Posted on Thu, May 31, 2012 @ 07:45 AM
This month Cisco announced the findings of its Cisco IBSG Horizons Study: BYOD and Virtualization. The study’s main finding: mobility and BYOD are pervasive, driving forces within the enterprise—and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
95% of respondents surveyed say their organizations permit employee-owned devices in the workplace. And, by 2014, the study predicts the average employee will work from 3.3 devices, which is an 18% jump from the average 2.8 devices today.
The survey polled more than 600 IT and business leaders at U.S. enterprises (with at least 1,000 employees) from 18 industries. Read on for more IT insights from the Cisco study, and tips about how to support BYOD within your organization.
Key BYOD Findings
The survey finds that overall, mobility and the use of mobile devices is on the rise—not only in terms of employee usage, but also in company-wide mobility initiatives, which are predicted to consume 20% of IT budgets in 2014.
Other key findings on the use and support of mobile devices within the enterprise include:
- 78% of employees have a mobile device for work.
- 44% of knowledge workers (such as engineers, architects, scientists, lawyers and so on) telecommute at least once each week.
- 62% of enterprises pay for employee devices and voice/data plans.
- 41% of enterprises say that most smartphones connected to corporate networks are currently employee-owned.
For more details on highlights of the BYOD and virtualization report, read Cisco’s press release on its findings.
Opportunities & Challenges of the More Mobile Workforce
76% of IT leaders consider the consumerization of IT to be positive for their organizations. As we see with MCPc clients every day, the move to more mobile workforces that accommodate BYOD often results in improved employee productivity and greater overall job satisfaction.
On the other hand, BYOD presents challenges that must be met by IT leadership, including:
- Secure and private corporate networks and data.
- IT support for multiple mobile devices and platforms.
- Mobile device management, including employee use policies.
Learn more about IT responsibilities and technology considerations in regard to BYOD.
"As the number of devices being brought into work increases, organizations need a comprehensive mobility strategy. By leveraging the intelligent network, organizations can now provide their employees with the benefits of working anywhere, anytime: in other words, ‘work your way.’”
— Padmasree Warrior, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Cisco
Support BYOD in Your Anyplace Workspace
What Cisco calls “work your way,” MCPc calls the anyplace workspace™. It’s our answer to the business need for a comprehensive mobile strategy that enables employees to work anywhere and on any device, while IT maintains centralized and secure management and control.
Is your organization and its leadership supporting BYOD? Are you prepared for 2014’s BYO3? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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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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Posted on Fri, May 18, 2012 @ 01:18 PM
Last week, San Francisco was abuzz for Citrix Synergy 2012. The agenda was packed, as 6,500+ in attendance—including your MCPc team—were ready for the announcements, keynotes, breakout sessions, game-changers and more.
There were certainly more conference announcements than I could list within this blog post (my personal notes are more than 10 pages), but I’ll do my best to focus on the highlights and include links and resources to the details.
The Mobile Workforce & Cloud Services
From one product to an entire suite of innovative business technology, Citrix has grown its diverse portfolio aimed at two areas of focus:
“Citrix is one of the few independent software vendors that offers competitive products
in cloud computing, mobility, virtualization, networking and security, and social collaboration.”
- Gartner, from a Citrix presentation at Synergy
Trends highlighted by Al Monserrat, Citrix’s SVP of Sales and Services, as the driving force behind the company’s focus include:
- Consumerization, forcing more IT changes in the next 10 years than any other trend
- Workforce demand for BYOD
- Transition from the PC era to the cloud era
(Sorry about the quality -- this is from my iPhone. From Group VP and GM, Cloud Platforms Group at Citrix Systems, Sameer Dholakia's keynote. So what IS cloud? For us, of course, it's anyplace workspace.)
Achieving Mobile IT
There’s a “life splice” happening, and it’s the reinvention of work-life balance. We’ve seen it first-hand with MCPc customers, as the mobile workforce is the driving force behind our new anyplace workspace™ mentality.
Executives and employees continue to demand the ability to work from any place, on any device, with full access to needed data and applications—while IT managers require the management and control to facilitate a mobile workforce securely.
New Citrix technologies highlighted at the conference that make this possible include the following:
- GoToMeeting with HDFaces is now available as a free iPad application.
- GoToAssist is now free for iPad and Android for remote support and IT management.
- Podio acquisition—the workflow management system for collaboration, including tasks, discussions, activities, data, social, apps, and more.
- ShareFile StorageZones that allow executives to choose where data is store (in the cloud or on premise) for optimized performance and compliance.
Many more were introduced or mentioned at the show. What others are you looking forward to using, or have you tried and already have feedback? We’re interested to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
From the PC Era to the Cloud Era
Just as organizations and executives expect to connect wirelessly over any device, mobility also requires the cloud and virtualized IT infrastructure, processes and data. A few Citrix announcements on the cloud front include:
- Project Avalon connects XenApp and XenDesktop. Wired (@wired) reports that Project Avalon “enables enterprises to transform some of their most important workloads, Windows desktop and Windows applications, to run on cloud infrastructure.”
- CloudGateway 2—the updated version enables enterprise mobility with attention to application management.
- Citrix Cloud Platform—the first commercially supported cloud orchestration system based on Apache CloudStack.
For more on how your business can grow, innovate and improve with the cloud, check out Citrix’s 2012 Innovation Award Finalists (VIDEO). It includes the stories of three different organizations (insurance, technology and education) that have each changed their businesses with Citrix cloud services and technology.
Your Thoughts?
What are the highlights from Citrix Synergy that you found to be of most value, and how are these technologies delivering your anyplace workspace?
Please share your comments or any questions from the conference in the comments below.
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Jed Ayres, Senior Vice President, Partner Management & Marketing, is responsible for driving MCPc's relationships with industry partners as well as the overall go-to-market strategy of the organization. He has more than 17 years of IT industry experience. Connect with Jed on LinkedIn.
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Posted on Thu, May 10, 2012 @ 09:58 AM
I have a friend that works in the international department for a bank, and frequently has her assistant print and FedEx necessary documents when she and other in the department travel to other cities and other countries. For her, picking up the documents was always a seamless process, as she knew where and when her documents would be ready and planned accordingly.
However, when her boss took a similar approach during a trip to China, the experience didn’t go quite as well. First, the packages containing the documents had to go through customs—a complicated process that added delays to the delivery. 2nd Day shipping turned into nearly a week. Then, when the packages were finally delivered, the hotel refused them because the boss hadn’t checked in yet. It was just a mess. Many hours were spent on a Sunday talking to the carrier trying to get the packages delivered to the hotel prior to Monday morning. A big mess…
The moral of the story: When traveling for business, it's vital to understand your print options, and schedule print into your day.
Know Your Print Options
While you can print documents ahead of time or have them shipped to you, the above example demonstrates that this isn’t always the best option. Sometimes, you’ll have to print on the go. When this is the case, it’s important to map out what print devices will be available to you. Some examples:
- Hotel printers: These are good for small-volume, non client-facing items, such as boarding passes. Typically, they are B&W only. In cases where a hotel color printer is available they are cost prohibitive to use for lengthy documents or multiple copies.
- Print-as-a-service: Companies such as FedEx Office, The UPS Store, and Office Max offer mobile and self-service print options at locations across the U.S. All you have to do is download an app to your smart phone or take a USB file to their location to print the files from their machines. Similar service exist in countries around the world. While the cost per page is high, the overall cost difference is minimal after factoring in the cost of freight and someone’s time to print the documents in your office.
Think through printing as part of your overall travel plans; know where print locations are, the services they offer and how printing will fit into your schedule.
Plan Accordingly
There are numerous Items to consider when evaluating print options and planning them into your day. These include:
- Length of document
- Document recipients (i.e. internal use, client, etc.)
- Color versus B&W
- Number of images, graphs or charts included in document
- Quality output desired
- Printer locations and distance from hotel
- Print services offered and associated costs
- Acceptable file formats for printers
- Procedure to submit files for printing (i.e. via a mobile app, USB drive, etc.)
- Shipping costs to have documents mailed to you
- Associated pick up locations and times
- Luggage size/weight requirements
- Completeness of documents prior to departure
- Print turnaround time
This level of additional planning and detail will make your life easier when travelling, and save your company money. By preparing ahead, you’ll be more likely to select the most cost-effective print option, instead of scrambling to find any print option.
How Do You Avoid Mobile Printing Headaches?
What solutions have you used when printing on the go? Which were most successful, and which didn’t work out as planned? Share your experiences below.
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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 Imaging and Printing Group. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn.
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Posted on Fri, May 04, 2012 @ 01:46 PM
This month, our collection of top industry articles highlights the consumerization of IT, virtualization of Tier 1 applications, open cloud computing and tech industry headlines.
IT Transformation
According to Network World’s Johna Till Johnson in her article on Consumerization and the Next Wave of IT Transformation, IT has been replaced with enterprise technology (ET), as it is no longer restricted to workplaces. Instead, it permeates throughout enterprise, and includes mobile, display and sensor technologies, next-generation computing, big data and more.
Says Johnson, “ET, in a nutshell, is the combination of technologies that enables embedded, networked, intelligence.” At MCPc, we see ET as the anyplace workspace.
Note: Want evidence of ET in action? Consider the tablet, which some predict may become our primary computing device.
In addition to a change in technologies and infrastructure, the shift from IT to ET has propelled industry professionals into a more strategic role within organizations, making them increasingly more important to bottom-line successes. In fact, more than one-third of IT budgets are now spent on the cloud, with a quarter of respondents indicating that the cloud will help shape business strategy.
For tips to capitalize on future trends like cloud and ET, read CIO’s Creating Culture of IT Innovation Includes Rewarding Failure.
Virtualization of Tier 1 Apps
To gain the most benefit and value out of private clouds, organizations need to take their tech to the next level by virtualizing even mission-critical applications. However, this is an area where many environments lag behind.
To help you make the transition; CIO’s Thor Olavsrud (@ThorOlavsrud) offers six steps to maximize success:
- Understand vendor-specific considerations related to your VM hypervisor.
- Discuss architecture needs with your system integrator/consultants.
- Inventory your current infrastructure, noting what needs to be upgraded.
- Update and align processes and policies for a virtual environment.
- Develop a backup strategy.
- Consolidate physical and virtual components for centralized management.
Open Cloud Computing
Open clouds—such as OpenStack and Citrix’ newly released CloudStack—may not compare with proprietary technology just yet; however, they are a disruptive force that should not be overlooked, as explained in Open Clouds: Immature or Good Enough? by ReadWriteCloud’s Joe Brockmeier (@jzb).
This is because open technologies standardize and commoditize the IaaS market, offering a lower price point than proprietary alternatives, without vendor lock in.
In fact, with growing interest in open clouds, there is an increasing demand for trained IT professionals with expertise in the area, and a possibility for certification programs down the road.
IT Industry News
- Google introduced Google Drive, a cloud-based, online storage platform. While great for individuals, this collaboration hub opens up a can of worms for IT departments, as it isn’t built with enterprise security in mind.
- Windows 8 Editions, the newest Windows operating systems for PCs and tablets, were unveiled. Among other upgrades, editions feature the Windows App Store and a flexible, fluid experience whether accessed via a touch screen or keyboard. For enterprise-level security, management, productivity and virtualization, the company announced Windows 8 Enterprise.
- HP’s newest cloud service, Converged Cloud, syncs with OpenStack software. The result: A private IaaS solution that is compatible with public offerings, making hybrid cloud implementations more viable.
- Cisco and NetApp expanded their FlexPod offering with cost-effective, pre-validated design architectures ideal for smaller workloads (500-1,000 users). Wondering if FlexPod is right for you? Check out our recent blog post for evaluation tips.
- Dell grew its cloud offerings with the purchase of Wyse Technologies. Plans are underway to use Wyse’s thin client and desktop virtualization technologies to offer an end-to-end cloud solution.
- Microsoft reengineered its certifications program to better prepare professionals to build and manage cloud environments. The change reflects a larger industry shift in the skill sets required of today’s IT professionals.
What articles did you enjoy last month? Please share your thoughts and additional resources in the comments below.
This post is an MCPc blogging team collaboration.
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Posted on Tue, May 01, 2012 @ 12:35 PM
Years ago, I used to do a lot of business with a giant pharmaceutical company in Pittsburgh. I remember a time when they decided to replace their IBM 360/20 running under TOS (Tape Operating System). It had 12k (YES that's K—12,000 bytes) of memory, 4x tape decks, a 1-card reader, 1-card punch and a 1-line printer (which used 15x11 inch 'fanfold' paper). And it came in a box of 2500 sheets. They had paid several million dollars for the computer, its software and peripherals, and wanted to recoup what they could. So they requested bids on it. The sole bid came from a man who said that if the company paid him $750, he’d cut the mainframe apart with a chainsaw and haul it away.
They took the bid.
I think of this now because it occurs to me that the iPad many people are carrying around has the potential to be a far greater computing system than those multi-million dollar mainframes ever were. Most of us love our iPhones and iPads but don’t think of them as supercomputers. When you take them out of the box they’re not, and that’s where anyplace workspace comes in. The phrase is MCPc's, but the concept behind it is experienced by everyone, whether you're an IT manager looking for an easier way to manage applications or a college student listening to Spotify. The principle behind anyplace workspace is the cloud. Somewhere, everything you need is available. It might be documents about your organization’s financial status, an S&P report on a potential customer, a news story on how flooding in the Far East will affect supply lines or a picture from your daughter’s dance recital. Whatever it is, anyplace workspace lets your iPhone, iPad, Android device or Windows device get to it and use it. anyplace workspace combines the power of your network with thousands of apps, Google, Facebook, Linkedin and the rest of the Internet. That little battery powered device in your pocket becomes a supercomputer.
And it doesn’t stop there—2012 is the year everything is becoming connected. Laptops, desktops, TVs, set-top boxes, tablets and smartphones are all starting to share content seamlessly. Already your kids are able to start watching a movie from Netflix on an iPad in the backseat of the car and finish watching on your home TV. Spreadsheet too small to see on your Android phone? Move it to your 60-ft flat-screen with a swipe of your fingers.
Streaming video to your computer is nothing new. What about streaming video to big-screen TVs? Most TVs being sold now are Internet-ready, and as new wireless standards become available this year, streaming video straight from the internet to a TV will go mainstream. If you only want Netflix, that’s easy. But if you want to start videoconferencing, sharing content, collaborating on wikis or creating social media events, you’ll need an architecture like anyplace workspace.
anyplace workspace is the infrastructure allowing each and every one of your devices to transcend its limitations to function as a network endpoint. anyplace workspace is about connecting everything, everywhere.
And of course all this technology is constantly evolving. I’m old enough to remember when phones had cords and TVs had knobs. While I could envision TV remote controls, it never would have occurred to me that my phone might be one someday. So what’s next? Do you become the remote control? Or the phone? Or maybe even the TV? Will we soon be checking our email from our glasses? Stay tuned. The anyplace workspace is going to get even more interesting.
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Bill Cannon is a long-time member of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a sponsoring member of the 802.11 Standards Committee. He participated in IEEE’s deliberations of the formal definition of both cloud computing and its studies on the relationships between cloud computing and virtualization. He currently serves as a Partner Manager for key technology manufacturers. Connect with Bill on LinkedIn.
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