Companies find increased reliability, flexibility with desktop virtualization

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As bring-your-own-device policies and remote working have become increasingly popular and resource optimization has become more necessary, keeping enterprise IT current and efficient is growing more complex all the time. Between PCs and each employee's personal devices, upgrading the applications and operating systems on individual endpoints can consume time and resources that most companies just don't have. Luckily, desktop virtualization and remote application delivery have emerged as reliable alternatives to traditional network delivery.

As Tech Radar contributor David Howell noted, moving to a virtual desktop environment offers small- and medium-sized businesses dramatic gains in control, as well as being an effective way to future-proof IT systems. A recent study by VMware found that 90 percent of enterprise IT departments spend at least half of their time completing routine administrative tasks. SMBs that have implemented virtualization, however, reported experiencing an increase in productivity and 73 percent said they witnessed significant improvements in the amount of time spent completing administrative tasks.

When an office transitions to a virtual desktop environment, it means that the computers employees use have desktops delivered and controlled directly from a central server room. This offers centralized management of the office's desktops, since each one is virtualized and provided in an isolated state, creating a highly secure network environment. 

"Desktop, or endpoint, virtualization enables a centralized server to deliver and manage individual desktops remotely," according to Symantec. "While users enjoy full access to their systems, IT staff can provision, manage, upgrade, and patch them virtually, instead of physically. This also means that users can access files and applications on a central server. Companies might also opt for a hybrid scenario where users can access some applications through a central virtualized server and others through their local computers."

Enterprises see a variety of benefits with virtualization
Transitioning to a virtual environment and leaving behind traditionally installed OSs and applications enables businesses to be more flexible and agile, as virtual desktops can change in real time to reflect the work at hand while all being managed from a single, central location. Virtualization also allows companies to offer their employees more mobility, being able to access data and applications from the same work environment no matter where they are. Workers can easily connect to servers from multiple devices as all the necessary components are available at login.

Adopting desktop virtualization is also cost-effective and provides a high return on investment, as it offers a customized user experience that is more scalable and reliable than traditional options. Business continuity is improved with the use of desktop virtualization, with all data saved in an off-site data center that prevents lost, stolen or damaged devices from having a damaging impact on the organization's daily processes. At the same time virtualization makes for a logical addition to any enterprise disaster recovery plan, as desktop applications are being offered through an off-site server, so power outages or extreme weather won't affect business. Running operating systems and applications through a virtual machine increases enterprise security by allowing employees a safe way to access sensitive corporate information.

Survey finds companies aren't taking advantage of cloud automation

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A recent survey of cloud use among CIOs found that many organizations are using much less computing power than they're paying for.

Only about half of the capacity companies have bought is being used, according to the study, and 90 percent of organizations reported that they consider over-provisioning as an unavoidable aspect of operating in the cloud. On the other side of the spectrum, 88 percent of CIOs surveyed said they have previously chosen to sacrifice performance at some of the busiest times in order to keep costs down.

According to the report, many companies continue the bad habits of doing without peak performance and over-provisioning their platforms because they are used to them from using on-premise solutions and have gotten used to these types of limitations.

According to the study, companies are paying nearly twice as much as they should be, considering the capacity they are utilizing, and a major reason for this is that a big portion of enterprises are manually managing their cloud services, adding to cost.

"…[a]s the research shows, and as half of respondents recognized, cloud as we have it today really isn't truly elastic — it does not expand and retract automatically to meet demands, and it is not paid for like a utility, based on consumption," said cloud computing expert Richard Davies. "However, with next-generation cloud and containerization technology, change is afoot." 

The report found that only 14 percent of CIOs surveyed had automated their cloud platform, something that can save time and money. As ITProPortal contributor Darren Allan noted, virtual machines and application programming interfaces can help businesses to scale and automate their cloud services. Once the task of having to manually make changes to capacity levels based on traffic volumes can be given to a machine and done on its own, enterprise IT departments can be freed up for more mission critical projects and benefit the company immensely.

Cloud services provider ISG can help to implement reliable solutions utilizing virtual machines and APIs that take advantage of automation and help companies make the most out of their cloud investments.

Cloud computing increases innovation, collaboration survey finds

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With all of the new technological advances that have affected business in recent years, the one that has had the biggest impact is probably cloud computing. The cloud has changed the way technology is viewed by companies, as it provides a simple, effective way to implement changes, engage with clients and spark innovations. Because the cloud is cost-effective and easy to deploy, it is now possible to experiment with technology, develop new products more quickly and distribute more widely and to a scale once out of reach for all but the biggest organizations.

A recent survey conducted by Oxford Economics surveyed 350 tech and business executives to find out what drove them toward adopting the cloud for their companies. Researchers found that 36 percent of respondents implemented a cloud platform because they found the technology to be critical to the innovation strategy of the enterprise.

“Cloud computing today is fundamentally altering business processes and changing the way organizations interact with clients, partners and employees,” read the report. “This transformation brings incredible opportunities, including the ability to build a real-time enterprise where interaction and innovation flourish.”

Collaboration flourishes in the cloud
One of the biggest benefits of the cloud is the ease with which it allows people to communicate and share. In fact, the survey found that 63 percent of executives believe use of the cloud is increasing collaboration among the business units of their companies. A recent development in the use of the cloud is the ability to connect records systems with engagement platforms to provide companies with the most creative and productive use of all of the data they collect. If each department can see the information that is being collected by everyone else, new ways to use that data can and will be found much quicker and be used more creatively than if data sets were kept separated by business unit.

In an article for Forbes, contributor Robert LeBlanc noted that this concept of information sharing is being put to use by El Corte Ingles, Europe’s largest department store. The retailer utilized the cloud to rapidly expand their online presence and currently employs the technology to monitor client preferences and buying habits to offer promotions and accurate pricing in real time.

For companies interested in implementing a similar initiative in their organizations, hybrid cloud environments are a reliable solution. Services can be automated in a hybrid platform and allow enterprises to see how they are being used and control them to better protect the security and privacy of the business.

New data center technology leverages SDN for security

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It was announced this week that Israeli security startup GuardiCore had closed a round of fundraising to begin production on its new security system designed to internally secure data centers. The technology takes advantage of recent improvements in network virtualization and uses software-defined networking methods to defend data centers operating at multi-terabit rates of traffic.

"SDN is an opportunity to introduce advanced security controls and capabilities into the data center network in a way that can scale to the demands of a large [data center] and offer a dynamic and proactive security control framework, detecting and mitigating an attack at an early stage,"  said the company in a statement.

A weakness created by modern facilities' tendency to include applications that cross security parameters has been exacerbated by the adoption of intra-data center traffic that moves at multi-terabit levels, according to GuardiCore CEO Pavil Gurvich. The new technology aims to address the increase in cyberattacks committed within a data center that go unnoticed due to insufficient security measures. Traditional methods of defense, including sandboxing, intrusion detection and deep packet inspection, are not capable of keeping pace with the speeds at which data center traffic currently operates.

The first component of this new security system, Active Honeypot, surreptitiously re-routes network traffic to counter attack cybercriminals by sending data to an 'ambush' server. The secret server is highly monitored and is capable of quickly providing information about the attack in order to effectively eliminate the threat. Active Honeypot is currently being evaluated in a variety of data centers and private cloud environments.

The recent round of fundraising was led by Battery Ventures, whose general partner Scott Tobin noted that tracking and eliminating intra-data center threats is the next important skill for the industry to master.

"Traditional security techniques have focused on keeping the bad guys out of the perimeter. GuardiCore's approach assumes you have already been compromised and provides levels of visibility and protection that were previously unattainable," said Tobin. 

NASA successfully completes first phase of cloud migration

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A massive move to transition NASA's websites and applications to a cloud platform has successfully completed its first phase, migrating more than 1 million files so far.

The agency's huge amount of information made the move quite an undertaking. NASA has more than 1,500 public-facing websites and thousands of applications and networks on top of the agency's huge data offerings and holdings. Sites being moved to the cloud include the internal NASA Engineering Network, which contains the documents of 3 million engineering projects, and NASA.gov. In all, the first phase of the move included more than 100 sites and applications and took 22 weeks to complete, according to NextGov.

Making sure applications 'don't go dark'
During the initial migration to the cloud infrastructure, the NASA.gov portal – which itself contains multiple sites – was redesigned to make the transition smoother. The rest of the websites were moved as-is so NASA could still save on infrastructure, according to Raj Ananthanpillai, who is overseeing the migration.

The applications and sites being moved to the cloud were previously housed in a commercial data center where redundancy and uptime were a top priority, so it was important to the agency that nothing fell through the cracks. In an interview with NextGov, Ananthanpillai likened migrating multiple, dispersed sites running on proprietary systems to changing a tire on a moving car. He stressed the importance of the sites being able to stay online, saying that none of them could go dark.

The Office of Management and Budget's federal cloud-first policy was a driving force behind NASA's move to a cloud platform. At the same time, the agency's own Open Government Initiative, which dealt with the utilization of open-source projects to consolidate internal and external websites, fit in nicely with the OMB's policy. NASA's cloud migration allowed the agency to introduce open-source components to overhaul technology in a cost effective way, while also employing new content management systems within the agency's enterprise tool kit.

Overall, the use of cloud storage services has already generated cost savings of 40 percent, according to Roopangi Kadakia, web services executive with NASA's office of the CIO. Looking to the future, the infrastructure is projected to cut the agency's monthly operations and maintenance costs by about 25 percent.

Universities increasingly look to the cloud for data storage solutions

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The demand for access to data at large universities is increasing at an incredible rate with the advent of online classes, analytics services and expanding levels of research. In an interview with TechTarget, Michigan State University CIO Joanna Young explained that the current influx of data is posing a challenge for universities in regards to how best to store information and retain records in the most secure, efficient way possible.

Young noted that it's important for schools to be able to keep up with the growing demand for the multimedia content teachers share in class to be available to students online at anytime. As professors start to offer more content to students that is based somewhere besides a textbook, schools need to become more effective and efficient in their use of data storage and the cloud is an especially helpful solution. At the same time, cloud storage is almost a necessity for universities looking to offer online education options, according to Young.

"Because the video requirements for these online classes are huge – every week, two to four hours or more worth of video content – that would have quickly overwhelmed the storage we had on campus," Young said.

The cloud as a recruitment tool
In her interview with TechTarget, Young mentioned that data storage options can also be a helpful tool in incentivizing professors to come to the university to perform groundbreaking research or start important programs.

"As a CIO, the trick is to say to people…'You don't have to worry about storage. You don't have to worry about servers. Here's how we can provide that for you in a way that's easy for you to use, is going to give you enough space and access that you need, and the type of speed set is OK for you,'" explained Young. "[You] become a partner and get them to align with you, because I find particularly in higher education, you've got to stick with the carrot approach."

The increased ability to conduct advanced research provided by the cloud has even gotten the attention of the National Science Foundation. The NSF recently announced that it would be launching two $10 million projects to create test beds for cloud computing at universities. The aim is to enable the academic research community to pursue and develop new ways to utilize the cloud for next-generation applications used in medical devices, power grids and transportation systems. The first cloud program will be colocated between the University of Chicago and the University of Texas Austin, while the second will be a joint project with a large-scale, distributed infrastructure shared between the University of Wisconsin, Clemson University and the University of Utah.

With cloud platforms growing larger and more complex, Young noted that it can become impractical to solely purchase cloud storage services at such great volumes. In her previous role as CIO for the University of New Hampshire, she looked into software-as-a-service offerings that included storage as a package deal as a way to reduce costs. She also mentioned the need for schools interested in implementing a cloud infrastructure, especially large universities, to have a strong network and reliable broadband service.

Top 4 benefits of cloud storage services

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As technology becomes an increasingly important part of business, many companies are looking for solutions that will provide the most advantages for the least amount of money, time and complexity. One technology that is growing in popularity is cloud computing, and specifically cloud storage services. While there are many benefits to storing sensitive documents and information in the cloud, keep reading to find out the top four.

1) Cost-Effectiveness:
Backing up data can be extremely expensive, especially when considering the necessary equipment and hardware. Labor costs become an issue too, as manual backups are time-consuming and complicated. Cloud storage solves these problems by leaving the maintenance and equipment costs to a third party provider. Cloud storage solutions are easily scaled, allowing businesses to only pay for the amount of storage necessary for their business and making it simple to increase or reduce space as client needs change.

2) Security:
Storing information in the cloud is much more secure than keeping paper documents or using physical devices for file storage. Hard drives and USBs can be stolen or lost, while information in the cloud will always stay put. At the same time, security is not a core competency for many companies, but it is for cloud service providers. Because of this, providers who are mainly focused on data security are much more adept at keeping information protected than a business with an IT team focused on dozens of projects and problems at once.

Cloud storage also creates an extra layer of security between privileged data and cybercriminals. Backup files are kept separate from originals so hackers cannot steal everything at once.

3) Disaster Recovery:
In the same way that it is safer to keep duplicate files away from the originals to protect them from malicious actors, it also helps to protect against natural disasters. After a storm or fire, regular systems may not be accessible, but information stored in the cloud will be.

4) Accessibility:
Professionals are using more devices than ever before and cloud storage allows files to be accessed from any of them. Sharing is also made easier with this increased flexibility, as files can be put in the cloud and then accessed by any authorized party. This helps to increase collaboration between in-house and remote employees, as well as improving productivity.

Small businesses increasingly utilizing the cloud, studies find

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As technology becomes an increasingly important part of conducting business, companies are starting to hone in on what really works and what doesn't. A growing number of small and medium-sized businesses are realizing that one technology that is worth their time is cloud computing. Cloud computing essentially democratizes business technology, reducing costs and increasing ease-of-use. The cloud makes it cheaper and easier to start a business or create a new product, as well as providing access to technology and capabilities that were once solely the domain of large companies.

Because of the benefits offered by the cloud, more and more small businesses are adopting it. A recent study on SMB cloud use projected the global market for cloud services to expand to $95 billion over the next year and SMB Group estimates the number of small and medium-sized businesses using cloud computing will grow to 44 percent by 2015.

"I think eventually every business has to have somewhere in its portfolio and go-to-market approach a range of cloud services," said IBM Midmarket Business General Manager John Mason in an interview with Forbes. "This is changing the landscape for small and midsize businesses by allowing them to focus on their own innovations and making them more competitive with larger, established companies."

Mason went on to say that the cloud, along with other innovative business tools, has three distinct impacts on SMBs.

  • It makes it possible for companies to go to market with products much quicker by removing large, upfront investments in technology and personnel.
  • Cloud dramatically increases scalability and allows for greater flexibility.
  • It removes geographic strains holding organizations back and offers the ability to work collaboratively with anyone from anywhere.

Reasons for cloud use vary, but all find benefits 
​A new report conducted by Intuit and Emergent Research has also highlighted the benefits the cloud offers SMBs, as well as some of the driving factors behind why companies are adopting the technology. 

"Today, the U.S. and global economy is going through a series of shifts and changes that are reshaping the economic landscape," said Steve King, a partner at Emergent Research, in an interview with Small Business Trends. " In this new landscape, many people are using the power of the cloud to re-imagine the idea of small business and create new, innovative models that work for their needs."

The study projected that 78 percent of small business will have adopted a cloud platform over the next six years. Research from the two companies also found specific types of cloud use among SMBs. Hives, for instance, are small businesses that are able to work together through the cloud and rarely meet in person. Another group, plug-in players, are organizations that utilize cloud services to handle back-end tasks so they are able to stay focused on tasks and processes that are more critical to the business. This group implements solutions such as cloud storage services and applications for accounting, marketing or human resources.

Data center networking market to reach $22 billion

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A recent study by research firm MarketsandMarkets projects the global data center networking market to reach $21.8 billion by 2018. According to the report, North America is expected to hold the largest share of it over the next five years.

The study noted the dramatic market potential created by the demand for cloud technologies and software-defined networking in data centers. The increased use of mobile, driven by bring-your-own device policies, and the use of cloud services have caused data center providers to shift their network offerings from traditional models to those more capable of providing the flexibility necessary to quickly transfer workloads between servers.

This shift in data center architecture was originally driven by the demand for virtualization, but a variety of new changes in the market have persuaded providers to favor faster and flatter models over traditional core-distribution-edge designs. Some of the new challenges facing data center managers include heavy inter-server traffic, burst speeds faster than 1 gigabit and the shift from fiber channels to Ethernet networks.

Data centers can no longer be built the way they were even just a few years ago, as the fundamental structure of enterprise applications have changed and with them the needs of users. The adoption of new, more advanced hardware is placing greater demands on data center networks and fueling a boom in the market.

"Data center networks are being re-architected as part of a transition to the next generation of data centers, reimagining how applications and data centers are built," wrote Biztech Magazine contributor Joel Snyder. "This change extends from the power and cooling to the servers and storage, as well as the networking."

As new data centers are built and their designs continue to shift, requirements for increased security and greater distributed and managed services will be front of mind. Other factors will help to shape the creation of the next generation of data centers, including higher speed, reduced latency, layer 2 flattening and high availability. Demand for the installation of new virtualization and storage equipment will offer data center providers the opportunity to rethink facility design and create truly modern data centers.

New report finds cloud offers increased business agility

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A recent study by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services has discovered companies that move aggressively to adopt cloud services are gaining a competitive advantage by increasing business agility and reducing system complexity.The report included responses from over 500 Harvard Business Review readers who work in large and mid-sized companies in a variety of industries worldwide.

According to the study, 70 percent of participants had already adopted the cloud and 35 percent of those adopters “are very aggressively moving forward wherever it makes sense.” Among those companies that had already begun to implement cloud technology, 37 percent reported that it had simplified internal operations. Other respondents said they experienced better delivery of internal resources and increased collaboration between employees. More than half of aggressive adopters reported seeing significant advantages from the cloud.

The report also found that the use of cloud technology helps businesses to expand their operations. Of adopters classified as aggressive, 49 percent reported having entered a new market in the last three years. Of the companies cautiously adopting the cloud, 36 percent had done the same.

Businesses see multiple benefits from cloud adoption
When it came to reasons for adopting the cloud, 32 percent of all respondents reported an increase in business agility as the top factor for their transition. Among aggressive adopters, the number rose to 41 percent.

“Not even the cautious adopters led with ‘it really saves money,'” said Angelia Herrin, research director for HBR, according to CIO. “If you’re stuck on using new technologies like cloud just to save money, you’re really losing out. Agility leads to being able to do things like enter new markets, improved productivity and improved responsiveness to clients.”

Other drivers toward cloud adoption reported in the survey were increased innovation, lower costs and the ability to scale to demand.

Herrin noted that the companies who have been able to successfully leverage the cloud all seem to have CIOs that are willing and able to drive change in the enterprise.

“We’re really seeing companies that are making big impacts have a lot of involvement from the top,” said Herrin. “I think the conversation about technology is one where the companies that are moving fast and really experiencing digital transformation have a CEO that is really embracing it and pushing it. Those companies who say technology is an advantage for them also say that their CIOs don’t just have a seat at the table, they’re helping to lead the charge.”

Cloud services level the playing field 
Investment in cloud technologies is beneficial to companies of all sizes, but can also help small enterprises compete on more equal ground with larger firms. With the increased business agility the cloud offers, smaller companies can respond more quickly to change and accomplish work faster and with more accuracy, helping to reduce time to market.

With help from a knowledgeable partner, enterprises can avoid costly infrastructure replacements, security and compliance mistakes and expensive server sprawl. Utilizing colocation and cloud services allow in house IT professionals to have priorities that are more aligned with a company’s specific business goals, putting the organization in a better position to grow.