The Consumerisation of IT has been a phrase encapsulating business IT for around 3/4 years and refers to the speed of pace which consumer focused IT is released and far outpaces the traditional speed of adoption associated with business IT. Ultimately ensuring the consumer has a better IT experience at home than when in the office.
Rather than thinking of this trend as a mobility issue, it should be thought of as an innovation and opportunity.
Over the past two years there has been much interest in BYOD but it’s important to remember this is only the start when it comes to the Consumerisation of IT.
The past two years has seen a big increase in the adoption of BYOD. This is not going to go away; there will be more BYOD and more usage within the enterprise. Organisations need to be prepared for more non-corporate devices accessing their networks.
Organisations that take this innovation opportunity seriously will realise that mobility/BYOD is not just about MDM. A new holistic approach to mobility will be about managing data and information wherever it maybe stored.
With increase of adoption comes increases in legal cases as corporate and personal data becomes blurred by the device. Organisations will need to weigh up the risk of privacy beaches against productivity gained as a result of Consumerisation of IT.
IT departments driven by thought leading CIO's will need to assess themselves. A shift towards providing IT consultancy and services for the business will be imperative.
Going to adopt BYOD or whatever you are calling it and don't know where to start? Contact Us for advice.
Sunday, 13 January 2013
Wednesday, 9 January 2013
Whats on your 2013 Techmap?
So that's 2012 done and dusted with, which always brings about the questions what is going to be big this year and what was a hit last year. So we thought we would have a quick punt on what 2013 might bring to businesses in the shape of technology.
Over the years we have had a pretty good guess and what was coming down the line from VDI, through to ESN and Cloud. The following tops the bill for us on what is going to be on your techmap at some point this year:
- Expect to see a significant rise with cloud built on Openstack, the project has gained fantastic momentum and shows no signs of slowing down. Private Cloud built upon Public Cloud processes can only be a good thing
- Keeping on the opensource theme, expect Bigdata to become more strategic with Hadoop taking the lead. Once tier 1 cloud providers position Hadoop as a Service the technology will become more accessible to the SMB market place
- Cloud services will be consumed with greater velocity meaning technology needs to be provided to aggregate these cloud services from personal through to private into a single pane of glass such as Citrix Cloud Gateway
- Symantec O3 should make a name for itself this year providing a sensible framework for SSO, Content and Security services again becoming a single pane of glass for cloud services
- Windows 8 was launched with Gusto in 2012 and expect it to make an appearance on a desk near you soon either through Windows XP desktop replacement or through BYO strategies
- Mobility will morph into Enterprise Mobility Management consuming BYO with it as the industry accepts its inevitable. Consumer choice will be delivered through Digital Allowance schemes and hopefully HMRC will provide clarity around tax implications.
- Another area of growth we expect to see happen over the next year [largely fuelled by BYO is the interest in Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms (MEAP), no longer is a single way of developing applications acceptable or affordable for businesses to adopt. There has been significant promise of HTML5 being the development architecture of choice but this has yet to come to fruition. It is clear that this is an opportunity within the market place to provide one framework to all devices, the browser maybe the right approach but that is yet to be seen. There will still be a huge demand for native applications as they provide the most rich user experience to date. The approach of mobilising applications will largely be driven through improved development skills as they need to adopt new design skills to deliver touch-optimised applications that operate across a range of devices
- In 2013 we also expect to see the main network operators roll out 4G networks. With continuous streaming of high speed data the move to mobile will change the world of screens at home and work as we know it.
- Certified cloud architectures such as Flexpod will continue to gain market share
- Office 365 will gain further momentum fuelled largely by the plethora of new Microsoft Workloads due for launch in 2013
- If you don't adopt cloud in your strategy then you can expect your users to circumnavigate the IT department and spin services up through AWS or Rackspace for example
- The software defined datacentre will get a lot of airtime this year largely driven by network vitualisation
- Apple will continue to dominate the tablet market with specific verticals being key adopters of the technology.
- We also expect to see business and industry drive their mobility proposition to the next level of maturity. On top of the considerable benefits seen from native iOS apps, companies are now investing strategically in business process re-engineering projects that drive savings and efficiency through native app development. Links to ERP and CRM systems will give organisations access to core data and the functionality to operate from wherever they chose.
So that's what we think will be in your Techmap for 2013 but we know there will be more lurking around the corner. It would be great to hear what solutions you are looking into.
Charles Barratt | Solutions Development Manager | Equanet
Monday, 7 January 2013
Citrix Releases VDI in a Box 5.2
Citrix has released version 5.2 of VDI-in-a-box. The VDI solution doesn’t require shared storage or dedicated load balanced connection brokers. It consists of a single virtual appliance that provides all the functionality needed to create, provision, manage, and load balance virtual desktops. The VDI-in-a-Box appliance, known as VDI-in-a-Box Manager runs as a virtual machine on a hypervisor. vdiManager creates and manages virtual desktops on the local physical server by communicating with the local hypervisor.
Besides supporting the latest hypervisors in this release, Citrix is integrating the VDI-in-a-box product more and more with its existing products, like introducing support for Cloud Gateway and the ability to export images for use with XenDesktop.
Version 5.2 provides the following new features:
Besides supporting the latest hypervisors in this release, Citrix is integrating the VDI-in-a-box product more and more with its existing products, like introducing support for Cloud Gateway and the ability to export images for use with XenDesktop.
Version 5.2 provides the following new features:
- Support for the hypervisors available in Windows Server 2012, XenServer 6.1 and vSphere 5.1
- Support for StoreFront services provided by Citrix Cloud Gateway
- Support for Microsoft Lync
- Support for exporting of published images for use with Citrix XenDesktop
- Licensing Management using Citrix License Server.
- Support for multiple data stores
- Support for virtual desktops running Windows Server 2012 (accessible using RDP only)
- Automated desktop agent upgrade
- Citrix Desktop Lock support.
Saturday, 22 December 2012
Windows Intune Wave D looks pretty neat
Microsoft has finished the fourth version of its Windows Intune management service, with an obvious yet needed focus on mobile device management.
Allegedly December 17th was the target date to release the new wave including Windows 8, RT and Windows Phone 8 support. But existing customers will have to wait until mid January for the new features.
Besides adding support for the latest versions of Windows and Windows Phone, the new version of Windows Intune enables sideloading of applications for Microsoft and non-Microsoft devices.
Wave D also brings to the table agent-based management for not only Windows RT and Windows Phone 8, but also iOS. This is great news and moves away from the reliance of EAS via Exchange although android will still need EAS for management.
Most customers who were on Office 365 or other hosted Exchange platforms could never use EAS to manage mobile devices, so this is great news.
Microsoft has also modified the pricing and licensing for Windows Intune with the latest release, providing a $6 per user per month version too (with no Software Assurance rights and no Windows Enterprise license) for use for managing up to five devices.
Allegedly December 17th was the target date to release the new wave including Windows 8, RT and Windows Phone 8 support. But existing customers will have to wait until mid January for the new features.
Besides adding support for the latest versions of Windows and Windows Phone, the new version of Windows Intune enables sideloading of applications for Microsoft and non-Microsoft devices.
Wave D also brings to the table agent-based management for not only Windows RT and Windows Phone 8, but also iOS. This is great news and moves away from the reliance of EAS via Exchange although android will still need EAS for management.
Most customers who were on Office 365 or other hosted Exchange platforms could never use EAS to manage mobile devices, so this is great news.
Microsoft has also modified the pricing and licensing for Windows Intune with the latest release, providing a $6 per user per month version too (with no Software Assurance rights and no Windows Enterprise license) for use for managing up to five devices.
Wednesday, 14 November 2012
Citrix & NetApp get closer
Citrix and NetApp have jointly developed a software and hardware package optimised for Citrix's ShareFile with StorageZones.
ShareFile with StorageZones is Citrix's enterprise 'dropbox' alternative and allows CIOs to place data in the organisation's own data center as opposed to in the cloud.
Enterprises can now meet data compliance and users can still access their documents and images from anywhere at any time.
By collaborating, Citrix and NetApp will help enterprises simplify and accelerate on-premise, data sharing and storage deployments.
The joint approach ensures that StorageZones works with NetApp's FAS and V-Series storage systems running its clustered Data ONTAP software.
This allows you to take advantage of features such as de-duplication and compression to decrease the amount of storage needed to host employee content.
NetApp's Snapshot technology can be used to backup and recover the data.
This should come as good news as businesses grapple to contain data in the enterprise yet make it freely available to those needing access.
Need to know more? Contact us.
ShareFile with StorageZones is Citrix's enterprise 'dropbox' alternative and allows CIOs to place data in the organisation's own data center as opposed to in the cloud.
Enterprises can now meet data compliance and users can still access their documents and images from anywhere at any time.
By collaborating, Citrix and NetApp will help enterprises simplify and accelerate on-premise, data sharing and storage deployments.
The joint approach ensures that StorageZones works with NetApp's FAS and V-Series storage systems running its clustered Data ONTAP software.
This allows you to take advantage of features such as de-duplication and compression to decrease the amount of storage needed to host employee content.
NetApp's Snapshot technology can be used to backup and recover the data.
This should come as good news as businesses grapple to contain data in the enterprise yet make it freely available to those needing access.
Need to know more? Contact us.
Microsoft Goes Big Compute with Azure
Microsoft has made enhancements to Windows Azure to allow customers to run applications that require Big Compute.
This is a capability many cloud providers are now offering in the wake of Big Data, such as Rackspace with Hadoop.
In order to demonstrate the capabilities Microsoft ran a LINPACK benchmark resulting in a 151.3 Tflops on 8,065 cores with 90,2 efficiency, and Microsoft therefore submitted the data to be included in the Top 500 of the world’s largest supercomputers.
The capabilities include:
Hardware for Big Compute, which is currently in a private preview and is expected to become available in 2013. Microsoft is planning to offer 2 configurations, a 8 core/60GB of RAM and a 16 core/120GB of RAM configuration, running on top of machines with the following specifications:
Dual Intel Sandybridge processors at 2.6 GHz
DDR3 1600 MHz RAM
10 GigE network for storage and internet access
InfiniBand (IB) 40 Gbps network with RDMA
Microsoft HPC Pack 2012, allows customers to run workloads on Windows Azure, on-premise or both in a hybrid scenario. The 2012 version will add support for Windows Server 2012, VPN integration for access to on-premises resources, job execution control for dependencies, job scheduling policies for memory and cores, monitoring tools and utilities and is expected to be released in December this year.
This is a capability many cloud providers are now offering in the wake of Big Data, such as Rackspace with Hadoop.
In order to demonstrate the capabilities Microsoft ran a LINPACK benchmark resulting in a 151.3 Tflops on 8,065 cores with 90,2 efficiency, and Microsoft therefore submitted the data to be included in the Top 500 of the world’s largest supercomputers.
The capabilities include:
Hardware for Big Compute, which is currently in a private preview and is expected to become available in 2013. Microsoft is planning to offer 2 configurations, a 8 core/60GB of RAM and a 16 core/120GB of RAM configuration, running on top of machines with the following specifications:
Dual Intel Sandybridge processors at 2.6 GHz
DDR3 1600 MHz RAM
10 GigE network for storage and internet access
InfiniBand (IB) 40 Gbps network with RDMA
Microsoft HPC Pack 2012, allows customers to run workloads on Windows Azure, on-premise or both in a hybrid scenario. The 2012 version will add support for Windows Server 2012, VPN integration for access to on-premises resources, job execution control for dependencies, job scheduling policies for memory and cores, monitoring tools and utilities and is expected to be released in December this year.
Thursday, 25 October 2012
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
Visit the Equanet Windows 8 Page here
- http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/pc/hp-lays-out-us-windows-8-device-availability-and-pricing-1106967
- http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/desktop-pc/3406721/dell-delivers-full-windows-8-line-up/
- http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2218494/equanet-windows-8-set-for-steady-start#ixzz2AIU7eZ7I
Sunday, 21 October 2012
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.
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.
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)