Posted on Fri, Jul 27, 2012 @ 02:13 PM
In case you missed them, here is the some of the top IT news from the past week, courtesy of the MCPc blogging team.
Why IT Matters More Than Ever (PCWorld)
PCWorld takes a look at four reasons why IT has become extremely important as we head into the future. Its role may have changed a little from how it was defined early in its existence, but with things like the cloud and other new technology rampantly taking over the industry, IT is more relevant than ever to the business goals of an organization.
A Clearer View of Cloud Computing Security Now That the Haze is Gone (CIO)
Now that the buzz has settled down, companies are realizing the cloud is more than just a cost management tool. Here are eight tips on how to get the most out of the cloud.
The 5 Hottest IT Jobs Right Now (CIO)
These five jobs have seen significant growth in the last year. iPhone developers have seen the greatest job market growth, and jobs involving cloud computing have really skyrocketed as well. The IT job market is showing no signs of slowing down.
IT’s Olympic challenge: Live streaming employees (ComputerWorld)
As the Olympics approach and prepare to take over the media, the biggest problem facing IT is employees who stream the events live. One company stated that this could increase mobile charges by 5 to 10%. This articles outlines the data problems the Olympics might cause, and how those problems can be combated.
The Evoluton of IT: BYOD and Consumerization (TechNewsWorld)
BYOD has become a reality and is rapidly sweeping IT departments everywhere. If properly managed, BYOD can make workplace productivity increase while lowering IT burdens. This article outlines some management ideas that can fix some of the problems that might come with BYOD’s benefits.
Google's Lightning-fast Fiber Network Now Live in Kansas City (PCWorld)
Google rolled out its impressive Fiber internet and TV services in Kansas City this week. Capable of transferring a blistering 1gb per second while remaining relatively cost-friendly, it is undeniable that Google Fiber will completely change the way we share data.
This post is an MCPc blogging team collaboration.
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Posted on Tue, Jul 24, 2012 @ 09:37 AM
Economic conditions and data center trends have led more businesses to consider multi-year agreements for their IT hardware maintenance plans. Multi-year agreements are among the most common initial maintenance plans provided by OEMs like Cisco, VMware, HP, NetApp and Dell. More and more organizations are recognizing that they need long-term support for their networking hardware after the original warranty has expired, often because they don't have the budget for a technology refresh. As a result, hardware maintenance is emerging as a major priority in order to extend the life of the network, and multi-year service agreements are often the proving to be the most cost-effective approach. Why?
The following are key benefits of a multi-year agreement:
OEM discount. As in most purchases, business or personal, a longer contract commitment will often get you a significant discount from the hardware OEM.
Price protection. Most original maintenance programs contain price increases between 5 and 10 percent annually. A multi-year agreement will lock in a price for the duration of the contract. Multi-year maintenance contract costs are front loaded in an agreement period, so the subsequent year-over-year savings is passed to the customer. As a result, organizations that buy into a multi-year agreement generally save considerably over the course of their contract.
Avoid equipment inspection fees. In some cases inspection fees are required prior to covering devices in which the coverage has lapsed.
Budget predictability. With a multi-year hardware contract locked down, your expenses related to datacenter and network equipment will have clear and static numbers for a few years, which help you plan better for more strategic IT projects.
Reduced administrative costs and labor. Having one contract covering your hardware for several years allows you to avoid devoting financial and staff resources on annual contract renewals -- an often complicated process for both IT and the accounting department.
Service continuity. This is one of the most important attributes of a multi-year agreement. With short-term contracts, companies may have to switch between data center hardware maintenance providers and adapt to different nuances associated with each plan. With a multi-year deal in place, organizations can enjoy the reliability that comes with a long-term agreement and ensure they maintain a continuity of service.
Extras. In many cases multi-year agreements also come with add-on benefits to the customer, like credits towards training, financing assistance (with aggressive rates for qualified deals) and additional reporting in the form of scorecarding and/or a customer-facing portal.
Is a Multi-Year IT Hardware Agreement Right for You?
Most organizations I speak to find they can reap significant financial and other benefits from switching to a multi-year hardware agreement. Do you think you will be running your current network or datacenter for at least the next three years? Are you in need of more IT budget predictability? Do you know how much internal resources are spent on annual contract renewals? These factors will help you assess whether a multi-year IT hardware agreement is right for your organization.
If you have specific questions about your hardware contract structure, feel free to contact me directly.
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Jamie O’Brien is Director of Licensing Services at MCPc. His team helps organizations optimize their licensing for VMware, Citrix, Microsoft, Cisco and other manufacturers. He has more than 16 years of experience in the IT industry. Connect with Jamie on LinkedIn.
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Posted on Mon, Jul 16, 2012 @ 02:17 PM
In case you missed it, here are some of the top IT news items from the past week courtesy of the MCPc blogging team.
A look at some of the cutting-edge features in next-gen Ultrabooks
According to a report from Digitimes (via PCWorld), Intel is leading a push for PC manufacturers to bring Ultrabook laptops to the next level. High-definition displays, touchscreens and 3D are some of the features expected to become commonplace in the next generation.
10 outside-the-box tips that can improve your IT security
Roger A. Grimes of Infoworld makes the case for honeypots, tarpits and other unconventional-sounding techniques to defend against IT security threats.
HP wants to make IT problems solve themselves
The growth of virtualization and big data is putting a lot of pressure on enterprises to develop more proactive, efficient and automated datacenter support services. Dana Gardner, principal analyst at Interarbor Solutions and Tommaso Esmanech, director of automation strategies at HP Technology Services, discussed the need for this evolution in an HP Expert Chat podcast.
Moving to the cloud isn’t just hype anymore – it’s the right decision
InfoWorld’s David Linthicum says the cloud has made the transition from hype to real world success and, interestingly, argues that we don’t often hear about enterprise cloud success stories only because organizations that pull it off see it as a “trade secret of sorts” and therefore don’t publicize it.
Cloud spending is on the rise and has no signs of slowing down
Clint Boulton of the WSJ blog CIO Journal analyzes Gartner’s recent report on expected IT spending for 2012. The study cites the cloud as the reason for an expected 3% increase in IT spending over last year. It breaks down that cloud spend, too -- the bulk of it is on cloud-based business process software, followed by platform as a service, SaaS and IaaS.
New features in Zimbra 8.0, VMware’s email platform
Last week, VMware announced the release of version 8.0 of its email server platform, Zimbra. According to VMware, the product serves 85 million mailboxes across 250,000 organizations, putting it in third just behind Microsoft Exchange and Gmail. ConsumerizeIT’s Jack Madden reviewed the new features. One highlight: Zimbra now integrates with Cisco Unified Communications.
More than half of all U.S. smartphones are Android products
A new Nielsen study (via CIO.com) found that Android continues to be the U.S. smartphone platform leader and now has over half of the market -- 52% of smartphones run on Android, followed by iOS with 34%, Blackberry 8% and Windows 6%.
This post is an MCPc blogging team collaboration.
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Posted on Tue, Jul 10, 2012 @ 10:52 AM
When the iPad first came out two years ago, 300,000 were sold in the first three days. When the iPad 3 came out earlier in the year, over 3,000,000 were sold in the first three days. If that trend continues, we should expect that when the iPad 6 comes out it will be purchased by 100% of the world’s population during the first three days of release. Ok, that’s a long shot, but the point is a lot of iPads are being sold. And a lot of iPhones. And a lot of Androids. And the laptop market is still strong. What is the common theme here? They are all Wi-Fi devices and they all want a piece of your wireless network.
The MCPc anyplace workspace is a concept that says whatever your device, wherever you are, we’re going to make sure you have accessibility to your data. For an increasing number of enterprises, supporting mobile access has become synonymous with supporting the iPad. It's a refrain I am hearing again and again when I talk to our customers:
Can my WLAN support the iPad and other mobile devices?
To begin to determine if you are ready to support this influx of wireless clients, we need to look at the nature of the wireless devices requiring connectivity. Most wireless end clients manufactured in the last 24 months, including iPads, are shipped with an internal 802.11n radio. 802.11n works in both the 2.4 and the 5 GHz range. Remember that even smartphones will, if able, attach to your wireless network and run their data across it rather than the cellular carrier’s 3G or 4G networks. So what does that mean? That means that you are likely being forced to provide IP addresses to a whole lot of devices that were grabbing addresses from the cellular network just a couple years ago.
Most 802.11n clients including iPads and newer laptops will first try to connect in the 5 GHz range. The 5GHz spectrum tends to have less interference than 2.4 GHz because many devices, including cordless phones, microwave ovens and even Bluetooth devices, operate in 2.4GHz frequency.
Since there are very few standards surrounding the implementation of Wi-Fi radios in mobile devices, a common expectation is that the wireless experience on an iPad will be similar to that of a laptop. Unfortunately the power of the wireless radio in the iPad and laptops differ dramatically. Laptops typically have a transmit power of 30 mW to 50 mW (15 dBm to 17 dBm). iPads have an average transmit power of 10 milliwatts (mW, 10 decibels per mW [dBm]). Given the difference in transmit power, it is unrealistic to expect iPads and laptops to consistently connect to your WLAN at similar levels. Either the range or the performance expectations of the iPad are going to have to change.
iPads have roughly 60% of the transmit power of most newer laptops set at equal distance from an access point. A recent Gartner report noted that “if the IT organization is asked to provide the same performance as a typical laptop throughout the coverage area at 5GHz, the IT organization will need 300% more access points. Remember that there is a 6 dB difference between the transmit power of the iPad, which has an average transmit power of 10 dB, and the laptop, which has an average transmit power of 15 dB to 17 dB. Radio frequency (RF) basics tell us that the distance required to maintain the same throughput doubles for each 3 dB, but the coverage required grows exponentially, which will require 300% more access points.” In an office environment where typical WLAN designs called for designs of about 3000 sq. ft. for each cell, Gartner is suggesting that each cell will cover only 750 sq. ft. -- an area about 27’ by 27’. In a hospital where cell sizes often top out at 2000 sq. ft., that would translate to 500 sq. ft. per cell.
The 802.11ac Factor
When designing WLANs we now also need to be cognizant of the upcoming 802.11ac standard that is pending ratification. This standard is designed to operate only in the 5GHz range and to provide throughput upwards of 1 gigabit. Manufacturers like Cisco are already building access points with available draft 802.11ac modules. Cisco’s latest 802.11n access point, the 3600, features both a 4x4 MIMO antenna configuration as well as an expansion slot which will allow for the addition of an 802.11ac module. Devices like the 3600 allow for customers to embrace the 802.11n standard while also providing investment protection once the 802.11ac standard is ratified.
Knowing that iPads have always adhered to the latest IEEE wireless standards, it’s reasonable to assume that all iPads released after the formal ratification of 802.11ac will embrace this new standard. In the next generation iPad design it’s logical to assume that Apple will boost their radios to a higher transmit power to take advantage of the increased throughput.
Mobile Devices are Here to Stay and Will Grow in Numbers
While attending Cisco Live earlier this month I heard the resounding message from Cisco and third party software developers alike: The age of the wireless revolution is here!
By 2015 wireless devices are expected to outnumber wired by a staggering 5 to1! While many organizations have been planning for this migration for some time, in most cases there is still an awful lot of planning left to do. The smaller 802.11ac cell sizes will require an engineering redesign of legacy data/voice 802.11a/g environments. For organizations that want to bring the anyplace worskpace to its employees, this redesign will be critical to the successful deployment and maintenance of a WLAN capable of supporting it.
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Kevin Cannon is an MCPc Solution Architect with a focus on Cisco advanced technologies, and has over 8 years of experience in developing and deploying WiFi, VoIP, video and RTLS solutions for mid-sized and enterprise-level organizations. Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn.
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