Video Conference - A Corporate Bust?

Ever go to that departmental meeting and the meeting organizer decides at the last minute we are adding video conference, so a vendor or out of town team can join?  First 20 minutes of the meeting is watching someone figure out how to make it work, just to have it go to a audio conference in the end because everyone is frustrated.  Perhaps video conference tools are complicated enough to keep the average manager from using it?

The technology group usually doesn't do a good enough job setting up the technology, provide training and user quick reference cards.  In addition, push back on the vendor to say, make it point and click and easy to setup, use and monitor, doesn't take place.  Some organizations, at the cross roads now of 10 year old systems, budget cuts and challenges are saying - take it out, we will just use WebEx and Audio.  Right choice? 

I think it is time to look past the traditional camera and monitor in a conference room once called Video Conference, and find a interactive solution.  Microsoft Lync has come a long way, and provides that ability to have a live meeting, chat, video and phone call on demand really.  Most laptops now come with built in camera, or a USB camera is very cheap, and effective.  So I think there is a balance, a hybrid solution for most organizations, and the days of a useless video system in the corner of the conference room can go away.  

Video solutions saves on travel, provides some interpersonal communications, and can be an effective tool for those impact meetings.  For day to day operations - you can't beat Lync.   Lync won't replace all your Cisco or Polycom video solutions, there will still be a need for several of these in enterprise organizations, but they can work together. 

Keep it positive!

Scott Arnett
scott.arnett@charter.net

Cloud Storage - A good option for Corporate America?

Cloud Services, Software, Hosting, Storage, and the list goes on.  Many organizations are asking if Cloud Storage can solve their storage issues.  Data growth for many organization is double digits and sustainability of that growth has quickly become a concern. 

A couple of things to address, one is the data growth itself, and getting a Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) project stated right away.  Get a solid process in place to deal with archive, retention, and unstructured data.  Next, look at your physical infrastructure and develop your storage strategy.  Should that strategy include a "cloud" component?  Perhaps.

The biggest drawback on Cloud storage services is the security.  All data in transit to the cloud service provider and at rest should be encrypted.  You are still responsible for your data protection, and if your data is lost or stolen while at the service provider, having it encrypted is essential.  The contract with your cloud service provider must  include the ability for you to audit their environment, process, and DR plans.  Don't forget their financial stability.

My recommendation is to proceed with caution.  Determine your Cloud Service Provider stability, security, availability, and get everything in writing.  I also would look at archive data as the first candidate to utilize a cloud storage service.  It still comes down to bandwidth and performance, so don't forget the network component of these strategy(s) and plan(s). 

Keep it positive!

Scott Arnett
scott.arnett@charter.net

30 Year Reflection

Today is my 30th anniversary in technology.  One thing is for sure, it has been a continous path of change.  Business, technology, and people have changed over the past 30 years. 

Technology sure has changed looking back.  Many of the things we tried to predict never came about, some have, and others are still a dream.  30 years ago technology was really just a business, lab or military thing, not really in the home.  We had radio, TV and a few gadgets, but look at today.  Today technology is in every minute of our day, not only in our home, but in our pockets, car, and even fishing.  So as a technologist, how do you get away? 

Co-workers have asked in recent weeks, how has it been for 30 years?  What a ride I say, what a ride.  Good times, stressful times, long hours, little appreciation, but some great sense of accomplishment.  I continue to learn something new everyday.  That is the fun part of the career.

Others ask, if you had to do it over again, what would I do?  I am not sure I would do anything different for a career, but different choices of opportunities.  The thing is, you can't change the past, but use it as a guide for the future.  Try not to repeat history, but make new history each day. 

The next 30 years promise even more change, faster paced changes, and challenges.  Time to get re-tooled, continue training and education, and as some old skills go unneeded, new skills bring new opportunities.  I look forward to meeting new people, new technology and new opportunities. 

I wish all of you much success!

Keep it postive!

Scott Arnett
scott.arnett@charter.net

February Mailbag

I am behind on my inbox messages and has been awile since I have done the mailbag on this blog.  I have some good email from the readers of this blog, so let's get right to them. 

Q.  What do you think the future of the PBX will be?  Should we buy now or wait?
A.  Good question.  There are some vendor consolidations going on, we have some new drivers around Unified Communications, and some technology evolution.  I think the PBX as we have known it for the past decades is slipping off into the history books.  The IP phone and technology is here and growing.  The challenge is for, say the Cisco IP Call Manager is to get to the level of providing top notch call center dial tone.  The reliability, clarity and feature/function has some growing to do.  The bread and butter of say Avaya is the rock solid technology for call center applications.  The other challenge is the network, a multi media vehicle now has to provide reliable, clear, optimized service for voice, video, data, control.  One more point, SIP trunking is a game changer - you need to start looking at the SIP trunking, utilizes technology such as Lync from Microsoft.  2011 and 2012 will deliver some great new technology in this space, so start thinking outside the traditional PBX box and look at what you can really deliver from the desktop for your organization.

Q.  Server Virtualization - isn't that really Private Cloud?
A.  Not at all.  Those that discount out the Private Cloud as nothing more than server virtualization is missing so much more.  Server virtualization is a component of the private or enterprise cloud, don't get me wrong.  The private cloud is really providing a cloud service to your internal customers.  Provide some provision automation, dashboards, elastic solutions to meet on demand needs, and so forth.  There are some good documents out there from EMC and HP on private cloud technology.  One more point on this, and that is really the turn in the IT foundamental position.  The internal IT department is really now competing with the SaaS and IaaS providers.  To compete, you need to really offer internal benefits, responsive, efficient, cost comparative, and quick.  You will see more changes coming in the future, so time for the traditional IT shops to take a step back and really look at what benefits and value do you bring to the business.

Q.  Should we allow employees to bring the iPad into work?
A.  This is a real discussion point and each organization is facing.  You really need to get your Senior Management, Legal and HR departmetns involved.  You have some key issues to tackle, like data ownership, data leak prevention, and data being on non-company devices.  The second half of that question was my personal opinion on this topic.  If you don't have a solid data leak prevention policy and technology in place, and a virtual desktop solution, I would not allow employee owned devices on the network, or hold company data.  What happens when that employee device brings a virus onto the enterprise network?  There are many opinions out there, and I think there are ways to safely bring an employee owned device into the enterprise and let them use them.  The problem is, most companies don't or can't spend the necessary money to do this right.  Taking a half hearted approach to this topic will reward headaches down the road.  Do it right, or just have a blanket policy of no. 

Q.  What do you think of all this union stuff in Wisconsin?
A.  I laughed when I got this one, as we try to keep this blog technical in nature and IT focused.  I know the person who sent this question for the mailbag is pushing my buttons, but worthy of a response.  The teachers that went to Madison to protest under the pretense of being sick should be disciplined up to and including termination.  In addition, the 14 senators missing in action - should be recalled.  They got voted into office to do their job, so do it.  Vote no if you don't agree, but do your job.  I also believe the protests in Madison, the capital campground is out of control.  You can be in the state building during normal business hours, and out at the end of the day.  This building is for ALL citizens, not just the few or union thugs. 

Q.  What about Flash Memory - viable for the enterprise storage strategy?
A.   Yes - and has come a long way.  Should be in everyone's new storage strategy, and viable to the tier storage approach.  I am going to do a blog on storage shortly, so keep an eye out for that.

Thanks for all the support, emails, questions, and comments.  Keep them coming.

Keep it positive!

Scott Arnett
scott.arnett@charter.net

New Application? WAIT - We are not ready!

New applications in the enterprise needs to be a structured event.  Remember in years gone by, you would have the business say we want application XYZ and you would go buy it, stick it on a server and let them use it.  IT would just deal with the logistics and support around that application as part of the job.  Does that really work anymore? 

New applications need a little more structure, as you have key issues to address now, and that has to be right up front before implementation.  Key issues such as compliance, data classification, archive strategy, security, DR and interfaces.  Many organizations have gone to a checklist tool that is used as part of the new application project.  It is essential that this information is collected right up front, and entered into the application inventory. 

I had a colleague ask, what is the big deal, just deal with it as needed.  So let's look at that view, and see what some of the impacts are.  Take archive strategy - should be defined right up front.  This key item will assist in storage requirements, application hardware performance, compliance, and DR requirements.  If you have say SAP growing over years, and you don't archive on a regular basis, you can have the following issues: 

• Storage demands continue to grow year over year.  Adding to data center costs.
• Application server performance decreases as the data continues to grow.
• DR RTO/RPO requirements change as the data becomes unmanageable
• You have data beyond retention policy(s)

I propose to you that part of the application project define process is to address data requirements, technical requirements, user requirements.  You need the complete picture and direction before the application is in production.  It is to difficult to go after some of these issues after the fact.  In addition, as years go by, and staff changes, user staff changes, it becomes difficult to recall the details of the application.  Document it up front and you can move this application through it's lifecycle with ease and efficiency. 

Keep it positive.

Scott Arnett
scott.arnett@charter.net

Does the IT Organizational Structure of Yesterday work Today?

Many organizations today are organized into silos, Systems, Networks, Security, Storage, Help Desk, and so on.  Has worked for years, and easy to manage into these groups.  Why won't it work anymore?

Look at the changes in the technology and how it is really becoming the converged infrastructure.  FCoe - Fiber Channel over Ethernet - touches on network, storage, security - so who owns it?  Who manages it?
Take a look at VBlock from EMC, Intel, Cisco, VMWare - now you have systems, storage, network all in one solution.  Virtualization is really changing the playing field, and the emerging of technology is bringing new skill requirements to the IT department. 

I propose to you that the old silo structure no longer works,  and should really look at what services your IT group is going to deliver to the business.  The private cloud, which brings virtualization, self provisioning, data consolidation, and central management tools, creates new focus teams.  I had one colleague recommend you have  hardware team, virtualization team, transport team, and application team.  Ok, I can work with that, but you need management, performance/capacity, and user support.  Telecommunication is now a transport and application, as a converged technology.  So I think you see the picture now, it is all blending together.

Take it a step further, do you really want to be in the hardware support?  Is there where cloud infrastructure as a service comes in?  Do you out source your data center and become a virtual data center?  There are a great deal more options today, and the technology and trends are changing ever so quickly.  You need to really develop your road map, talk with the business, and put a technology solution in place that supports the business goals.  There is nothing wrong with a hybrid solution, on premise and cloud solutions.  In any case, your organizational structure and staff skills sets are changing.  You ready?

Lastly, don't force your new strategy and goals into an organization of yesterday.  You will frustrate your staff, develop work arounds, and process failures.  You need to change your organization to support the new technology, strategy and goals. 

Keep it positive!

Scott Arnett
scott.arnett@charter.net

Technology – Impacting your life?

No matter where you look these days, technology is present. Sure the computer on the desk or kitchen table is a sure sign, but look at your car, phone, TV and the list goes on. Technology making a good impact on your life or is it really becoming intrusive? Had enough? Frustrated?

I don’t think it will be possible to have a technology free life. In fact, I think we will have more technology in our everyday life going forward. From smart phones, to smart homes, to the kitchen, on top of cars getting smarter, and computer user interfaces.

Imagine you having a smart watch that monitors your health vitals and reports on you to the doctor, or you being able to use voice commands in the house to have recipes brought up on the kitchen counter for cooking. Cool and useful – but necessary?

What about all this data this is now being collected about us from all these computers? The GPS in the car can tell where I went, the grocery store can tell what I purchased, the health information of my everyday life sent to the doctor or perhaps health insurance company. The smart house knows when I came home, who came home, and so forth. How you going to protect all this data now collected about your every move, habit, routine? Intrusive?

The other part of this wave of technology about to come over our head, is the need to start linking all this together into a portal like facebook or twitter to broadcast my every move, pictures or activities. Sounds far fetched or crazy – it is happening today.

I am a technologist at heart, but the internal struggle I have is the data collection or availability of this data. I like cool new technology, having a smart house you can call out commands to or no longer need a key to get into the house, it recognizes me – cool. So how do you get a handle on the privacy side of all this, and who should have access to this data? Just because we can do all this, should we?

I think the laws need to catch up to some of this new technology. Cell phone data, home access systems, GPS systems, - all these systems that know something about you should not be used against you, there needs to be protection, rights, and understanding. The technology is great and will make for a better life, but at what price? Are we blindly giving up our rights or freedoms in the name of technology?

I propose to you that we will need to be very observant and really understand and configure the technology appropriately to protect the privacy and rights of the user. Have the technology make for a better life, but don’t keep the data around on these systems if not necessary. Flush the data out as soon as it no longer serves a purpose. Ensure the security concerns are addressed, and don’t share more information than necessary. With all this technology and social networking comes social engineering and security threats. Take them serious, and if you need help – ask or hire it out to a reputable company to ensure the technology, data, and interfaces are safe and secure.

Keep positive!



Scott Arnett
Scott.arnett@charter.net