On the first call I find out I’m working on a bus. But not just any bus, a huge motor 40+ foot coach. When I first saw the rendering it was only the outside and I thought this is going to “wow” a lot of people. But what the heck do we put inside?

I started work with two of the best people at CDW Nick Muller (video Technical Architect) and Craig Coolidge (wireless Technical Architect) to divide up the work. We had a Cisco Stadium Vision design to use. Cisco Stadium Vision is a suite that allows owners of arenas, ballparks or large event locations to control video content and advertising throughout the venue. The base design provided us the foundation for the interconnections of devices.

Thinking ahead, I knew we would have to support wireless since we wanted to show off Stadium wireless as well as “office” wireless in and around the bus. We would also require a small layer 3 core. So I determined the network switch would be the new Cisco Catalyst 3850. This offered us the Layer3, Power over Ethernet (PoE) and would eventually allow for wireless access point termination. Next I looked at connection from the bus to the internet. In speaking to the Cisco router Business Unit we came up with using a 4G connection as this seemed to make the most sense and could offer the speeds we need. We added the UCS-E series as well so we could demonstrate the branch in a box concept. Having a server with a small footprint that is isolated from the backplane of the router (gets power only), allow for services like local DHCP, Print, Application Acceleration, etc. I added an ASA firewall and then got to work on the NetApp Express pod scope. With all of this hardware and the rest of the audio and sound gear, we started to look at how to rack all of this equipment.

Wow, what a challenge. We had been told we had only one rack to work with. How are we going to fit so many devices into one rack? After several attempts we realized two racks was the way to go and it worked perfectly.

Next came the power.

I had to get a list of all the devices with their estimated power draw. Then worked with Tripp Lite to come up with a plan to rack and power everything. This included separating devices that should have a UPS and the ones that just needed line conditioning.

Seven weeks later the bus shows up in Atlanta for the national championship game. I personally was blown away by the interior. I had never seen a rendering but knew the racks would be in the middle of the bus. My first reaction to the glass enclosure was, “what a perfect way to showcase the technology”. The rest of the interior was unbelievable.

I’m still amazed to this day at how the CDW Technoliner turned out and what a great way it will be for people to see the technology we use at CDW in person and in a new way. And, for the folks coming to CiscoLive in Orlando stop by the bus and come see it for yourself!

On April 24th, the product line received a major overhaul with the introduction of its 16 Gb switches, new directors and a new hardware architecture. The revamped director is the MDS 9710 and closely resembles its Nexus 7000 cousin, replacing the 9500s. The switch is the MDS 9250i replacing the 9222i. Both are available for ordering today from Cisco and should start shipping in the next few months through Original Storage Manufactures (OSMs).

There is one line card offered initially on the 9710: a full line-rate 48-port 16 Gb FC/FICON module. (FICON is mainframe “Fibre Connection” for high speed storage attachment.) A 48-port 10 Gb FCoE module is planned for release later this year with full multi-hop capability. Like it’s 7k cousin, it offers N+1 power supplies and N+1 fabric modules, letting you scale power and bandwidth as appropriate to your needs. Initially you’ll want 6 power modules and 4 fabric modules to give full redundancy for today’s blades (up to a maximum of 8 and 6 respectively). As you’d expect, dual-redundant supervisors control the overall system with non-disruptive hardware and software upgrades. Three fans blow front to back for redundant cooling. Click to see a nice 3D model of the 9710. (Java required; click on the features menu at the bottom to view components inside.)

The 9250i offers 40 ports of 16 Gb FC/FICON, 8 ports of 10 Gb FCoE and 2 ports of 1/10 Gb IP (Ethernet) ports for FibreChannel over IP (FCIP) and iSCSI all at line rate. The switch can run many of intelligent SAN applications such as I/O Accelerator (IOA), Data Mobility Manager (DMM) Extended Remote Copy Acceleration (XRC). Click to see a nice 3D model of the 9250i. (Java required.)

The switches are FICON capable, but they are not supported yet in NX-OS. If you’re a mainframe shop, you’ll have to wait for a software release later this year.

Cisco is making a departure from the past by not releasing a FCIP card for the 9710 at this time. To do SAN extension over IP, you’ll need to add a 9250i into the mix instead of architecting it natively on the director. Hopefully this will be a temporary restriction and we’ll see a FCIP capable card on the director. For the past year, metro 10 GbE has become affordable for an increasing number of businesses. Storage environments that won’t replicate natively over IP will be looking to extend the storage area network (SAN), at least in the metro, over 10 GbE. The future of Storage Media Encryption (SME) is also uncertain with the new switches and is absent in the product launch.

If you’re not ready for 16 Gb FC yet, you can still future proof the new director and switches. The 16 Gb SFPs will switch between 4, 8 and 16, or you can opt for 8 Gb SFPs with 2, 4 and 8 Gb connectivity. Of course you can mix and match within a blade.

It’s nice to see the MDS mature into the Nexus hardware space with faster links, blades and scalable fabric modules. With this introduction, Cisco has given the product line a lot of growth with new line cards, fabric modules and supervisors for years to come.

1. “What does this mean for my business?”
2. “Are we protected against a targeted attack or APT like that one?”

“What does this mean for my business?”

Breaches are commonplace and they can ruin your business’s reputation. Hackers are out to get any data they can monetize. They will get anything they can sell to the highest bidder. That might be credit cards, copyrighted information, or trade secrets but it could be as simple as authentication credentials, names and email addresses. These all have dollar values to someone and are what attackers are after. Every company has something that is of value and hackers want it. It is no longer a matter of if a breach will happen but a question of when it will happen (if not already).

“Are we protected against a targeted attack or Advanced Persistent Threat like that one?”

If you are using legacy protections only (like firewall, signature based anti-malware, and spam filtering), then you’re probably not safe. These new, sophisticated attacks are designed to evade common protection solutions and go undetected for long periods of time. Targeted attacks are the new normal and without a true defense in depth security strategy you may not be adequately protected. CDW Threat Check is a no cost assessment service that can look for and detect malicious activity currently residing on your network.  Ensure you are adequately protected from these targeted threats and better plan your security solutions based on the results.

With mobility continuing to grow in importance to the success of your business, it’s great to know that CDW is well positioned to help you achieve your mobility vision and goals. How? CDW recently launched it’s Total Mobility Management Solution which will help your organization in a number of ways.

1. Assessment – It all starts with a network and security assessment. CDW has Solution Architects focused solely on helping you understand your organization’s network readiness for mobility and any additional security requirements.
2. Planning and Strategy – Do you have a BYOD/Mobility policy? Do you know where to start in designing your BYOD/Mobility Policy? Most organizations do it backwards, by purchasing mobile devices and MDM without first understanding the value of mobility to their organization. CDW can consult with you on your planning and strategy of your mobility policy.
3. Enable – With CDW’s procurement portal, you now have a single portal to order from multiple wireless carriers. Additionally, our procurement services can load mobile device management (MDM) profiles, configure and kit your mobile devices to reduce your time required in deploying mobile devices to your employees. These services will save you time and allow you to focus on more strategic matters within your organization, while making your employees more productive.
4. Protect & Support – Partnering with the leading MDM providers, you can rest assured that we’ll find the MDM solution that best meets your mobile requirements. Plus, CDW’s procurement portal offers a complete mobile help desk solution for your employees and administrators.
5. Empower – It’s predicted that we will download 70 Billion mobile Apps. Your employees and customers want to consume data via mobile apps. Mobile as a platform will be a big trend moving forward and with CDW’s custom mobile application service, you can quickly develop mobile apps that give you a distinct competitive edge over your competition.

For some of you older readers, you may recall how disruptive the Web was to businesses 15 or so years ago. I predict mobility will be even a greater disruptive force on businesses than the Web. Isn’t it time you harness the power of mobility for your organization? CDW’s Total Mobility Management Solutions are designed to make this happen for you.

Visualizing Our Data

Power View is the last step in our self-service BI solution exposing the tabular data model that we built in PowerPivot. It provides a visually rich, interactive reporting and data exploration experience through an incredibly simple to use interface. Through its drag and drop style of report building Power View was designed to truly bring BI to the masses. It allows anyone in an organization to quickly learn how to use the tool in order to create reports and visualize the data however they prefer in order to derive business insights. Learning from past experiences with Report Builder, Microsoft’s goal for Power View was to allow for quick and easy creation of powerful reports without overwhelming end users with too much complexity.

Data Exploration

Power View doesn’t just stop once you finish building reports. The solution provides for terrific interactive filtering, sorting, and drill down capabilities allowing you to explore and understand the data to gain insights and ultimately tell the story of this data. Sharing insights with others is as simple as saving these Power View reports to SharePoint for others to view and collaborate, or exporting Power View reports right to a PowerPoint deck for presenting the insights you’ve discovered.

Power View in Excel 2013?

That’s right, Power View will also be available in the Excel 2013 client so you now have the same rich visualization and reporting capabilities right within Excel. The only gotcha with using Power View within Excel is that you won’t be able to export Power View reports directly to a PowerPoint presentation.

With SharePoint 2013 and Excel 2013 we are also getting some new Power View visualization capabilities including support for KPI’s in reports and integration with Bing Maps for terrific geospatial visualizations.

Enough of me talking about Power View, let’s take a look at the Power View solution in the below video demonstration.

1. The Business Problem

There has to be a business problem to solve. I often find myself talking to folks deploying mobile device management (MDM) to hundreds of tablets and smartphones, while trying to implement encryption, containerization and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), only to find out that the business didn’t even ask for it, and sometimes had no idea this project was even underway. It is true that consumerization isn’t stoppable, but it is important to understand that end users today are more tech savvy than ever before, and they come to work expecting the same experience they get on their mobile devices at home – fast Wi-Fi, ability to install and update apps just like Apple’s App Store, productivity apps like Dropbox to share files and high-quality video conferencing like Skype and FaceTime. Keeping that in mind, and knowing that it may be impossible to give end users the ‘same’ experience with today’s enterprise IT systems, they must be a part of your overall strategy. Building strong relationships with each business unit leader, taking the time to understand what their needs are, and how mobile technologies could solve them will yield happier end users and will make your deployment much more successful.

2. The Integrated, Living Mobile Policy

Most organizations already have some sort of IT Acceptable Use Policy, and many have a number of policies around data loss prevention, obility, BYOD etc. that most employees don’t even read (and often forget). The first thing you need to do is develop a comprehensive, integrated policy that is easy to understand, and addresses all the needs of your business units specifically. If you can’t do this yourself, there are a ton of great consulting companies that can write the baseline policy for you. One thing to keep in mind about paper-based policies is that you have to make it simple to understand, easy to access and easy to remember. As opposed to using language like ‘do not do this’, explain the risks involved if something were to happen, like copying confidential documents to personal email for example. Make sure the policy is accessible to any device via a browser. You could also develop a custom app that can automatically be installed on mobile devices (via your MDM) to explain all the risks. Finally, release policy updates regularly. Don’t wait for folks to acknowledge updates once a year. Highlight the changes and why they were changed. The key thing about your IT/mobile policy is that you want to make sure it’s always current and in your end user’s minds at all times without being too restrictive.

3. The Lock Down

Writing a policy and getting it out to your users is only one issue to get past. You still have to setup guardrails to guide your end users just in case they go down the wrong path. This involves using MDM and network access control (NAC) technologies to simplify managing your mobile devices and ensuring corporate data isn’t compromised. This is an area where you will have to spend a lot of time with end users understanding how they plan to use their devices, what apps are important to them, how it needs to be integrated and the functionality they are looking for. You don’t want to be too restrictive because you don’t want users to get frustrated and find a way around your implementation strategy; because we all know that can happen very easily these days. It is very possible that you will have to define multiple policies within MDM for each business unit to ensure they get the functionality they need. Look into MDM tools that offer containerization as well, this will ensure your mobile apps operate in a secure zone on mobile devices.

4. The Costs

Work closely with business units to understand what cost models they would like to see implemented. In organizations where end users want to upgrade devices frequently, a stipend model may be the best case scenario, even though it could mean additional taxable income for employees in some states. Other key factors:

1. Cost of the device itself
2. How upgrades and lost/stolen devices are replaced
3. Voice/Data plans
4. Overages in usage

While most organizations don’t pay for mobile device accessories, offering volume discounts through preferred vendors or through a custom ordering portal can ease the ordering process for end users. In many cases, opting to pay for a volume voice/data plan is the most economical option because the entire organization uses a pool of services, as opposed to individual plans.

5. The Support

Who do users call when they have problems, or have lost a phone? Many organizations have moved the support function completely to a third-party provider, especially if they have implemented MDM technologies that help with configuration and hardening of corporate data on these devices. This makes a lot of sense, but a line has to be drawn as to what support is offered and whose responsibility it is when something breaks down. For example, would a user go to help desk when their iPhone dies, or would they go straight to an Apple Store to get their phone replaced? Would a user call your third-party phone provider when their web conferencing app doesn’t work? The way each of these issues is supported will vary, so understanding the costs of supporting these internally versus externally must be considered and properly communicated to end users to ensure a rich user experience. While the above may sound complicated, once you implement your baseline it gets easier to manage and evolve over time. Like most technologies, you need a solid framework and platform to build from, and the five things mentioned above will help establish that framework. For more information, please read the following:

CDW: Eight Steps to an Effective Mobile Device Policy

CDW: Mastering Mobility in a BYOD World

Gartner: 7 Failures in Mobile Device Security

Gartner: BYOD Mobile Device Policy Toolkit

Social Media is an undeniable part of everyday life. With the pervasiveness of mobile devices, social media is available anywhere at pretty much any time. Here are just a few figures that highlight and give a sense of scale of current Social Media usage:

• 1.43 billion people used a social networking site in 2012
• Facebook has 850 million active users every month
• 1 million Twitter accounts were added every day in 2012
• There are 175 million tweets sent every day
• 65% of social media users are using social media to learn more about brands, products and services

By now, most organizations are listening to the different social media outlets for information relevant to them. Listening is a good starting point for deriving meaningful, actionable insights from social media, but it is not enough. Organizations need a way to move beyond listening so they can collaboratively solve business problems.

Introducing Social Media Analytics

In early February, IBM announced the release of Social Media Analytics (SMA). SMA provides business users with advanced analytic capabilities and out-of-the-box dashboards and reports that are easily customizable. Some of the key capabilities that are built into the solution include:

• Increased scalability in terms of data volumes and user impact
• Can track sentiment in multiple languages
• Demographic analytics with ability to identify gender, marriage status or if they have children
• Extended discovery (Evolving Topics) capabilities to identify “what you may not know” about your analysis
• Influencer analytics for key author analysis
• Geographic analysis for regional uniqueness insights
• Behavioral analytics to identify users, detractors, influencers and recommenders

The Technology

SMA is an integrated application consisting of several IBM technologies including:

• BigInsights (IBM’s Hadoop Offering)
• Cognos Business Intelligence
• SPSS (Predictive and Text Analytics)
• Emerging Topics (Watson Lab technologies)
• DB2

The SMA offering is actually a bit of a departure for IBM, as it is delivered as a fully integrated application. Traditionally, IBM’s offerings are delivered more as a platform upon which customers can build their solution. In SMA, there is a significant amount of integration work that is already performed for the customer, which drastically reduces the time-to-value when implementing the solution. The figure below shows the high-level architecture.

Summary

IBM’s Social Media Analytics offering provides a platform from which organizations can link measurement and the tactical execution of social media strategies to serve the purpose of revenue generation. By combining social media data with predictive analytics, it allows organizations to differentiate themselves from their competition. Please feel free to reach out to me if you would like a more detailed conversation about Social Media Analytics.

• Getting their disparate teams to Collaborate on projects
• Using Video Conferencing with home based workers for more face-to-face time with other employees
• Working with vendors or partners to enhance their relationships
• Enabling users who are across town from each other in high-traffic cities to stay at their desks and work with teams that are miles, or sometimes with traffic, hours apart.

However, many clients who install these solutions quickly learn that tracking the usage of the systems and staff may not be an easy task. Return on Investment (ROI) is a key and critical component for tracking the use, expansion, and overall success of any video deployment. Regardless of the type of endpoint (room based, personal system, or desktop), making sure that the teams are using them to their fullest extent can now be as simple as logging into a Web Portal.

Usage Applications

Most video conferencing vendors make applications that, with additional hardware, can track some of the core systems and usage. But a company from Austin Texas called Vyopta can track it all.

Vyopta vAnalytics™ is a true analytics package that enables administrators to measure, trend and understand the use, capacity, quality and value of their video communications investment.

Unlike management and reporting packages that present data, vAnalytics applies unique data collection and processing methodologies to deliver comprehensive, accurate and timely information and insight on video communications usage and assets. A key factor to vAnalytics™ is that is that it is also a Web-Based tool, so administrators have access to the data from any browser based device. Below is a breakdown on key factors that makes vAnalytics stand out

More Data. vAnalytics™ collects data from the video network infrastructure – MCU’s, gateways, gatekeepers, management systems and unified communications managers – to provide a 360° view of your video environment.

Better Information. Using advanced business rules, vAnalytics™ cleans and unifies data to present relevant information:

• high level analysis
• detailed drill-down views into call patterns and trends
• endpoint utilization
• infrastructure use and capacity
• service levels
• and quality of experience.

The vAnalytics Dashboard gives a complete view into the entire Video infrastructure tracking all devices and users within the path. Administrators can quickly jump to reports that show the usage of:

• TMS; TelePresence Management system
• VCS; Video Control System
• MCU; Multipoint Control unit
• Even desktop users on Jabber for Telepresence

Asset View is one of my personal favorites as it shows me in a quick snapshot everything in my video network – including capacity reporting. This powerful system can even be setup to alert an administrator when usage of the system is nearing peak. For example, you have an MCU that can provide 40 HD Video calls, and the system is running at 90% capacity. Rather than risk an important Video call being unable to complete due to oversubscription, administrators can be alerted that additional licensing may be required to offset the potential resource problem.

Final thoughts

The real key to any successful video conferencing deployment rests on the shoulders of those who administer it. With applications like vAnalytics™ that can provide complete end-to-end details on usage and adoption, showing the executive teams why they spent the money and how it’s working is no longer a daunting task. So fear no more that call from the C.E.O. asking if folks are using the new Video Conferencing solution. Simply log onto the administrator dashboard, run a quick report, and prove that the use case for Video conferencing is alive and well. Oh, and while you’re at it, ask more budget to expand the solution!

So what are your options for a Mobile Strategy?

1. Don’t allow mobile devices – This can be extremely secure, but is an unrealistic approach and will leave your users unhappy and looking for ways to circumvent your restrictions or locate a new employer to work for.
2. Allow unmanaged device access – This is the most flexible option for your users, but it leaves IT without any oversight and unable to secure your data and network.
3. 3. Invest in a Mobile Device Management (MDM) Solution – At last count there were 75 companies who proclaimed they offered some sort of Mobility Solution. By discovering your needs, CDW can tailor a solution that aligns with your organizational goals and requirements.

CDW conducts research, partners with and supports solutions from the industry’s leading MDM vendors. Many of these vendors also have solutions to address Mobile Application Management (MAM) and Telecom Expense Management (TEM).

What are the benefits of a Mobile Device Management Solution?

1. Mobile devices act as connected offices, serving users everything from email, secure documents, dictations and note taking capabilities, to allowing users to increase collaboration and remain productive even when away from their desks.
2. While managing mobile devices, an organization can enforce secure data and access policies that assist in maintaining government compliance.
3. Many MDM solutions will also assist with secure Mobile Application Management. This will add the direct routing of secure data through your organization’s approved managed applications without the need of a total device standard.

“Capabilities of Mobile Device Management solutions are expanding exponentially, thanks in part to rapidly evolving mobile operating systems”, says Crystal Montvid Mobility Solution Architect for CDW. “This is leading to a higher rate of adoption of these solutions within organizations.”

Organizations that cannot realize the importance of a Mobile Device Management Solution will:

• continue to fall behind
• miss out on the benefits provided from mobile adoption in the workplace
• struggle to keep up with competitors who are better able to accommodate the needs of their employees and service their clients effectively.

So, are you are going to get engaged, help enhance your company’s strategy and get their mobile devices under control with a solution that provides data security and a friendly user environment?

• joining the audio portion more seamlessly with the Auto Call Me feature
• Single Sign-On login via standalone browser
• the new ability to share documents while hosting a meeting on the iPad.

Cisco’s WebEx Meetings App was one of the first apps I eagerly installed when my original iPad showed up on launch day a few years ago. It quickly became my preferred way to participate in WebEx virtual meetings. I had grand hopes it would help me stay productive while traveling without my laptop, but there were some gaps. The first being the lack of video support, but Cisco fixed that with the release of the iPad 2 by adding support of 2-way video on the iPad and recently adding support for the iPhone too. The second was the lack of ability to share documents, which meant I was forced to fall back to my laptop when I had to host and present content in a virtual web meeting. This all changes now with the ability to share documents while hosting a virtual WebEx Meeting from the iPad.

In addition to the excellent variety of doc types supported, I’m most excited to see the Dropbox support and ability to share files uploaded to Meeting Space makikng it much easier to share docs on the fly while traveling. On the flip side, I’d love to see more enterprise cloud storage platforms, like Box, supported and the ability to swipe from slide to slide instead of scrolling up and down when sharing a presentation. My initial evaluation of the new features has been solid with a very intuitive setup and smooth user experience. I highly recommend anyone who has WebEx Meetings for iPad today to upgrade and take full advantage of the greatly enhanced mobile virtual meetings experience.