Windows 8 is Here

Microsoft has launched the successor to the much venerated Windows 7.  For a company which dominates the PC market the launch is all the more important milestone as it attempts to take a larger slice of the rapidly expanding market for tablets and phones.

Windows 8 combines the best features of the familiar Windows 7 desktop with a touch interface with a fast and fluid design perfect for a range of touch enabled devices.  The critical point to note is Windows 8 a fully fledged version of Windows 7, only better. It will still be able to handle existing programmes such as iTunes, Adobe Photoshop and any critical business apps running within current Windows 7 environments, at the same time allowing you to be more mobile.

The launch of Windows 8 is accompanied by launch of new products from all the major tablet, laptop and PC manufacturers(1) (2) ensuring there will be plenty of choices on what hardware you want to run your OS and apps on.  These include devices that offer both laptop and tablet options within the same model, perfect for tackling essential tasks on the go.

“A recent survey  conducted by Equanet which included 300 medium to large UK firms revealed more than 37 per cent are planning to adopt the OS, with 11 per cent wanting to adopt it immediately on release.

When questioned about the reasons for adoption, 44 per cent of respondents felt Microsoft’s new OS will improve employees' work/life balance, 34 per cent felt it could improve the control and management of client devices and 25 per cent felt it would integrate well with BYOD schemes.

According to the respondents, the top five features of Windows 8 (in percentage order) were: Windows To Go (42 per cent), Windows User Interface (19 per cent), increased licensing rights (18 per cent), virtual desktop rights (16 per cent) and Bitlocker (14 per cent).” (3)

If you need tech or licensing support on Windows 8 or anything else contact us or register for one of upcoming events here

Visit the Equanet Windows 8 Page here

Download Windows 8 Product Guide For Business here
View Windows 8 Enterprise grade features here

1. http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/pc/hp-lays-out-us-windows-8-device-availability-and-pricing-1106967
2. http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/desktop-pc/3406721/dell-delivers-full-windows-8-line-up/
3.  http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2218494/equanet-windows-8-set-for-steady-start#ixzz2AIU7eZ7I

Citrix Synergy Roundup

So Equanet has been busy this week; exhibiting and presenting at IPExpo and attending Citrix Synergy. Both of which were great uses of our time. In this blog we identify some of the key messages from Synergy.

The highlight for many administrators surely has to be Excalibur, which combines management and backend for XenApp and XenDesktop.

Excalibur

Excalibur is Phase 1 of Project Avalon and it finally combines XenApp and XenDesktop into one management console and a single architecture–XenDesktop's FMA (Flexcast Management Architecture).

Also included as part of Excalibur is Profile Manager, Storefront and Edgesight. All of these will be deployed via one install.

One thing to note is that Excalibur does not have support for 32-bit terminal server environments.

FMA has some major differences from IMA. FMA doesn't have the concept of zones, which for XenApp servers are important for spreading around intra-server communication, configurations, and scalability.

CloudGateway / Mobility

Citrix clearly sees CloudGateway as a strategic play for their future.

In simple terms, aggregation of cloud services into a single store front presented to the end user.

ShareFile StorageZones Connector

There is a Tech Preview of the StorageZones Connector, which is an on-premise solution that integrates into your existing file shares, making them available via ShareFile clients (HybridZones).

It is clear that mobility has become the focal point again for Citrix. I say again as they have always had the anywhere, any device and any connection approach to technology. And with the advent of 4G and consumerisation this is the next big wave for Citrix to ride.

Hybrid Enterprise Dropbox? That will be Citrix Sharefile

We have all done it and will continue to do it; upload content to Dropbox without thinking about the sensitivity of the information or location of the data. For many months businesses having been looking for ways to offer the enterprise Dropbox to maintain governance on access and data.

Citrix Systems is giving back to business some control over personal cloud-based storage with ShareFile StorageZones, which allows user content to be stored in enterprises' own data centres. Users will still access their content the way they are used to.

Enterprises can choose between what Citrix calls customer-managed StorageZones that place data in the organisation's own data center, and Citrix-managed StorageZones, which are available in seven locations around the world.

Working in conjunction with customer-managed zones, StorageZone Connectors are designed to let IT staff create a secure connection between the ShareFile service and user data stored on enterprise networks.

Citrix has also announced plans to add Citrix-managed StorageZones on Microsoft's Azure cloud in 2013.

Next year Citrix will also start shipping the ShareFile StorageZones MPX Appliance. It will have integrated security and network optimisation, and also will be designed to simplify integration with existing storage environments.

This combined with CloudGateway should become central to your mobility plans. Need to know more then contact us.

VMware Extends ESX Support for OpenStack

VMware is not letting the grass grow beneath its feet since joining the OpenStack community and has announced support for its ESX hypervisor on OpenStack.

VMware has been engaging with OpenStack more and more over the past few months. First, it purchased Nicira, then immediately after that deal closed, the company applied to become a member of the OpenStack Foundation.

One of the biggest questions since has been how will VMware contribute to OpenStack. VMware, has announced
a compute driver within OpenStack that would support vSphere. Adding to the support of Xen, KVM and Hyper-V.

Some have said VMware joining Openstack has been to slow the project down, we believe it endorses the project and shows the need for an open cloud platform. Clearly it competes with vCloud Director but also allows sales of vSphere as normal.

OpenStack is already being used by some big-name public cloud providers such as Rackspace and HP to launch public cloud services. That puts it in direct competition with VMware's vCloud Director.

In addition to announcing the ESX support, VMware is also supporting OpenStack in orher ways including Nicira's work in the virtual networking Quantum project, and the effort of integrating its Cloud Foundry platform as a service into OpenStack.

What will $499 get you.. A Microsoft Surface

Microsoft's Surface tablet will be priced from $499 for a 32GB version in the US – and £399 in the UK – and go on sale on 26 October in eight countries including the UK, the company said today.

The cover that doubles as a keyboard, will cost another $100. A bigger model for $699 has twice the memory, 64 GB, and includes a cover.

On the 25th Microsoft is making available Windows 8, truly enabling the 3 Screens and a Cloud concept.

Microsoft will be selling the tablet in its own stores in the U.S. and Canada and online in those countries, plus Australia, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong and the U.K.

This version of the Surface doesn't have an Intel-style CPU. but it does include a version of the Office suite.

Looks like an exciting few weeks!

Microsoft sends out the press invites for Microsoft Surface launch

Microsoft has started sending out invites to a special “Surface Reception” event on October 25th.



In addition to a Windows 8 reveal, Microsoft will launch its highly anticipated tablet – The Surface.

It seems like the event will take
place in New York and starts at 10am.

Microsoft still has not released pricing or a full and complete spec list for its Surface RT tablets/PCs. It has not yet made them available for preorder. The Intel-based Surface Pro versions are not due out until three months, give or take, after the Windows RT launch.

It would appear that the highly anticipated Microsoft tablet is nearly here.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Openstack Foundation

OpenStack has got its own open source Foundation. The cloud operating system, launched under an Apache 2 license by cloud provider Rackspace and NASA two years ago, will be governed by an independent organisation similar to the Linux Foundation.

Vendors are expected to package OpenStack and incorporate it into various products. Rackspace and Red Hat already offer OpenStack downloads. And public cloud providers such as HP are launching their own offerings based on OpenStack.

Openstack has plenty to offer organisations and the excitement is seen developing right under your noses through the plethora of established vendors developing code for the project. OpenStack provides a management framework for nearly every virtualized resource in the data centre.

The main OpenStack reward for customers is the Collaborative development of core OpenStack that should shorten the time-to-market for private and public cloud solutions, the adoption of which should increase IT efficiency and reduce costs overall.

Openstack promises an awful lot and whether you call it "the cloud" or not, the need for a standardised way to manage vast amounts of virtualised data centre resources is undeniable. At this point it's hard to ignore the genuine excitement among OpenStack developers as they work toward that goal.

This is going to be a very interesting 12 months especially as VMware have just joined the community.

VMware vCloud Suite is now available

Yesterday VMware announced the availability of VMware vCloud Suite 5.1.

VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 is available in three editions, Standard, Advanced and Enterprise and is licensed per processor.

vCloud Includes software-defined datacenter services, policy-based provisioning, disaster recovery, and application and operations management capabilities delivered by:

VMware vSphere® 5.1 – is the proven foundation for the software-defined datacenter, delivering the highest service levels for all applications, including business-critical workloads and low-latency, I/O-sensitive applications.

VMware vCloud Director® 5.1 – vCloud Director 5.1 allows customers to provision complete virtual datacenter services in minutes.

VMware vCloud Networking and Security 5.1 – Providing a full set of software-defined networking capabilities, the new VMware vCloud Networking and Security enables the dynamic creation of virtual networks and services that are completely decoupled and independent from the physical network hardware.

VMware vCenter™ Site Recovery Manager™ 5.1– To enhance the availability and rapid recovery of applications running in the software-defined datacenter, vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.1 simplifies and automates disaster recovery planning, testing and execution.

Apple VPP Announced

Apple have announced a global expansion of VPP (Volume Purchase Plan) which is well overdue and will be music to many of Equanets BYOD clients.

This has been extended to Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

IT procurement within the United States has come to appreciate the ease at which VPP enables them to distribute apps to their iPhone and iPad equipped userbase.

What is VPP?

VPP was created to give IT the ability to push pertinent business applications to a sizeable userbase.

Any application on the App Store can be purchased for distribution, meaning you can now pre populate your enterprise application stores with free, home grown and purchased applications.

App distribution: where to begin

First you'll need to create a volume purchasing account with Apple. Once you've created your account, you decide which application/s you would like to purchase for your users in the Business Store.

After your purchase has been completed, you will be sent a VPP File, which contains VPP Codes that can be sent to users.

The quantity purchased will correlate with the number of codes provided in this package.

Using a mobile device management (MDM) solution turns provides IT with an easy deployment platform to iOS devices.

MDM eliminates the need for manual app distribution, it gives you the power to track provisioning, manage licenses, and monitor compliance of your userbase.

Looking at BYOD but are confused about where and how to start? then contact us to see how our approach can expedite your project.

Windows Server 2012 is here

Equanet have been working with Server 2012 for many months now in readiness for general availability so our customers can be assured of our support when it came to both licensing support and technical services. Well that day has now come, as of September 4th Microsoft has made Windows 2012 RTM versions available for test and purchase.

As part of the launch, Microsoft officials have performed webcast demonstrations of some of the 300 new features that are part of the product.

The key theme hasn't been about speeds and feeds but more about Windows Server 2012 being a key component of Microsoft's 'Cloud OS' vision and strategy. Windows Server 2012 has been developed from the ground up with the cloud in mind (Azure and Private).

Microsoft began to bring more feature parity to its Server and Azure components earlier this year, rolling out an implementation of Active Directory for Azure.

The end result, Microsoft officials are hoping, is a more cohesive and compelling message around Windows Server, in terms of positioning, licensing and pricing.

This version of Microsoft Server really should have you thinking differently about your cloud deployments from both technical and commercial viewpoints. Not only should it gain your respect but it has already gained the respect of industry heavyweight Cisco...

Cisco have been working closely with the Windows Server 2012 team for the past few years towards the goal of the Nexus 1000V integrating with Hyper-V, they have announced Nexus 1000V and VM-FEX support for it.

Cisco customers spoke in volumes about proving a consistency across both virtual and physical switching as they did with VMware.

In addition to the integration with Windows Server 2012, Cisco are also working for tighter integration between Nexus 1000V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). This integration helps both the server & network administrators to get a consistent view of the virtualisation environment, and thus reduces operational complexity. Server admins can pick and choose the logical networks, network-sites and VM networks created by the network admins, and network admins make use of the same NX-OS CLI, feature-set across physical & virtual environments.

We think this support alone speaks volumes about the excitement there is in the industry for server 2012.

If you need tech or licensing support on server 2012 contact us or register for one of upcoming events here