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Adopting the right cloud services portfolio

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Attracted by the promise of leaner operations, reduced costs and simplified management, companies are switching from on-premises data centers to colocation providers and cloud storage solutions. As this transition occurs, however, it is important for businesses to ensure they are adopting third-party solutions that actually fit their specific needs and work toward their stated goals of leaner approaches.

In a recent interview with Network World, pharmaceutical IT executive Nathan McBride outlined the ways his company has shifted toward a more efficient IT model by abandoning its own data centers in favor of outsourced solutions. One of the factors he pointed to in the decision-making process for creating a leaner business was diversifying the set of cloud service and managed services vendors his company used.

“[F]rom a cloud vendor approach, we’re constantly looking at the market and saying, ‘Here’s our business need, and who is the best in the industry in this particular niche?'” he told Network World. “Our loyalty only extends to those who innovate the fastest.”

With a managed services model, companies gain the ability to tie their IT to solutions providers who are implementing state-of-the-art technologies rather than waiting for the slow refresh cycles endemic to on-premises deployments. At the same time, a cloud provider can be an inhibitor as well, industry expert Bill Kleyman noted in a recent post for Data Center Knowledge. With pre-packaged solutions, many cloud services vendors simply offer companies standardized products and offer little interest in clients beyond signing them up.

To actually ensure they’re not only taking advantage of the latest technology but also the technology that’s best suited for their specific needs, businesses can benefit from adopting a cloud services portfolio that includes smaller vendors dedicated to deploying custom solutions. Moving away from the on-premises data center carries many advantages, but businesses should be thoughtful about doing it in the right way with managed solutions. In particular, choosing a managed solutions provider that is technology agnostic is key, as this breadth of support can help organizations more seamlessly transition to the cloud at their own pace and address unique business challenges.

Overcoming common obstacles to VDI implementation

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Implementing virtual desktop infrastructure is a big change for any organization. It almost always leads to significant shifts in how the network is used, plus VDI can really strain the storage and bandwidth resources in company data centers. If an enterprise is unprepared, its VDI efforts could get of to a rocky start.

The VDI 'boot storm' and others issues to keep in mind
Last year, ZDNet's Steven Vaughan-Nichols examined some of the common obstacles to successfully setting up VDI. These include:

  • Insufficient bandwidth: The key advantage of VDI is that it enables everyone to work more easily from anywhere, through the delivery of a consistent desktop. But once employees are working outside the office, there's no guarantee that they'll have Internet connection speeds that are suitable for an optimal VDI experience.
  • Bring-your-own-device security: In many scenarios, it makes sense for VDI users to use a virtual private network, which is not always easily accomplished if they're connecting from, say, a public Wi-Fi hotspot.
  • License and storage management: VDI licensing can become really complex on Microsoft Windows. On top of that, accommodating user habits can require large amounts of storage, while "boot storms" (everyone connecting to VDI within a short timeframe) push servers to capacity.

The latter phenomenon is particularly noteworthy, since it not only compromises the end user's ability to be productive through VDI, but also reveals which parts of the IT infrastructure are insufficient or at least unsuited to VDI. With VDI now a popular method for facilitating corporate mobile device usage, the boot storm can make it seem really out of place alongside native mobile applications.

"The issue with virtual desktops is the so-called 'boot storm" when everyone fires up their computers at 8 AM. As any PC user knows, a hard drive running flat out at 150 IOPS takes a couple of minutes to complete boot," wrote Jim O'Reilly for Network Computing. "A quicker boot time will be important for VDI, especially with most users having instant-on experience with tablets and mobile phones. These are becoming the endpoint for the virtual desktops to be displayed, and a long period to boot up every time the desktop is accessed isn't going to fly."

These problems are not intractable, though. Managed services providers can assist with desktop virtualization and ensure that organizations get the levels of storage, licensing and bandwidth that they need to make VDI work for them.

Data storage and VDI
O'Reilly also looked at some data storage considerations to make when considering VDI. For example, replacing some or all traditional hard disk drives with solid-state drives can provide the performance boost required for first-rate VDI. While SSDs are more expensive than HDDs on a per-GB basis, they can support many more VDI instances.

Organizations such as the Bank of Stockton in California have shifted their storage strategies to respond to surging VDI traffic. The bank used a combination of DRAM, SSDs and flash memory, as well as virtualization and decompression, to ensure that its appliances could keep pace with VDI usage. Implementing VDI requires new approaches to hardware, security and device management, but it is possible to get it right with help from vendors and IT services providers.

Government agencies show power, potential of VDI

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Why use virtual desktop infrastructure? Many government agencies have found plenty of reasons to do so, including supporting their increasingly diverse device fleets and reducing overall power consumption.

What are the main benefits of VDI?
With VDI, the computing power needed to deliver a desktop environment moves from on-site PCs to servers housed in a data center. For public and private sector organizations alike, there are several key benefits to this arrangement, including:

  • Heightened device and data security – hardware running virtual desktops via VDI is connected to servers through an encrypted channel. That means it is safe to grant these devices access to core applications, such as enterprise resource planning and client relationship management.
  • Streamlined system administration – IT personnel can worry less about having to implement complex mobile device management for smartphones and tablets
  • Lower costs – VDI can be a viable alternative to building entirely new applications and services tailored specifically for mobile screens. The use of zero/thin clients – minimal hardware with little to no installed software – also drives down electricity consumption compared to desktop PCs.
  • Support for mobility – teams working off-site can still access important assets by connecting to VDI.

U.S. government sees success with VDI implementations
Implementing virtualization and VDI have already produced real gains for the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Navy. For instance, FCW reported that the DOE conducted a 500-seat VDI pilot program that exhibited an excellent level of user experience and proved that VDI could also help trim expenses.

Going forward, VDI may evolve, moving off-premises and into cloud computing environments. More specifically, desktop-as-a-service may provide similar amenities to VDI, with the exception that infrastructure is managed by a cloud services provider rather than the organization itself.

Freeing IT of this responsibility could potentially streamline costs even further. However, there are still the core issues of ensuring that data is kept safe in the cloud and that organization’s particular needs, especially for bandwidth, are being met.

VDI and bandwidth requirements
For organizations that adopt VDI, it’s critical to figure out right away what is expected from the VDI implementation. That way, they reduce the risk of setting up something that doesn’t align with their goals and ends up running over budget. In many cases, these issues manifest themselves as poor end-user experiences or insufficient bandwidth as a result of “boot storms” (many users connecting to VDI simultaneously).

“You also need to bear in mind that VDI almost always results in a change in usage patterns,” explained The Register’s Trevor Pott. “Whatever your usage patterns are today, expect that VDI deployments will ultimately see more people working remotely, be that telecommuting from home or pulling down their desktop at a hotel or business meeting. You need enough [wide area network] bandwidth to meet not just today’s needs, but tomorrow’s.”

Handling changes in bandwidth usage requires careful consideration of VDI storage and networking equipment such as switches and ports. Managers also have to learn more about what types of applications teams will be using via VDI. While word processors won’t really push server CPUs to their limits, any software that works with graphics and/or video will significantly alter calculations of what kinds of resources will be required to ensure optimal VDI experience.

With the help of a managed services provider, companies can set up VDI that works for them. When VDI first became a hot topic several years ago, organizations were eager to use it as a catch-all solution, which led to many underperforming implementations. If aligned to specific goals, though, VDI is an effective, economical way to use the same applications anywhere.

How desktop virtualization enables better BYOD management

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Virtual desktop infrastructure gained traction recently as more organizations adopt and support mobility initiatives. Employees, empowered by bring-your-own-device policies, are increasingly capable of working from anywhere. Companies that are phasing out Windows XP PCs may even choose to replace these aging machines with mobile devices that provide more streamlined user experiences and offer a slew of modern applications.

VDI’s role in enabling mobility
Where does VDI fit into this picture? With device fleets becoming more fragmented, VDI can be a cost-effective means of providing critical access to core company assets such as enterprise resource planning, client relationship management and line-of-business applications. It’s economical because it requires less investment, both in time and money, than crafting mobile experiences from scratch.

“Applications can also be enhanced for mobile access on the server end, without building a mobile development capability within your organization or hiring expensive outside help,” explained TechRepublic contributor Patrick Gray. “You could use your existing ERP developers to create a dozen screens and reports that have a limited number of fields, and space them more appropriately for mobile use, without writing a single line of mobile code.”

In practical terms, VDI can give sales teams access to full desktops so that they can make use of important tools such as CRM and PowerPoint while on the road. Even if the organization has a BYOD initiative in place, VDI simplifies common BYOD issues such as hardware management and security enforcement – each device communicates securely with the VDI servers via an encrypted session.

VDI and the growing uses of desktop virtualization
Moreover, VDI fits into many organizations’ growing interest in virtualization. Forrester Research’s David Johnson told InfoWorld that more than half of IT decision-makers cite desktop virtualization as a top priority for 2014. Although the market for PCs may be stagnant right now, there is still enough demand for virtual desktops that many companies have turned to VDI to deliver secure computing environments and access to applications on any device.

Certainly, there can be technical and financial challenges in implementing effective VDI, but these obstacles can be overcome with the expertise of an IT solutions and managed services provider. Organizations can also optimize VDI through the use of thin-client software to connect to VDI systems. Eventually, VDI implementations can pay for themselves by making workers more capable, regardless of where they are, while also streamlining mobile device management.

Cybersecurity shifts to managed network security

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Traditional approaches to cybersecurity such as simply installing antivirus software are losing their edge, according to many in the industry. As a result, companies are increasingly looking to more comprehensive solutions, including additional security training, advanced malware detection, vulnerability scanning services and managed network security services.

The shift away from basic antivirus tools has been occurring for several years now, a recent Wall Street Journal article noted. One executive for one popular antivirus software told the publication that antivirus "is dead." Instead, companies are increasingly shifting their attention from keeping threats out to detecting intrusions more effectively and minimizing the impact.

Reflecting this trend, recent years have seen rapid growth in investment in services such as advanced malware detection and managed network security, a recent ESG research study found. Six in 10 enterprises working with managed services providers in these areas have increased their use of the services somewhat or substantially in the last two years. In particular, 41 percent are investing in managed network security services, 39 percent are investing in risk assessment services and 39 percent are investing in vulnerability scanning services as well. Around 23 percent of organizations have completely outsourced incident detection and security response or are using a provider for staff augmentation.

"[M]any firms realize that chasing anomalous behavior and malcode demands time, resources, and the right technologies," Network World contributor Jon Oltsik wrote. "Given this, an average regional bank, process manufacturing company, or teaching hospital may not want to play cyber cops and robbers anymore."

By outsourcing security tasks and relying on a third-party vendor for services such as managed network security, companies can free up resources to focus on their core competencies, while at the same time improving their effectiveness in fighting today's advanced security threats.

Reports highlight recent malware explosion

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Malware is long-running and consistent threat to companies and computing end users, and, while the cybersecurity community has worked hard to close vulnerabilities and make carrying out exploits more difficult, malware continues to proliferate. Two recent reports highlighted massive spikes in malware infections in late 2013 and the beginning of 2014, respectively. The data should be instructive to companies looking to keep malware out of their networks. With infections on the rise and becoming more insidious, companies can benefit from enlisting malware removal services to address this ongoing problem.

A long-term malware infiltration
In Microsoft's most recent Security Intelligence Report, the company noted that the average rate of malware infection nearly tripled in the final quarter of 2013, due largely to a single malicious browser plugin. In the third quarter of 2013, an average of 5.8 out of every 1,000 Windows computers were infected with malware, but that number increased to 17 per 1,000 in the fourth quarter of the year, according to Tim Rains, director of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing division.

Much of the increase was due to the proliferation of a program called "Rotbrow," which comes disguised as a browser add-on security product called "Browser Protector," Rains said, according to PCWorld. Computer security companies failed to identify the software as malicious at first because it was not itself dangerous, and it did not do anything threatening immediately. Instead, the program is what's known as a "dropper," a program designed to download other software onto a computer. Eventually, Rotbrow began downloading malicious browser extensions and code such as Sefnit, a botnet tool linked to click fraud and ransomware schemes. Microsoft noted the change and alerted security companies, but the program was already installed on a large number of computers.

"I would characterize it as a low and slow attack," Rains told PCWorld. "They were patient and waited a long time before they started to distribute malicious stuff. I think they gained a lot of people's trust over time."

Rains noted that Microsoft has generally improved its products, reducing the number of remote exploitation vulnerabilities in its software by 70 percent from 2010 to 2013. As a result, malware infection schemes have gotten more elaborate and expensive to carry out. One increasingly common approach has been to bundle malware with legitimate software or music.

A flood of email attacks
Another recent study from email firm AppRiver screened more than 14 billion email messages in the first quarter of 2014. Of those, nearly 10.9 billion were spam, and another 490 million contained malware. The company concluded that one in every 10 pieces of email was malicious, and January was the biggest month for malware traffic since 2008. AppRiver security analyst Fred Touchette warned people to exercise more caution toward emails that address the recipients in vague terms or by their email addresses.

Both studies show that malware threats continue to be a major problem for companies and their employees. Even as tools and awareness to prevent infections improve, the threats are becoming more complex and infections are growing more common. For businesses, the best solution may be to work with a managed services provider to access malware removal and managed network security services to remove the threat.

Why managed services are essential for security success

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Amid the growing range of cybersecurity threats, companies are facing questions about how to secure their data center and application environments. A recent study by Courion found that 78 percent of IT security executives are worried about the possibility of a breach at their organization, with concerns that included loss of client data and negative publicity for the brand. At the same time, while 95 percent of IT security staff believed preventing breaches is a serious issue, they said they thought just 45 percent of employees share their concerns.

This discrepancy underscores the value of having clear governance practices and security standards in place. For companies looking to bring their security operations up to date, a managed services approach can be valuable. With a trusted managed services provider, companies can develop a clear information governance plan, laying out a strategy to keep files safe throughout their life in the company environment.

“In light of the constant changes in the IT environment, all enterprises should look to IT governance to secure information from the moment it is created to the time it is destroyed,” IT executive Dan Chenok wrote in an article that appeared on FCW.com. “That is why, in the past decade, IT governance has moved to the forefront of enterprise efforts to effectively manage and appropriately protect IT systems and assets, contributing to the success of risk-based security and supporting strategic decisions made by C-level executives across the public and private sectors.”

In addition to helping develop a plan for companies to have clear security policies and keep data locked down, a managed services provider can offer ongoing support in the form of managing regulatory compliance and compliance testing, as well as through services such as continuous network monitoring. A third-party provider can access state-of-the-art security technologies and round-the-clock staffing services that a company might not be able to purchase on its own through an economy of scale. And with the growing complexity of cybersecurity risks, companies can benefit from the expertise and knowledge of a specialized outside provider as well.

Approach BYOD with a realistic mindset

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Companies are increasingly embracing bring your own device programs, but BYOD is also introducing new security risks into the business. As a result, having a clear plan for BYOD deployment that acknowledges the realities of the way users behave is essential for avoiding a data breach or other security incident. To smoothly manage a BYOD rollout, companies can benefit from working with a managed services provider and adopting sanctioned hosted collaboration solutions.

At the recent CITE Conference in San Francisco, Cisco executive Brett Belding and Sanofi executive Brian Katz explained that the security problem of BYOD is a simple one: No matter what restrictions are placed on them, users will find a way to access the services they want for cloud storage, collaboration and email on any device with a screen. They said that users are going to be drawn to the services they are familiar with, such as Evernote or Apple's iCloud, CITEworld reported.

Short-term benefits but long-term risk
Using ad hoc or consumer solutions to store and share data gives employees short-term benefits but can create long-term exposure risks, Alex Gorbansky, CEO of document management company Docurated, told Business News Daily. In many cases, employees are bypassing IT and adopting consumer solutions, which then can linger in the cloud without corporate knowledge after those employees have left. The solution to these management issues is for IT to provide sanctioned solutions.

"Employees need to work with IT to adopt a consumer-grade experience with enterprise-grade security," tech executive David Lavenda told Business News Daily. "Without IT buy-in, end users will continue to choose between engaging in risky file sharing behavior with consumer-centric alternatives, or taking a productivity hit through clunky legacy enterprise file sharing systems."

Working with a managed services provider, companies can craft a custom BYOD deployment plan that leverages sanctioned cloud storage and collaboration tools, avoiding the risk, inherent to BYOD, that employees will head off on their own and deploy risky consumer solutions. A third-party vendor experienced in BYOD strategy and cloud systems can help businesses of any size navigate this type of rollout and ensure employees buy into it. With guidance for employees, achieving BYOD success is more likely, Katz said, according to CITEWorld.

"Nobody follows a standard, but everybody follows a recommendation," he explained.

Heading into a BYOD deployment with a realistic mindset and an understanding of how employees will behave is essential, and a managed services partner can help.

3 advantages of server virtualization

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Server virtualization is quickly becoming the preferred deployment model for corporate data centers, as companies look to tap into the benefits of managing servers on a software level. Switching to virtualization means that the workloads happening on servers are not tied to a specific piece of physical hardware and that multiple virtual workloads can occur simultaneously on the same piece of machinery. The immediate benefits of virtualization include higher server utilization rates in the data center and lower costs, but there are more sophisticated advantages as well. Three of these are:

1. Improved disaster recovery and business continuity: With virtualization, the information on a server is not contained to a specific piece of hardware, which means a hardware failure doesn’t have to be catastrophic. Instead, data and software are backed up to multiple machines, and it’s easier to reboot systems at a new location, a recent Firmology article explained. The result is faster recovery times. Also, since virtual machines can be run on a wide variety underlying hardware, it’s possible for companies to use older machines for their recovery systems to reduce costs.

2. Easier IT management: With virtualization, IT employees are saved much of the grueling maintenance and provisioning work that physical servers require, a recent VMWare white paper noted. Considering that routine tasks like adding new server workloads and launching new applications account for at least half of employees’ time in nine out of 10 IT departments, the potential productivity gains are substantial. Adding new servers and carrying out maintenance can be done with a few clicks of a mouse.

“These tools eliminate the need for IT workers to manually perform routine maintenance and troubleshooting on multiple physical machines,” the white paper stated. “In fact, these tools not only make it easy to pinpoint IT issues, but they can also proactively detect and resolve these issues without intervention.”

3. More agile business processes: The business world changes fast, and companies need to be able to respond accordingly. As opposed to traditional deployment schedules, which required planning for hardware purchases and installation, virtual infrastructure allows companies to scale rapidly, adding new virtual servers on demand, the white paper said. Additionally, it’s much easier to change how virtual resources are allocated, giving businesses the ability to shift strategies on the go.

For companies looking to tap into the advantages of a virtual infrastructure, it can be valuable to work with a managed services provider that has a background in server virtualization deployments. With this external expertise, businesses can move toward a computing model that’s more disaster resilient, more agile and easier to manage.

Creating BYOD value while minimizing risk

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Bring Your Own Device programs are growing in popularity, and, as they evolve, the techniques for managing them are evolving as well. Introducing BYOD programs into the workplace comes with obvious security risks, as more connected devices present more vectors for malware or network breaches, but there's no avoiding the reality that smartphones and tablets are here to stay. Nonetheless, companies need to be deliberate in the way they deploy BYOD.

In many cases, employees are either unaware of the security risks their device use can introduce, or they simply don't care. According to a recent survey by identity management software firm Centrify, 15 percent of employees believe they have minimal to no responsibility to protect data stored on their personal devices. Additionally, 43 percent said they have accessed sensitive corporate data while connected to an unsecured public network.

Traditionally, the response to this type of threat has been to limit employees' device use with restrictive policies and enterprise mobility management tools, a recent TechTarget article noted. However, such limitations can easily restrict the benefits BYOD offers in the first place. As a result, the preferred approach is trending toward implementing better controls on the network and storage levels, giving users more choice of device while taking precautions like protecting their data via hosting it remotely in a secure cloud environment. The ideal security approach will vary by organization, making it useful to work with a managed services provider specializing in BYOD to develop a custom solution.