9/11
Archive for September 11, 2014
Will iOS 8 Crush Your Network?
– Updated 09-09-14 – At their presser today, Apple announced that iOS 8 will be publicly available on Wednesday, September 17. The update is free and compatible with 10 current products:
iPhone 5S
iPhone 5C
iPhone 5
iPhone 4S
iPad Air
iPad with Retina Display
iPad 2
iPad mini with Retina Display
iPad mini
iPod touch 5th Generation
How are you going to protect your network?
—
TechRadar speculates that Apple’s new mobile operating system, iOS 8 will be released on September 10 and MacWorld UK reports that iOS 8 will run on most iPads, iPhones, or iPod Touch devices when it arrives. This means that if you haven’t already done something about it any iDevice that walks into your Wi-Fi will want to download 100+ megabytes of data. And you know what means user complaints that the internet is broken and the network is slow.
The folks at Exinda, a supplier of policy-based WAN Orchestration recently put out some suggestions on how to keep your network functional during Apple’s (AAPL) iOS 8 update madness, unlike the iOS 7 release last year. Few organizations were prepared for the effects that widespread software updates would have across corporate and educational networks.
Shortly after the software launch, download requests bombarded networks which prevented users from accessing key applications or completing work on time. Boston-based Exinda says reports from last year showed that the iOS 7 update used more than 60% of bandwidth and caused several networks to crash completely.
Exinda polled their community of networking experts to weigh in with three possible strategies to help you survive release week, no matter how complex your IT environment is.
Set an iOS policy
Set a policy to completely block software upgrades 20% of Exinda customers said that controlling iOS 7 upgrades was their biggest IT headache last year. If iOS 7 put a huge strain on your network last year, proactively blocking this year’s software release may be the best way to protect your network.
Before release week, simply create a policy using the Apple Software Updates application signature and set it to discard the traffic. This will cause all network traffic generated from iOS 8 to be discarded, effectively keeping your users from upgrading their devices on your network.
Limit the bandwidth software upgrades use
Depending on your network and users, you may have no choice but to let some of your users upgrade their devices during peak hours, particularly if you’re a school with a 1:1 iPad program. To control the amount of bandwidth iOS 8 can use on your network, set a policy that guarantees minimum and maximum levels of bandwidth that can be consumed during this upgrade. We recommend setting the minimum at 1 Kbps and giving this policy a low priority so it does not take precedence over your more important traffic.
Bruce Miller, vice president of product marketing at Xirrus in a Fierce Mobile article, advised IT administrations to deploy Wi-Fi network application control software that regulates how the network handles bandwidth-hogging apps and spikes in traffic.
IT needs to be savvy at the application level, identify when something like this happens and then be able to apply QoS [quality of service] or prioritization to applications, not just to users.
Cache iOS software upgrades
Cache software upgrades at the network edge – Last year many Exinda customers cached the iOS download at the network edge, which allowed their users to upgrade their devices without using too much bandwidth or hurting network performance. To do this, create a new policy to cache the iOS 8 upgrade. This means that after the software has been downloaded on the network once, each subsequent download request will be served up locally, letting you preserve your bandwidth and prevent network outages.
rb-
The release of iOS 7 last year blindsided many IT managers. Large numbers of employees upgrading their devices at the same time caused many networks to crash, leaving users unable to 
access key apps or get work done on time.
I also blogged about how The NCAA Basketball and World Cup tournaments would be huge bandwidth wasters here. IT managers need to be more alert to events outside their network that can overwhelm the corporate network.
Related articles
- Exinda adds WAN orchestration (itworldcanada.com)
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
4 Tips for Dealing with IT Sales People
Jonathan Feldman penned an article for InformationWeek which provided some tips on how to deal with vendor sales people. The Ashville NC, CIO writes that most IT pros think doing calls and meetings with vendors are a waste of time. However, he states that IT vendor salespeople have a place in the IT ecosystem. The author argues salespeople can be a benefit;
… if you stick your head in the sand, 
don’t be surprised when you fail to move forward … We all know the bad side of sales. But the good side, at the correct time and in the correct dosage, can usher in business technology innovation.
The article explains it’s all about sound vendor management. Mr. Feldman describes four things he does to ensure that time with the vendor is as productive as possible for him.
Establish guidelines for sales people
T
here should be a process for vendor meetings. Mr. Feldman says that staff should know what to do when faced with a vendor on the phone, or worse yet (which I’ve seen) at the front desk.
- Should they take the call immediately?
- Pass it to someone else? If so, to whom?
- If it’s decided not to engage the vendor at all, based on what criteria?
Any way you slice it, staff need guidance so that they don’t go overboard one way or another.
Set expectations
Provide vendors a mechanism for contacting you. CIO Feldman suggests the website should clearly state where product and service calls should go. He also suggests that voice mail announcements spell out a number that vendors should call if they want assistance.
This is an early test of vendors if they can follow your directions. If they can’t properly get in touch at the beginning, how are they going to behave at crunch time? rb- I use the same logic at RFP time, vendors certainly raise a flag if they don’t read the directions and respond in the requested format.
Direct the call
It is your time, do you want to spend it on a cold call? I have found that cold calls are rarely useful. Mr. Feldman suggests you limit cold calls to five minutes, tops. He makes the vendor get right to the elevator pitch to quickly check whether to hear more at another time. To cut through the chaff, he recommends a question like, “What’s the value in what you’re selling, in 30 seconds or less?” Hang up on people who say they’re not selling anything.
Control timing
If the salesperson has followed the process and made an appointment and showed up (rb- a problem for first time calls or small accounts) keep the meeting short. The author says these early meetings should be less than 30 minutes to hear and evaluate their message. These calls are to evaluate the elevator pitch, not to discuss strategy. Control the timing; don’t let it control you.
Mr. Feldman concludes that ignoring sales calls isn’t an option unless you want to join the legions of the uninformed. He recommends that IT Pros sift through the sales noise to decide which pitches merit action to benefit your business.
rb-
I have managed the vendor pitch process by having quarterly pitch Fridays where new vendors could get 30 minutes to pitch their business. This allowed us to schedule the meetings around our customer’s work. And it made it easy for the admin staff to schedule, here is your time like or lump it. And it pushed the meeting out enough to test sales commitment.
Related articles
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.