Now Micro Blog
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 |
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Will 2012 be the year of PaaS (Platform as a Service)? While many people are still unfamiliar with the concept of PaaS, Garnter has been tracking PaaS since 2007. In its latest report, the research firm said that PaaS revenue would rise about 38 percent from $512.4 million in 2010 to $707.4 million in 2011.
PaaS represents the on-ramp to the cloud in that it provides the link between application platforms and underlying cloud infrastructures, according to Forrester Research. PaaS combines an application platform with managed cloud infrastructure services.
With more IT suppliers moving their offerings to the cloud and more enterprises adopting cloud computing, the cloud model continues to grow and offer a viable alternative to on-premise solutions. PaaS is a foundation for a major transformation of how people build software, according to an analyst with Forrester.
The PaaS space is in the process of evolution. It represents a new development paradigm and can enable users to move existing applications to new platforms. Despite its immaturity, the PaaS space deserves continued monitoring by enterprise IT managers and development teams. According to a report by Garnter in January 2011, “By 2015, most enterprises will have part of their run-the-business software functionality executing in the cloud, using PaaS services or technologies directly or indirectly.”
Source: Darryl Taft, eWeek.com
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Wednesday, February 15, 2012 |
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Even though economic growth has slowed, people are still buying; they just want to make informed decisions and want more value for their money. To meet these needs, no other tool is as effective as digital signage for instantly delivering new, targeted messages at the point of purchase.
According to a recent ABI Research report, the digital signage industry will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) 0f 18.5 percent from 2011 through 2016.
Proven sales lift is driving the adoption of digital signage. A grocery chain saw a 100 percent increase in sales from an end-cap digital signage installation, but just 25 percent from a similar printed sign.
The good news is that for customers who choose a solid-state digital signage solution, the cost for deploying digital signage is no longer prohibitive.
Priced significantly lower than PC-based solutions, solid-state players cost less to operate since they only require about 3-5 watts, compared to 70-90 watts for an average PC, and completely eliminate PC issues such as high maintenance costs and system crashes. And with no moving parts to fail, solid-state players built solely for digital signage deliver increased reliability.
Installation costs are significantly lower as well when a complete, ready-to-use solid-state signage solution is chosen that includes hardware, software and networking capabilities. This all-in-one approach eliminates hardware/software compatibility issues and software licensing fees. Potential buyers should also compare software features and ease of use. Today, there are applications that feature intuitive templates and tools to make creating, updating, managing and monitoring digital signage displays so easy that even non-technical users will excel without any assistance from IT support.
Source: Digital Signage Today.com
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Wednesday, February 08, 2012 |
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We have entered the smartphone era. According to Morgan Stanley, smartphone shipments will exceed those of all PCs in 2012. Small and medium businesses are increasingly on the go and require more tools to keep their mobile workforces connected. Here are five important considerations for small and medium businesses to take into account when implementing a business mobility strategy.
- Device Management: Central to any mobility strategy is the efficient management of devices – from deployment and applications through management of the lifecycle and monitoring usage.
- Devices: Mobile devices are expected to provide voice, SMS, MMS and email as well as access to data and application platforms. The mobility strategy must accommodate these expectations. Devices are widespread and multiple operating systems make it difficult for IT departments to support.
- People: It is important to make sure your employees and customers remain productive and secure when using mobile devices to connect to your systems. There are 4 main types of mobile workers all with different business challenges:
- Mobile Residents: To maximize productivity at all hours and allow mobile residents better control of their time you need to provide them flexibility to move between the office and home.
- Road Warriors: To allow these workers to stay mobile while maintaining easy connections with coworkers, partners and customers, and stay productive without a fixed place to work.
- Telecommuters: To enable staffing based on skill rather than location and allow workers flexibility and connectivity. They must be connected, but their computing requirements could be significant.
- Field Workers: To provide environment-appropriate computing that provides access to specialized applications.
- United Communications: The principle of unified communications has been around for some time, but with the onset of smartphones and tablets, companies’ strategies must quickly address mobility and collaboration. Vendors continue to consolidate more services into their offerings and SMBs are getting on board.
- Security: The commercial impact of cyber threats is an increasing concern for companies. Worldwide mobile security licensing and maintenance grew 64.5% in 2010, compounding annually at a rate of 35.4% to reach $1.9 billion by 2015.
Source: Kerry Bridge, Dell
security
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012 |
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A recent survey by Avanade found that IT administrators and business executives are embracing Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and the consumerization of IT. More and more people are embracing these notions and trying to incorporate them into the workday.
Approximately 60 percent of companies are adapting their IT infrastructure to accommodate employees’ personal devices instead of restricting how employees can use them. Nearly 90 percent of the business leaders said they are aware that employees are already using personal technology for work, and 65 percent of C-level executives in the survey consider the growing use of employee-owned technology as a top priority in their organization.
Companies are investing in staff and resources to enable the consumerization of IT. Avanade’s findings directly contradict a finding in a recent Cisco Systems study that found nearly half of the IT managers and executives polled would never let employees use their own devices for work.
Avanade’s survey also found that 91 percent of C-level executives and 75 percent of IT leaders said their IT department has the staff and resources needed to manage the growing number of consumer devices within the organization. Companies view the consumerization trend as a way to improve how people work. Allowing employees to have access to enterprise resources from anywhere has translated into actual productivity.
All of these findings about BYOD are not to say that respondents didn’t see any security risks with allowing personal devices. Two-thirds of executives considered security as the main risk.
Source: CIO Insight
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012 |
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Cloud computing is quickly becoming a standard at many organizations. Here is a list of a few cloud trends to keep an eye on.
Virtualization
Recent surveys indicate that companies have a growing interest in virtualization technologies, rather than adopting basic cloud infrastructure. Although virtualization, unlike cloud computing, requires significant initial costs, more companies are realizing the long-term monetary savings.
Hybrid Clouds
Hybrid clouds provide the security of private infrastructure with the performance and low costs of public options. Hybrid clouds have been gaining popularity for several years, but 2012 will bring even more users.
More Cloud Options
Although the cloud industry is largely dominated by giants like IBM, Amazon and Google, smaller companies are now offering specialized services. As the market continues to open up, more options will appear and organizations will need to choose providers concentrating on their needs.
Cloud Applications
As cloud infrastructure becomes standard, users are seeking more complex application development in the cloud. Adaptable and reliable applications cut costs and improve security on the cloud. This year, applications are likely to become more common and to feature more capabilities.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Many companies already employ SaaS providers, and the numbers will continue to increase in 2012 as companies recognize the disadvantages of on-site software. As a result, companies will likely make their SaaS options more secure and customizable.
Source: Rebecca Kutzer-Rice, Smarter Technology
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Thursday, January 19, 2012 |
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At first glance, private clouds can look a lot like virtualization, but when you dig a little deeper you will see how truly different these categories of software really are. There are two ways of looking at these differences:
- Approach to IT operations
- Specific features and capabilities
When you consider the big picture first, virtualization provides the “underpinning for cloud,” while cloud goes “beyond virtualization to focus on services and consumption,” according to Mary Johnston Turner, Research VP of Enterprise System Management Software at IDC. Essentially, what this means is that there is a shift from framing virtualization expansion goals based on footprint and consolidation metrics to offering business-optimized services. When services meet user needs, it will drive adoption which will drive cloud economics.
This drive of adoption is done by designing a catalog of standard services, or applications, that are offered to consumers through a low-touch self-service interface. Virtualization management by third-party management products adds a degree of order and process to virtualized environments.
It is not surprising that virtualization management is the most common current or planned technology reported by IT decision makers, present to some degree in about 70 percent of cases. The next most common building block was automation/orchestration and self-service portals. A certain amount of automation and self-service can be put in place to augment virtualization, but it’s with service management that IT operations begin looking like a cloud provider.
Virtualization management solutions will continue to add features over time, and they will often overlap with what private clouds do on an individual feature basis. But after looking at both the underlying approach to IT and management capabilities, you see a clear distinction between virtualization and cloud.
Source: Gordon Haff, CNET
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Friday, January 06, 2012 |
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Today, only 57% of students who attend college in the United States actually graduate. Technical literacy and strong learning engagement are two important paths toward increasing college graduation rates and better preparing students for career success. Educators can benefit by adopting tablet devices and interactive digital publications.
Better Study Habits and Performance
In today’s society, we are witnessing a transformation in how digital content is distributed and consumed, in fact, more than 70 million tablets will ship in 2012, which is up from 17 million in 2010. According to a study by Pearson Foundation, 86% of college students who own a tablet say the device helps them study more efficiently and 76% said that tablets help them perform better in class. An estimated 70% of college students and college-bound students are interested in owning a tablet and 20% expect to buy one in the next six months.
In order to cater to this technology-weaned generation, educational institutions need to be at the forefront of the tablet revolution. Tablets can improve the way a curriculum is consumed and often replace hard-copy textbooks. Digital textbooks include many interactive features like video, audio and animation. In addition, universities can create custom-branded displays and navigation options.
Understanding Learning Effectiveness
Integrated analytical tools provide useful data that measures how students are interacting and sharing digital content. This allows colleges to easily gauge learning effectiveness and determine the most constructive teaching approaches.
Educators could easily determine which lessons are accessed most often and for how long. They would be able to pinpoint the most popular content and then adjust accordingly to maximize student engagement.
Frequent Content Updates and Sustainable Publishing
Digital publications easily reach a wide audience across numerous devices. Access is quick, cost-effective and friendlier on the environment. In many cases, content can be created once and delivered to multiple platforms and operating systems, reducing the cost of publishing while reaching a broader audience.
Digital publishing in higher education is still in the early stages, but the quality and volume of interactive content is rapidly expanding. Tablets and digital publishing are important technologies that will trigger positive change for college students and instructors.
Source: Mashable
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Tuesday, December 20, 2011 |
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Wednesday, December 14, 2011 |
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Virtualization has proven to be an invaluable technology for streamlining test and development environments, consolidating IT infrastructure, reducing costs and setting enterprises on the path to cloud computing. Experts have found that virtualization provides the ability to consolidate physical servers by approximately 20:1; cut capital and operational costs in half; and improve resiliency.
The Efficient Enterprise
The real goal of virtualization goes beyond test and development to building an efficient enterprise. As important as virtualization has proven to be, the average organization is grappling with operational issues that stand in the way of a full-fledged commitment to a virtual infrastructure. Physical infrastructure remains the preferred choice for supporting business-critical applications. The reason is because managing virtual servers is harder than many organizations thought it would be.
The Challenge of a Heterogeneous Virtualization Environment
Virtual infrastructures have their own set of management challenges, and one of the main problems is that traditional management tools aren’t useful for virtual infrastructures. This is especially true when dealing with heterogeneous environments. Since most organizations have four different vendors, technologies and platforms in their virtual environment, this is a prevalent challenge.
The Importance of Processes and Procedures
It’s important to establish strong processes and procedures for virtualization. Enterprises need to weed out complexity in order to achieve virtualizations potential in enabling an efficient enterprise. If you can standardize your server types, operating systems and applications, then you will have an easier time being responsive and cost-efficient. Once you standardize, you simplify, and once you simplify, it’s easier to automate.
Source: Dell
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Wednesday, December 07, 2011 |
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SQL Server Infrastructure is business-critical
SQL Server is the engine that drives the access to business data for many applications including web store fronts, accounting systems, customer care systems and sales tools. Meeting service levels for database performance and availability is crucial to keep business running. As systems relying on databases multiply and the underlying data sets grow, storage system performance often becomes the bottleneck. This can lead to the purchase of expensive storage options that increase operational complexity.
A related trend that worsens these problems is virtualization. In an attempt to improve IT efficiency and reduce server sprawl, companies are virtualizing servers. This increases utilization and reduces server maintenance, but it can increase the storage challenge.
A variety of approaches
Stacking your virtualization host with extra memory or an SSD cache card can be beneficial. The challenge is that these approaches can also be expensive and only accelerate one physical server at a time. Another approach is to deploy an SSD-based storage array. This will benefit the workload independent of what server it is running on. The challenge is that it is expensive and manual tuning is required to assign performance-sensitive files to the SSD.
Automated data tiering with Dell EqualLogic XVS
Dell’s EqualLogic PS Series XVS arrays help meet service level agreements while also reducing costs. The XVS continuously analyzes I/O to the data stored on it at a sub-volume level. The sub-volume elements are categorized as high I/O, medium I/O or low I/O and then dynamically placed on either SSD or SAS tiers. This automated tiering simplifies the optimization of database performance and provides an agile shared storage infrastructure for business-critical applications.
Source: Dell Solution Brief
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