Now that you know your network management IT style, do you agree with your results? What steps do you plan on taking to improve your IT efficiency?

As we get ready to make the trek to Las Vegas for Interop, we suggest getting familiar with the hot topics and sessions at the event. What can you expect?

Cloud computing: This year promises to bring a heavy focus on hybrid cloud topics. One panel, “Hybrid Cloud Integration,” will discuss how hybrid clouds are being used and explain the process of building out a cloud integration fabric across private clouds and into public clouds.

A notable adopter of hybrid cloud technology is the gaming company Zynga. Allan Leinwand, the company’s CTO of infrastructure is presenting a keynote this year, and his take based on his experience should be interesting

Wireless and mobility: When it comes to wireless and mobility, there will be much attention focused on mobility and the cloud, with notable panels such as “Mobility and the Cloud: Making the Marriage Work.” This talk will give information on using cloud-based IT techniques, virtualization, storage and applications.

Mobile devices are so widespread, they are adding complexity to enterprises’ infrastructure, and CIOs are evaluating how cloud solutions can help achieve the flexibility and prioritization that is important to new networks.

Security: Another topic that is always emphasized is security, and we expect a lot of attention to be paid to mobile devices and the BYOD phenomenon. One panel, “Software Security Risk Rises Along With Android,” will examine the challenges associated with securing mobile apps, how security efforts are taxed by consumerization, and how users can avoid the top Android threats.

When it comes to BYOD — which has become the norm for so many enterprises — the key issue is protecting valuable data. According to InfoWorld security adviser Roger Grimes, the way to do that is to prevent data from being collected or stored — transiently or permanently — on an unmanaged device.

What panels are you most looking forward to? What other tech topics do you expect to get plenty of buzz this year?

There are many factors to consider when choosing a managed network provider. The most popular among the organizations polled was for the provider to proactively resolve issues.

The benefits that come with using a third-party provider for network services abound. Among current users polled, the most popular expected benefit is that the provider would free up staff time.

For those enterprises that have made the switch to managed network providers, the reasons for doing so vary, but the most common is for the expert perspective a third-party provider brings.

Have you considered or outsourced your network management to a provider? What benefits have you seen? What other drivers do you see for using a network management system?

Business can suffer.

According to a Robert Half IT Hiring Index and Skills Report, 70 percent of IT budgets is being spent on supporting and maintaining existing network infrastructure. Additionally, 73 percent of CIOs surveyed report that it’s getting harder than ever to find the qualified IT skills they demand most: network administration.

Because of this environment, IT departments increasingly are considering outsourcing their network management to third-party providers. It’s an option that can bring significant benefits such as:

• Reduced cost of ownership
• Access to external expertise and intellectual property
• Improved operational performance
• Better allocation of internal IT resources

What’s more, managed network infrastructure also can be great for threat prevention and security within the corporate network. Outsourcing security services also can bring the benefit of resource allocation. After all, when a cloud-based provider handles threats and security risks to a company, IT professionals have more time to focus on more strategic areas — which is good for business.

Despite these clear benefits, some IT professionals might still have qualms about offloading their network operations to a third party. We’d counter that outsourcing network services doesn’t mean losing control of their infrastructure — it’s gaining a helping hand in an area that can be a trouble spot for many organizations.

The need for network administration support and the costs associated are driving IT professionals to go down the third-party path. Have you already made the move? What benefits has your organization seen as a result of outsourcing network infrastructure services? And what lessons have you learned through outsourcing that you’d share with other IT professionals?

In the last few months, we’ve talked about some key trends impacting banks and their customers. Overwhelmingly, consumers are demanding better access to their bank accounts and at the same time, banks are struggling with increasing security risks. By upgrading their infrastructures, banks are meeting customer demands with new features like text alerts and mobile deposits while providing better security. It’s clear that consumers are driving big changes in banking and it’s exciting to see what’s next.

That brings us to today’s topic: What do consumers really want from their banks? What will help banks attract and retain customers? Recent surveys show customer service and personalization rank high on the list.

Do you think banks will be able to regain customer trust?

In many cases, large companies are wary of cloud due to the lack of QoS and SLAs they’ve become accustomed to. In fact, it was for these very reasons businesses turned to Ethernet. With so much invested in Ethernet (from the customer and carrier sides) the question now becomes: Can Ethernet support the demands of cloud?

Cloud is a whole new world that requires unprecedented flexibility to address just-in-time resource pooling and application buffering. And, since to date, cloud has generally been the public variety (over the Internet), it introduces a number of challenges for IT: security, inconsistent internet availability and performance. It’s imperative that carriers find a way to address these challenges so businesses can reap the tremendous benefits of cloud computing. That’s where Ethernet comes in. With its inherent security and scalability, in many ways, it seems like the perfect partner for cloud when it comes to business use.

We discussed this topic with our industry peers at the recent MEF forum meeting. And we are not the only ones With discussing it. A lot of really smart people are working on this very topic. We don’t intend to solve it here, but we thought it would be fun to look at both sides of the argument and get your thoughts.

Yes! Ethernet is Made for Cloud:

• Security: Being a top priority for any business the built-in security Ethernet offers that is not available over the public internet make it attractive. 
• Performance: It introduces a predictable level of availability and establishes a platform for expected performance. IT will take comfort in the level of controls with Ethernet’s evolving network management capabilities.
• Scalability: Ultimately, Ethernet is the best platform that can possibly scale to the bandwidth demands cloud introduces at a very low cost.

No Way! Ethernet Can’t Handle Cloud:

• Environment Limitations: Ethernet by definition is a closed environment WAN which limits end-user network accessibility. With cloud’s “anywhere, anytime” access benefits, this is a challenge. Users expect to be able to log in and work wherever is convenient from the airport to Starbucks.
• Flexibility: While Ethernet offers flexibility in terms of Internet speeds, it has challenges managing extremely variable bandwidth needs on the fly.
• Complexity: WAN networks can get very complex with the network management and controls.

What do you think? Is Ethernet the perfect partner for cloud?

Of course, since we have these devices it only seems natural that we should be able to connect to the internet wherever we go on whichever device we choose. And not to mention, once we are connected, we want to be able to go to whatever sites we choose – whether that be Facebook or salesforce.com. For Millenials, it goes beyond seeming natural to being expected. As a result, state and local governments and universities are trying to cater to this demand by offering WiFi networks for their citizens or students. Just this year, major WiFi deployments at universities like North Carolina State and even shopping malls are making headlines.

While organizations roll these out to attract and retain students and customers or as a value-add public service, it brings to light some significant challenges:

• Security: How do these organizations manage the security of these networks? And we don’t just mean things you’d expect like viruses and bots. What about less obvious threats like inappropriate use? For example: What if Sally (fictitious student) used the WiFi network at her university to sell pirated software? Could the school be held liable for providing the enabling technology?
• Capacity: All these devices put a tremendous strain on an institution from a network management perspective.  Depending on the technology used, as devices connect to the network, the range of the access points can shrink.  This can lead to “dead Spots” in coverage. Not exactly a great customer satisfaction driver.

Clearly, organizations need to cater to our insatiable demand for “anywhere, anytime access”, but they also need to protect themselves and plan for capacity needs..

If your organization is thinking of going wireless, here are a few key considerations that will help you walk that line:

1)      Create an acceptable use policy: Check out SANS for sample policies and make sure the user has to check a box to accept the terms each time they log in. This will protect you in the event of a “Sally” situation.

2)      Check compliance guidelines: Certain types of businesses or information are subject to compliance regulations. Make sure you check appropriate regulations for your industry and use. For example, for retailers who have to comply with PCI, there are specific wireless requirements. If medical records are being transferred across the network, HIPPA applies.

3)      Consider outsourcing: Managing the security of a wireless network can be daunting – especially for often cash-strapped organizations like state and local governments. Offloading the security to a provider will free up internal resources while ensuring up-to-date threat protection. In addition, outsourcing can minimize the “dead spot” issue since the provider is responsible for monitoring capacity needs and making adjustments to meet demand.

Have you deployed a WiFi network for your users or customers or are you considering it? What tips do you have for organizations looking to go wireless?

Information security is a hot button for all businesses. But for banks, it is particularly critical due to the nature of the information they have as well as increasing compliance regulations. As part of our ongoing series on the US banking industry, we are taking an in-depth look at the security profile of banks in America and what they are doing to protect personal information.

A look at the data (as shown in the infographic below) shows that fraud is prevalent (82 percent have experienced it) and there are some clear areas for improvement including PCI compliance and employee education.

The key for banks is to maintain protection and compliance while still offering features customers want like mobile banking.  Not to mention the strain on resources while trying to grow revenue. It’s a fine line to walk.

Do you think banks can really offer 100% protection of our personal data or are security risks just a part of (our online) life?

Like any good marketer, we at CenturyLink Business, created a presence on Google + right away but really only to secure our name. We have not created a full-blown presence at this point because, frankly, we have been going back and forth internally on the value of the platform in our space.

So why are we talking about this now? Well, the recent news about the social enhancements to Google search got me thinking: Is it really just another social platform? Or could it be more to companies in the B2B market?

Depending on who you ask, Google+ is either a Facebook-killer, a social media also-ran, or an entirely new breed of social networking platform. For B2B companies considering whether to take the plunge, the question that matters most is: does using Google+ for B2B deliver unique value beyond the existing players? While Google+ has many similarities to established social networks, closer examination reveals added benefits for marketing.

Google+ for Marketing

In our view, social networks can be especially valuable for B2B companies, who typically need to build, maintain, and cultivate customer relationships over the course of a long sales cycle. With this perspective, Google+ for B2B offers two key advantages:

• Ties to search: This puts Google+ in an ideal position to address the increasingly social nature of search. Google searches now return both generic search results and comments from a user’s own Google+ network. This helps them leverage the knowledge and expertise of their colleagues more effectively, from product endorsements to technical advice.
• Google+ circles: Circles provide an easy way to configure specific groups of contacts (customers, leads, partners, etc.) and provide specific content tailored to that group. For example, you could create a circle for your customer advisory board and use that as a way to share exclusive information. In addition, circles can be integrated into Gmail, extending their value beyond Google+ to support email-based communications. This provides the granularity and control to manage multiple communications to multiple audiences (often needed in the complex B2B market).

While there are positives, it’s not clear if there are enough to consider a wholesale transition to Google+.  As the social network battle continues, it’s also likely that many of the unique strengths of Google+ will begin to be replicated on the platforms you already use.  There are also legal and security implications to consider.

Ultimately, it will all come down to the ties to search. We’ll keep you posted on where we landed with Google+ and will take a deeper dive into the search benefits.

Have you put Google+ to work in your business? What value have you seen?

This represents an opportunity for banks to take a hard look at their businesses and to figure out what they can offer their customers to provide a superior customer experience.

Given this is such an important topic for Americans as well as banks and credit institutions; we thought it would be interesting to do a series looking at the challenges and trends within the banking industry.

Today, we look at how consumers want to interact with their banks. They want access from anywhere, anytime – even in bed. Banks must accommodate this request if they expect to attract and retain customers. This often starts with evaluating their infrastructures. In many cases, banks are upgrading to more advanced technologies to meet the expectations of today’s consumers.

What do you think the future of banking looks like?

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is designed to protect consumers and increase trust in retailers. Without these measures, it would be all too simple for a hacker to break into a retailer’s systems and steal consumers’ payment card numbers.

But many retailers still fall short on PCI DSS compliance.

• A recent study by Ponemon found that 67 percent of PCI-regulated companies fail credit card security compliance.
• Data collected by Visa, Inc., indicates that, while compliance is as high as 97 percent for retailers with more than 6 million total Visa transactions each year, only 60 percent of smaller online retailers have met PCI DSS requirements.

In this light, it’s no surprise that payment card breaches continue to be common. The Ponemon study mentioned above also found that 85 percent of organizations experienced a data breach in the past two years. The average cost of these breaches: $7.2 million. When these breaches occur in an organization which has failed to meet PCI compliance, the merchant can be held responsible for PCI fines up to $500,000 per incident—in addition to reimbursing all losses resulting from the breach.

What’s behind this spotty record? Many smaller businesses perceive PCI DSS compliance as too difficult to achieve—or even to understand—and feel that they lack the resources or expertise to pursue it. In some cases, the local programmers hired by these business may not even be aware that PCI DSS prohibits retailers from storing unencrypted payment card data. But PCI DSS compliance is not optional. Aside from the potential for damage to their customers’ financial well-being and their own reputation, companies that fail to meet their PCI DSS requirements face fines and other penalties from the PCI.

What can merchants do to bring their technologies and practices up to PCI DSS standards? A good place to start is the PCI’s own website, which offers useful resources such as:

• A Quick Reference Guide
• Self-Assessment Questionnaire
•  A “Prioritized Approach” for accomplishing compliance

Keep in mind that PCI DSS applies to all the systems that touch customer payment data, including external connections into your network, connections to and from the authorization and settlement environment, and any cardholder data repositories.

Is your business prepared to provide a secure retail experience for the shoppers who come flooding through your doors (or your web server) in the weeks ahead?

Out-of-the-box, the iPad is a portable, versatile, and convenient device, and users love it. But it’s hardly a complete computer. Although it offers business-friendly applications like salesforce.com, Mail, and Safari, and integrates with standard business apps like Microsoft Exchange, these represent only a small fraction of the applications required by the typical user in the course of a day. Concerned primarily with the consumer market, Apple is unlikely to go much further in supporting common enterprise applications.

But that’s not to say that iPads can’t be made to run a much broader set of enterprise systems. The key is desktop virtualization. Already one of today’s most important trends in IT, desktop virtualization lets IT deliver centrally stored and managed applications, data, and desktops as a service to achieve new levels of mobility, flexibility, and efficiency.

The initial wave of desktop virtualization initiatives focused on traditional PCs and laptops, as well as desktop and mobile thin clients. Now, many enterprises are extending their virtual desktop environment to include tablets and smartphones as well. CXO magazine calls this embrace of mobile devices one of the top current desktop virtualization trends. At the same time, CRN says that the desire to make greater business use of iPads is a key driver of the adoption of desktop virtualization.

While the form factor of the iPad makes it unsuitable as a full desktop replacement for most users, given the limitations of its soft keyboard, limited pointing functionality, and relatively small screen, the delivery of enterprise applications to the device can still support a broad range of use cases:

• Doctors now carry iPads to access information resources, record notes, view real-time patient monitoring data, and collaborate with colleagues while on rounds in the clinic or anywhere else.
• Field technicians use iPads to manage projects and connect to remote systems using a device they can carry with them even as they climb ladders or straddle large pieces of equipment.
• Point-of-sale personnel in a retail environment can use iPads to connect to CRM and ERP systems to provide better service for customers as well as real-time inventory tracking for the business.

Virtualization also provides a way to ensure security as users become more mobile. Instead of having data reside on the iPad, users access data stored in the datacenter; if the device is lost or stolen, no enterprise information is compromised.

What do you think? Has your organization implemented desktop virtualization, or does it plan to? Will this help drive the adoption of iPads in the enterprise?

While we know the consumerization of business enthusiasm is strong, and that anything that enhances productivity has merit- our view is: no. At least not right now.

While many business users own iPads and would consider the device another appendage, the iPad falls short in being able to replace other true enterprise solutions, like the laptop. Here’s why: the iPad is a great device for consuming content, but the form factor of the iPad with its soft keyboard, limited pointing functionality, and relatively small screen, makes it really difficult to create content. This will be what ultimately holds it back in the enterprise market.

A lot of companies are coming up with ways to make iPads more business-friendly and we’ll cover that in our next blog.

In the meantime, we want to know what you think.

We’ve recently covered the fundamentals of data security as well as commonly overlooked risks here on ThinkGig. Today we want to take a look at business strategies for establishing a culture that protects data and minimizes vulnerabilities. It’s what we like to call the “yes” model.

For professionals responsible for the security of the business, it can feel like you are always saying no – whether it be in response to a new device that presents security threats or an open source application.  The essence of the “yes” model is to embrace the opportunities presented by technology. Laura Koetzle of Forrester recently discussed this approach in her recent blog post, Protecting the Extended Enterprise.

Easier said than done, right? We know. But a key piece to making this work is to ingrain the mindset of data security within your employees. Here are five ways you can get closer to “yes:”

1. Most industries today are subject to regulatory compliance. Make sure all employees completely understand their roles and responsibilities for conduct concerning your company’s security policy and any specific laws related to the privacy of customer records.
2. In the event of a security breach, ensure that employees are trained to report and handle the situation appropriately. For instance, are there instances where law enforcement officials will need to be notified?
3. Remind employees on the basics of computer security:
• Don’t download files and e-mail attachments from unknown sources
• Be wary of suspicious emails from seemingly reputable sources that request sensitive personal or corporate information
• Create strong passwords with a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers and store them securely
4. Discuss tools that can monitor Web use with content controls and alerts when employees are engaging in risky online behavior with your network admin.
5. Deter hackers by having your network admin set up computer log-ins that locks after three unsuccessful attempts.

By empowering growth within your organization while educating employees on how to make data security part of their everyday lives, you can help nurture a corporate culture of both security and success. We are not advocating that you become Jim Carey in “Yes Man” but even a “yes” here and there sprinkled in between the “nos” will go a long way.

What do you think? Is employee education the key to more “yeses?”

Still, traditional data security is an ever-present concern. So let’s take a step back and go over a few of the basics for guarding against common viruses, worms, phishing attacks and spyware. These everyday threats could not only cost you the loss of sensitive business information and staff productivity; they can cause the loss of customer confidence.

While the following may seem like common-sense precautions, you’d be surprised to find out how many businesses overlook these critical steps. Of course, nothing stops every risk, but you can help keep your data secure by following these seven steps:

1. Create a comprehensive security policy: Clearly identify employee roles and responsibilities for securely using the network and Internet. Cover standards of use for data security and review the protocol for security breaches.
2. Identify where your network is most vulnerable: Assess risk yourself or consult a security expert to run a security audit and make recommendations.
3. Include virus protection software on computers: This is one of the simplest and most effective ways to guard against viruses, spyware and spam. Make sure each station on your network is equipped with anti-virus software and perform routine updates.
4. Insist on anti-virus protection on the network level: Make sure that your service provider first scans and inoculates data and e-mail before it reaches your inbox.
5. Use VPN for secure access and encryption: VPN provides you with the tools to ensure only authorized people are accessing the network. The VPN also provides built-in encryption via IP Security (IPSec) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
6. Maintain a firewall: Install a firewall composed of software or a software-and hardware combination designed to fit the needs of your organization. Firewall management is crucial when your network has an always-on connection to the Internet.
7. Review network access logs: See who has been trying to gain access to your servers and when. Be on the lookout for unusual usage.

For more information on protecting against network threats, check out our white paper on Best Practices for Better Security.

 What challenges have you encountered in maintaining the security of your business?

In our post Great Expectations: Interop 2011back in May, we predicted that IPv6 and cloud would be the big topics at the conference. And they most certainly were. Since then we’ve had World IPv6 Day, a coordinated 24-hour “test flight” that tested how the major websites around the world can handle the move to IPv6. And of course, the cloud continues to be top of mind for IT and business folk.

Which leads to the question – what will be hot at Interop NY? No doubt, the cloud will continue to dominate. Specifically; the ongoing discussion of what IT services such as optimization, management and security, businesses should keep in house and what they should move to the cloud. Check out this article from Network World for an overview of interesting cloud sessions at the event. We also expect mobile device management and virtualization to be top of mind.

If you are attending Interop in person, be sure to check out or interactive problem solving game wall (Note: this game tests the skills of tech junkies. Network novices be warned!). If you are not attending the conference, you can test your skills online.

We’re also looking forward to the CIO Bootcamp and Enterprise Cloud Summit both of which have great agendas.

What do you think will be hot at Interop? Any sessions in particular you are looking forward to?

Have you taken a hard look at your IT department? From an outsider’s perspective?  Maybe from your CIO’s eyes? When we talk to our customers, we are starting to hear more complaints from the forward-looking CIOs. They go something like this: “I need my IT staff to stop thinking about keeping the lights on and computers running and instead figuring out how they can help advance our top line goals….or impact bottom-line.”

Does this ring true for you? We bet it does and we see this driving an interest in IT outsourcing. Outsourcing the “housekeeping” of your IT operations has many benefits but, when it comes to actually doing it, it has just as many roadblocks.

The challenges we see facing enterprises today are:

• Culture: We talk to customers and partners who say their IT staffs are so engrained with equipment and “owning” their own servers, they aren’t even looking at outsourcing for fear of relinquishing control. This is a cultural issue and just like any cultural change, it will take time to change people’s minds about “the way they’ve always done things.” It’s like steering the titanic and to be honest, I believe some people will never be won over.
• Legacy organizational structure: In addition to the cultural challenge to overcome, there is the organizational structure that hinders the process. For example, where will the telephony guy go if you outsource your voice network? I would argue that he/she could be moved to a new role that could impact one of the things we are hearing CIOs want – impacting corporate initiatives or revenue. Moving to an outsourced model will require some significant re-jiggering of the IT organization.

There is no shortage of challenges facing IT organizations today but if they don’t read the writing on the wall (or hear what their CIOs are saying); they will be pigeon-holed into a support role as opposed to a strategic driver of the organization. Outsourcing day-to-day operations is one way to free up staff to focus on more strategic initiatives.

Is it time to take a hard look at the value your IT department is bringing to your organization? Have you started outsourcing and faced these or other challenges?

Quick history lesson for those not familiar with this telecom buzz word. Dark fiber was a hot topic during the dot-com days of the late 1990’s. Telecoms, railroads and other large utilities planned for growth and increased demand of their optical fiber networks by laying down extra, unlit fiber cables. When the bubble burst and advancements such as Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) allowed carriers to get more out of their existing lit cables, network owners began selling off their unused optical networks – thus the term “dark” fiber.

Now dark fiber is back in the vernacular mostly sparked by Google, Amazon.com and Microsoft buying up large amounts of the unlit optic cable for their expansion into cloud computing. However, we’ve seen another trend bringing dark fiber back into the mainstream — recent large-scale implementations of purchased dark fiber in the education and government spaces.

Driven by a variety of government programs targeted to “bridge the digital divide” which allows some government funds to be used for dark fiber, many entities (state agencies, higher ed organizations, etc) are looking at dark fiber as an option to bring broadband to their constituents.

It’s no surprise when you consider two of the most compelling benefits: nearly unlimited bandwidth and full ownership (and thus control) of the network.

While dark fiber has many upsides, there can be some “hidden” costs. Here are some things to consider before jumping in:

1)    Start up costs: Have you considered the operational execution and costs of “flipping the switch”? Operationally, you’ll need to create processes such as provisioning and trouble ticketing. In addition, you’ll have CapEx due to equipment needed including optical amplifiers, network management tools and transceivers.

2)    Long term/sustainability – A network doesn’t run itself. Once you get it up and running, you should consider the personnel costs of operating and maintaining the network. Does your staff have the expertise and bandwidth to maintain your network? Do they have the expertise in provisioning and managing traffic to ensure QoS? How will you respond to failures, capacity increases and bandwidth shaping? Also, all that equipment you needed to get started – a seemingly “one-time” cost – will require refreshes (typically every 3 – 6 years).

The bottom-line is that, on the surface, dark fiber may seem like a slam dunk, but the start-up and long-term costs should be considered before making a move.

What’s your take? Is dark fiber worth it?

But while things like bots, viruses and hackers are well-known, we are starting to see less obvious risks come up that have a significant impact on an enterprise’s or a school’s information systems.

For example, take Cyber bullying – which is bullying through online and communication technology mediums like social media sites and texting. We don’t need to spell out the rise and catastrophic effects of cyber bullying in our country, but what does this have to do with IT infrastructure?

Well, everything – if that cyber bullying was done from a school computer. Think about that. Could a school help reduce cyber bullying by preventing students from accessing sites where it could take place? And if they didn’t, could they be held liable if cyber bullying did take place on school computers?

To address these and other out-of-the-box risks, organization of all sizes – schools or otherwise – should consider:

1. Online Security Policy – help mitigate legal issues around things like cyber bullying on school equipment or prohibited online activity on corporate computers by developing an online security policy and updating it regularly. As part of that policy, train employees, parents and children on how to identify and report behaviors of concern.
2. Firewall Management – prevent unwanted traffic from entering or leaving your network and get detailed activity logs.
3. Content Filtering – restrict the access to obscene or illegal information (required by law for public schools and libraries in many states).
4. Outsourcing – shift the responsibility of security to a 3rd party so resource-strapped businesses and schools can focus on other priorities without having to worry about keeping up with the latest threats.

The key is to think about all risks to your organization or school – even if they aren’t immediately related to your infrastructure – and come up with a proactive plan to protect your assets. With a little investment in technology and a comprehensive security plan, you’ll save time, money and headaches.

What are the “out-of the-box” security risks you’ve encountered?

Savvis is a well-respected name in the enterprise space and this move makes sense in a lot of ways. Because we have minimal customer overlap, this marriage has many benefits for businesses including:

• More options for business customers: Savvis managed hosting capabilities and CenturyLink’s strong enterprise network services will greatly expand the depth and breadth of options customers have for cloud computing solutions.
• More coverage: The deal expands CenturyLink’s geographic reach significantly through data center expansion. Savvis currently operates 32 data centers in North America, Europe and Asia. When you combine those with CentruyLink’s, the company will have 48 data centers around the world with 1.9 million square feet of gross floor space, a national 207,000-route mile fiber network and a 190,000-mile international access network.
• More new services: The acquisition accelerates CenturyLink’s speed-to-market for cloud solutions. Customers can expect new service roll outs quicker than if CenturyLink had to grow organically.

For a full summary of strategic strengths, please see our fact sheet. The Savvis integrated hosting business will operate as a business unit of CenturyLink, based in St. Louis.

This acquisition has significant upside to our business customers given the move towards cloud-based services. Do you agree? Do you have questions about the merger or opinions on how this will impact the market?

Andrew Higginbotham is the chief architect of our plans for cloud services. He recently sat down with Lisa Pierce of Strategic Networks Group for an interview that appeared in No Jitter.

Here’s a section of that interview we thought was most telling about our cloud strategy:

In the near term, Higginbotham sees two infrastructure services as key product cornerstones:

• Co-location and related managed infrastructure services: Some industry estimates see an 80X growth in this business between 2008 and 2012, with a 300% increase just in a single 12-month period.
• Managed Hosting: Custom and quasi-custom managed hosting services are enjoying double digit growth rates.

Other cloud services are yet to be defined. Future cloud services will offer customers (1) faster time-to-market, (2) highly elastic capacity, (3) a pay-per-use model, and (4) the ability to treat infrastructure costs are as variable op-ex, not cap-ex expense. “Any cloud-based service will include these four key attributes,” he said.

Higginbotham did express interest in platform-as-a-service offers like location, presence or billing services (typically targeted to other cloud providers) and software-as-a-service.

If you’d like to read more, please click over to No Jitter for the rest of the interview.

It’s certainly an exciting time to be in the cloud market and look forward to seeing how customers start to migrate to this technology. What do you think will be next in terms of cloud adoption among businesses?

So what should you do to make sure that you are prepared? Here are five tips we think are a good place to start:

 1.    Stock up on IPv6 address space

You can obtain IPv6 address space directly from a regional Internet registry such as ARIN, RIPE, APNIC, LACNIC or AFRINIC. Addresses are also available from many Internet service providers.

2.    Get IPv6 connectivity

You’ll need native connectivity via a dual-stack or dedicated connection in order to access IPv6 services and content. Alternately, you can use tunneled service, which is available from many providers. Tunneled connectivity should only be considered as a temporary measure.

3.    Consider operating systems, software, and network management tools

Be sure to consider IPv6 support when shopping for new network hardware or software now even if your full transition to IPv6 is down the road.

4.    Upgrade router, firewall, and other hardware

You may need to purchase new hardware to support both IPv4 and IPv6 simultaneously. In addition, firmware updates to support both may be needed.

 5.    Implement staff and customer service training

Consider training network administrators, IT staff, engineering planning, and design staff in the use and support of IPv6. Both self-training and formal training should be considered.

Did we miss anything? What else should businesses or agencies consider when preparing for IPv6?

If you are not familiar, World IPv6 Day is organized by The Internet Society (ISOC). It is a 24-hour trial to motivate Internet service providers, network operators, operating system vendors and web companies to prepare their services for IPv6 and ensure a successful transition as the world’s supply of IPv4 address space runs out.

World IPv6 day is important because all the participants will share how their network was impacted and what their customer experience was based on today’s trial. This will lead to the creation of best practices and improvements for the deployment of IPv6. The lessons learned coming out of World IPv6 Day will truly help set the stage for worldwide adoption of IPv6.

We covered the IPv6 mania in our last post and what it means to businesses. If you are interested in learning more about IPv6, here are some resources we recommend you check out:

• IPv6 Overview
• IPv6 White Paper
• IPv6 by Wikipedia
• IPv6 Readiness Test
• IPv6.com
• IPv6 Forums
• ARIN

Are you thinking about IPv6 yet? Are you participating in IPv6 world day?

From our perspective, the time to pay attention to IPv6 is now. Here’s why:

IPv6 is the next-generation Internet Protocol address standard that’s been standing in the wings ready to replace the IPv4 protocol most Internet services use today. The primary difference between the protocols is that IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses compared to the 32-bit addresses used with IPv4. That means IPv6 can support approximately 340 undecillion addresses as compared to 4.3 billion for IPv4.

What does this mean to you? Simply put, IPv4 addresses are running out and you will have to support IPv6 to ensure your customers and partners will be able to interact with your content (website) and products and services over the Internet.

There are other benefits to IPv6 which include:

• Improved security: While IPSec is available in some implementations of IPv4, it’s completely integrated into IPv6. Any computer running IPv6 will support IPSec encryption, regardless of the computer’s operating system. IPSec is a standard for privacy, integrity and authenticity so this will make Internet interactions more secure.
• Simplified network addressing: IPv6 networks provide auto-configuration capabilities (SLAAC) whereas IPv4 networks must be configured manually or via DHCP. This will save time and reduce the opportunity for misconfigurations.   In an effort to build awareness about this issue, The Internet Society (ISOC) is hosting World IPv6 Day on June 8. Major Internet websites around the world, including Qwest Business are coming together to help businesses prepare for the transition.

IPv6 is coming. Fast. Will you be ready?

Are you concerned about the transition? What are you doing to prepare?

Are you a network number junkie? Please share your numerical perspectives and how you “think Gig”.

As the anticipation grows, we thought it would be a good idea to consider what’s going to be hot this year, aside from the Nevada desert. From where we sit, two themes we anticipate to be hot this year at Interop are: IPv6 and cloud computing.

IPv6 Love

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, IPv6 is here. Finally. And that means that it’s time to start thinking how you’re going to implement it and how it will affect your business. While IPv6 has proven it works, transitioning to the new protocol will take some planning. You can expect to see plenty of discussion about this in the networking tracks at Interop, but the How Do We Finally Get to IPv6? session sounds like it should be a perfect jumping in point. Also, we’d recommend taking a tour of the InteropNet where the guide will explain how Qwest and InteropNet designed and deployed a dual stack IPv4/IPv6 network for the conference.

Cloud Coverage

The Enterprise Cloud Summit also promises to be a hot ticket this year as it moves from a discussion of the “what” and “why” of cloud to the “how”. We highly recommend this deep dive into utility computing where you’ll find valuable information about emerging design patterns and best practices; keeping data private in public places; economics justification; and lessons learned in the real world. And if you’re interested in the service provider perspective, you don’t want to miss the Carrier Cloud Forum for a peer-to-peer tête-à-tête about building manageable billable cloud infrastructures.

 What do you think will be the hot topics at the show?

Q: What does this mean to businesses?

When the deal closes later this year, it will create a premier managed hosting and collocation provider with global scale, which means we can meet customer demand for cloud services. For CenturyLink and Qwest customers, the combination of our hosting and network assets with Savvis’ proven solutions in colocation, managed hosting and cloud services substantially enhances CenturyLink’s capabilities. Savvis’ networking customers will gain scale as part of our much larger telecom and networking operations.

Q: Why Savvis?

Savvis is recognized as an industry leader in infrastructure as a service and web hosting. Savvis has deep expertise and a strong product suite which substantially enhances our capabilities. To provide an idea of the scale, the combined company will have 48 data centers in North America, Europe and Asia with more than 1.9 million square feet of gross floor space, a national 207,000 route mile fiber network and a 190,000 mile global access network.

Q: Why now?

Business customers continue to shift the way they manage their IT services and infrastructure by outsourcing, which helps reduce capital expense, improve service levels and take advantage of the latest advances in cloud computing. With its previous Embarq and Qwest acquisitions, CenturyLink has the assets that are complementary to the hosting and cloud computing space – a nationwide fiber backbone, a significant international access network and a proven suite of enterprise products and services with a dedicated sales force.

We believe that cloud/on-demand services are the future of IT and that this acquisition will position us well to meet our business customer needs.

What do you think? How will this acquisition impact options for customers?

SearchTelecom.com: It seems you can’t be selling IT services these days without a cloud strategy. Qwest was selling cloud services prior to the merger, but what about CenturyLink? What does the completion of the CenturyLink-Qwest merger mean for the combined company’s cloud strategy going forward?

Ancell: CenturyLink was absolutely doing work on reviewing customer requirements and awareness of what was going on in the market. They didn’t have any products in the market as of the time that we closed the merger, but it’s absolutely an area of focus and there’s a recognition that real opportunity exists there.

I’m not a big fan of ‘the cloud’ term only because it seems overused. One of the things we have been very focused on—unlike some others, and we don’t have to name any names—is that we’re not going to go out and rebrand our entire portfolio as cloud all of a sudden. We’re focused on introducing services that meet customer demands.

You will see information from us … as we put those things into the market, but [the cloud] is an area of focus. What we refer to it more as is “on-demand services.” If you want to go back and rebrand everything, I guess technically you could call Centrex a cloud service because it’s delivered over the network.  But [our strategy for] on-demand services encompasses everything from the network itself to compute cycles, storage, applications—all provided on an on-demand basis. Then you get into specifics under each [service]. You have backup and recovery in that storage space; you have just raw storage in that storage space. You have all different kinds of permutations in computing cycles in how you turn those up and turn those down.

In the end, it’s about providing all of those infrastructure components in an on-demand basis. We’re very focused on that and particularly in understanding what customers are really looking for because despite all the hype, there still is a lot of evolution that’s going on in [terms of] what customers are really looking for.

You can read the whole interview at SearchTelecom’s site here.

What do you think – is “cloud” overused? Is the evolution to “on-demand” services more meaningful to businesses?

Dow Jones covered the perspective of Glen Post, our CEO, on why the enterprise market is significant to CenturyLink as the company moves forward.

Chris Ancell, our EVP of Business Markets Group, talked to GigaOm about what the future holds for the enterprise business. The two big themes are that bandwidth demand is continuing to grow and that the new scale gained through this acquisition may lead to cloud-related deals.

What do you think? Please share your perspective on the move, or what questions you may have.

So what does this mean to you? Besides operating under the CenturyLink brand once the transition is complete, this will ultimately turn us into a stronger alternative in the enterprise market. From my perspective, this merger means a few important things to our business customers:

• We are more local: The merger will effectively double the size of our network, allowing us to provide local service where our business customers are.
• Additional new services: Because the combined company will have a strong financial profile, we will have more opportunity to invest in new infrastructure, new solutions, and innovative services to better meet the needs of today’s business customer.
• Better and faster: We’ll nearly double our network access points and with a network backbone that will soon be capable of up to 100 Gbps, the network will allow traffic to go from point-to-point efficiently. This means you can run bandwidth-hungry applications like video, telepresence and real-time data back-up without any decreases in security, quality or performance.

In short, CenturyLink is committed to our business customers. I am very excited about what we will be able to accomplish by drawing on the strengths of both companies.

I welcome your thoughts and questions. Mergers can seem like uncertain times, but I am confident that we will become a stronger company for our business customers and look forward to what’s to come. What are your thoughts? What would you like to know?

• Real life examples of BC/DR in action
• How to create a business continuity strategy
• How technology can help you manage risk

Wrapping up our series, we’re highlighting four key takeaways for ensuring a successful BC/DR deployment. We asked our BC/DR expert, Mike Cybyske to come up with his most critical advice for anyone developing or deploying a BC/DR strategy. Mike is a crisis manager at Qwest and is responsible for overseeing our corporate Crisis Management Team.

Testing 1, 2, 3… - The only way to validate a plan is to test it. You should test your BC/DR plan frequently and strengthen it with the things you learn through testing.

Communication is key – During a disaster, buildings are evacuated and people may scatter. It can be difficult to locate the people responsible for executing your BC/DR plans. It is important to have in place a simple, effective way to communicate with all parties – one that will not be affected by the outage. Make sure department heads maintain up-to-date contact lists and have a centralized number that employees can call for information. Use new forms of communication technology, such as text messaging, or social media, to disseminate critical information if needed.

Remember your suppliers – The popular trend toward outsourcing provides most businesses with the option of offsetting workloads so you can still meet customer needs while you’re recovering. Make sure you know who the vendors and partners are that support your business. Consider your supply chain for daily business operations, and have a back-up plan. Also, validate that your suppliers can do what they say they can do in the case of a disaster.

Keep planning - Keep an eye on your changing environment and stay informed about new applications your business is using. Make sure new employees familiarize themselves with the plan as they come on-board. Also, be proactive in your planning. For example, if there is a large scale disaster, it can be difficult to get staff back in the area to take care of the issues that occur; particularly if you’re working for an infrastructure provider or bank, where the pain is severe and immediate. Work with state agencies now to determine necessary credentials and processes to get people back into damage areas quickly.

Do you have other key takeaways based on your own BC/DR planning?

A few reasons businesses should take notice:

• Joint Venture program – It’s like Apple Genius for businesses. They can help get your business set up and train your employees.
• Business-friendly applications – iPad-friendly apps include salesforce.com, Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Maps, Notes and Safari.
• Integration with standard business apps – It integrates with Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino and standards-based messaging environment

For additional details on the business slant of the new iPad, check out Michael Hickins blog and Don Reisinger’s slideshow.

I think the determination for businesses on whether to use the iPad will come down to how they can use what can be considered a viewing monitor. The value is clear from the standpoint of looking at content and interacting through standard business communication tools (email, IM, etc.), but not so clear when it comes to content creation. The real question is how much value will a business get from the iPad and does that merit providing support for employees?

If your business goes iPad, how will this impact you? It’s safe to say we’ve seen this movie before with the proliferation of mobile devices a few short years back and there are a lot of similarities. Here are a few key considerations:

1. Security: Just like the mobile device explosion we experienced, security is the primary concern. With all those end points out there, how do you make sure your data is secure? The first thing to note is that Apple’s iOS platform offers security features like the ability to set permissions and mobile device management.
2. Cloud: With the use of the iPad in business environments, users will be accessing applications in the cloud. This brings a whole host of considerations but nothing too far-flung from users accessing apps from their BlackBerrys and iPhones. It will be important to consider your network infrastructure to ensure you have a highly available, high-performance network to ensure positive user experience with the iPads.

Only time will tell if enterprises will start embracing the new iPad but if history is any guide, the consumerization of IT is inevitable. Users want the ease and flexibility they get at home in their work life. It’s hard to avoid the tidal wave of consumer demand.

What do you think? Will enterprises embrace the iPad 2 or does it still have too far to go?

If you missed our previous BC/DR posts, be sure to check these out:

• BC/DR in Action
• How to Create a Business Continuity Strategy

What kind of role does technology play in managing risk and your BC/DR program?

Technology has helped a great deal with minimizing and sometimes eliminating risks. For example, today’s call center platforms can manage customer call volumes and redirect calls to different centers when one office becomes overwhelmed. This same technology can also be utilized in the event one site is impacted by a disaster.

Similar technologies are also available that provide uninterrupted access to data, applications and web sites even if access to the primary servers is lost. In addition, many of today’s network technologies are designed to automatically re-route voice and data traffic when necessary to prevent disruptions.

How have social networking and mobile technology influenced your crisis management role?

Mobile technology and social networking provide additional ways to communicate with employees and customers, which is critical to maintaining communications during a disaster to disseminate critical information.

How have you used technology to support your BC/DR strategies? Has it helped or hurt your efforts to reduce risk?

Can you tell us about a time when the BC/DR plan was put into action and what the result was?

Hurricane Ike

Hurricane Ike caused an estimated $38 billion in damages and a power outage that affected more than 2 million people in three states. Fortunately, our network equipment was not damaged by the hurricane and we had built layers of redundancy to mitigate power outages impacting our equipment. We were able to leverage generator-based power to keep our network equipment operational during the hurricane.

The real challenge to business continuity came after the event. The power outage was prolonged and required us to secure fuel through multiple suppliers. Business continuity was maintained and we strengthened the program by developing new supplier relationships that may be key to business continuity in the future.

Washington State

In early January 2009, Washington State experienced some of its worst flooding, mudslides and avalanches on record. More than 30,000 people were urged to evacuate their homes. Qwest’s primary concerns were the protection of infrastructure and the continuation of telecom services, including 911, to its hundreds of thousands of customers in many of the states’ municipalities.

We had built plans based on past events, which enabled us to deploy flood prevention measures to maintain business continuity throughout the ordeal. The 2009 floods helped to demonstrate the value of those previous investments and get closer to the ever-elusive ROI of BC/DR.

Do you have any “lessons learned” from putting a BC/DR plan into action?

To discuss BC/DR, we turned to our resident expert, Mike Cybyske. Mike is a crisis manager at Qwest and is responsible for overseeing our corporate Crisis Management Team. This is the first installment in a series where we’ll discuss BC/DR. Today, we cover the strategic elements of a BC/DR strategy. In future pieces, we’ll discuss the technology considerations and how to evaluate a solution.

As a business continuity expert for a large business, what are your top recommendations for customers looking to implement a BC/DR plan?

Recognize that you can’t protect everything. It’s important to identify the business critical functions and who is critical to supporting your business. Know what your critical functions, vendors and suppliers are and what you would stand to lose if they were unavailable for a few hours, day, or weeks.

What are some of the primary elements of creating a BC/DR plan?

A good plan should address four key elements: building, systems, equipment, and personnel, and contingencies for the loss of any or all of them. This multihazard approach allows flexibility in responding to the disaster and reduces planning redundancy since it is not event-specific planning—hurricane, tornado, winter storm, etc.

How have the risks a company may face evolved over time?

One risk that every company faces is changing technology. As technologies change and corporations adopt them for increased productivity or cost savings, consideration of business continuity is often an afterthought, if at all.

What is your biggest challenge in implementing a BC/DR program?

My biggest challenge is ensuring executive support. Trying to implement a corporate wide program from the bottom up or individually within each business unit is difficult. An effective program requires a strategy that incorporates all departments and their participation from the top down which can only be accomplished when corporate leadership understands and supports continuity planning.

What do you think are the common challenges businesses face when planning to implement BC/DR solutions?

One of the biggest challenges is getting leadership to spend money they don’t have to prepare for things they don’t think will happen. You have to educate leaders, build support and set realistic expectations. You have to educate them on the risk and how their operations will be impacted. And you need to focus on bringing together all the pieces of data – threats, impacts, risk tolerance, financial situation – and then synthesize them so that the solution is sustainable long-term.

Security is obviously a top concern when it comes to cloud adoption plans. After all, what CIO wouldn’t worry about a threat in a public environment spilling over into his enterprise network? Plus, couldn’t this bring about additional complexities?

When it comes to locking down security for cloud applications, enterprises have a few options, each with their own advantages:

On-Premise Security

• Single security authority
• More control over data protection
• Full risk and compliance posture visibility
• Less complexity

Outsourced Security

• Financial relief
• Diminished management and oversight
• Specialized 3rd-party security resources

Interestingly, 45 percent of the survey respondents in the above-mentioned poll think that a hybrid or mixed approach to cloud security is the way to go. They see similar best-of-both-worlds benefits of managed security services, as well as a tight rein on data protection. What’s more, it’s an affordable way to add security capabilities when budgets are tight. And while there may be challenges in terms of visibility and the ability to enforce security, by working together in tandem, the internal-external partnership can yield great results.

In short, it seems most enterprises agree: When done right, there’s no reason not to reach for the clouds. What’s your take on implementing a hybrid approach to the cloud?

Let me back up and explain. The all-too-common traditional process that is no longer working typically looks like this: Customer has a need, finds providers that sell a product to fulfill that need, and then selects a solution based on price or a mixture of price and feature/functionality.

What I am proposing is that we take a more transparent and collaborative approach to the buying process. Something that would look like this: Customer talks to provider about what they are looking to do with their business (change in technology, new apps, outsourcing, etc.) and also shares critical things like business challenges, their forecasted growth and their current infrastructure environment. The provider then proposes possible solutions based on a holistic view and customer selects the one that works best for them.

We’ve had the pleasure of using this process with a few customers and in every case, it leads to more on-target solutions and, ultimately, happier customers. In one example, a large software manufacturer was developing a five year technology plan and in our discussions, they provided details around their product rollout, impact on customers, sales forecasting, etc., which ultimately became the requirements for their data center space, server capacity, redundancy and connectivity. It took months of planning and a truly collaborative approach between the two companies, but we ended up with a successful solution by focusing on long term business needs and drivers.

Now I know this is asking a lot of the customer. It’s a cultural shift, really. For so many years, it’s been the same “keep your cards close” process. This is supposed to help you keep costs down and prevent you from giving away too much information that could lead to a costly solution recommendation.

But in reality, telling the provider everything can actually save you money and lead to a solution that better meets your needs. I know this may come across as self-serving as if there is only benefit to the provider but here I will counter with this: If you provide a comprehensive view of your environment, your goals and your challenges to the vendors you are considering, it will become clear – very quickly, I might add – which vendors really understand your business, market and needs. And that is reason enough to give this approach a try.

What about you? Do you agree? Have you tried being transparent with your providers or customers? Any successes or failures?

In our final expert roundtable, we explore this dynamic. For the business person, cloud represents an opportunity to drive profitability, growth and product development. For the IT professional, the cloud represents a way to drive greater efficiencies, offload resources and ultimately provide another tool in the IT toolkit to support the business.

What do you think? What are the unique considerations for each side?

In this expert roundtable, Qwest cloud experts and Nemertes Research Senior Analyst Ted Ritter answer the following questions:

• What is the role of standards in the development of cloud services?
• Is the Internet the ideal platform for the cloud?
• What is the role of the network in the cloud? As Ted asks, is it still just a “thing” in the middle of an architect’s network drawing?

How would you answer these questions? Do you think the “connections” get overlooked?

In the second of four roundtables between Qwest cloud experts and Nemertes Senior Analyst Ted Ritter, we focus on public, private and hybrid clouds and the security considerations enterprises must keep in mind, including:

• What risk management strategies to consider
• How to evaluate which resources and processes should move to the cloud.

What security concerns do you have related to the cloud? Have you put any safeguards in place?

In our next installment, we’ll look at how companies are tying the network to the cloud.

• What is cloud computing?
• How does cloud affect the enterprise?

Do you agree with these definitions? Think our experts got something wrong?

Stay tuned for our next installment focused on security in the cloud.

It begins with the classic story. The Software as a Service (SaaS) implementation replaces a homegrown funnel management system whose performance had been steadily degrading. Managers lacked visibility into the sales cycle and tools for coaching. Users wanted the ability to manage customers from a Smartphone without losing performance. The tool wasn’t able to scale up quickly as the user base grew and changes to the application took longer than we’d like.

What are the benefits we found by moving to the cloud?

• Shorter implementation cycle. The Salesforce automation (SFA) project got underway in May 2010. In six months, the team did analysis, design, configuration, training development and delivery, testing and deployment. Based on our estimates, that’s at least a 50 percent improvement.
• Faster change management. The cloud-based app enables changes to be made incrementally, and managed on the sales operations side, making the business more self-reliant.
• Better sales productivity. In trials, salespeople saved hours every month in admin time. Instead of creating reports, salespeople could spend more time in front of customers.
• Better tools, better data. The Miller-Heiman sales methodology we use at Qwest is integrated into Salesforce.com and managers have more visibility into the cycle.

We asked the team that led this project what advice they’d offer to other enterprises making the switch:

• Start small. Don’t try and solve all of your issues in one shot. The crawl-run-walk philosophy of implementing programs definitely applies to a cloud-based solution. Take advantage of small quick wins and build on those early successes.
• Don’t bend the app to your will. Resist the temptation to over-customize SaaS apps. Look at your existing business processes, make sure they’re rational and deploy the application to support them.
• Remember the Spiderman Paradox: With great power comes great responsibility. Just because a cloud app can be flexible doesn’t mean you can avoid good processes, good oversight and disciplined business governance.

The best testimonial of all happened at the end of the user trials. Once the benefit statement was proved, managers looked to shut down the trial environment – but nobody wanted to stop using the application.

Have you moved your sales force automation or CRM solution to the cloud? What are the benefits you’ve experienced?

Now we want to dig into one of cloud computing’s core components – Platform as a Service or PaaS – and look at how this flavor of cloud computing is enabling innovation.

First, let’s define PaaS. It’s a technology that combines hosted infrastructure with a development platform such as Java or APEX, purposely separating the development environment from specific operating systems or hardware.

This enables software developers to streamline web application development. By working in the cloud, small companies can access resources they couldn’t afford otherwise, and big enterprises can act quickly and nimbly.

According to blogger and WaveMaker CEO Christopher Keene, “PaaS offers the potential for general developers to build web applications without needing specialized expertise. This allows an entire generation of MS Access, Lotus Notes and PowerBuilder developers to start building Web applications without the huge learning curve.”

The potential development benefits are many:

• Flexibility: Use what you need, pay as you go. Cloud-based development platforms can expand as your needs expand, then scale up or downsize as market conditions dictate.
• Easier management: Developers are assured that their development environment is stable, reliable and up-to-date. There’s no need for bug fixes, version control or buying more machines.
• Ease of collaboration: The cloud allows people to collaborate in a natural, real-time, horizontal way that’s often impeded by networks, especially secure networks. Managers can take advantage of different people’s skill sets to build a Web application quickly and test it under real-world conditions.
• Cost savings: Better resource utilization, and reduced cycle time on development projects, means managers save money as they gain speed and agility. Companies can avoid major investments in infrastructure, and just get to work writing and running their applications.

Are you a developer or business looking at PaaS? What concerns do you have?

At Qwest, we believe that cloud computing offers as many opportunities to shake things up as the birth of the commercial Internet did 15 years ago.

In the mid-nineties, the emergence of the Internet launched a whole new level of innovation and was one of the elements that helped bring the United States out of a deep recession. Not only did scores of new companies spring up but existing companies discovered new lines of business and other ways to reinvent themselves and stay relevant. Ideas, information, resources and capital could move from anywhere to anywhere. Yes, the dot-com bubble eventually burst but compare your life today (at home, at work or commuting between the two) to 1995 and you have to agree that just as advertised, the Internet changed the world.

Companies that asked, “How can we use this technology to do something different?” became the big gainers.

• Cisco began as a router manufacturer in the earliest days of client-server but revolutionized their company as the Internet changed the definition of “network.”
• With online college courses, universities not only created a new way to learn but opened their offerings to wider audiences. Location was no longer a barrier to higher education.
• A ubiquitous coffee company saw its business model shift – and its growth accelerate – when it installed wireless Internet access in its stores, turning cafes into virtual offices.
• Qwest itself began as a spinoff from the Southern Pacific Railroad, laying miles of fiber-optic cable along its rights of way. A true Industrial Age business – the railroad – used its most basic asset – real estate – to create something entirely new.

We believe that cloud will provide a transformative platform for innovation in the years to come.

Do you think cloud will be transformative or do you think it’s over-hyped?

Paul Greenberg, founder of the 56 Group, describes the social customer perfectly when he notes that customers are now communicating outside traditional channels, and that who and how they trust is different than it used to be.

While I don’t think traditional marketing techniques will go away, I do think organizations that don’t integrate social media tools into their marketing mix are in trouble. It comes down to using new techniques to reach the same objectives: building awareness, trust and brand loyalty and ultimately sales.

For those who are hesitant to jump into social media, here are a few ways we’ve integrated social media into our marketing mix:

Inject some fun: To increase technical decision maker traffic to our booth at the Interop trade show, we created a character, Johnny Lee Ross, leader of the fictional heavy metal band MotherBoard. We used him in our pre-marketing materials, which included videos posted on YouTube, email messages, direct mail pieces, a Twitter account and a Facebook page. We had a 35% improvement on quality of the audience visiting our booth and a 57% improvement at our VIP event where Johnny was our featured guest.

Embrace new platforms: To extend an existing campaign onto a platform that is being strongly adopted by our target audience, this week we launched our Qwandary iPhone app. It features a problem solving game we’ve also been running in print and online, giving us the opportunity to have an additional touch point in a fun way.

While we have a way to go before social CRM fully matures, I do think small incremental steps will go a long way to reach the new social customer.

My advice: Inject some “social” into your marketing efforts and see where it takes you.

When it comes to being social with your customers are you a leader or a follower? Or somewhere in between?

Here at Qwest, we’ve developed a framework that enables multiple groups to work together to support business continuity and incident response. We have cross-functional teams tasked with this endeavor and have made disaster recovery and business continuity priorities for our business.

In addition to our own efforts, to help our customers stay ahead of the next unforeseen event, we are always looking for ways to leverage our data center environments, our national fiber network and Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery services. As part of that effort, today we launched Qwest’s cloud-based Real-Time Application Recovery service.

Do you have a plan in place for your IT infrastructure in the event of a disaster or other unforeseen event?

Jason Hiner, editor of TechRepublic, calls the consumerization of IT one of the industry’s key trends. When the topic first arose, “It was primarily an annoyance involving a few power users who were bringing their own Palm Treos into the enterprise and using some unauthorized Web tools to get their work done.”

But these days, corporate IT must deal with personal laptops and smartphones and a mobile workforce. The buzz around unified communications, and the growth in popularity of Web-based tools such as Evernote, Skype and Google Docs, raise questions about where your enterprise data lives and who can access it.

End users want to use their mobile tools to improve productivity without struggling to connect to the network. Enterprise IT pros must maintain the integrity of their systems while staying current on the flood of new technology. How do you achieve a balance?

Fix real problems. Great advice from CIO Update, which suggests that enterprises look at their business processes and identify situations where things like UC could solve problems, rather than picking the UC tools you want to deploy and then finding places they fit. Our recent tips for UC help identify ways to do this.

Meet users halfway. You shouldn’t let users access corporate resources from any device but consider new options – such as iPhones in addition to Blackberries – if a number of users are interested. This will limit rogue usage and lead to goodwill (and hopefully compliance) among users.

Be proactive. Create policies for consumer devices and apps. Staying one step ahead of your users will help keep sensitive corporate information safe. It’s much easier to enforce policies if they already exist, instead of creating something after the fact.

It’s no doubt the consumer force is strong and businesses are always looking for ways to improve productivity. If a user can be more productive using a traditionally “consumer” device or app, the enterprise that embraces that is likely to reap the rewards. The challenge is finding a balance between embracing user preference and maintaining security of corporate information.

Do your users push the IT envelope? How do you ensure your data is safe?

One of a SIP network’s biggest virtues is the ability to share resources cost-effectively. For example, a business with 10 locations nationwide can streamline down to one central call center in a way that’s invisible to customers. Or a company whose inbound calls come in bursts can dedicate bandwidth to voice when needed, instead of paying for more bandwidth to handle a few heavy traffic days a year.

SIP talk seems to be everywhere this summer, but the standard continues to evolve. Interoperability issues make the technology appropriate for some enterprises, but not all. In short, your communications platform may not work with the SIP gateway or edge device you want to buy.

Before you decide if you are ready to SIP the Kool-Aid, think about these five criteria:

1. Do you need a multi-site network? Businesses with many locations, and/or demand for fluid communications, can realize huge cost savings. If you don’t fit this description, SIP trunking may not be worth the effort right now.
2. Do you have the right security measures in place? VoIP brings in a host of new security implications for your business such as DoS attacks and fraud. Determine your organization’s readiness when making the leap to VoIP.
3. Is security a larger concern? Low-cost VoIP providers are everywhere, but most use the public Internet to carry their traffic. Major carriers, including Qwest, deliver SIP service on their private networks for quality and security purposes.
4. Are you willing to invest time and money in research and testing – not just the hardware, but the service provider? Not all providers bring the same game to the field. Some may not provide service into regions where you plan to grow five years from now. Others may not exist five years from now.
5. Are you in a position to change your phone system? If you’re not already using VoIP, you will need it for SIP trunking. If you’re making an office move, or you’ve reached the end of your communications equipment’s usable life – and these days, that could be within three to five years – it’s a perfect time to look at making the change to SIP trunking.

Have you deployed SIP trunk? Are there other things to consider?

1. Define UC – Define terms and requirements. Vendors use “unified communications” to describe strategies that vary widely: on-premise, in the cloud or both; centered on email, telephony or a media server; single vendor or partnership. The benefit: Being clear on specific business and technology needs will save a lot of time during the proposal stage.
2. Stay grounded – Validate key business drivers. Listen to your internal customers to make sure requirements for UC map back to business needs. Some users may not need – and will never use – all the cool functionality you want them to have. Others will envision possibilities the experts may not have thought of. The benefit: Creating a UC program that solves real problems for end users will speed adoption and create faster cost.
3. Plan, plan, plan – Then plan some more. In our experience, implementations consist of 80 percent planning and 20 percent installation. Because UC is complex and touches so many parts of an infrastructure, it is critical to decide if you are going to deploy UC piecemeal or do a wholesale upgrade of your communication system. Once you have your vision defined, evaluate your needs and cross reference them with the roadmaps of your strategic partners and vendors to uncover synergies and roadblocks. The benefit: Care taken on the front end reaps rewards on the back end. A poorly executed deployment will disrupt your business, stall future enhancements, and result in lost confidence in the value of UC.
4. Take stock – So often, we find that IT departments, particularly those in larger organizations, don’t have a complete view of their IT infrastructure. This includes not only documenting your equipment and contracts but also your telephone numbers and dial plans. The benefit: A snapshot of the network in all its complexity can help quantify the potential cost savings of a UC solution.
5. Team up – Build a cross-functional team that engages end users to set expectations and gain buy-in. The benefit: With upfront buy-in and a holistic view of end user needs, you will have increased adoption of the new tools and a faster ROI.

Are you thinking about UC for your business? Have you implemented a UC solution? Any tips or pitfalls to watch out for?

“What is the business of my business?”

While seemingly self-evident, this question gets down to important considerations. Is this process or function our core business or should we consider outsourcing to a partner? What is really the best use of our people and resources right now?

We’ve been hearing this more often lately, and it’s a bit like the movie “Groundhog Day” – in a good way.

Over the years, we’ve seen the outsource/in-house pendulum swing back and forth when it comes to IT. The last big swing, about 10 years ago, put many enterprises squarely in the camp of “I’m going to roll my own.” They wanted to customize and control their IT and communications environment, with staff building and managing key parts of the infrastructure. So businesses staffed up, created what they needed, and owned the results. At that time, that may have resulted in a competitive advantage. Flash forward 10 years later and IT infrastructure has largely become standardized and is frequently delivered as a service – much like a utility.

Now, as enterprises start to come out of the recession, CIOs find themselves questioning whether that still makes sense. Should IT staff continue on their current path or focus more on core strategic activities and hand off the responsibility of day-to-day network management to someone else?

While reliability remains as critical as ever in our always-on, anywhere world, we see a greater comfort level among CIOs to rely on partners to manage some or all of their IT infrastructure. We credit two factors:

• Cloud and managed solutions are becoming more sophisticated, offering five-9s reliability and 24/7/365 support.
• Technology has become more critical to the success of the enterprise’s core business. For example, as we’ve discussed, effective customer service strategies rely more and more on technology.

As your users demand more advanced IT functionality, do you plan to staff up, or are you looking for outsourced or hosted solutions?

Take sales reps as an example. Imagine what they could do if they could access their CRM and ordering systems while at a customer visit – faster quotes, faster order placement and faster service or product delivery. Seems like the way to become a well-oiled, customer-centric machine.

But put this scenario in front of IT managers and notice the fear in their eyes. Far from utopia, it represents pure chaos and risk. Visions of issues start running through their heads:

• Security and privacy concerns
• Interoperability
• Managing the inventory of devices
• Pushing software updates and patches
• Compliance mandates

In short: The risks seem to outweigh the benefits. But this movement and the demands of the mobile worker will keep increasing. Enterprises must find a way to support mobility in the truest sense.

While technology exists to help businesses manage devices across their network, it must become more sophisticated to assuage the fears of IT managers. Mobility management technology should not only alert IT managers to new devices entering the network, but also ensure the device is compliant and secure.

What’s on your mobility wish list? Do you think we will ever reach the utopia of the truly mobile enterprise?

Network security often lands on the back burner when the going gets tough. We hear about security risks every day and understand what could happen…but dismiss the likelihood it will happen to us.

The truth is, the risk is just too high and now is a good time to evaluate your security strategy. But how do you know what’s right for you?

Let’s break down the options:

Do it yourself: Hire or train staff to secure your business through tools such as firewalls and web filters.

Pros: No worries about handing over the “keys to the castle” or compromising confidentiality. You stay in the driver’s seat.

Cons: Significant capex and opex. Increased complexity from managing multiple tools. Ongoing maintenance can get costly.

Who it works for: Typically larger businesses with a full IT staff and resources (capital and tools) to manage the environment.

Buy the gear, pay someone to manage it: Purchase managed security services from a partner who manages security equipment and services on your network.

Pros: Minimal capex. Reduced complexity. IT staff and budget focused on strategic activities, not day-to-day security management.

Cons: Must trust your partner, who must work within your existing setup. If it’s not optimal, this may affect quality of service or costs. Ongoing licensing fees from previous agreements.

Who it works for: Companies that invested in security, but struggle to keep up with compliance, threats and maintenance issues.

Go to the cloud (almost): While it would be nice to rely solely on the cloud, the reality today includes a premise-based solution. In this case, you outsource all security, but your partner typically deploys and manages hardware at your site.

Pros: No capex or staff needs. Partner can manage other elements like the network for an integrated environment. Incident management and resolution improves.

Cons: Not as fully integrated with other cloud offerings as it could be.
Who it works for:

• Small businesses that lack security staff and expertise.
• Mid-sized businesses, where dealing with security distracts IT from core business functions.
• Large businesses with many locations, looking to outsource day-to-day security.

Have you had successes or failures with any of these approaches? Any lessons learned or best practices?

What tools does your company use to be more “customer-centric?” No doubt, most enterprises would mention their CRM system, their call center, sales force automation…

True, these tools are important, but just as the world’s top chef can’t be successful without flour and salt, these sophisticated apps provide limited value without the right foundation – a converged voice and data network.

So often overlooked when it comes to customer experience, your network is the keystone to a truly customer-centric organization. Converged networks integrate disparate systems, allow data to be collected no matter where it originates, enable that data to be analyzed, and provide new levels of flexibility for a swift response to customer need.

And yet, IT and business execs feel they’re falling short when it comes to changing business practices to meet customer needs.

In a recent survey Qwest did with IDG Research, we uncovered some interesting information about businesses’ effective use of technology. For example:

• Less than one-third of IT execs believe that their companies are “highly effective” at adapting to changing customer needs.
• While 68 percent of IT executives and 64 percent of business leaders saw technology as very important in understanding customer priorities, more than two-thirds admitted their companies did a less-than-stellar job of using technology to meet customer demands.
• Fewer than 40 percent of companies use quantitative metrics to understand customer behavior.

Think about the expanding number of ways customers interact with your company. Customers speak to sales reps, contact customer support, visit your website, interact on social media platforms and hear from current and former customers on social forums. If data is not being compiled from all of these touch points, businesses cannot get a complete view of the customer and thus cannot adequately adapt to customer needs.

With a robust network and the right solutions in place, your enterprise can respond swiftly to changing needs, allocate resources from staffing to inventory on a near-real time basis, and use sophisticated algorithms to understand and predict customer behavior. Without these resources, businesses can only watch their better-equipped competitors turn customer-centric processes into market share.

Have you made changes to your network infrastructure that enable you to better meet your customer needs?

You can rely on ThinkGig to keep you informed on the issues you face every day and inspire you to think big when it comes to your business.

Thanks for coming along for the ride and please contact us with any suggestions or post a comment.