Equanet

Gartner: "The public cloud market is to grow 18.5% in 2013"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 10:59:00 +0000

Gartner has released some research that suggests the global public cloud computing market is set to grow by 18.5% in 2013 which will see it rise from a $111bn market last year to $131 this year. Yet the big news is that the public cloud market is set to total $677bn over the next three years.

The largest contributors are North America and Western Europe, but areas such as APAC and Eastern Europe are quickly growing with opportunities around cloud computing services. To quantify that to percentages, Gartner suggests that North America will be responsible for 59% of new cloud computing spend through to 2016 with Western Europe accounting for 24%.

Gartner's research breaks down the cloud computing segments as follows:

Business Process as a Service: 28%
Software as a Service: 14.7%
Infrastructure as a Service: 5.5%
Management, Security and Automation: 2.8%
Platform as a Service: 1%
Cloud Advertising: 48%.

Clearly there are cloud services that have not been created yet that will be relevant in 2016,but this should give you a good idea of where things are heading. If you need help on your cloud strategy and transitions contact us.

VMware Horizon Mirage adds app layering for a more flexible desktop

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 22:35:00 +0000

For years we have heard that this will be the year of VDI and those years have come and gone, and in that year there has been some sizable VDI deployments, but it is fair to say that the hype has not lived to the reality. VDI is a great technology, but it isn't the only way to deploy desktops and VMware with their recent GTM of Horizon Mirage 4.0 allows IT departments to be more modular when architecting and deploying centrally managed desktop images using application packages.

VMware have View at the heart of their EUC proposition, but as IT departments have continued to deploy desktops in a traditional way VMware have had to take this in their stride and hence acquired Wanova allowing them to centralise the management of desktop images but allow them to be executed on the physical device.

Contained within the latest release (Horizon Mirage 4.0) is application layering which is a key technology in this release.

The process for building the image is straight forward, you create the base layer including commonly used applications across the business. Once this layer is complete you configure additional layers containing applications only, these layers are then delivered independent of the base layer to managed desktops. Prior to this applications were all part of the base layer, but the addition of the application layers allow IT departments to be more granular, and deliver a flexible work environment. Each layer can be migrated, updated, or restored independently of the others.

Mirage is part of VMware's Horizon Suite end-user computing proposition which also includes Workspace and View.

Version 5.2 of View -- which is used to remotely access desktops running on a server, including bandwidth improvements, hardware accelerated 3D graphics and the platform can now understand native iOS and Android gestures.

A view from above

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:30:00 +0000

So here I am sat above the clouds circling London with a great View, and I ask myself what can I do to kill some time. So I decide a blog about VMware Horizon Suite is in order given that both Clouds and View are included it seemed appropriate.

For those of you who don't know VMware last week announced a new suite of end-user computing products called the Horizon Suite.

The suite bundles a numberof products from VMware and is part of the vision which VMware already detailed during the VMware Forum in May last year.

The suite consists of VMware’s View which is now called Horizon View, Horizon Mirage and Horizon Workspace. The suite delivers a complete solution for delivering a consistent workspace across different devices. Among View, Mirage and Workspace also the technologies of Project Octopus and AppBlast, Project AppShift, VMware ThinApp and Horizon Mobile are included too.

Horizon Mirage is centralised management for physical desktop images over the cloud. VMware acquired the Mirage product when it acquired Wanova in May last year.

Horizon Workspace is a new product name containing both Horizon Application Manager and Horizon Data, which we used to know as Project Octopus. Horizon Application Manager offers an Enterprise Application Store capable of presenting Windows-based applications in addition to both public and private cloud based applications. Project Octopus, which is now called Horizon Data provides on- and off-premise enterprise data sharing functionality.

Horizon View is updated to version 5.2 with a raft of new features.

The Horizon Suite will be licensed per named user.

Great move by VMware in what is a very hot topic in most CIO's agendas. Need help, contact us at Equanet.

HaaS or Hadoop on Premise Your Choice thanks to Microsoft

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 08:48:00 +0000

An area of great interest to many of our clients is understanding how to make sense of the ever increasing volume of data they hold to understand sales opportunities, e-commerce, infrastructure management or patient data for example. A technology that is on top of many CIO's agendas is Hadoop and that comes with it a new skill set, architecture and cost base. The concept of Hadoop as a Service has excited many of our clients and this is what Microsoft is working towards with Azure and also Windows Server allowing you to choose where to run your platform.

Microsoft and Hortonworks has made available for download a beta of the Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP) for Windows.

The new Windows platform is 100 percent open source and provides the same Hadoop experience as is available for Linux.

In 2011, Microsoft announced it was partnering with Hortonworks to create both a Windows Azure and Windows Server implementations of the Hadoop big data framework.

Some of the key elements are SQL Server 2012 which supports structured data on scalable relational database and data warehouse offerings, and unstructured data on an Enterprise-ready Hadoop distribution. You can now move data between Hadoop and SQL Server with bidirectional Hadoop connectors for SQL Server 2012 and Parallel Data Warehouse. And with HCatalog analysts can be provided SQL-like access to Hadoop so that customers can enhance their insights

HDP is a Hadoop distribution and includes high-availability, security, data services and management tools and interfaces. The HDP offering is the foundational layer for Microsoft's HDInsight offerings.

Microsoft has made this simple and with HDInsight, Hadoop is both simple to install and manage. It demystifies the Hadoop distribution so you don’t need to choose and test the right combination of Hadoop projects to deploy. And with Windows Azure HDInsight Service deployment is simplified so much that 16-node Hadoop cluster can be live in only 10 minutes.

Consumerisation of IT through 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 21:23:00 +0000

The Consumerisation of IT has been a phrase encapsulating business IT for around 3/4 years and refers to the speed of pace which consumer focused IT is released and far outpaces the traditional speed of adoption associated with business IT. Ultimately ensuring the consumer has a better IT experience at home than when in the office.

Rather than thinking of this trend as a mobility issue, it should be thought of as an innovation and opportunity.

Over the past two years there has been much interest in BYOD but it’s important to remember this is only the start when it comes to the Consumerisation of IT.

The past two years has seen a big increase in the adoption of BYOD. This is not going to go away; there will be more BYOD and more usage within the enterprise. Organisations need to be prepared for more non-corporate devices accessing their networks.

Organisations that take this innovation opportunity seriously will realise that mobility/BYOD is not just about MDM. A new holistic approach to mobility will be about managing data and information wherever it maybe stored.

With increase of adoption comes increases in legal cases as corporate and personal data becomes blurred by the device. Organisations will need to weigh up the risk of privacy beaches against productivity gained as a result of Consumerisation of IT.

IT departments driven by thought leading CIO's will need to assess themselves. A shift towards providing IT consultancy and services for the business will be imperative.

Going to adopt BYOD or whatever you are calling it and don't know where to start? Contact Us for advice.

Whats on your 2013 Techmap?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 20:07:00 +0000

So that's 2012 done and dusted with, which always brings about the questions what is going to be big this year and what was a hit last year. So we thought we would have a quick punt on what 2013 might bring to businesses in the shape of technology.

Over the years we have had a pretty good guess and what was coming down the line from VDI, through to ESN and Cloud. The following tops the bill for us on what is going to be on your techmap at some point this year:

Expect to see a significant rise with cloud built on Openstack, the project has gained fantastic momentum and shows no signs of slowing down. Private Cloud built upon Public Cloud processes can only be a good thing
Keeping on the opensource theme, expect Bigdata to become more strategic with Hadoop taking the lead. Once tier 1 cloud providers position Hadoop as a Service the technology will become more accessible to the SMB market place
Cloud services will be consumed with greater velocity meaning technology needs to be provided to aggregate these cloud services from personal through to private into a single pane of glass such as Citrix Cloud Gateway
Symantec O3 should make a name for itself this year providing a sensible framework for SSO, Content and Security services again becoming a single pane of glass for cloud services
Windows 8 was launched with Gusto in 2012 and expect it to make an appearance on a desk near you soon either through Windows XP desktop replacement or through BYO strategies
Mobility will morph into Enterprise Mobility Management consuming BYO with it as the industry accepts its inevitable. Consumer choice will be delivered through Digital Allowance schemes and hopefully HMRC will provide clarity around tax implications.
Another area of growth we expect to see happen over the next year [largely fuelled by BYO is the interest in Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms (MEAP), no longer is a single way of developing applications acceptable or affordable for businesses to adopt. There has been significant promise of HTML5 being the development architecture of choice but this has yet to come to fruition. It is clear that this is an opportunity within the market place to provide one framework to all devices, the browser maybe the right approach but that is yet to be seen. There will still be a huge demand for native applications as they provide the most rich user experience to date. The approach of mobilising applications will largely be driven through improved development skills as they need to adopt new design skills to deliver touch-optimised applications that operate across a range of devices
In 2013 we also expect to see the main network operators roll out 4G networks. With continuous streaming of high speed data the move to mobile will change the world of screens at home and work as we know it.
Certified cloud architectures such as Flexpod will continue to gain market share
Office 365 will gain further momentum fuelled largely by the plethora of new Microsoft Workloads due for launch in 2013
If you don't adopt cloud in your strategy then you can expect your users to circumnavigate the IT department and spin services up through AWS or Rackspace for example
The software defined datacentre will get a lot of airtime this year largely driven by network vitualisation
Apple will continue to dominate the tablet market with specific verticals being key adopters of the technology.
We also expect to see business and industry drive their mobility proposition to the next level of maturity. On top of the considerable benefits seen from native iOS apps, companies are now investing strategically in business process re-engineering projects that drive savings and efficiency through native app development. Links to ERP and CRM systems will give organisations access to core data and the functionality to operate from wherever they chose.

So that's what we think will be in your Techmap for 2013 but we know there will be more lurking around the corner. It would be great to hear what solutions you are looking into.

Charles Barratt | Solutions Development Manager | Equanet

Citrix Releases VDI in a Box 5.2

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 23:29:00 +0000

Citrix has released version 5.2 of VDI-in-a-box. The VDI solution doesn’t require shared storage or dedicated load balanced connection brokers. It consists of a single virtual appliance that provides all the functionality needed to create, provision, manage, and load balance virtual desktops. The VDI-in-a-Box appliance, known as VDI-in-a-Box Manager runs as a virtual machine on a hypervisor. vdiManager creates and manages virtual desktops on the local physical server by communicating with the local hypervisor.

Besides supporting the latest hypervisors in this release, Citrix is integrating the VDI-in-a-box product more and more with its existing products, like introducing support for Cloud Gateway and the ability to export images for use with XenDesktop.

Version 5.2 provides the following new features:

Support for the hypervisors available in Windows Server 2012, XenServer 6.1 and vSphere 5.1
Support for StoreFront services provided by Citrix Cloud Gateway
Support for Microsoft Lync
Support for exporting of published images for use with Citrix XenDesktop
Licensing Management using Citrix License Server.
Support for multiple data stores
Support for virtual desktops running Windows Server 2012 (accessible using RDP only)
Automated desktop agent upgrade
Citrix Desktop Lock support.

Windows Intune Wave D looks pretty neat

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 15:49:00 +0000

Microsoft has finished the fourth version of its Windows Intune management service, with an obvious yet needed focus on mobile device management.

Allegedly December 17th was the target date to release the new wave including Windows 8, RT and Windows Phone 8 support. But existing customers will have to wait until mid January for the new features.

Besides adding support for the latest versions of Windows and Windows Phone, the new version of Windows Intune enables sideloading of applications for Microsoft and non-Microsoft devices.

Wave D also brings to the table agent-based management for not only Windows RT and Windows Phone 8, but also iOS. This is great news and moves away from the reliance of EAS via Exchange although android will still need EAS for management.

Most customers who were on Office 365 or other hosted Exchange platforms could never use EAS to manage mobile devices, so this is great news.

Microsoft has also modified the pricing and licensing for Windows Intune with the latest release, providing a $6 per user per month version too (with no Software Assurance rights and no Windows Enterprise license) for use for managing up to five devices.

Citrix & NetApp get closer

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 21:26:00 +0000

Citrix and NetApp have jointly developed a software and hardware package optimised for Citrix's ShareFile with StorageZones.

ShareFile with StorageZones is Citrix's enterprise 'dropbox' alternative and allows CIOs to place data in the organisation's own data center as opposed to in the cloud.

Enterprises can now meet data compliance and users can still access their documents and images from anywhere at any time.

By collaborating, Citrix and NetApp will help enterprises simplify and accelerate on-premise, data sharing and storage deployments.

The joint approach ensures that StorageZones works with NetApp's FAS and V-Series storage systems running its clustered Data ONTAP software.

This allows you to take advantage of features such as de-duplication and compression to decrease the amount of storage needed to host employee content.

NetApp's Snapshot technology can be used to backup and recover the data.

This should come as good news as businesses grapple to contain data in the enterprise yet make it freely available to those needing access.

Need to know more? Contact us.

Microsoft Goes Big Compute with Azure

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 21:11:00 +0000

Microsoft has made enhancements to Windows Azure to allow customers to run applications that require Big Compute.

This is a capability many cloud providers are now offering in the wake of Big Data, such as Rackspace with Hadoop.

In order to demonstrate the capabilities Microsoft ran a LINPACK benchmark resulting in a 151.3 Tflops on 8,065 cores with 90,2 efficiency, and Microsoft therefore submitted the data to be included in the Top 500 of the world’s largest supercomputers.

The capabilities include:

Hardware for Big Compute, which is currently in a private preview and is expected to become available in 2013. Microsoft is planning to offer 2 configurations, a 8 core/60GB of RAM and a 16 core/120GB of RAM configuration, running on top of machines with the following specifications:

Dual Intel Sandybridge processors at 2.6 GHz
DDR3 1600 MHz RAM
10 GigE network for storage and internet access
InfiniBand (IB) 40 Gbps network with RDMA
Microsoft HPC Pack 2012, allows customers to run workloads on Windows Azure, on-premise or both in a hybrid scenario. The 2012 version will add support for Windows Server 2012, VPN integration for access to on-premises resources, job execution control for dependencies, job scheduling policies for memory and cores, monitoring tools and utilities and is expected to be released in December this year.

Windows 8 is Here

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 09:14:00 +0000

Microsoft has launched the successor to the much venerated Windows 7. For a company which dominates the PC market the launch is all the more important milestone as it attempts to take a larger slice of the rapidly expanding market for tablets and phones.

Windows 8 combines the best features of the familiar Windows 7 desktop with a touch interface with a fast and fluid design perfect for a range of touch enabled devices. The critical point to note is Windows 8 a fully fledged version of Windows 7, only better. It will still be able to handle existing programmes such as iTunes, Adobe Photoshop and any critical business apps running within current Windows 7 environments, at the same time allowing you to be more mobile.

The launch of Windows 8 is accompanied by launch of new products from all the major tablet, laptop and PC manufacturers(1) (2) ensuring there will be plenty of choices on what hardware you want to run your OS and apps on. These include devices that offer both laptop and tablet options within the same model, perfect for tackling essential tasks on the go.

“A recent survey conducted by Equanet which included 300 medium to large UK firms revealed more than 37 per cent are planning to adopt the OS, with 11 per cent wanting to adopt it immediately on release.

When questioned about the reasons for adoption, 44 per cent of respondents felt Microsoft’s new OS will improve employees' work/life balance, 34 per cent felt it could improve the control and management of client devices and 25 per cent felt it would integrate well with BYOD schemes.

According to the respondents, the top five features of Windows 8 (in percentage order) were: Windows To Go (42 per cent), Windows User Interface (19 per cent), increased licensing rights (18 per cent), virtual desktop rights (16 per cent) and Bitlocker (14 per cent).” (3)

If you need tech or licensing support on Windows 8 or anything else contact us or register for one of upcoming events here

Visit the Equanet Windows 8 Page here

Download Windows 8 Product Guide For Business here
View Windows 8 Enterprise grade features here

Citrix Synergy Roundup

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 20:42:00 +0000

So Equanet has been busy this week; exhibiting and presenting at IPExpo and attending Citrix Synergy. Both of which were great uses of our time. In this blog we identify some of the key messages from Synergy.

The highlight for many administrators surely has to be Excalibur, which combines management and backend for XenApp and XenDesktop.

Excalibur

Excalibur is Phase 1 of Project Avalon and it finally combines XenApp and XenDesktop into one management console and a single architecture–XenDesktop's FMA (Flexcast Management Architecture).

Also included as part of Excalibur is Profile Manager, Storefront and Edgesight. All of these will be deployed via one install.

One thing to note is that Excalibur does not have support for 32-bit terminal server environments.

FMA has some major differences from IMA. FMA doesn't have the concept of zones, which for XenApp servers are important for spreading around intra-server communication, configurations, and scalability.

CloudGateway / Mobility

Citrix clearly sees CloudGateway as a strategic play for their future.

In simple terms, aggregation of cloud services into a single store front presented to the end user.

ShareFile StorageZones Connector

There is a Tech Preview of the StorageZones Connector, which is an on-premise solution that integrates into your existing file shares, making them available via ShareFile clients (HybridZones).

It is clear that mobility has become the focal point again for Citrix. I say again as they have always had the anywhere, any device and any connection approach to technology. And with the advent of 4G and consumerisation this is the next big wave for Citrix to ride.

Hybrid Enterprise Dropbox? That will be Citrix Sharefile

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 18:11:00 +0000

We have all done it and will continue to do it; upload content to Dropbox without thinking about the sensitivity of the information or location of the data. For many months businesses having been looking for ways to offer the enterprise Dropbox to maintain governance on access and data.

Citrix Systems is giving back to business some control over personal cloud-based storage with ShareFile StorageZones, which allows user content to be stored in enterprises' own data centres. Users will still access their content the way they are used to.

Enterprises can choose between what Citrix calls customer-managed StorageZones that place data in the organisation's own data center, and Citrix-managed StorageZones, which are available in seven locations around the world.

Working in conjunction with customer-managed zones, StorageZone Connectors are designed to let IT staff create a secure connection between the ShareFile service and user data stored on enterprise networks.

Citrix has also announced plans to add Citrix-managed StorageZones on Microsoft's Azure cloud in 2013.

Next year Citrix will also start shipping the ShareFile StorageZones MPX Appliance. It will have integrated security and network optimisation, and also will be designed to simplify integration with existing storage environments.

This combined with CloudGateway should become central to your mobility plans. Need to know more then contact us.

VMware Extends ESX Support for OpenStack

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 14:26:00 +0000

VMware is not letting the grass grow beneath its feet since joining the OpenStack community and has announced support for its ESX hypervisor on OpenStack.

VMware has been engaging with OpenStack more and more over the past few months. First, it purchased Nicira, then immediately after that deal closed, the company applied to become a member of the OpenStack Foundation.

One of the biggest questions since has been how will VMware contribute to OpenStack. VMware, has announced
a compute driver within OpenStack that would support vSphere. Adding to the support of Xen, KVM and Hyper-V.

Some have said VMware joining Openstack has been to slow the project down, we believe it endorses the project and shows the need for an open cloud platform. Clearly it competes with vCloud Director but also allows sales of vSphere as normal.

OpenStack is already being used by some big-name public cloud providers such as Rackspace and HP to launch public cloud services. That puts it in direct competition with VMware's vCloud Director.

In addition to announcing the ESX support, VMware is also supporting OpenStack in orher ways including Nicira's work in the virtual networking Quantum project, and the effort of integrating its Cloud Foundry platform as a service into OpenStack.

What will $499 get you.. A Microsoft Surface

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 19:42:00 +0000

Microsoft's Surface tablet will be priced from $499 for a 32GB version in the US – and £399 in the UK – and go on sale on 26 October in eight countries including the UK, the company said today.

The cover that doubles as a keyboard, will cost another $100. A bigger model for $699 has twice the memory, 64 GB, and includes a cover.

On the 25th Microsoft is making available Windows 8, truly enabling the 3 Screens and a Cloud concept.

Microsoft will be selling the tablet in its own stores in the U.S. and Canada and online in those countries, plus Australia, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong and the U.K.

This version of the Surface doesn't have an Intel-style CPU. but it does include a version of the Office suite.

Looks like an exciting few weeks!

Microsoft sends out the press invites for Microsoft Surface launch

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 01:01:00 +0000

Microsoft has started sending out invites to a special “Surface Reception” event on October 25th.

In addition to a Windows 8 reveal, Microsoft will launch its highly anticipated tablet – The Surface.

It seems like the event will take
place in New York and starts at 10am.

Microsoft still has not released pricing or a full and complete spec list for its Surface RT tablets/PCs. It has not yet made them available for preorder. The Intel-based Surface Pro versions are not due out until three months, give or take, after the Windows RT launch.

It would appear that the highly anticipated Microsoft tablet is nearly here.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Openstack Foundation

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 21:45:00 +0000

OpenStack has got its own open source Foundation. The cloud operating system, launched under an Apache 2 license by cloud provider Rackspace and NASA two years ago, will be governed by an independent organisation similar to the Linux Foundation.

Vendors are expected to package OpenStack and incorporate it into various products. Rackspace and Red Hat already offer OpenStack downloads. And public cloud providers such as HP are launching their own offerings based on OpenStack.

Openstack has plenty to offer organisations and the excitement is seen developing right under your noses through the plethora of established vendors developing code for the project. OpenStack provides a management framework for nearly every virtualized resource in the data centre.

The main OpenStack reward for customers is the Collaborative development of core OpenStack that should shorten the time-to-market for private and public cloud solutions, the adoption of which should increase IT efficiency and reduce costs overall.

Openstack promises an awful lot and whether you call it "the cloud" or not, the need for a standardised way to manage vast amounts of virtualised data centre resources is undeniable. At this point it's hard to ignore the genuine excitement among OpenStack developers as they work toward that goal.

This is going to be a very interesting 12 months especially as VMware have just joined the community.

VMware vCloud Suite is now available

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 02:27:00 +0000

Yesterday VMware announced the availability of VMware vCloud Suite 5.1.

VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 is available in three editions, Standard, Advanced and Enterprise and is licensed per processor.

vCloud Includes software-defined datacenter services, policy-based provisioning, disaster recovery, and application and operations management capabilities delivered by:

VMware vSphere® 5.1 – is the proven foundation for the software-defined datacenter, delivering the highest service levels for all applications, including business-critical workloads and low-latency, I/O-sensitive applications.

VMware vCloud Director® 5.1 – vCloud Director 5.1 allows customers to provision complete virtual datacenter services in minutes.

VMware vCloud Networking and Security 5.1 – Providing a full set of software-defined networking capabilities, the new VMware vCloud Networking and Security enables the dynamic creation of virtual networks and services that are completely decoupled and independent from the physical network hardware.

VMware vCenter™ Site Recovery Manager™ 5.1– To enhance the availability and rapid recovery of applications running in the software-defined datacenter, vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.1 simplifies and automates disaster recovery planning, testing and execution.

Apple VPP Announced

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 19:00:00 +0000

Apple have announced a global expansion of VPP (Volume Purchase Plan) which is well overdue and will be music to many of Equanets BYOD clients.

This has been extended to Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

IT procurement within the United States has come to appreciate the ease at which VPP enables them to distribute apps to their iPhone and iPad equipped userbase.

What is VPP?

VPP was created to give IT the ability to push pertinent business applications to a sizeable userbase.

Any application on the App Store can be purchased for distribution, meaning you can now pre populate your enterprise application stores with free, home grown and purchased applications.

App distribution: where to begin

First you'll need to create a volume purchasing account with Apple. Once you've created your account, you decide which application/s you would like to purchase for your users in the Business Store.

After your purchase has been completed, you will be sent a VPP File, which contains VPP Codes that can be sent to users.

The quantity purchased will correlate with the number of codes provided in this package.

Using a mobile device management (MDM) solution turns provides IT with an easy deployment platform to iOS devices.

MDM eliminates the need for manual app distribution, it gives you the power to track provisioning, manage licenses, and monitor compliance of your userbase.

Looking at BYOD but are confused about where and how to start? then contact us to see how our approach can expedite your project.

Windows Server 2012 is here

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 05:28:00 +0000

Equanet have been working with Server 2012 for many months now in readiness for general availability so our customers can be assured of our support when it came to both licensing support and technical services. Well that day has now come, as of September 4th Microsoft has made Windows 2012 RTM versions available for test and purchase.

As part of the launch, Microsoft officials have performed webcast demonstrations of some of the 300 new features that are part of the product.

The key theme hasn't been about speeds and feeds but more about Windows Server 2012 being a key component of Microsoft's 'Cloud OS' vision and strategy. Windows Server 2012 has been developed from the ground up with the cloud in mind (Azure and Private).

Microsoft began to bring more feature parity to its Server and Azure components earlier this year, rolling out an implementation of Active Directory for Azure.

The end result, Microsoft officials are hoping, is a more cohesive and compelling message around Windows Server, in terms of positioning, licensing and pricing.

This version of Microsoft Server really should have you thinking differently about your cloud deployments from both technical and commercial viewpoints. Not only should it gain your respect but it has already gained the respect of industry heavyweight Cisco...

Cisco have been working closely with the Windows Server 2012 team for the past few years towards the goal of the Nexus 1000V integrating with Hyper-V, they have announced Nexus 1000V and VM-FEX support for it.

Cisco customers spoke in volumes about proving a consistency across both virtual and physical switching as they did with VMware.

In addition to the integration with Windows Server 2012, Cisco are also working for tighter integration between Nexus 1000V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). This integration helps both the server & network administrators to get a consistent view of the virtualisation environment, and thus reduces operational complexity. Server admins can pick and choose the logical networks, network-sites and VM networks created by the network admins, and network admins make use of the same NX-OS CLI, feature-set across physical & virtual environments.

We think this support alone speaks volumes about the excitement there is in the industry for server 2012.

If you need tech or licensing support on server 2012 contact us or register for one of upcoming events here

VMware vRAM is no more

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 18:51:00 +0000

We all know the issues that VMware brought to the table by changing their license model for vSphere and the opportunity that presented for alternative virtualisation vendors. Well it appears that VMware has listened with its upcoming release of VMware vSphere 5.1.

VMware is removing the vRAM licensing requirements and returning to its previous CPU-based licensing model, which customers preferred.

With only a .dot release of its flagship vSphere product announced at VMworld this week, VMware should expect to get a lot more attention for this release than it normally would have because of the licensing change. And all those vSphere 4.x users who've been waiting to upgrade to 5.0 may now finally make the move.

What's key in vSphere 5.1

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 18:43:00 +0000

VMware has detailed an abundance of new enhancements to its core virtualisation and cloud products: vSphere, vCenter, the vSphere Storage Appliance, and vCloud Director are all being increased to version 5.1. VMware is also introducing a vSphere Data Protection Appliance.

In adding new features VMware will also knock on the door or 3rd party partners who currently add value to the VMware stack. Such as the moving of SRM host based replication into vSphere, implementing a new backup appliance based upon Avamar.

vSphere Replication
vSphere 5.1 can now perform host-based VM replication, a feature introduced in Site Recovery Manager 5.0 but now part of vSphere. Because it will work across the majority of the vSphere product line, this replication capability should be attractive to smaller businesses that can't afford expensive array-based replication.

vSphere Data Protection
vSphere Data Protection (VDP), is an appliance-based, deduplicating backup package integrated into VMware's vCenter management framework. VDP replaces vSphere Disaster Recovery appliance with deduplication from EMC's Avamar backup line. VDP uses vSphere APIs for Data Protection (VADP).

vSphere networking
This software-based switching architecture adds support for 802.3ad LACP load balancing, RSPAN and ERSPAN remote traffic monitoring, a slew of new automated configuration health checks, VXLAN support, and SR-IOV support. Many of these additions should facilitate software-defined networking initiatives happening in the vCloud Director.

VMware vCloud Suite 5.1

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 18:20:00 +0000

As discussed earlier today here VMware at VMworld announced a new suite of technologies called vCloud to simplify the transition to a software defined datacenter or indeed hybrid cloud to a vCloud provider.

The aim of a software-defined datacenter is to abstract all hardware resources, pool them into aggregate capacity to facilitate automation of applications and services deployment.

VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 aggregates all the components customers need to build, operate and manage a modern, cloud integrated, infrastructure:

VMware vSphere® 5.1: with more than 100 enhancements and new features constitutes the foundation of the suite
VMware vCloud Director® 5.1: orchestrates the provisioning of abstracted resources such as storage, networking, security and availability pooling them as software-defined datacenter services
VMware vCloud Networking and Security 5.1: VMware’s software defined networking and security solution, enables the dynamic creation of virtual networks and services decoupled and independent from the physical network hardware
vCenter Site Recovery Manager™ 5.1: simplifies disaster recovery planning and ensures predictable recovery through automated testing and plan execution, can also support datacenter migrations and disaster avoidance, integrates with VMware vSphere Replication and replication technologies from VMware’s partners

The VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 is expected to be available Sept. 11, 2012. It will be offered in three editions – Standard, Advanced and Enterprise – and includes the following products: VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus, VMware vCloud Director, VMware vCloud Connector, VMware vCloud Networking and Security, VMware vFabric Application Director, VMware vCenter Operations Management Suite and VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager. Prices will start at $4,995 per processor.

VMware Horizon Suite Details

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 10:52:00 +0000

As blogged earlier this week VMware has announced a new product suite known as VMware Horizon Suite,

VMware Horizon Suite is still in Alpha release. Horizon is a platform that will make it easier administrators to manage the challenges associated with consumerisation (mobility, cloud, and employee BYOD) while also providing a simple working environment for your end users, no matter what the device is.

VMware Horizon Suite brings together many of the technologies within VMware – Project Octopus, Project AppBlast, ThinApp, VMware Horizon Application Manager and VMware Horizon Mobile, as well as the management of VMware View. This not only includes VMware technologies, but also software that runs on Windows and applications delivered via Citrix XenApp, for example.

This makes it possible for enterprises to get the consistent governance they need, while workers enjoy separate personal and business workspaces and consistent access to applications and data on any personal device.

Through a central Web management console, the VMware Horizon Suite enables IT to provide a service catalog for all company data and applications. Horizon Suite will understand a user’s context (device, location and connectivity level) and then apply policies across applications, data, and devices no matter where that data or applications resides (Windows, Web, SaaS or Mobile).

With Horizon Suite, end users can also securely access and share their data and files from any device. You can get a feel for what it looks like in the video below:

Horizon manages from the middle, rather than the endpoint, through identity, context, and policy. And through its web console, IT can deliver a customised service catalog to users so they can select delivery of on-demand Windows, Mobile, SaaS, and Web-based applications to end-users on any device.

VMware Horizon Suite provides the security, governance, and manageability enterprises need while also providing all of the freedoms of choice and work style associated with the BYOD and consumerisation of IT trends.

Key VMworld 2012 Announcements

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 09:26:00 +0000

You may or may not be aware that over in America VMware are currently hosting their end user event - VMworld. Like with previous years there has been a slew announcements and Equanet can articulate them into this single blog entry. These are the main announcements from VMware delivered through their key note sessions:

In 2008 25% of workloads were virtualised; today, that figure is estimated to be 60%.

In 2008, everyone was asking, “What is cloud?” Now, according to VMware, we’re asking “How do we build a cloud?”

VMware has an aspiration to increase the number of workloads that are virtualised (aiming for >90%) and the amount of time to provision new workloads (shooting for minutes/seconds). This is what VMware call the “software-defined data center.”

VMware has announced vCloud Suite, which will include vSphere, vCloud Director, vCloud Connector, Site Recovery Manager, vCenter Operations, and vFabric Application Director–all rolled into a single SKU to make it easier to buy, deploy, and use.

VMware also announced that vRAM will no longer be considered a part of VMware’s licensing approach.

VMware also stated its ongoing support of OpenStack by applying to join OpenStack Foundation.

In vSphere 5.1 VM capacity grows to 64 vCPUs, 1 TB of RAM, and 1 million IOPS in a SINGLE VM, so if you have a need for a machine that big I would love to meet you!

VMware announced enhanced vMotion, which is VMware’s ability to perform live migration without shared storage.

VMware discussed Mirage (an acquisition of Wanova) which is built on the idea of layers, allowing organisations to “decompose” images into smaller, more manageable chunks, and allows for synchronisation of images across the network. Mirage is considered complementary to View, and brings VMware functionality for managing physical desktops and adding functionality for offline computing.

Project AppShift was identified to allow you to access traditional mouse style applications on touch based devices.

VMware Horizon Suite has been launched as a single, product suite that assists in managing and brokering desktops, applications, and data between users and devices (very similar to Citrix CloudGateway 2) Project Octopus is now known as Horizon Data and has moved from Beta code to Alpha code. Project AppBlast will be used to deliver desktops to devices. Oh, and Horizon will also be able to manage XenApp based applications.

Horizon also supports mobile applications as well, through Horizon Mobile. VMware announced a "container application" for iOS (Similar to Good Technology) that allows VMware Horizon Mobile to deploy and manage applications to iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad.

So plenty of announcements from VMware and just to recap the main points from the keynotes are:

vRAM licensing model is to be disbanded
vCloud Suite is a set of products under a single SKU to help kickstart your cloud projects
Horizon Suite is again a set of integrated products to help focus on the end user experience
Project Octopus is now know as Horizon Data
vSphere 5.1 has been announced
VMware View 5.1 has been announced.
Project App Shift
AppBlast is WIP
Mobile Application management on iOS via app wrapping
Horizon will Manage XenApp.