. About 50 LTE commercial networks are expected to launch in 2011 – extending into smart phones and tablets.
• HSPA+ (High-Speed Packet Access) — By sending data over two channels at the same time, HSPA+ could increase download speed up to 84M bps. The average real-world download speed is currently between 7M bps to 14M bps.

Read Ricknäs’ full article for more details.

What Do You Think?

What articles, blog posts, videos or podcasts did you find interesting last month? Post a comment, and we’ll be sure to keep an eye on those sources for future wrap-up articles like this one.

This post is an MCPc blogging team collaboration.

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Strategic IT Planning: A Holistic Approach to Projects

When you’re planning an IT project — whether it’s a technology upgrade, new installation, a move toward virtualization, or really anything that will affect your environment or how it’s accessed — it’s important to consider how your plans for the area at hand will affect other facets of your IT infrastructure and business processes.

Business benefits provided by a particular engagement may be able to be expanded into others, if you have a clear idea of how the pieces fit together. Or conversely, not understanding how one area may affect another could have an inadvertent negative impact.

For example, if you’re thinking about implementing a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), you need to contemplate many components beyond the appropriate end client, VDI vendor, and protocols to support. Consider how your VDI plans impact both LAN and WAN bandwidth requirements, and server redundancy to name just a few.

As a result, you'll need to engage the network team, server team, and datacenter team. This approach will ensure that all players are on the same page, and that any bandwidth- or server-upgrade projects take VDI into account.

Strategy Vs. Tactics

This is why it’s so important to engage every IT project holistically, and to take an approach that is:

• Brand agnostic
• Solution specific
• Analytical

For example, if you’re thinking about moving part of your workforce to virtualized desktops, don’t go into it thinking, “we’ll need 30 HP t5540 thin clients and VMware View Manager.” This is a very tactical approach. Rather, I suggest that you take a step back and think about the project strategically. Ask yourself questions such as:

• What is the business case for virtualization?
• Are we rolling it out to the right people?
• Will the solution be scalable, in case this works well and should be rolled out to additional departments?
• Do we have the right end-user machines in place? Should we consider tablets, iPads or netbooks to enable more mobility?
• Will our server support the virtualization?
• Do we have the proper software licensing structure in place?
• What will our bandwidth requirements be?
• What protocols should we support?
• How will virtualization run over our WAN, and what will the end-user experience be?

By looking at each project strategically and holistically, you’re able to find the best, most appropriate solution.

How can this be done? Often, starting with an assessment of the area, as well as related areas within your IT environment, will ensure that you understand your entire infrastructure and how it could be affected by any proposed change. This information will allow you to adress not only the issue at hand, but also set yourself up for success in other areas.

Why Now?

IT has always been complex, however as solutions continue to overlap, and all aspects of a business are touched by multiple pieces of your IT infrastructure, the traditional, siloed approach to IT is becoming less sufficient. To succeed in today’s environments, teams need to work together more closely.

For example, Cisco recently restructured its IT Network and Data Services team out of traditional silos (i.e. platform, storage network, etc.) into strategic groups that work together, and approach the environment holistically (architecture, design, implementation and operations).

Why the change? According to John Manville, Cisco’s vice president of IT, working individually the teams were developing “sub-optimal system level designs… networking optimally designed for just the network, and the platform group designed optimally for platforms. But as an end-to-end system, it wasn’t optimally designed.”

Now, depending upon your organization’s size and complexity, it may be difficult to completely restructure your IT team. However, applying this mentality to your environment — and to every IT project — you can ensure solutions that set up your complete environment for success, and support both short- and long-term business goals.

In short, you’ll end up with a better solution that applies to all your needs.

Fixing a Leak Instead of Plugging a Hole

You know in old cartoons when a boat springs a leak, and the character plugs it only to have the pressure build up so the boat bursts in another place, so he plugs that, and the process continues until he is completely stretched out and plugging multiple holes with every extremity?

If you approach projects tactically, your IT team may find itself in a similar situation (figuratively, at least). Taking the strategic, holistic approach enables you to solve the pressure problem, instead of plugging the holes.

Your Thoughts?

Have you ever approached a project strategically and found unexpected insight that changed your anticipated solution? Please share your experience in the comments below.

 

Darin Haines is Group President of MCPc's Advanced Technology Group - Delivery Division and has over 16 years of experience in leading the technology function in mid-sized and enterprise-level organizations. Connect with Darin on LinkedIn.

Photo credit: Anil Jadhav

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