Tag Archive for Hardware

| October 1, 2015
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HPE Been Busy

HPE Been BusyHP (HPQ) has been busy since it divorced itself and spawned HP Enterprise and HP Inc. There has been more enterprise activity in the past month than in the past years, as the spun-out HP Enterprise (HPE) side of the tech megalith tries to make a more relevant name for itself.

HPE layoffs

HP Enterprise logoFirst, Tim Stonesifer the CFO of the new HPE says that up to another 30,000 people will be laid off. The Business Insider reports these cuts will be focused on HP’s Enterprise Services Division, the consulting arm of the company.

During CEO Meg Whitman‘s tenure, HP has let go 85,000 workers with this latest round of layoffs. And they aren’t over yet claims CIO.com. Ms. Whitman and CFO Cathie Lesjak said that HP would lay off another 5% of staff.

Michigan lawsuit

State of Michigan is suing HPMore bad news as the State of Michigan announced it is suing HP. Michigan’s Secretary of State Ruth Johnson is charging HP with failing to deliver on a $49 million contract after 10 years, according to a press release from the state.

FierceCIO reports that the project was supposed to replace a legacy mainframe system that has run 131 Secretary of State offices. However, since 2005, and after $27.5 million was paid to the company, the state said that not a single promised function was delivered. In the press release she states:

 I inherited a stalled project when I came into office in 2011 and, despite our aggressive approach to hold HP accountable and ensure they delivered, they failed … We have no choice but to take HP to court to protect Michigan taxpayers.

MichiganThe state alleged that following a set of failed negotiations over the past few months, it rescinded its contract on Aug. 28 with a termination for cause letter. The article says the state argued, according to the terms of the contract, HP was supposed to provide support services for the state for some extended period of time. The state said that, instead, HP employees stopped reporting as of Aug. 31.

HP responded to a request for comment from FierceCIO with the following email statement: “It’s unfortunate that the state of Michigan chose to terminate the contract, but HP looks forward to a favorable resolution in court.”

HPE 3PAR

On the product side, HPE has updated the software that runs all of its HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage products to boost the performance of its SAN and other storage products an HP presser announced.

HP 3Par logoOne of the changes to the HP 3PAR Operating System. HP has added a new feature in the HP 3PAR Priority Optimization software. Fierce Enterprise Communications reports that the software now enables users to set specific latency goals as low as 0.5 milliseconds in the hopes of ensuring consistent performance levels in multi-tenant environments. The intention is to boost the quality of service for improved application performance.

VMware support

For data protection, HPE also added support for VMware (VMW) vSphere 6.0 with VMware Virtual Volumes to StoreOnce Recovery Manager Central for VMware. The update also includes more granular recovery of individual virtual machines and files, simplifying data recovery.

VMWareWith these changes, another Fierce Enterprise Communications article observes that HP is getting cozier in its relationship with VMware as the company unveiled new consulting and support services for VMware’s NSX SDN product.

There’s actually a laundry list of new aspects of the two companies’ partnership, according to the article. The partnership includes a variety of HP services and products that tie into different VMware software-defined data center and end-user computing products, but the networking aspect comes in the form of HP Network Virtualization Services.

Consulting The consulting and support services will be available starting in January 2016. According to an HP announcement at VMworld, the services were “designed to transform and operate the network when combining physical and virtual network resources, functionality and management to ready a network for virtualized cloud, network functions virtualization or SDI.”

HP plans to implement a novel idea by putting consulting and support services under the HP Network Virtualization Services umbrella to provide a 24/7/365 single place to connect with networking, virtualization, and NSX experts in the hopes of quickly resolving issues.

Security changes

HP Fortify logoOn the security front, HP announced new enterprise security tools that can detect communications between malware and a remote server as well as uncover bugs in enterprise software using machine learning.

The first called HP DNS Malware Analytics, uses an algorithm to detect enterprise machines infected with malware by analyzing Domain Name System traffic between the devices and remote servers according to a FierceCIO article. A one-year subscription to HP DMA starts at $80,000 to analyze up to 5 million DNS packets per day. Frank Mong, vice president of solutions at HP Security, claims, “This solves the problem of finding an infected host that has been missed by anti-virus and endpoint security”.

HP also introduced HP Fortify scan analytics, machine-learning technology, as part of HP Fortify on Demand, which uses an enterprise’s app security data to improve the accuracy and efficiency of app security. This technology integrates into existing app security testing workflows, increasing the efficiency of the app security audit process and the relevancy of findings, HP explained.

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Color me skeptical but I’m not sure that HP is the best horse for VMware to bet on in their battle with former partner Cisco (CSCO).

 

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.

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| August 20, 2015
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Sweating the Oldies

Sweating the OldiesIf you’re “sweating assets” and holding off on making major network upgrades, you’re not alone. No Jitter brings our attention to Dimension Data’s annual Network Barometer Report. The report surveyed the system integrator’s worldwide clients and found that the percentage of aging and obsolete devices in today’s corporate networks around the globe is at its highest in six years signaling that the recent global financial crisis may still have a lingering effect today.

 

More than half of devices are aging

RecessionAccording to the article, more than 51% of all devices assessed are now aging (3-5 years old) or obsolete (5 years or older). In addition, 27% of all devices are now ‘later’ in their product life-cycle and at the point where the vendor begins to cut support.

The aging was highest in Asia-Pac and the lowest in the Americas. The survey found equipment in the Americas, was considerably lower at 44%. Dimension Data ascribed this variation to regional macroeconomic conditions.

The oldest equipment

The “sweatiest” companies were in the travel/transportation vertical which had more than 50% aging/obsolete devices according to the study. Other verticals were “sweaty as well:

  • BaystacksConsumer/retail and utilities/energy, all of which had more than 50% aging/obsolete devices.
  • Automotive/manufacturing had an aging/obsolete base of 41%
  • Technology industries had a 37% aging/obsolete gear 37%
  • Construction/real estate was most up to date with 28% aging or obsolete.

The level of aging/obsolete networks hit 45% in 2012 without triggering a refresh and climbed to 48% in 2013 and reached 51% in 2014. That author suggests that either we’re long overdue for another refresh, or else we’re moving to an environment where aging network gear is the rule.

He goes on to speculate that as the BYOD/BYOEverything trend grew over the last 3 years and enterprises diverted technology spending to ad hoc device/cloud purchases, we’re looking at a fundamentally new buying environment.

Obsolete devices fail less

The survey results suggest that “sweating” network assets may be a smart strategy. They analyzed 91,000 trouble tickets from its own practices and found that “Obsolete devices fail less often than current devices. And, when they do fail, problems are quicker to resolve.” Specifically, the survey found that:

  • Obsolete devices had the lowest failure rates (compared with new and aging),
  • Aging devices had the lowest mean-time-to-repair rates among the three classes.

Old equipmentOld hands might be tempted to greet these findings with some variation of the old lament, “They don’t build ’em like they used to,” but the truth might actually be even more flattering to the organization.

Dimension Data suggests that gear that’s been in place while is supported by more mature processes, hence the decreased likelihood of breaking, and faster ability to fix when they do break. Of course, an asset-sweating strategy should have some rationale behind it–it’s’ not about just clinging to old stuff so you don’t have to deal with replacing it.

How to keep the old stuff going

Dimension Data “Tips for Sweating Assets” that included:

  • Have an accurate inventory of your entire network estate.
  • Understand the function of each device and how critical it is to the network’s uptime.
  • Know at which stage in their life cycles these devices are.
  • Have the right operational support strategy in place to resolve any performance issues or outages that may occur, as vendor support will be either limited or unavailable during later life cycle stages.
  • Ensure that the device’s capabilities are not constraining architectural changes, which have driven upgrades in other areas of the network.

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The aging of network gear is not unique. Many firms are still reeling from efforts to survive the depression, recession, economic downturn. In some places, they don’t pick up the trash regularly or replace stained ceiling tiles. The Business Insider says the average age of private fixed assets is at a 50-year high. and here a chart to prove it.

 

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.

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| February 10, 2015
Comments Off on Windows 7 Reaches Middle Age

Windows 7 Reaches Middle Age

Windows 7 Reaches Middle AgeNow that you have almost eliminated Microsoft (MSFT) Windows XP from your network and settled on Windows 7 it should be time to catch your breath. But NOOO!! Windows 7 has reached the end of mainstream support.  That’s right we are already 5 years into the Windows 7 era. Repeat after me… Windows 7 still has five years left … Windows 7 still has five years left … Windows 7 still has five years left.

MMicrosoft Windows 7 logoicrosoft commits to 10 years of security fixes and 5 years of feature enhancements and bug fixes for each major OS release. Windows 7 has moved from mainstream support – free help for everyone – to extended support, which means Microsoft will charge for help with the software. That will end in 2020 when Microsoft turns out the lights on Windows 7 for good.

The recent techno-flops from the boys and girls in Redmond, Vista, and Windows 8 have taught enterprises to plan for a new desktop OS every other release. This puts businesses in a bind. MSFT’s track record prevents forward-looking firms from organically growing their desktop fleet into the next cycle. There are those that argue that until Microsoft separates consumer from commercial desktops, Microsoft commercial customers will continue to skip one or more iterations of Windows, their only real answer to the high costs and disruption of upgrading.

Gregg KeizerMirosoft update cycle at ComputerWorld cites research from Gartner (IT) which prognosticates that many enterprises cannot change their processes. Many organizations will go through the same machinations they did with XP. Or maybe even balk at dumping Windows 7 at the same pace as the venerable Windows XP, making things worse. Michael Silver of Gartner told ComputerWorld that having a plan could help organizations avoid a repeat of XP’s expensive end-of-support scramble. Gartner believes that the same EOL mad-scramble we saw with XP will occur again when time is up on Windows 7. Mr. Silver claims:

[A repeat of Windows XP] is certainly likely to happen … One of the big differences that’s been under-considered is that because Vista took five years to come out [after XP], there were eight years between XP and Windows 7. So Windows XP felt pretty old. … Windows 7 won’t feel that old to people…” 

Microsoft Windows 10 logoMr. Keizer argues that the failure of Windows 8 to win enterprise hearts and minds has created an oddity: Even though Windows 7 has made middle age, Microsoft continues to let OEMs sell PCs running the Windows 7 business edition.  Microsoft has yet to name an end date for OEM sales of machines powered by Windows 7 Professional. But because it has promised a 12-month notice, those PCs can still be sold at least until early January 2016, when the OS has but four years of life left.

But if you are just finishing your last migration, then you don’t have all that much time to start planning the next one.

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If you don’t like the Redmond hamster wheel, consider your alternatives. Sophos compares the Windows upgrade schedule to some other options. 10 years might be the best option out there. For example:

  • Apple’s (AAPL) OS X is supported for mystery years,
  • Apple’s mobile iOS is supported for mystery years (3?)
  • Android seems to leave it up to you, but don’t expect Google (GOOG) to commit to securing it.
  • Ubuntu LTS is supported for around 5 years, and
  • Red Hat Enterprise 13 years (with extended support).
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.

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| January 29, 2015
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Are Firms Ignorant About BYOD Issues?

Are Firms Ignorant About BYOD Issues?Enterprises are being ignorant towards the issues BYOD is causing to their business says backup vendor Acronis. James Rawbone, Senior Partner Account Manager EMEA, Enterprise Mobility Solutions at Acronis, shared his opinions with Desire Athow at ITProPortal on why and how enterprises are being ignorant towards BYOD issues.

Acronis logoThe Acronis 2013 Global Data Protection Trend Report developed by the Ponemon Institute identified five surprising BYOD trends:

1. There are big gaps in secure BYOD policies across organizations. The Acronis survey found that 60% of businesses have no personal device policy in place, and those with policies 24% make exceptions for executives, who are most likely handling the most sensitive corporate data. As a result, these organizations are increasingly vulnerable to data loss and serious compliance issues.

2.Simple security precautions are not being adopted. The survey found only 31% of companies mandate a device password or key lock on personal devices, and only 21% do remote device wipes when employees leave the company, drastically increasing the risk for data leakage.

3.Businesses underestimate the dangers of public clouds. The researchers report that corporate files are commonly shared through third-party cloud storage solutions such as DropBox, but 67% of organizations don’t have a policy in place around public clouds and 80% haven’t trained employees in the correct use of these platforms.

compatibility and interoperability are still big obstacles4.The growth of Apple (AAPL) devices is complicating BYOD security for administrators. 65% of organizations will support Macs in the next year, and 57% feel compatibility and interoperability are still big obstacles to getting Macs compliant with their IT infrastructure. This puts data stored and shared across the corporate network and on Apple devices at risk.

5.Some organizations are ignoring the benefits of mobile collaboration altogether. More than 30% surveyed actually forbid personal devices from accessing the network.

 tight budgetsMr. Rawbone sees two reasons organizations are not educating or training their employees on the risks of BYOD. First is time and money. Most companies have tight budgets across the board and in particular within their IT department, as well as their overall staffing. The second excuse for not training their staff is that they are unaware that their staff is using these solutions, or they are turning a blind eye to the issues effect their corporate data and overall IT infrastructure.

The Acronis Senior Partner told ITProPortal there are legal and compliance issues associated with BYOD; but generally BYOD can be adapted to each compliance regulation and rule. The main concern of BYOD is data protection and ensuring that as employees bring devices to-and-from the workplace, confidential corporate data is adequately protected while remaining easily accessible. An important part of data protection, often not addressed by BYOD strategies, includes ensuring that information and records comply with privacy laws like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), as well as specific industry and regional privacy regulations.

data protection Mr. Rawbone concludes by reminding the author that the important thing every business needs to remember is that mobile devices can be replaced for a small cost in comparison to having your confidential data stolen and used incorrectly.

Companies need to embrace technological evolution and look at the business benefits of BYOD. Otherwise, he claims they will be facing some serious network and data issues and worst of all potentially facing some legal problems in the coming future.

mobile device security policyCreating a mobile device security policy doesn’t have to be complicated, but it needs to encompass devices, data, and files. The article lists a number of simple things organizations should do, like require users to key-lock their devices with password protection. 68% of those surveyed use VPN or secure gateway connections across networks and systems, and 52% use Microsoft (MSFT) Active Directory and/or LDAP. The simplest place to start is to use device key-lock and password protection.

 

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.

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| December 16, 2014
Comments Off on Tablets Still Don’t Rule the World

Tablets Still Don’t Rule the World

Tablets Still Don't Rule the WorldThe rise of tablets like Apple’s (AAPL) iPad, Samsung‘s (005930) Galaxy Tab, and the Google (GOOG) Nexus have grabbed PC buyers’ attention and dollars for several years at the expense of the PC market. Lately, however, it seems that the carnage in the PC market has stabilized. And the growth of the mighty Apple iPad has plateaued.

iPhone, iPad, and iPod sales

iPhone, iPad, and iPod sales from Q1 06 to Q3 14 (in million units) | Statista

Cloud computingCould this be because there is no real business case for the tablets? After being on the market for several years, they have not replaced the PC at work. Don Reisinger at eWeek, recently put out 10 reasons why tablets still cannot replace PCs where he argues that the Post-PC Era is yet not a done deal. He argues despite their popularity, tablets still aren’t powerful or capable enough to replace PCs. He states in the article tablets cannot–and will not–replace PCs. Let’s look at his reasons why.

1. Component power

Over the last few years, mobile components running in tablets have gained in power. However, processors such as NVidia’s (NVDA) Tegra 3 or Apple’s A6X still pale in comparison to the power delivered in PC chips from Intel (INTC) or AMD (AMD). Until that changes, tablets can never replace PCs for the power-hungry users among us the author says.

Apple vs. Microsoft2. App availability

Apple’s App Store now offers over 800,000 applications. And although many of them are worthwhile downloads, few actually deliver the complexity and sophistication customers would find in Microsoft (MSFT) Windows or OS X. Nowhere is that more clear than in the comparison of Office on mobile and PCs. Eweek says until apps gain in sophistication, mobile can never keep up.

3. Virtual keyboards aren’t loved

The problem with all tablets is that they come with virtual keyboards. And although more people are warming to virtual keys, there are still many folks around the globe that like having the standard physical keyboard found in PCs. The blog asks why not? Typing on traditional keyboards with two hands is far more accurate and efficient.

virtual keyboard as a reason he does not use a tabletPaul Mah at FierceCIO echoed the authors, citing the virtual keyboard as a reason he does not use a tablet as his primary work device. I have struggled with iPad virtual keyboards, and yes I did try Bluetooth keyboard cases and found them disagreeable.

4. Windows is the enterprise’s favorite

The article notes that Microsoft holds a dominant position in the enterprise. Tablets are just one front on that battlefield. The enterprise is adopting tablets at a rapid rate. But that doesn’t mean that the corporate world is ready to drop Windows for iOS or Android. In fact, Windows is still the most important software solution for enterprise users. Granted, Microsoft is bringing Windows to tablets, but for now, those products aren’t proving popular. Until they do catch on, PCs will win out.

5. Think about enterprise productivity

Productivity in the enterpriseProductivity in the enterprise is extremely important. And on that front, Mr. Reisinger says PCs are still winning out, Forbes recently estimated that MSFT Office market share will drop from its current 95% to 90% by 2016. Notebooks deliver the same level of mobility as tablets, and desktops deliver the power that designers and other employees might need. Simply put, PCs are still the ideal productivity-maximizing solutions for enterprise users.

6. Tablet prices are still too high

Tablets are expensive. The latest iPad launch can set customers back $929 for 128GB of storage and 4G LTE support. A more powerful notebook can be purchased for several hundred dollars less. The author believes that given the state of the economy and the fact that many tech buyers are looking to save cash wherever possible, PCs can’t be considered obsolete in their battle with tablets.

7. Notebooks are turning into tablets

mobile malware eWeek points out that PC vendors have made the smart decision to cut off the rise of tablets by delivering touch functionality in their products. Lenovo’s Yoga, for example, has a screen that can swivel around and sit atop the keyboard to act as a tablet. As more notebooks take on tablet functionality, devices like Apple’s iPad might look like an awfully poor value for the price.

8. More options across the PC market

The sheer number of options available to customers in the PC market is something that can’t be overlooked. From notebooks to laptops to desktops to ultrabooks, there’s something for everyone. Best of all, the components in those products can be customized to match the respective customer’s needs. The blog concludes that choice, outside of storage space, is something sorely lacking in the tablet market. And customers know it.

9. The security advantage is going away

 

Tablet malwareWhen tablets started to make inroads into the PC market, many speculated that it was because of the comparative safety that went along with using such products over notebooks. Now, the author says things have changed. Android is the top target for malicious hackers now, according to several security reports, and has become the next frontier in malware. That could prove extremely troublesome for tablet adoption if things continue to get worse.

10. Tablet OSs need to grow up

Android and iOS, the two most popular tablet operating systems, are nice and effective in the mobile world. But they haven’t grown up yet. Mr. Reisinger says Apple’s iOS, lacks a file system. Android comes in too many flavors for customers to get comfortable with its functionality. Mobile operating systems have to grow up. If they don’t, tablets will never match PCs.

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Huge phoneI just got back from the annual run to the big-box store for Christmas shopping and saw another reason the tablet still does not rule the world. Pfablets.  Some of these things are just as big as an iPad Mini. Now it’s time for a good Gin and Tonic after facing the holi-dazed shopping hordes.

Dell and Intel released a report [pdf] that says the desktop is still the workhorse of the average office. They found that 77% of office tasks are completed with a traditional PC.

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.

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