Meraki Air Marshal

Equanet has long been involved in partnering with innovative technology companies that add significant value to our customer base.  Meraki is one of those technologies that makes you sit up and take note.  A cloud based Enterprise networking service, that reduces the cost of deployment significantly and keep on innovating at lightening speed can only be a good thing for the industry.

Meraki have done it again with a new firmware update for their MR wireless access points.  The latest release includes Air Marshal, a new integrated suite of real-time wireless intrusion detection and prevention tools. 

Although Air Marshal was developed for exceptionally security-conscious customers such as finance, healthcare, and retailers, it is available to all Merkai customers and can help secure networks of any size.  And, like all Meraki products, Air Marshal runs on Meraki’s cloud infrastructure so configuration and management is easy no matter how large of a network you’re running.

In addition to Air Marshal, this latest release includes a number of performance and mobility enhancements, including an enhanced mobility architecture for improved ultra-fast roaming; high density video streaming optimisations; and new authentication methods for guest access.  

This latest release is available at no cost to all MR customers, and will be rolling out over the next few weeks.

Are you looking at wireless technologies for your business either as a refresh or as part of a tablet strategy?  If so you could do with talking to Equanet to understand your options and architecture.

VMware Acquires Nicira

VMware just announced to have signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition of Nicira, Inc., for approximately $1.05 billion in cash plus $210 million of assumed unvested equity awards.

The parties expect the acquisition to close during the second half of 2012.

Nicira, Inc. is specialised in software-defined networking (SDN) and a leader in network virtualisation for open source initiatives.

VMware is relying on this acquisition to expand its networking capability.

It will be interesting to see any implications this acquisition has on the relationship between VMware and Cisco.

The acquisition of Nicira adds to our portfolio of networking assets and positions VMware to be the industry leader in software-defined networking.

Citrix XenClient Enterprise 4.1 - What's new?

Citrix has long been associated with leading the desktop virtualisation market, one of the key issues has been the need to connect to the network to receive corporate desktop services.  Clearly there has been XenClient to cater for offline VDI in the past but this had a restricted HCL and many doubters.  Citrix has been on the acquisition trail for many years and one of the latest acquisitions to be integrated into the portfolio is Virtual Computer; welcome to XenClient Enterprise.

Citrix has recently announced the first full release of XenClient Enterprise within XenDesktop Enterprise and Platinum.

What does this mean to you?  Citrix have cited the following benefits:

9X More Devices Supported

• XenClient now supports more PCs than ever before with an increased hardware compatibility list (HCL).
• Support for desirable devices including Ultrabook™ systems and the latest 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processor systems
• 3G/4G modem support, enabling users to make full use of their XenClient PCs.

Enterprise-Class Management Scalable to Thousands of Endpoints

• Open, scalable backend management system supported on all industry standard server hypervisors – Hyper-V, vSphere, and XenServer.
• Enterprise level scalability supporting thousands of endpoints for large deployments in multiple locations and geographies.
• Enhanced policies and role-based administrative control deliver the granularity IT needs to manage XenClient effectively.

Easier to use

• In-guest controls make XenClient feel more like native Windows to end users, so they can manage wireless networks, mouse settings, and other controls from within Windows, and IT can hide the hypervisor from less sophisticated users.
• Automated over the air upgrades let XenClient update itself with no intervention needed from the end user.
• A  ’Connect’ environment for quick-boot access to the web, with Google Chrome included.

It is worth remembering though that desktop virtualisation is not about technology it is about users and processes.  If you're looking for an innovative approach to desktop services then please contact us to learn how our approach can help simplify your end user computing architecture.

Microsoft integrates cloud deeply into Office 2013

Microsoft took the lid off Office 2013 yesterday at a press conference in San Francisco and showed it's intention around integrating with cloud.  The new version of Microsoft Office integrates seamlessly with cloud services, can edit PDFs and is built for Windows 8 (both tablets and PC's).

A preview of the new version was unveiled at an event in San Francisco. Steve Ballmer, claimed the software was “a new generation that brings some of the same boldness and beauty that we’ve shown you in Windows 8 and Windows Phone”. He added, “This is the most ambitious release of Microsoft office that we’ve ever done”, and emphasised that it was aimed as much at students, busy families and consumers as it was aimed at businesses.

The suite of applications, including Word, Outlook, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint have all been updated to include touch interfaces to cater for users who have phones and tablets. Although note-taking programme OneNote has been comprehensively redesigned to include touch support, the bulk of the applications have been polished to improve their overall functionality so they work better on both tablets and PCs.

Microsoft Word can now edit PDFs as well as save in the Adobe format, and has added the ability to embed YouTube clips more easily. Users are encouraged to log on so that all devices, from tablets to phones or PCs, return directly to exactly the same point when a document is reopened. A ‘reading mode’ has also been added to encourage tablet users to read more on their devices. All programmes will now integrate with Microsoft’s cloud storage system, SkyDrive, to offer permanently up-to-date and easily accessible documents.

Microsoft Outlook has been altered so that ‘peaks’ of the calendar or contact details can be layered on top of the main mail window, allowing users to keep Outlook as their entire main screen on either tablets or PCs. New add-on applications can also automatically scan emails for addresses and show locations, or look for suggested meetings and generate appointments.

PowerPoint now has an enhanced presentation mode, too, allowing users to project their documents onto a screen while simultaneously viewing their notes and slides on a tablet or PC. 

Microsoft has also added more social networking elements aimed at businesses, allowing users to ‘follow’ colleagues and documents and tasks as they might follow friends or brands on Facebook. The company recently purchased business social network Yammer, and will also integrate its other purchase, Skype, allowing calls and instant messaging to be built directly into Office software. Collaboration has been augmented with new video conferencing and live collaborative document editing tools.

Microsoft will sell Office 2013 as a standalone piece of software, and will also offer its subscription-based Office 365 software in parallel. 

With the coming version of Office, the centrepiece is cloud. In this case, the "cloud" means Office 365, which is the Microsoft-hosted back-end suite of SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, Lync Online  It also means SkyDrive, its personal-cloud storage service. Additionally, it means support for roaming settings, which can move with users across devices, as well as the ability to stream Office components to new PCs (and remove them later) using Office on Demand.

This does indeed look like a very innovative change of a core Microsoft product with the challenge of supporting multiple devices and gestures. This clearly is a big year for Microsoft with the plethora of new technology they are bringing to the market. We think you will like it, but dont take our word for it try it for yourself here.