Product Development is being swayed by Consumerisation

If we were playing tech word bingo I think you would find this post riddled with buzz words, sadly there is nothing for a full house in this post.  But one of the areas that we are constantly seeing raising its head in the business place is consumerisation of IT, and this shift in consumerisation is starting to drive a shift in product development.

The choice and level of functionality the modern consumer has in their home devices has led to a significant shift in the expectations professionals have of their corporate technology; we now expect the Sunday night experience on a Monday morning.

The shift in the way professionals use and perceive technology, together with the consumerisation of IT, has seen the emergence of a new business professional; one who considers their device to be a reflection of themselves, whether that be at work or at home.

At the end of the day, end users want a range of choice and flexibility, which must be made available by employers and IT departments.  And we as IT professionals are no longer able to say no if we want to attract and retain key workers.

Staff today no longer considers their laptop to be a tool, rather an extension of themselves and part of how they communicate and collaborate with colleagues around the world. Design is key and has made the industry stand up and look at their products.

End user choice creates some challenges for IT. As the number of devices managed by IT continues to rise, so does the time and resources required managing and maintaining these devices. Often the sheer number of devices is making the IT department resist the inevitable. However, over the next couple of year those corporate IT departments who have not enabled a diverse population of devices will struggle to keep control.

The key design requirements for enterprise computing should focus on the following elements:

• Common platform capabilities standardise where possible.  If you are going to allow BYOD you need to restrict the number of devices you support through a strict HCL.  Centralised cloud management is ideal for this or one at the very least links to an on premise solution such as Microsoft SCCM and Intune.
• Desktop virtualisation is rapidly becoming a mainstream way to simplify the desktop experience for users who are mobile and expect to be able to work from wherever they are.
• Security is more important than ever and, with the average cost of a data breach at $4 million, the need for an integrated and comprehensive data protection solution is clear.

IT Consumerisation is clearly driving a change in professional expectations and what IT must do to deliver on those requirements.  It is commonly regarded that allowing users to work with the right devices at the right locations is a way of attracting and retaining staff.  Vendors are responding by keeping the modern workplace in mind and developing business-computing products designed to improve productivity, simplify management and be aesthetically pleasing to the workforce.

Management Dashboards

As you will know by now Equanet are skilled in delivering tablet devices into the enterprise and realising a faster time to value through our advisory services enabling you and us to develop the strategy, architecture and governance needed to foster collaboration whilst protecting your IP.  One of the areas that we are constantly asked for help on is management dashboards to analyse their data be it real time or statistical and these need to be viewed across a number of devices (iOS, Android, Windows) leveraging the right technology (native or HTML5).

Once we start working with businesses it often becomes very clear that there are numerous levels of management dashboards required which covered many areas of the business.  Such as field sales, execs, risk managers and IT service desk managers.

Different dashboards convey different information...

Portfolio dashboards make sense if different portfolios are involved.  The challenge here is to bring out the business objective credibly to an IT metric through the mobile BI implementation.

Service dashboards can be focused on organising and presenting metrics which impact service issues.  Customer satisfaction can be very clearly measured by taking into account the average time with which help desk tickets were closed for example.

The IT dashboard usually consists of lots of metrics of all types and hence most of these dashboards lack focus and direction.  This typically is an area that the CIO wishes to address, ensuring that the IT dashboard is roles based and provides the correctly mined data to the the right IT member.

Ensuring the right data is delivered to the right user can be challenging and expensive so they need to be categorised to align to the needs of the business:

Operational are useful for monitoring BAU business processes and are assessed on a real-time basis, often with alerts for exceeded thresholds.

Tactical highlight the working of a particular department and its performance ensuring the manager is empowered to implement changes

Strategic provide important insight related to an organisation’s performance in comparison to its predefined strategic goals. Often built upon mined data into data cubes.

Need help with establishing your BI dashboards, then contact us.

Windows 8: One week later

So after getting to grips with the missing start button, the metro UI and grappling with where Microsoft have moved some system features I have to admit I like the new Windows 8 concept, design and application store.  Sure we have a raft of more tests to do but my first thoughts on why this is going to be a great hit with consumers are highlighted below.  And lets face it consumers typically win meaning businesses need to to start their testing now.

Windows 8 was downloaded over 1 million times in the first 24 hours the beta version was made available.  And we believe that the are a number of key features that will make the latest Windows release so enticing to consumers and the enterprise.

• Touch
• Keyboard and mouse control
• Windows 8 application store
• PCs and Windows Phone integration with cloud services.

This latest release of Windows is indeed a bold move but pulls tougher the BYO-3 relationship of Phone, Tablet and Laptop very nicely.

One of the most compelling parts of Windows 8 is the Windows Store. This application store follows the Metro style that allows for easy browsing and viewing on your Xbox 360 and Windows phones.

There are new ways of switching between apps, as well as more updates to the desktop tools. There are changes under the bonnet to file copying, power management, security, networking, hardware support and more.

The improved touch gestures also make it far easier to work with. Swipe from the right edge of the screen and you get the redesigned charm bar providing Search, Share, Start, Devices and Settings.Or you can hover your mouse in the top or bottom right corners.  Swipe up from the bottom on the Start screen to get a quick link to the All Apps view.

Start, which is highlighted in the colour theme you choose on install, swaps between the Start screen and your last activity. Search is now context sensitive.

As you swipe across the Start menu, it stops with the group of tiles you've swiped to line up under Start; this is the promised 'speed bump' to help you navigate around. Scrolling with a mouse works far better - if you push the mouse past the edge of the screen, the tiles scroll as if you were swiping with your finger.

The zoom feature now works too; pinch to shrink the tiles on the Start screen to tiny thumbnails so you can see everything at once or move an entire group.

Switching between apps is better.

You can close Metro apps without restoring to the task manager. Drag down from the top of the screen until the app you're looking at shrinks down to a thumbnail and keep dragging that off the screen to close it.

Notifications in Metro work well; they pop up in the top right corner of the screen where they're not likely to be in the way and you can tap for options.

The metro apps is a great feature of Windows 8.  They are fast to launch, crisp and responsive and there are already useful apps in the store such as Evernote.

The messaging app makes good use of the size of a PC screen to show you multiple conversations on Facebook and Windows Live.

The Windows 8 desktop has addressed many of the frustrations of Windows 7 but there is one thing that’s just not there… the start button!

This was a big and bold move by Microsoft.  And is available if you hover on the left hand corner of the screen and when you click it; you guessed it, it’s back to the Metro UI.

To get quick access to desktop tools without going back to the Start screen, right-click in the left-hand corner to get a pop up menu which contains: Search, Run, Explorer, Task Manager, Control Panel and many others.

If you use a Windows Live account to log in, you automatically get your contacts, calendar and messages.

The Consumer Preview proves that Windows 8 isn't all about touch. The improvements to the desktop are good and will make navigation easier.

All in all a good release from Microsoft which shows their intention around both touch and none touch devices.  We would be interested to see your thoughts on the release.

Apple Do It Again - 3rd Generation iPad Introduced

Apple has unveiled a raft of new features set to be included in the 3rd generation iPad which will set the tablet market alight even more!

The next-generation iPad will feature a high-definition retina display and an improved camera, dubbed "iSight". The technology giant heaped pressure on its rivals with a cut-price iPad 2, priced at $399 (£254).

Apple also increased its presence in the home with an enhanced set-top box, Apple TV.

The next-generation iPad will feature a high-definition retina display, which Apple said boasts more pixels than a high-definition TV.

The slightly-heaver device will feature improved photo and video taking, with a greater resolution camera and a HD video recorder. It will be able to connect to high-speed 4G networks and run an Apple-built A5X processing chip.

Some other key points highlighted in todays press conference were:

585,000 apps are now available on the App Store
iTunes playlists can now be configured on your iDevice or Mac and have them show up on your Apple TV
Apple TV will have 1080p support
15.4 million iPad units shipped (more than Acer, Dell, Lenovo, and HP)
Retina display on the new iPad
2048 x 1536 and 3.1 million pixels – 264 pixels per inch
A5X processor and quad-core graphics
5 megapixel camera sensor, backside illumination, auto focus, 5 element lens, hybrid IR filter, and Apple-designed ISP
1080p video recording
Voice dictation
A microphone button is now featured on the keyboard
Feature 4G LTE (Next-Generation Wireless)
If the carrier supports it, the iPad can now become a personal HotSpot
Own your own on March 16th in US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland and Japan.
Existing apps will be scaled up to the new iPad, and text will be automatically rendered to higher resolution.
Rear-side camera now being referred to as “iSight”
iPhoto for iPad will have new editing and cataloging features. Retina display will enhance editing. “New gestures, new effects, multi-touch editing” and beaming photos directly between devices.
iPhoto app will support up to 19 megapixel photos – will also make it easy to share via email, Flickr, Twitter and others
The new iPad will maintain its 10 hour battery life even with a new A5X processor

So all in all a great line up of capabilities setting iPad ahead of the game yet again. Need help on integrating iPad into your business the you should contact us to understand how we can help you.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Windows 8 download day is here

Today marks a big day for Microsoft in the release of the consumer preview (beta) version of Windows 8 which is officially being launched in Barcelona. The release has just been made available (hence the slow download I am getting).

Microsoft is making available today downloads of the Consumer Preview (beta) of Windows 8 client, the beta of Windows Server 8 and the beta of Visual Studio “11″ for developing for Windows 8.

The downloadable bits are expected to hit Microsoft’s servers this morning, ET, from what the Internet is suggesting.  The Windows 8 Consumer Preview (x86/x64 bits only) is expected to be Build 8250. The download can be found here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso.

There are many people asking what differences there are between this and the developer version which was available in September 2011.  From what we understand so far is that Windows 8 is a great choice for traditional PC's and laptops as it will be on touch enabled tablets.

There are concepts such as hot corners which seem to be being talked about across the Internet (very similar to Apple OS X), where you place the mouse cursor in key corners and a specific action is invoked.  Above this there is an abundance of UI tweaks and the official debut of the Windows 8 app store.

Whilst you are waiting for your download to finish, you might want to check out the following product guide for this latest release.  This can be found over here. 

Anyway we would love to hear your thoughts on this latest release so feel free to add any comments.

HP P4900 SSD System

HP has announced the P4900 SSD G2 6.4-TB SSD Storage System, an all-solid state drive array, at its Global Partner Conference.

For those of you who need performance for virtual desktops or OLTP you might just find this very useful. All-flash arrays are useful in virtual desktop and online transaction processing (OLTP) database environments because they allow millions of I/O per second to avoid boot storms.

The P4900 uses SAN/iQ 9.5 software to monitor the health of the SSD called the HP SMARTSSD Wear Gauge. It has been integrated into the P4000 management console, which gives IT administrators the ability to see how much more remaining life an SSD has as well as alerts that predict drive outages and failures.

The P4900 is available in two configurations: a two-node bundle of SSDs with a 6.4-TB storage capacity, and a one-node expansion with a 3.2-TB storage capacity. The new storage system uses 400GB multi-level cell SSDs with a serial attached SCSI interface, has 12GB of RAM, and uses hot-swappable power supplies. Additionally, the P4900 has four RAID controllers with 2GB of battery-backed cache, which connects to the network with four 10GbE or 1GbE network ports. The P4900 supports RAID 5, 6, and 10.

With the addition of a P4000 G2 unified NAS gateway, the P4900 can support a common internet file system and network file system traffic.

Full HP P4900 Specs:

8 SFF 400 GB MLC SAS SSD
Capacity starts at 3.2TB up to a maximum of 102.4TB.
Host Interfaces are 10 GbE (2) Ports, and 1 GbE iSCSI (2) Ports
Supported Operating Systems:
Apple OS X
Citrix XenServer
HP-UX
IBM AIX
Microsoft Windows 2003
Microsoft Windows 2008
Novell NetWare
Oracle Enterprise Linux
Red Hat Linux
Oracle Solaris
SUSE Linux
VMware
All major operating systems and hyper visors are supported.

Redundant, hot plug power supplies, redundant fans, redundant hot plug hard drives, integrated storage controller with battery-backed DDR2 cache disk
Thin Provisioning Support
SAN/iQ Thin Provisioning
Snapshot Support
SAN/iQ Application Integrated Snapshots
Replication Support
SAN/iQ Remote Copy Asynchronous Replication with Bandwidth Throttling
Multi-Site/Disaster Recovery Solution Pack with SAN/iQ Synchronous Replication
Smart Clone
SAN/iQ SmartClone

So quite a shopping list of features but putting them aside it is clear that this is a great storage array to deliver the IOPS you need for your VDI project.

Your cloud requirements?

Microsoft recently partnered with WIRED magazine to ask the WIRED.com community what they think is important when looking at cloud solutions. The answers are below and shouldn't come as a surprise:

• High security standards.
• A familiar experience regardless of the device you're working on.
• Compatibility with the systems you already have in place.
• The ability to work where and how you want.

These are all things that you should not just expect but demand from your cloud solution.

 (click to enlarge)

If you take a look at Office 365 you will see some similarities:

• Multiple security levels that meet leading EU and US standards, the highest level of privacy, plus built-in anti-virus and anti-spam
• The Office experience no matter whether you're using your phone, PC, or web browser
• Ability to work on- and off-line
• Email, calendars, shared document editing, creation, and storage, web conferencing.

Naturally this is a cut down version with lots of other capability listed here: if you need help with your cloud strategy talk to us.

Symantec Backup Just Got Better

A number of Equanet staff were lucky enough to attend a technical portfolio review with Symantec UK last week and boy was that an eye opener. I knew they had been buying companies and moulding their portfolio over the years and on the surface it looked disjointed, but when you get chance to review it and their strategy it quickly crystallises into a cohesive strategy. One area that we were lucky enough to discuss was backup and where it is going. This week Symantec have come to the table with yet another ground breaking advancement in their backup exec solution - Backup Exec 2012.


Backup Exec 2012 is focused on three key themes: Eliminating complexity; providing virtualisation-centric protection; one product, any recovery. As these themes are an essential component to the product, it makes sense to expand on each of them.

Eliminate Complexity

Flexible delivery models were needed in the form of software, appliances and cloud-based backup solutions. In addition, small businesses have some unique needs that should be accounted for. So, in addition to completely reworking thousands of lines of code, Symantec have provided Backup Exec in four standard editions:

Backup Exec V-Ray Edition for customers with 100 percent virtualised environments that don’t want to pay for a separate product.

Backup Exec Small Business Edition for small businesses with limited IT experience that want to protect their data with ease.

Backup Exec.cloud for customers who want simple off-premise data protection through a fully secure cloud-based service that is easy to setup, manage and configure.

Backup Exec 360 appliance for customers who want an all-in-one, affordable data protection solution for physical or virtual environments that reduces backup windows and storage and management costs.

In addition to the new editions above, Symantec have completed reworked the user interface that allows customers to focus on the resources they are protecting, rather than solely on the status of jobs. Administrators can monitor the backup status of critical application servers, see issues and performance over the last seven days and view other key indicators that allow them to make important decisions about how to properly protect their environment.

Virtualisation-Centric Protection

Symantec has listened to their customers who told them that they want one product to backup their physical and virtual infrastructure to reduce costs as well as increased visibility across their infrastructure.

While Backup Exec 2012 provides the best technology for physical and virtual infrastructures, the new offering Backup Exec 2012 V-Ray edition is focused on the 100 percent virtual environment. This product supports both VMware and Hyper-V environments. It also provides all of the benefits of V-Ray technology to Backup Exec customers.

One Product, Any Recovery

SMBs want complete recovery but it should be seamless as well as cost-effective to implement. Backup Exec 2012 simplifies bare-metal disaster recovery for servers. It provides hardware-free recovery with physical-to-virtual and backup-to-virtual conversions for instant restore in a virtual environment. And, recovery to the cloud makes it easy and inexpensive for SMB customers to integrate to their cloud environments.

A pretty good move from Symantec we are sure you will agree. If you need to know more or need help with your backup strategy you need to talk to Equanet.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Important Microsoft Announcement: Changes to Pricing Policy

Starting July 1st, 2012 Microsoft will unify their pricing policy across volume licensing programs in the EU/EFTA region. As a consequence UK licensing pricing could increase by around 20% in real terms due to sterling/euro fluctuations but the exact figure is not yet known.

Why are Microsoft adjusting pricing EU/EFTA region now?

Microsoft are looking to stabilise their pricing policy and address the localised differences between currencies in theEU/EFTA. In doing so they will normalise their pricing against the Euro, meaning all customers will have the choice of being billed in their local currency or Euros. Based on current exchange rates this will mean an increase for customers billed in GBP. We estimate this to be around 20% but exact pricing will be published by Microsoft on the 1st of June, 30 days prior to the change.

Which programs will be impacted?

All volume licensing programs except for Academic programs will be affected, meaning any new program signed or any transactional purchases after the 1st July will be affected. The products listed on existing contractual agreements with Microsoft will not be affected. However, any new products added to these agreements will be affected. Fully Packed Product (FPP) and pre-installed software (OEM) are out of scope at this time.

Can I protect my Microsoft pricing?

Yes, as existing customers have price protection on products with SA during the term of their agreement; you can freeze your pricing for 3 years by evaluating your software estate with Equanet today. Whether you are already on a program or not, Equanet can help you. Call your Account Manager for a software review.

Microsoft unveils its cloud management bundle

It was expected that Microsoft would unveil it’s cloud management bundle (System Center 2012) details yesterday and that is exactly what they did into two editions: Standard and Datacentre.  It had been rumored that Microsoft would take this move rather than sell individual products. 

The announcements from Microsoft positioned System Center 2012 as a public and private cloud management platform with a number of new additions to the bundle.

There will be two System Center 2012 SKUs: Standard and Datacenter. Each includes the same group of eight point products, but with only two “operating system environments” (OSEs) supported for Standard, and an unlimited number supported for Datacenter. (OSEs can be physical and/or virtual machines).

Microsoft didn’t officially name a RTM date for the final version of System Center, but it is expected that this will be announced sometime in April.

So what is in the System Center 2012 bundle?  Those in italics are new additions for 2012.

• App Controller – This is a new addition to System Center and provides a single management portal showing both public and private cloud resources providing administrators with a single view of their private and public cloud resources.
• EndPoint Protection: The security client formerly known as Forefront EndPoint Protection is now part of System Center and is integrated with Configuration Manager.
• Orchestrator (Was Opalis): Adds workflow automation and third-party integration with the 2012 release.
• Virtual Machine Manager: The 2012 release can now manage even more hypervisors from not just Microsoft, but also additional third parties.  Microsoft have also got the market pretty excited over the last year around server application virtualisation and this is the edition that supports that vision.
• Configuration Manager: Has more valuable features such as settings management with remediation and also provides integration with System Center Endpoint Protection.
• Service Manager: Adds more self-service management capabilities and new data warehousing and reporting features.
• Operations Manager: There is more support for Unix/Linux management functionality, customisable dashboards and more app-performance management and network monitoring.
• Data Protection Manager: New in this release is new role-based administration and item-level recovery for VMs which is a big requirement for virtualisation administrators.

So all in all some long awaited functionality and yet more additional value added by Microsoft and should help you make the move to a private cloud and any subsequent public cloud simpler.