Posted on Fri, Dec 30, 2011 @ 03:14 PM
From Gartner’s Top 10 Strategic Technologies for business to CNN’s Top 10 Tech Trends geared more toward consumers, new and popular technology for 2012 is a hot topic. Most articles list the obvious trends: mobile, social, cloud, apps and analytics to name a few. But what do these trending technologies mean for your organization?
Our team of chief bloggers has weighed in with their own 2012 technology trends below. While many coincide to what we’re reading in IT industry publications, the thoughts listed here are from the field and based on market demand.
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Andy Jones, Senior Vice President of Sales
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Trends from the trenches include further adoption into virtualization and the broadening of cloud offerings, mobile device management, and collaboration with video.
- Virtualization and the cloud. As employee demand for mobility rises, we’ll see further adoption into virtual applications and virtual desktops, paving the way for the cloud. I expect we’ll also see the cloud industry gaining greater definition as adoption increases, as well as broader, varied offerings in PaaS, Saas, AaaS and IaaS.
- Mobile device management (MDM) is going to be huge. There are millions of devices out there that organizations are trying desperately to get their arms around. The need to manage, monitor and secure any device accessing the corporate network—from smartphones to Kindles to iPads—will drive growth and demand for MDM software. Expect the iPad 3’s introduction in March to fuel MDM conversations.
- Welcome the play of collaboration with video. More and more companies are starting to look at the benefits around collaboration, especially with video, and how this technology can improve organizational flexibility and mobility.
- Applications everywhere. Last year, Chris Anderson (@chr1sa) and Michael Wolff (@MichaelWolffNYC) wrote a profound article called The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet. I expect their predictions of access to information via application to come to fruition in 2012—but beyond the just the web, with heavy application development taking place for desktop, mobile and print.
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Darin Haines, Group President, Advanced Technology Group
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Mobile, big data, consumerization and video will be some of 2012’s top tech trends.
- A mobile tsunami will strike in 2012, leaving no task behind. From social media to enterprise email, print and commerce, everything will go mobile or be driven by mobile in 2012. Location-based services for business and the consumer will be more highly adopted and expected.
- Big data will get even bigger. The data explosion will drive a need for comprehensive analytics to forecast business intelligence (BI) and decision-making. Having a handle on big data, via SaaS or other forms of XaaS, will give businesses a high-demand competitive advantage.
- Consumerization on steroids. Driven by consumer mobility and networking, tablets, cloud services and BYO3 (employees not just bringing one device, but three devices to the workplace) will hit the office. The ease of consumer video and social networking will spur enterprise adoption, and IT will need to manage access and security.
- Video, everywhere. Video is now 40 percent of consumer Internet traffic, according to the Cisco® Visual Networking Index. Consumers and corporations will dive into video for personal and business communications.
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Ira Grossman, Vice President, Personal Systems Group
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Personal system mobility, access, applications and end-user segmentation will impact IT initiatives in 2012.
- Self-service IT environments. A focus on self-service for level 0 support and deployment prevails, as organizations ready their IT environment for PC choice and employee BYO3.
- MDM and policy. IT organizations will need to review mobile policies to account for device proliferation and user demands for flexibility. Out-tasking core IT functions like PC lifecycle management can free up internal resources to focus on these more strategic and impactful initiatives.
- Application development. IT priorities driven by sales and marketing business leaders leverage the near immediate availability of apps as the new and preferred way to interact with clients—delivering content, data and BI. Apps are already being rewritten and re-factored to operate natively on tablets.
- End-user segmentation. Organizations will need to take a formal approach to user segmentation as they consider IT initiatives such as thin client computing, thick client refresh, Windows 8, and tablets as a complete replacement to traditional end points.
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Jeff Goldstein, Senior Consultant, Imaging & Printing Group
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For print to survive 2012, it has to be mobile, efficient, and backed by data.
- Mobile will reduce the need to print. Mobile devices aren’t equipped with built-in print drivers. As more organizations adopt mobile strategies, and as more people become hyper-mobile, the need to print will fade. Organizations will enable mobile print using middleware, such as HP ePrint Enterprise, if needed; however, the cost of the software will prompt organizations to decide if mobile printing is truly a requirement.
- Managed Print Services (MPS) will require more creative solutions. Quickly becoming a commodity, resellers will offer more than just MPS. To provide true value to their clients—helping them become more cost effective and efficient—MPS providers will consider: data that justifies software investments, print policy regulations to cut costs, business workflows that reduce or eliminate print altogether and more.
Your Thoughts?
What predictions do you have for the year ahead, and how do industry insights and those listed above compare to your IT forecasts?
This post is an MCPc blogging team collaboration.
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Posted on Thu, Dec 22, 2011 @ 03:33 PM
During MCPc’s Modern Technology Lessons roundtable discussion on the path to the cloud, cloud security was one of the most-talked-about business concerns. Across the industry these sentiments are echoed, as security remains a top concern for organizations considering a move to the cloud.
“What’s happening to my company’s data as it’s hosted in the cloud?”
Organizations need assurance of airtight processes that will be in place for data protection, availability, user authentication and access control, and continual threat management in the cloud.
In this post, we’ll run through levels of security to expect in both the public and private cloud models, as well as considerations for engineering your own secure cloud environment.
Cloud Security: Public vs. Private
With the choice of any cloud model, there are security concerns to consider. When choosing a cloud strategy for your organization, assess the security posture you have today against the security posture your organization will need in the future.
Any cloud strategy—be it public, private, hybrid or community—affords different security posture advantages and disadvantages. Regardless of your cloud model choice, the primary concerns from chief security officers (CSOs) are how data will be protected, secured, made fault-tolerant and replicated.
Private Cloud Security
For many organizations, virtualization naturally lends itself to a private cloud model. In this model, your organization will find similar security concerns to that of moving data into a centralized on-premise environment, but lessened concern around data replication security than in a public cloud strategy.
In the private cloud, businesses realize some of the same benefits of the public cloud—such as device flexibility, sever scalability, employee mobility, increased collaboration and a greener IT environment—without the security concerns some have about “letting go” of their physical data.
However, keeping your private cloud maintained and secure may require more active in-house management.
Public Cloud Security
A public cloud model is generally thought of as less secure than the private model, largely because the organization’s lack of physical awareness breeds concerns of a “fear of the unknown” mentality. IT pros considering public cloud solutions need to address both physical and technical security with their providers, and focus on where data exists, how it’s replicated, and how it’s maintained.
For example, I met with a cloud service provider that maintained at least seven physical security layers surrounding its on-site datacenter, including actual guards and an eye scanner. The physical security of this public cloud solution is most likely markedly better than what could be provided in house by most CSOs, but the concern of data replications and access via the network remains.
An advantage to public cloud offerings is that in hosting all of your organization’s data in the cloud, a few potential security concerns may be lessened.
Take the healthcare industry as an example. When a healthcare provider moves patient records to a hosted solution, IT managers can be less concerned with records being lost on multiple local devices, and focus more on how to protect data and keep it compliant in one place—where it’s stored.
However, healthcare brings another caveat to the table: compliance. Some industry regulations may prohibit storing personally identifiable information in the public cloud.
Federal government, specifically defense, is another strictly regulated industry. However, The Defense Information Systems Agency’s Rapid Access Computing Environment (DISA’s RACE) shows how this highly regulated department can find its solution in a more secure and private cloud environment.
Final Thoughts
Regardless of whether an organization would choose a public cloud offering or maintain their data locally in a private model, vigilance is always the word of the day.
What thoughts do you have about the security advantages and implications of the private and public cloud? Is your organizations’ hybrid cloud solution a mix between multiple cloud offerings?
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Andy Jones is Senior Vice President of Sales. He has more than 15 years of IT industry experience, and is an expert on cloud, virtualization and managed services solutions. Connect with Andy on LinkedIn.
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Image credit: Debs
Posted on Thu, Dec 15, 2011 @ 02:32 PM
As you evaluate technology plans for the upcoming year, be sure to bank your organization's power usage—and costs—by enforcing environmentally friendly technology best practices.
The movement toward more “green” IT has been propelled by efficient technologies like virtualization, power management, updates to print capabilities and more. Not only do innovative technologies like these reduce organizations’ overall carbon footprints, but the return on green technology investments also helps balance bottom lines. (After all, the goal of green is to reduce energy consumption, which costs.)
As you start planning for a more efficient 2012, here are our top technology trends that advance green IT.
- Power Management Software — There are IT products available that apply directly to power management and “useful work” performed by servers and data center appliances. With software like that from 1E, IT managers can view devices in waking mode, sleep mode, hibernation mode, etc., to evaluate where devices are consuming the most power, and create rules to automatically power them down when not in use.
With software management tools in place, installing power management software across the IT environment can be fairly quick (1-3 days) and painless. And, ROI on projects like this is almost instant, showing in 2-3 months.
Example: 1E's PC power management software, NightWatchman, can be utilized to shutdown desktop PCs after hours. AT&T expects to save $12M and reduce carbon emissions by 123,000 tons per year using 1E technology to save electricity on PCs at rest.
Quick Hint: Employees may think that a sleeping PC is efficient, but deep sleep is better. Management software helps illustrate this difference.
- Virtualization — Anything you can do from a server consolidation standpoint will help your organization gain returns in energy efficiency. Fewer machines require less power, cooling and so on.
Evaluate the entire network to determine server performance and most useful workloads. For example, stacks like the Cisco UCS Manager can actually pull power away from a unit to save energy. It’s similar to the Honda Eco Assist system, which shows you when you’re driving efficiently and saving power.
- Upgrade Your Technology Fleet — It’s a large undertaking, but executed with strategic technology refresh planning and management, replacing older devices can bring significant return on power usage and cost.
Even technology that’s only a few years old can likely be upgraded to deliver return on both efficiency and investment. For example, advancements in compliance ratings and available technology have made compressors more efficient than those from just two years ago; any infrastructure that’s more than three years old should be assessed.
Consider the following technologies as you prioritize technology fleet upgrades:
- Thin Clients: The typical desktop thin client consumes 6-7 watts of power, while the laptop consumes about 85 watts. Multiply this power savings across your company’s technology fleet, and it’s a return with impact.
- LCD vs. LED: Consider newer monitors. LCD monitors use old technology, while LED monitors are far more energy efficient. LED backlighting technology enables less power consumption, making it a more eco-friendly business solution.
- Print: 5-10 year-old machines are power drains; they’re horribly inefficient. Companies should look at efficiency studies around their printer fleets. Ink and toner savings are another consideration, which along with better-managed power, will also come down in usage and therefore cost.
When prioritizing a technology refresh, consider the initial time and cost investment for each upgrade (thin clients, printer consolidation, etc.) in comparison to the cost savings you’ll realize in return.
Quick Tips for the Holidays
If you’re itching to swing green IT practices into motion, the upcoming holiday season is a great place to start. Long weekends and office vacations are perfect times to cut back on your organization’s overall power usage.
Encourage your team to unplug—not just shut devices down. While powering down is great for the end of the day, chargeable devices that are still plugged in use standby power, also known as vampire power. In some households this accounts for almost 10% of overall electricity, according to Wikipedia. Think of the implications for business usage.
Final Thoughts: Return on Green
The return on moving toward green IT practices in your business is pretty clear, but it can also be calculated with this Green ROI Tool shared by IBM (registering your contact information is required). Check out your return, and feel free to share other best practices toward green IT in the comments below.
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Andy Jones is Senior Vice President of Sales. He has more than 15 years of IT industry experience, and is an expert on cloud, virtualization and managed services solutions. Connect with Andy on LinkedIn.
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Image credit: Steve-h
Posted on Mon, Dec 12, 2011 @ 08:13 AM
New and custom applications have enabled devices like the iPad to become all an executive needs to do any task that may come up on the job.
The same is now true for multifunctional printers (MFPs)—they do much more than print and scan. Operating systems on modern MFPs allow custom applications that improve workflow efficiencies for your employees by transforming traditional MFPs into work kiosks for data convergence.
MFP + Custom Applications = The Next Information Hub
MFPs have always been able to securely integrate into corporate network servers, which helps companies save on costs by eliminating redundant printers and copiers, reduce the need for scanners, and eliminate phone lines altogether. Now, converging technology and custom software applications enable the MFP to be an onramp and offramp for corporate information.
With a modern MFP, employees can scan and upload data (onramp), choose where data is stored—connect to corporate servers and eliminate steps in the traditional business workflow process—and print selected files or information (offramp). Today’s MFP is now a data hub for all back office applications and workflows.
Take this example of where the MFP technology is going:
An employee needs to scan a document into Micorsoft SharePoint. With a modern MFP, he or she can walk over to the MFP, use his or her login information to securely access SharePoint, then browse files and scan the document directly into SharePoint. This not only eliminates the steps one has to go through when scanning, indexing and uploading a file via email, but it also enables immediate content, collaboration and workflow efficiencies for your workforce.
The same is true if an employee needed to grab literature from SharePoint. He or she would simply login, look at the files while visiting the MFP (it appears just like it does when accessing your server), then print directly from the device.
All activities are logged, audited, backtracked, and stored so IT managers can monitor data security and access, and so employees can have audited confirmation of when information was loaded, sent or received.
Is it Right for My Business?
Remember, when deciding whether investing in modern MFPs and/or custom print applications is right for your business, think about how MFPs fit into everyday business processes. Often, examining critical systems—such as accounting, sales, customer service, operations, inventory and more—shows that print, scan and custom applications are the last part of the equation. Consider:
- What component of each process includes print or information sharing?
- How can workflow digitization within critical business processes benefit the organization?
- Is there a custom application that would improve a specific business process, and is it a better value to script that application than purchase new software?
What’s Next for the Multifunction Printer?
Applications that integrate your unique business needs will be the next major phase of MFP functionality for business. For example, apps that upload hand-written service tickets into your systems, those that retrieve and print invoices, and those that process new employee information and signatures are functionalities that enable efficiency and drive business results.
How have modern MFPs improved your workflows, and what custom applications do you see in your company’s future?
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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.
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image credit: honan
Posted on Tue, Dec 06, 2011 @ 01:41 PM
Each month we read hundreds of IT industry articles, then choose the highlights to share with our readers. November’s articles focus on: virtualization’s lessons learned, mobility in the workplace, security against advanced persistent threats (APTs), IT project management, and other recent industry headlines of note.
Lessons Learned in Virtualization
Charles Babcock’s (@babcockcw) Information Week article, 4 Lessons Learned from Virtualization Masters, examines organizations that are well virtualized (70–98%) and shares their lessons learned along the way. Insights to remember on your path toward a more virtualized IT environment include:
- Well-managed virtualized environments mean integration among multiple complex, moving parts.
- Expect a change in datacenter relationships, and enforce monitored chargeback systems for efficiency.
- Use transaction databases or virtual servers to isolate troubleshooting, operations, data loss and functionality.
- Pair a high-speed environment with a broad-range environment to spread workload capacity across servers.
Tech Target’s Calculating Virtualization ROI Using Unconventional Factors, by Brien Posey, reminds readers that reduced cost isn’t the only reason to virtualize. Other considerations when calculating return include high-availability metrics, reduced licensing costs and quicker provisioning times.
Mobility in the Workplace
The 2011 Cisco Connect World Survey found flexibility with mobile devices to be more important than salary for 40-45% of college students and young professionals.
But the trend isn’t just for millennials … See the blog series about our “iPad-only executive,” Darin Haines (@DarinHaines), a seasoned professional with nearly twenty years of IT industry experience. The series covers a day in the life of an iPad-only exec, winning applications that make the iPad Darin’s preferred computing device, and the software and tools we use to manage iPad-dependent employees.
IT Security Battles APTs
In Network World’s The Network Is the Security, Jon Oltsik (@joltsik) outlines how detailed network monitoring, data and analytics—including that of network behaviors, payload analysis, performance and more—can help organizations ramp up security against APTs.
In the follow-up article, Data Security and APTs, Oltsik examines ESG research on the data security tools that organizations are investing in to protect against APTs. He finds that data encryption, complete database security, mobile security and access management are the data security controls organizations will continue to look to for defense.
Project Management
Have you found The Secret to IT Project Success? In Bob Lewis’ (@ITCatalysts) Infoworld article, he discusses how completing a project is only the beginning for IT. While IT is used to ensuring that regular operations run smoothly and efficiently, the real success is when IT can bring successful business change and impact to the forefront.
What does successful business change look like? Following are Lewis’ four steps to determine the impact for your organization:
- Define success.
- Take responsibility—or make sure you clearly define who will—for both the project completion and business change.
- Incorporate business change management into each project.
- Make project implementation a milestone, and let your operational manager lead this project.
For more on bringing a business focus to IT, check out Nigel Fenwick’s (@NigelFenwick) Forrester blog post, How to Get Beyond Alignment, or the MCPc blog post, The Evolving Role of the CIO.
In the News …
Your Top Picks
What articles stuck out from your November reading? Please share your additional articles, topics of interest or questions in the comments below.
This post is an MCPc blogging team collaboration.
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Posted on Thu, Dec 01, 2011 @ 10:29 AM
Using my iPad as my only computing device for the past eight months has been possible thanks to security and access processes that MCPc has in place.
The following are considerations from Ira Grossman, vice president of personal systems at MCPc, to help set up your organization to enable iPad-only executives and employees. --Darin Haines, Group President, Advanced Technology Group
Set Up for Security
iPads and other mobile devices brought in to your workforce give employees ownership, familiarity and mobility—allowing work to become something you do, not somewhere you go. However, when a new device enters your environment, it can also pose potential threats to the environment’s security.
Having an airtight onboarding process for new and employee-owned mobile devices gives organizations control. Before allowing mobile devices to connect to any corporate systems, we recommend that employees understand and agree to mobile device management policies and practices.
Opting devices in to mobile device management software is another way to make sure that users are securely connecting to your networks. For example, AirWatch allows us to track where all corporate iPads are, access remote wipe functionality if needed, push down profiles, restrict applications and more. It’s a multi-faceted process that protects both the iPads or employee-owned devices, and our company’s infrastructure and intellectual property.
Manage the Personal & Professional Device
One of the reasons Darin—and employees like him—love the iPad is because it unites his personal and professional lives. He can use it to video conference with customers across the ocean, then turn around and use it to check in on what’s happening at home via FaceTime. It houses his personal and professional travel plans, checklists, documents, photos and more.
This brings us to an IT manager’s dilemma: employee-owned devices come with personal files and data.
To balance the different types of information on iPads and other devices, sandbox or segment user data into personal and professional accounts that live on the same device. For secure storage and access to professional documents, messages, and our internal CRM applications or systems, our employees use Citrix Receiver.
A key benefit of this approach is that when an employee leaves the company or when his or her device may be at risk, you can remotely wipe all business-related materials from his or her device without removing personal data. The mechanics of this functionality will vary based on platform used, but some are able to selectively wipe devices in a matter of seconds.
Related Resources
With more executives bringing their own devices to the workplace, mobile device management is a hot topic among our customers and readers. Following are a few additional resources you may find helpful when planning your organization’s mobile device management strategy:
Final Thoughts
Enabling your employees to use their own devices in the workplace—whether iPads, tablets or mobile phones—can help increase productivity and ultimately make work something you do, not a place you go.
Have processes in place so you can securely onboard, monitor, manage and remove necessary devices from your network, and make sure your organization has helpful applications that make being an iPad-only executive possible for your workforce.
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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. Connect with Ira on LinkedIn.
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image credit: Robert S. Donovan