WHAT'S INSIDE 8 DATA: TODAY’S PRECIOUS COMMODITY by Phil Mogavero 16 A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR CLOUD MIGRATION: WAYS TO MAXIMIZE IT STAFF PRODUCTIVITY by Todd Pekats 20 MICROSOFT: SAME AS IT NEVER WAS by Elliot Baretz 24 The outsourcing question DUST OFF YOUR BUSINESS Tech Journal is here again to address today's pressing questions about CONTINUITY PLAN IT. One particular topic organizations are wrestling with has to do with by David Hall IT outsourcing. This issue's feature article discusses the status of IT 34 outsourcing and what can be gathered from the current state of things to INFOGRAPHIC: BEST PRACTICES predict where to go next. IN OUTSOURCING Relying on in-house IT support has proven a costly dilemma at times. Many 36 organizations have chosen to do it themselves in the past, but the last few THE FUTURE IS NOW – LOW TOUCH years have shaped up differently. In 2017, outsourcing accounted for 11.9% OR ZERO TOUCH YOU DECIDE of the total IT budget for organizations in the US and Canada. This recent yet by Dan Schneider prolonged spike indicates a shift in the way IT is being handled overall, and 42 presents interesting questions. MOBILE SECURITY FOR As always, we balance out technical insights with practical, actionable plans. THE MODERN WORKPLACE by Gary Miglicco Here, you'll find a fresh take on how recent innovations are leading to big changes across the board, with special attention given to productive ways 48 to utilize them through outsourcing. We also take on maintaining productivity BETTER COLLABORATION STARTS while transitioning to the cloud, the "growing" problem with data storage, WITH SIP hot tech, mobile security and more. There's a lot to unpack in this issue by Steve Glowacki and we're proud to share what we've found while putting it together. It's a 54 pleasure to distribute valuable information, analysis and advice. Enjoy and BUILDING A SMARTER JOB SITE please let us know what you think. by Raiye Rosado Tech Journal is published quarterly by PCM inc. at 1940 E. Mariposa Ave, El Segundo CA,90245. Subscriptions are free to all US subscribers. Visit www.pcm.com/techjournal to subscribe to get a digital copy or our printed version through mail. For question about Tech Journal content or subscriptions email us at [email protected]
EDITORIAL DESIGN
Adam Shaffer Janine Ahuja Editor-in-Chief Head of Creative Operations
Caleb White Sil Suelto Editor Maria Mahanes Production Editor Phil Mogavero Contributing Writer Aaron Baltazar Adam Shaffer Todd Pekats Randy Bacurnay Contributing Writer Rovi Neil Sia Editor-in-Chief Maria Beata Sanchez Elliot Baretz Chancel Gonzales Contributing Writer Jem Angela De Guia Hanzel Levi Estorque David Hall Anthony Urbano Contributing Writer Senior Designers Patrick Lohmeyer Contributing Writer
Dan Schneider Contributing Writer
Gary Miglicco Contributing Writer
Paul Harrold Contributing Writer
Raiye Rosado 2 Contributing Writer 3
6 7 1. Confront the data explosion with a plan 3. Choose effective storage on a DATA: TODAY’S PRECIOUS In 2017, Gartner reported a “massive shift” to hybrid hybrid cloud platform infrastructure services. This dramatic downward turn When it comes to coping with your company’s Databerg, of the traditional data center points to the growth in a monolithic storage policy is counterproductive and cloud adoption and industrialized services. Gartner also inefficient. The hybrid cloud infrastructure, on the other predicted that 90 percent of organizations will adopt hand, can adjust a sound storage strategy to fit your COMMODITY hybrid infrastructure management capabilities by 2020. business needs. A hybrid cloud-based plan can help 4 tips for storing your data in the HYBRID DATA CENTER The impetus for this massive shift is the growing need determine what data you have and be able to help to identify, contain, and manage all that data. One reduce your company’s data center footprint significantly. Back in 1980, six of the top 10 companies worldwide • 30% redundant, obsolete, and trivial (ROT), thing you can do to increase the value of your data and Of primary need are efficient and secure backup and according to market capitalization were oil companies. mainly unstructured, data just below the surface; and limit its proliferation is to work with your employees to archiving, data protection, a solid data continuity plan, Today, nearly four decades later, a similar global a whopping 54 percent “dark” data well below the exercise good data hygiene: tackle that “dark” data and and the ability to retain data to meet compliance and ranking by Statista.com shows that seven of the top surface whose value is essentially unidentified but bring visibility to as much of it as possible to reduce risk audits. Cloud providers aren’t expected to natively 10 are companies whose core business relies on the may contain both valuable business and ROT data. exposure, as well as get the unstructured, ROT data protect or replicate the data you place in their clouds; creation, storage, mining, and analysis of data. In under control or eliminated altogether. To bring perspective to this enormous growth of data, although some architectures may be devised in a hybrid order of their market value, they are Apple, Amazon, To do this efficiently, you’ll need to implement a reliable IBM reported that we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data infrastructure to accommodate your data within your Alphabet, Microsoft, Facebook, Alibaba, and Tencent data storage strategy whether your business is in the every day. This is equivalent to nearly half a billion HD environment while leveraging public cloud compute Holdings. process of moving to the cloud or already in the cloud. movie downloads. and storage services. This is generally spelled out in a An essential element that runs through these shared security responsibility model. companies as a key differentiator is their intellectual Predominantly, the move to a digital economy allows A data storage strategy relies on property. It’s what makes a company unique and organizations of all types to serve a global customer adoption of the hybrid cloud Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) valuable. Data is the most precious commodity—the base 24/7/365 in a largely automated, typically self- Today’s modernized data centers have become more Representing a variety of types of storage, HSM is a lifeblood of your organization. You need to protect, service fashion. Customers entering their critical data powerful, flexible, and efficient. Moreover, as the policy-based management system that works quietly preserve, and invest in that data, and use it to your on (hopefully) secure corporate systems provide useful demand for agility and flexibility grows, modern data and automatically in the background to backup, archive, competitive advantage. But this “precious commodity” information about such things as interests and buying centers can offer the hybrid infrastructure model that and retrieve files either as a standalone system or, more is growing exponentially. In a 2017 estimate by IDC, the patterns. And companies benefit by using that data many organizations can embrace: a combination of commonly, within a distributed network. The hierarchical world’s data will have grown to target marketing, retain customers, and grow their a variety of internal technologies and methodologies nature isreflected in the type of storage media, the age by 50 times from 1 ZB in 2010 to 50 ZB by 2020. databases with an improved user experience. However, that includes virtualization, private and public clouds, of the file in the archive, and the cost and speed of Way out in front of most of that explosive growth— not all this useful information is structured,business- as well as colocation, hosting, Software-as-a-Service retrieval when needed. 90 percent—is unstructured data, including heavy 3D critical data. (SaaS) applications, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and images, 4K HD videos, IoT, and DevTest data. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offerings. Here’s how you can keep your data Choices for the right strategy Veritas Technologies describes a “Databerg” glacier of 2. Identify your business-critical data While an on-location Storage Area Network (SAN) may data in the U.S. that can be divided into: from weighing you down Your company’s own Databerg is a heavy burden, The big data market is booming – and rightly so. Data remain relevant for a small company, it may not be analytics and BI are now critical to fostering a healthy, • 46% tagged or classified data especially if you haven’t yet made the journey to the enough to address concerns around cloud and data growing business and enabling new business models. (including a mere 16 percent business-critical data cloud and your systems are chained to legacy storage. security and data proliferation. The same goes for Last May, Forbes cited an Accenture study that found above the surface); Even with the cloud, in any configuration, coping with complex and costly legacy Network-Attached Storage data sprawl can pose serious issues. With the speed that 79 percent of enterprise executives concurred (NAS), plagued by data silos and minimalized insight of data access so critical to innovation and maintaining that companies could lose their competitive edge and and control. Hybrid NAS (or even a SAN) on a hybrid a competitive edge, latency and costs can kill a even die off if they do not embrace big data. To prove cloud platform gains the economics, scalability, and business. the point, the study reports that 83 percent held a durability of the cloud with data center performance. competitive edge by pursuing big data projects. It can provide a view of data as a single pane of glass across all data centers. Hybrid cloud NAS Here’s another stat to carry the ball home: In a Forrester consolidates high-performance Network File System survey from April 2018 commissioned by SAP, “82 (NFS) with Server Message Block (SMB) protocol for percent of companies agree a hybrid cloud approach enterprise network file services. It automates backup, is a critical next step in the evolution of their analytics- archive, and data continuity for significant savings in business intelligence (BI) strategy.” Today’s modernized data centers CapEx and OpEx. In this way, the hybrid NAS is ideal have become more powerful, A hybrid cloud approach runs big data and analytics for collaboration on files globally in real time from a across on-premises and public cloud environments, desktop or mobile, dramatically improving productivity. flexible, and efficient enabling greater scalability and computational power. It Your storage plan should consider integrating these helps companies improve their competitiveness, analyze trending storage capabilities that dramatically change data to gain deeper insights to inform decision making, the way data storage is handled: thereby guiding the path to increased revenue growth by • Software-defined hyperconverged storage as much as 15 percent or greater annually over the next combines storage, compute, virtualization, and three years. 8 9 sometimes networking technologies in a single physical system. They can be designed to be more flexible and simpler to manage than traditional storage infrastructure, yet provide the agility needed for the public cloud infrastructure without sacrificing on- premises control of the hardware. • Place your “hot” data (see below) on the fastest storage tier, ideally populated with PCIe SSDs featuring flash memory. You could even add a lower latency storage tier using phase change memory, such as Intel Optane technology or Micron QuantX. You can use a hierarchical storage manager to migrate data to slower vvmedia as needed. • For portability and efficiency in moving data from one computing environment to another, storage virtualization pools data in a single storage device that can be centrally managed. This makes backup, archiving, and recovery easier and faster. • Containers abstract the differences in the underlying OS and infrastructure, so they can be deployed and run anywhere while retaining data integrity across the test environment. This make them incredibly attractive to developers. Their portability makes them a key enabler of a hybrid cloud architecture, as containerized runtime environments can run on-premises, in-cloud, or in the hybrid cloud.
4. Protect your data! A sound data storage strategy needs to take into consideration the speed of recovering data and infrastructure. Data security, data continuity/disaster recovery (DRaaS), and regulatory compliance are critical to business operations. Cloud-based DRaaS provides fail-safe reliability, cost, and speed.
In terms of the backup and recovery, there are three levels for storing data depending install these solutions to improve time to value and our • Hyperconverged – Cisco Hyperflex, Dell EMC on availability and need: managed services team can monitor and support your VxRail, HPE Simplivity, VMware vSan, Nutanix infrastructure 7/24/365. • “Hot,” or Tier 1, storage for premium performance with data availability and virtually • Integrated Solutions – Cisco/NetApp FlexPod, Dell no activation time for your most active data EMC VxBlock, HPE Composable, Oracle Exadata • “Warm,” Tier 2, storage with average performance and reduced call-up time for • Backup and Data Integrity – Commvault, Dell EMC your less active data Data Domain, HPE StoreOnce, IBM Aspera, Veeam, • “Cold,” Tier 3, storage for inactive data you need to keep, generally for data 48% of all small Veritas compliance businesses lack a • Virtualization – Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware vSphere, Containers Obviously, retaining highly available and responsive business-critical data is most business continuity plan costly at a Tier 1 storage site. It ensures that Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) and • Cloud – Amazon AWS, Google, HPE GreenLake, Recovery Time Objective (RTO) are met. Data theft or the failure of data availability in IBM, Microsoft Azure, Oracle the face of malicious cyber activity cost U.S. organizations between $57 billion and Management – Cisco CloudCenter and DNA Center, Our Hybrid Data Center practice offers solutions at your • $109 billion in 2016. In light of this, you might think that most companies would be HPE OneSphere and OneView, VMware vCenter aware that the protection of their data is crucial. Apparently not. According to a study facility, within a colocation environment or PCM Hybrid by a leading insurance provider, 48 percent of all small businesses lack a business Cloud Data Center or a public cloud environment, such • Data Visibility and Analytics – Cisco Tetration, IBM continuity plan. However, data protection is almost always a requirement of regulatory as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google, QRadar compliance; and some, like HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI DSS, are particularly stringent and Oracle, or IBM Cloud. Best of all, we can build a solution generally carry legal implications. that incorporates each in a hybrid fashion. PCM’s A word from PCM’s strategic storage Integrated Stack of solutions provides an optimized
environment for the data center, including networking, and data partners: We have the storage you need: let PCM help you compute, storage, backup, virtualization, cloud, and • HPE provides a complete set of storage solutions PCM offers a rich array of services and products to help you amplify the value of your management. We offer solutions from the leading including Composable Synergy Infrastructure data while achieving a very high degree of resiliency and performance in a cost- technology firms in the industry: designed to provide organizations with scalable effective manner. • Networking – Cisco Catalyst and Nexus, Dell, solutions to support and integrate with cloud Extreme, HPE Aruba, VMware NSX PCM Services include assessments to analyze and classify data, determine the most infrastructure, a robust set of storage solutions; appropriate storage environment, lower risk by securing data and achieve compliancy, • Compute – Cisco UCS, Dell PowerEdge, HPE including 3PAR, Nimble, and Simplivity and InfoSight and build a business continuity strategy to meet operational requirements. PCM Hybrid Proliant, IBM Power, Oracle analytics, which eliminates wasted time and headaches by transforming how storage is managed Data Center Field Solution Architects design the optimal compute, storage and backup • Storage – Dell EMC Isilon and Unity, HPE 3Par and and supported. Through cloud-based predictive environment to meet your needs – be it monolithic, converged, hyperconverged, and Nimble, IBM, NetApp, Oracle comprised of spinning disks or flash storage. Our certified experts configure and analytics and machine learning, HPE InfoSight
10 11 predicts and resolves 86 percent of problems storage solutions across the spectrum to move and before your business is impacted and ensures protect data throughout the lifecycle from production 99.9999 percent of guaranteed availability. As HPE to backup to DR to the cloud. InfoSight analyzes millions of sensors every second, • NetApp provides a full range of hybrid cloud all customers benefit as their systems get smarter data services that simplify management of and more reliable. HPE InfoSight watches over applications and data across cloud and on-premises your infrastructure 24x7, so you no longer have to environments to accelerate digital transformation. spend your days, nights, and weekends dealing with Together with PCM, NetApp empowers global storage issues. HPE InfoSight is currently available organizations to unleash the full potential of their on all Nimble and 3PAR systems, and customers can data to expand customer touchpoints, foster greater expect to see the influence of InfoSight technology innovation, and optimize their operations. NetApp is deployed across more of HPE’s robust portfolio in the current market and technology leader in unified the future. storage, and one of the fastest growing SAN vendors. Gartner has ranked NetApp as a leader for mid-range • Dell EMC is helping customers modernize, automate, disk and NAS in its Magic Quadrant. Gartner also and transform data centers to address the data recognizes NetApp’s merit in other storage-related deluge (90 percent of the world’s data was created markets, including storage resource management, within the last 24 months). Dell EMC has a deep data protection services, storage implementation history centralizing, managing, and protecting data services, and backup and recovery. over the past 25 years. Dell EMC offers the deepest, widest portfolio of storage offerings in the industry to solve a wide range of customer problems powering Let us know how we can help meet your Hybrid 95 percent of Fortune 2500’s storage environments Data Center needs! Email us at [email protected] as the ”gold” standard in external storage with solutions capable of over 10M IOPs of performance, Visit us at www.pcm.com/HDC six 9s of availability, best-in-market replication and active/active data center Metro storage clusters running across a wide variety of systems and prices. Dell EMC applies five tenets of modern data center strategy across its entire ISG portfolio, including a Flash-first methodology (including the only pure About the Author: end-to-end NVMe and SCM architectures), scale Phil Mogavero out, software-defined, and secure with a focus on Vice President of HDC Partnerships, leveraging AI to help drive better, faster business PCM Inc. outcomes. Dell EMC leverages its entire portfolio of Focused on what matters. Cloud | Security | Microsoft | Consulting Taking your data farther and The right people help you implement solutions that increase your still keeping it in sight. productivity, and reduce the time and money spent on IT. A 360 approach can do that. Stratiform.com Learn more at veritas.com
The truth in information. 12 14 been carried out by in-house IT professionals. For this But if it’s not done in an organized fashion, every new reason, many IT pros fear that moving to the cloud environment can be configured differently, leading to is going to render them obsolete and leave them a lack of standardization and excessive time dumped jobless. When told that their organization is going to into activities that could be automated. A good partner continue to leverage a partner for cloud management can establish a foundation for standards by building after the migration is complete, these fears are only a library of templates and an operational runbook compounded. The reality is that IT pros who embrace with a checklist of key activities. This will drive this changing paradigm and find ways to repurpose standardization and consistency that reduces costs their existing skill set are probably not in danger of and increases reliability in the long run. losing their jobs.As an IT decision maker, here are four things you can do to enable in-house IT staff to add How internal IT can help: value as you transition to a cloud-based model that Once the environments, templates, and processes leverages an SI or MSP: are built, internal IT pros can start to carry out the 1. Use your partner to architect the operations. They can also gather feedback from their new environment business counterparts about how the systems are working for end users. This feedback is vital to making It’s not easy to build out a cloud environment that will the proper architectural or procedural changes to meet an organization’s specific needs. But it’s even better enable the business through the technology. harder to fix one that has been architected improperly once critical business systems depend on it. By 3. Use your partner to explore new leveraging the experience of a partner, you can avoid features and emerging technologies. TRANSITIONING TO some of the common architectural pitfalls and build Whether you’re trying to deploy IoT, deep learning, out a cloud environment that works for you real-time analytics, or any other emerging technology the first time. for the first time, leveraging the help of a partner who MANAGED CLOUD: How internal IT can help: has done it before is tremendously helpful. Existing IT staff will understand how granular business How internal IT can help: they were seeking when they decided to migrate. requirements impact technical requirements. IT pros can play a pivotal role in ensuring that these Because they work at the intersection of technology FOUR WAYS TO There are a few factors that contribute to this. requirements are taken into consideration as new and tactical execution, in-house IT is always a step For one, most organizations new to the cloud MAXIMIZE IT STAFF environments are built. closer to the business than any external entity. These are unfamiliar with carrying out day-to-day cloud skilled professionals can apply their knowledge to PRODUCTIVITY. operations optimally. Partners can provide the 2. Use your partner to build standardized amplify the organization’s core competencies. With training needed to eliminate the inefficiency that templates and policies. this knowledge, they can provide key guidance to help comes with this lack of understanding. ensure that emerging technology is implemented in a Cloud migration often leads to the outsourcing Most seasoned IT pros who have built their skills in way that makes sense for that specific organization’s of critical activities. So how can your IT staff Second, it is nearly impossible to set up an an on-premises environment can learn how to build short and long-term goals. continue to contribute during this transition? environment that will meet business needs perfectly. systems that will support their business in the cloud. Is it compliant? Is it over- or under-provisioned? Does it minimize software licensing costs? Very few organizations attempt a cloud migration The reality is that no matter how much pre-migration without the help of a third-party system integrator (SI) planning you do, some changes will be needed post- or managed service provider (MSP). For those that migration. A good partner can assess the baseline do use a partner, their intention often is to leverage operational data that is gathered in the first few the provider for the migration, then manage the new months of cloud adoption, answer these questions, environment themselves after the migration IT is always a identify changes that are needed, and make them in is complete. a more streamlined fashion. step closer to Most, however, find that a migration happens the business incrementally, and that after their cloud environment So where does this leave in-house IT pros? has been architected, the learning is far from over. Whether adopting IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, or most likely, than any Continuing to work with the partner on an ongoing a combination of all three, the “as-a-service” model external entity basis is usually necessary to fully realize the benefits eliminates a portion of the work that has traditionally
16 17 4. Use your partner to modernize legacy 5 Reasons Why You Need to applications: Having the right partner As part of your cloud migration, you likely will Transform Your Workspace Today! want to update some applications built to run on by your side can help your on-premises servers. Your partner can help you minimize risk and you through this process so that your applications take full advantage of the broad feature set, global friction as you adopt new An efficient and modern workplace is no longer an option. Modernize Your infrastructure footprint, and scalability of the cloud. technologies Workplace with Digitization has redefined the way organizations How internal IT can help: work. We can see organizations adopting digital it uses technology. Rather, it should be one of the first workplace strategies. Digitized workplaces As you may know, there are generally six ways to deal increase the efficiency and productivity and Optimum Space Utilization with steps in a broader transformation journey. ThinkCentre Tiny, SFF, and TIO with your existing applications as you move to the enhances the job experience for all employees, cloud: retaining, retiring, re-factoring, re-platforming, An internal IT department that understands how aiding in workforce retention. re-purchasing, and re-hosting. The most logical technology can help achieve business objectives approach for each application is dependent on s a critical conduit between end users and your SI several factors. Your IT staff can work to understand or MSP, ensuring that technical changes lead to real the ROI and other business impacts of each approach business outcomes. to ensure that you choose the correct one.way that ThinkCentre M910 with Tiny-in-One makes sense for that specific organization’s short and long-term goals. Unmatched Flexibility, To learn more about using partners with Performance, and Security your in-house IT team to strengthen your in ThinkPad X1 Series The optimal cloud partnership competitive advantage, visit pcm.com/cloud As your organization gains more experience with a specific cloud service or use case, more of the day- to-day operations required to keep that environment * running properly can be handled by your internal * More than 50% ThinkPad X1 Yoga More than 80% 3 of employees expect IT staff. But the rate of change is greater today than 1 of millennials say to be working in a it ever has been before, and things will move even About the Author workplace tech would Manage Meetings the Smart Todd Pekats have an influence when next five years Way with ThinkSmart Hub faster tomorrow. As you strive to stay competitive in Vice President of Cloud Computing, deciding to take a job an era of such extraordinary change, an openness to PCM Inc. * DO C K More than emerging technologies is imperative. This means that 60% 2 of the workforce moving applications to the cloud should not be the would rather receive final change your organization makes regarding how high-tech perks at work versus low-tech perks like ping pong ThinkCentre Tiny VESA Mount II and free food ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3.0 Dock TM
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* Not just young, but over 46% ThinkSmart Hub 500 4 of workforce is looking to AR/VR technologies to perform better at the workplace Better Collaboration with ThinkCentre Tiny
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Make Your Workplace More Efficient, Productive, and Smart with Lenovo Solutions. For more information, visit www.pcm.com/TransformWorkspaceLenovo As Microsoft continues to thrive as a leader in the cloud marketplace, it is redefining how it engages its customers – and partners – in the business of transformation. Under the leadership of CEO Satya Nadella, the company has dramatically improved its fortunes by focusing on the booming cloud market. In its fiscal year 2018 Q4 earnings, Microsoft reported Azure revenue growth of 89 percent year-over-year and according to Forbes, is today considered the clear frontrunner of the enterprise cloud marketplace.
Transformation isn’t always about collective customer experience was often rife with Instead of the traditional engagement with a clear technology a lack of accountability as exhausted customers beginning and end, the new cloud economy requires a managed experience throughout the cloud Much of today’s cloud conversations center on In its fiscal year 2018 tried to determine which partner (or Microsoft) was lifecycle. Today’s best partners may connect on a technical facets and for very good reason. Without responsible for what component of the final solution. Q4 earnings, Microsoft rhythmic basis, to ensure a holistic cloud experience question the nature, substance, and impact of the Now, because of the cloud and Microsoft’s cultural – the consumption and activation of the technology – cloud is largely due to substantial shifts in technical reported Azure revenue transformation, the customer experience is much more to reveal where there are other opportunities based strategy, architecture, and the software and hardware growth of 89 percent holistic. Customers can easily subscribe and consume on where you’re already succeeding. This ongoing that underlies it. But other conversations spin off cloud solutions, especially if they are partnered with rhythm and dialogue enables partners such as PCM from the technical nature of the cloud, which have year-over-year an organization that can facilitate an informed cloud to better understand your business roadmap and see equal impact. A clear example is found by simply subscription as well as execute the architecture, your technical reality, so we can focus on what the observing the dramatic changes in how we do implementation and management of the final next steps could or should be. business in today’s IT marketplace. Let’s just take your friendly neighborhood License Solution Provider environment. In effect, they combined the nature of an Microsoft as an example. (LSP). From there, if you needed help deploying the LSP with SI to create a “strategic partner.” The Internet of Things (IoT) is a great example. technology it meant another call to another partner Perhaps a customer is already using IoT and has an For eons, implementing a Microsoft solution meant that often took the form of a Systems Integrator Strategic partners – an integral part of IoT instance on Azure. A partner conversation could pursuing a multi-staged journey between Microsoft (SI). Once the solution was deployed questions of Microsoft’s cloud strategy cross into business analytics because there is a lot and its partner ecosystem. Starting with the management and training could easily linger. The of data to curate. With a strong strategic partner that acquisition of the software itself, which typically As a strategic partner, PCM works with customers has all those capabilities in-house, the customer meant a quick introduction to some form of a volume to get the best return on their Microsoft investments. wouldn’t have to reestablish relationships and enter license agreement, it would be happily transacted by Think if it as more than how you acquire the technology – it’s how you deploy and manage it. a separate thread. This is the epitome of a rhythmic Ultimately, your job as a client is to maximize its connection – there is a strategic relationship in which value. Companies sometimes make tremendous the entire experience can be optimized without Microsoft investments, and then make the mistake disruption or lack of accountability. of not deploying the technology well or failing to manage it. The cloud partner landscape has changed The new cloud economy dramatically in terms of horizontal capabilities, industry vertical expertise, and geographical reach. requires a managed There has been a lot of industry consolidation, as technology partners seek to acquire new and experience throughout the emerging capabilities. Companies no longer must cloud lifecycle use an LSP, an SI or two, and a trainer. Alternatively, strategic partners offer a one-stop shop for end-to- end services and capabilities.
21 Our customer engagements typically follow a four- step process. The first step is to attend one of our Envisioning Sessions. There’s one each for Office 365, Azure, Power BI, Windows 10, and modern licensing. Our specialists sit down with our customers to understand their business roadmap and technical requirements. Our goal is to define the 80/20 with each customer or prospect. We try to determine the 20 percent of the feature set that’s going to provide 80 percent of the value. We then move forward into more tactical actions. All sessions are optimized for the type of stakeholder.
The second step is to perform the economics assessment to recommend strategies to optimize your environment. Next, we will perform a single deployment or manage a single cloud instance as the third step. Finally, a fourth step is managing your Ever-changing cloud customer demands end-to-end services. A strategic partner is always interested in delivering IDC recently reported that cloud customers suffer the best solution to its customers. The reality is that acute skill shortages in DevOps, cloud architecture, most enterprises have multiple clouds including software-defined networking and security, and hybrid environments, so the partner should be able 70 percent of them are using a provider to fulfill to manage them holistically. Customers demand a them. In the end, as a strategic partner, we must range of services across IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS that continually transform our capabilities and business could include advanced services. models based on changing customer demands and Cybersecurity is a huge practice for PCM, as understand how these demands affect the managed customers are increasingly asking us to harden cloud lifecycle. and manage their environments to guard against ransomware, web app attacks, and other threats. PCM manages services from on-premises For more information on our Microsoft services, environments, to email, to Office 365 preconfigured please visit www.pcm.com//Microsoft-Softwares for the client’s environment.
With Windows 10 Autopilot, the industry is seeing a transition to Devices-as-a-Service. For example, PCM can offer Microsoft Surface along with Office 365 About the Author: preconfigured for the customer’s environment straight Elliot Baretz Vice President of Microsoft Business Unit to the user, so that the customer pays per user PCM Inc. monthly for not only the subscription, but also the device and the service desk that comes with it. PCM also offers intelligent communications as a service, including Skype and Teams, and helps its clients use their datasets to enable their end users to leverage Power BI to get the clearest, most insightful views for decision-making.
PCM approaches new technology deployments in methodical, pragmatic steps. Our cloud economics team can assess a current environment using tools such as the Movere to help them optimize their existing cloud instance. The assessments can identify the low hanging fruit and the waste.
22 DUST OFF YOUR BUSINESS CONTINUITY HOW WILL YOUR ORGANIZATION PLAN RECOVER FROM DISASTER?
Disaster recovery solutions are now a fundamental part According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, Patrick Lohmeyer, Associate Vice President of PCM’s of staying in business. Especially for small to midsized about 25 percent of small businesses are unable Service Offerings, asks, “Which applications and data businesses, having a solid and reliable copy of data to to reopen after a major outage. Ask yourself these Combining cloud are critical to your business operations, and which aren’t?” retrieve is essential. But simple storage solutions aren’t questions about your business continuity objectives: the only consideration businesses should have when it Depending on the MSP, recovery times can vary from ◆ storage with a backup comes to continuing operations after a major disaster. Could you bounce back after an outage of hours, a few minutes to a few days, but that’s still better than days, or weeks? and replication plan losing data completely. In a situation where data is threatened — be it a ◆ Are your operations safe in your on-premises WEIGH THE PRICE OF DISASTER weather anomaly, ransomware attack, or extensive allows organizations to power outage —the smaller the organization is, the location, or should you consider a cloud backup VERSUS THE COST OF RECOVERY solution as well? more likely it is to experience a catastrophic failure quickly and confidently The cost of data backup varies depending on whether without a reliable and fast failover solution. A 2015 Gartner study found that 40 percent of restore data a partial restoration, full restoration, or total blackout Your organization may already have a business organizations rated their ability to recovery from disaster restoration is necessary. What is the biggest threat continuity plan or storage solution for short or small as “fair” or “poor,” and the cost of just one hour of facing your organization? outages, but are you truly prepared for a disaster? Here downtime was found to range from $8,000 for a small business to $700,000 for an enterprise organization. This A disaster recovery MSP will offer many types of are a few things to think about when reviewing your solutions. The simplest service is one where a customer data recovery plan: one-time financial threat is troubling but does not even consider the loss of reputation, negative PR, replicates the data they have on-premises and saves MAP YOUR DISASTER RECOVERY or lack of future customer revenue that an outage a copy. Historically, this meant saving a copy on tape PLAN TO YOUR BUSINESS might cause. and storing it in a warehouse facility. But with modern OBJECTIVES in a swift and flexible manner. Modern cloud storage cloud backup solutions, storage is now cheaper, easier If your data isn’t easy to restore, will your business solutions reduce the risk of losing critical data by to access, and saves time and effort in IT infrastructure A retail business relies heavily on consistent income, but survive any amount of down time? enabling users to store data and recovery solutions and recovery. Searching for old tapes is inefficient. that income stream may fluctuate depending on the time securely off-site. Locating your data on the cloud can happen in of year. If a severe storm were to knock out power during HAVE A DATA BACKUP PLAN — AND mere minutes. the holiday season, a shop’s point-of-sale data must be A DATA RECOVERY PLAN TOO! Disaster recovery managed service providers (MSPs) can help determine how quickly your organization’s More extensive solutions from an MSP will often quick and easy to recover to stay in business. On the Data storage is one thing, but easily retrieving and other hand, a small outage in mid-February may affect data and applications may be restored after an outage. include faster data recovery time, retrieval of software restarting operations is another. Combining cloud An on-premise data storage solution can be wiped out applications, or entirely offsite business continuity plans. sales to a much lesser degree. Are your organization’s storage with a backup and replication plan allows data needs dependent on the time of year? in an instant, but a cloud solution guarantees your data organizations to quickly and confidently restore data and applications are quickly retrievable.
24 25 Only 70% of businesses were able to completely restore their business activities within 6 months
PCM’s disaster recovery cloud solutions offer cost- effective plans for data recovery in any scenario, from partial to full restoration, and from small to large storage and automation requirements. When considering the expense of disaster, make sure your MSP has your best interests at heart. PCM’s Tier-1 Disaster Recovery After Hurricane Sandy devastated the East Coast in service providers will readily provide information about 2012, only 70 percent of businesses were able to their reporting procedures, IT downtime strategy, completely restore their business activities within six recovery time objectives, and other solutions you’ll months. If your organization is destroyed by a natural need in a disaster situation. disaster such as an earthquake or hurricane, can your employees work remotely and keep business Don’t leave your organization in the dark. Dust off your humming? If not, a full recovery solution for data and backup plan and consider how your organization might applications may be necessary. Which assets does survive a disaster. Don’t have a plan? Time to get your organization require to weather that type of storm? serious about staying in business. CONTACT A MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDER TODAY Learn more about PCM’s disaster recovery solutions at A disaster recovery MSP can help execute on these www.pcm.com/HDC/datacenter/backup&recovery/ disaster-recovery much-needed business continuity solutions. Lohmeyer says, “Historically, companies ran multiple private data centers in an effort to spread the risk and provide redundancies themselves, as opposed to using a hosting and/or cloud partner. As companies shift IT About the Author functions to service partners in order to focus their David Hall efforts on their own products and services, they are SVP, Solutions and Services less interested in continuing to bear the costs of PCM Inc. multiple data centers and managing it themselves.” 26 To provide some context, outsourcing in 2017 accounted for 11.9 percent of the total IT budget for organizations in the United States and Canada, according to a survey for Computer Economics’ IT Outsourcing Statistics for 2017/2018. This is the highest percentage in the past five years and it shows little sign of dwindling, according to the report.
However, there are no rules and much flexibility in what and how organizations use outside IT support. In theory, a company could contract out just about everything IT-related to one or many providers - managed services, security, cloud services, application development, help desk, the kitchen sink. Some enterprises actually try to do this. But not many. Still, many companies continue to struggle in deciding what to contract out and to whom. Challenges include: On the other hand, companies could bring in absolutely no outside support at all. Many enterprises today • Letting go of all the controls you have when still do not contract out any IT work, but they too are things are done in-house increasingly in the minority. • Establishing trust and confidence in one or more In today’s fast-moving, evolving IT world, most IT partners organizations should and do seek outside support for many of the activities that are not their core • Finding partners that are available 24/7 competency. • Determining whether to make cost savings the top This typically means contracting out a slice of priority by using overseas partners IT generally strategic technologies, tasks, and Disagreement on not only what to contract out, but processes such as performance monitoring, hardware whether to use one provider vs. many providers is also maintenance, security management, cloud services, common today. But with more and more companies and disaster recovery, to name a few. migrating workloads to the cloud, a multi-vendor model involving a small handful of key providers and specialists is becoming the norm. This likely isn’t going to change.
What is increasingly required today is having a designated strategic partner among your providers, one that serves as your lead IT partner — even, perhaps, your only partner — and can help you alleviate some of those challenges mentioned above.
Your strategic partner should be one that provides multiple services, has a long-term future, and becomes your organization’s main IT conduit and chief collaborator. Before we discuss why this is important, let’s talk about what it entails. It’s 2018, and contracting out IT functions is now a mainstream practice that continues to grow among enterprises worldwide. The cloud is shaking up what functions companies choose for bringing in outside support, but at the same time is adding to an increased reliance on using partners.
28 29 WHAT A STRATEGIC IT HOW YOU BENEFIT FROM • You can save money and disperse risk. PARTNER DOES HAVING A STRATEGIC PARTNER Back to the efficiency argument. Best practices Getting the most cost and operational efficiencies from Here is how such a model pays off: often get lost when companies try to do too many IT activities by themselves or split them up among too your IT is what partnering is all about. To achieve a high • A strategic partner can better align to your many partners. For example, dividing up your security level of efficiency from the start, your strategic partner organization’s business objectives. should provide a broad level of coverage across your management could lead to problems going undetected environment. Equally important is having a cohort that You would have a key stakeholder with skin in the or falling through the cracks. A well-rounded strategic is vendor-agnostic and not out to champion a specific game, so to speak, as far as the health and growth of partner can mobilize your company more quickly brand - but is familiar with all leading technology your organization. Your one-off or specialized services against incidents and threats and even get the service brands. providers will likely not understand your business as desk involved immediately to troubleshoot end-user well and not be as invested in your success. issues. Another key area: cloud cost management. What makes sense for most organizations is a well- Engaging with many different cloud service providers rounded strategic partner that oversees most or all of • You have access to more highly can run up costs and leave you clueless. An MSP your core IT operations. These may include mature skilled technologists. with cloud management services can help you better service management processes such as performance validate and trim costs. Network engineers, storage specialists, and other such monitoring and reporting, security updates, and more, professionals come at a cost. At many organizations, but also could include cloud management services • You have a partner in it for the long haul. these technologists work in silos. Your strategic partner to accommodate the increased “cloudification” of IT should be able to provide them at greater volume infrastructure. Your strategic partner must be an ally — a provider and scale and at a price that is reasonable. You can that is committed to your success and committed to the Indeed, the scope of the strategic partner should regard these professionals as strong additions to the relationship. While other providers may come and go, be determined by you, the customer. But in such a brainpower you now have on staff. depending on the circumstances, a strategic partner model, this lead partner works directly with you, and in should be one that will always be there and that you • You have access to more quality tools consult with any other providers you use for specialized want to always be there. and resources. services such as cloud hosting, Software-as-a-Service, application development, DevOps, and so on. Similar to the above, a strategic partner is going to offer toolsets and functionality that you otherwise may Now, mostly gone are the days when companies not have - or may not be able to leverage as frequently providers. What are they saying? Do you like contracted out IT management services piecemeal TIPS FOR REVIEWING with a series of one-off vendors. One example is the what you hear? Get validation and peace of mind - network management went to this company, server YOUR PARTNERING IT Service Management platform, which not only offers before you sign a contract with any provider. You maintenance to another company, service desk to still STRATEGY tools and resources but also methodologies and need a strategic partner that is equipped with the another company. frameworks to streamline processes and share industry If you’re happy with the performance and efficiencies knowledge and resources to be around for the “Service providers and clients are far more likely best practices. of your current model, more power to you. Maybe you long haul. [today] to procure a blend of IT services to deliver • You have greater standardization of processes. already have a strategic IT partner. Maybe you have business outcomes from a single vendor rather than many partners. Maybe you don’t contract out much. • Find a true partner. contracting segments of IT out to a range of suppliers,” This is an area where a strategic IT partner can really Regardless, if it‘s time to review your partnering An IT solutions provider with limited experience says Ollie O’Donoghue, a senior research analyst with drive efficiencies. Service management processes are strategy, here are some things to consider: or understanding of your industry or company HfS Research, in a 2017 article, “7 hot IT outsourcing key areas where the partner and the business interact, size may not be the best fit. Your strategic partner trends and 7 going cold,” published in CIO.com. through tickets and requests. Change management • Some common IT questions that you will need to learn about you and your business within an organization is another process that the need satisfactory answers to: objectives. But finding one with decades of A managed services provider (MSP) such as PCM strategic IT partner should drive. Having processes that 1. How current are the infrastructure and software experience in serving companies like yours offers a broad range of IT management services, are consistent and predictable saves time, money, and applications you are using? will provide a strong head start. Consider the and also cloud-related services such as data center lot of headaches. relationship as a true partnership. hosting, Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service, Infrastructure- 2. How up-to-date are your security systems? as-a-Service, and more. Your strategic partner needs to • You build teamwork and synergies with all of 3. How well is your IT environment maintained today, have a breadth and depth of service offerings such as your IT partners. Let us know how we can help! Email us at whether by you or someone else? [email protected] or visit us these. A strategic partner can provide leadership and set the www.pcm.com/services/managed-services tone for a company’s other IT relationships, especially 4. How satisfied are your employees and customers with your company’s IT experience? in implementing change management among in-house departments and end users. The resource sharing, • Invest time in doing your due diligence. use of methodologies, and streamlining of processes Well-rounded IT solutions providers have a track About the Author from a lead partner should assist and guide all partners Patrick Lohmeyer serving an organization. record. You need to talk to other companies in your AVP, Service Offerings industry and beyond to learn about various PCM Inc.
30 PCM AS A STRATEGIC PARTNER: BLANKET COVERAGE FOR YOUR IT ENVIRONMENT
As IT infrastructure has become “cloudified,” enterprises have evolved to take advantage of the potential cost savings and efficiencies. Strategic partners such as PCM have also expanded the breadth and quality of their offerings to stay on top of customers’ changing IT demands. As a top-ranked managed service provider (MSP) for the last three years, PCM continues to enhance its service portfolio to help customers achieve their business objectives. At the same time, it continues to provide the longstanding value-added services that growing companies have relied on for more than a decade. Considering a strategic partner to add expertise and value to your IT department? Here are some of the service offerings that PCM delivers.
With PCM as your strategic partner, enterprises get value- With PCM Managed Services, technical specialists monitor, added cloud implementation, integration, monitoring, and manage, and support your entire IT environment and provide management services to assist them in working with a a single point of contact for your technology needs. You can cloud services provider such Microsoft or Amazon Web save time, reduce operational costs, and free up resources Services. PCM can help manage public, private, and hybrid to focus on growing your business. We offer graduated environments, as well as manage workloads and provide levels of service designed to meet the unique needs of integration and related services for Software-as-a-Service each business. The offerings include a Unified Management and Infrastructure-as-a- Service. In hybrid environments, PCM Platform for monitoring and management of systems and supports enterprises with self-provisioning, managing sensitive service delivery. Another key component is a Unified Service data and securing, making deployments easier and seamless. Portal for customers to log incidents and requests, check the status of existing tickets, run reports, and view monitoring and Last but not least, PCM’s cloud experts can advise your performance data for their managed systems. company on choosing a cloud services provider and strategies for operating a multi-cloud environment. PCM's business service management aligns IT services and support with critical applications such as ERP, email, CRM, ecommerce, web, and VoIP. In addition, PCM Data Centers undergo extensive audits every year to ensure operational excellence; these include SSAE 18 and PCI Data Security Standards certifications. Thanks to the increased prevalence of ransomware and other cybercrimes, to go along with weather-related threats, PCM's managed IT support services will provide you with the a disaster recovery plan is now a must-have for companies industry's highest level of professional oversight of your IT interested in staying in business. PCM’s Disaster Recovery-as- operations. a-Service offerings make this requirement more affordable with cloud-based — as well as data center — solutions. No longer do you have to rely on creating your own separate data center or managing volumes of taped backup.
PCM offers a vast array of other IT services, including professional and technical consulting, configuration and integration, installation and deployment, resident engineering PCM provides up-to-date, practical advice in developing, and end-user support, service desk, remediation and disposal implementing, and optimizing your security posture. PCM of IT assets, and more. works with industry leading solution providers such as Symantec and Cisco to design best-in-class cloud, network, With its expertise and longstanding relationships with leading endpoint, and other solutions. Service offerings also mobile device manufacturers, PCM can also be a huge include strategic security assessments, enterprise risk and asset to your company in the integration and deployment of compliance services, and Chief Information Security Officer advanced mobility solutions. PCM will not only make sure you (CISO) management and staff support. In addition, PCM can get the best devices and platforms for your organization, but provide a wide range of security professionals to supplement also consult with you on your infrastructure, Wi-Fi capabilities, your short-term needs, including cloud security engineers and and mobile security policy. HIPAA and PCI consultants. 32 34 In the last five years many advancements in end But what is the reality of end point migration? point technology, software, and collaboration have Software scripts fail, data is not located in “the right helped to increase worker productivity. One factor place" and manual steps are required. What about that has not changed, however, is the cost per personality and device specific needs? You've seat for end user computing. Data and metrics certainly been in a situation where your new PC is from Gartner and other industry resources have installed and you come back to find it didn’t have all shown that the average cost per seat for end user the printer drivers, wireless network settings, email computing annually has remained almost flat for signatures, etc. Afterwards, you request a technician a five-year period. That may be hard to believe to provide additional support or the service desk due to lower acquisition costs of hardware. What gets pounded with your requests just so you can get then accounts for a flat trend line in cost? Major back to your normal work life. WOW what a poor contributors have seen the cost of service labor and user experience! It was very expensive, and doesn’t time associated with support not reducing but in sound even close to zero touch. However, this many cases increasing. problem has a solution, and its foundation lies with redefining the portability of an end user’s personality not just the device and the data.
The reality is that a windows device can have The average cost 200,000 settings and files associated with it. A single user profile can have 80,000 settings with per seat for end user 12,000 of them being specific to your personality computing annually has and unique files. These factors drive long and remained almost flat manual migration steps often with poor end results.
Unemployment within the IT industry is at an all- time low, with rising labor costs. The introduction of more devices and technology standards has added complexity and driven higher support costs. Another contributing factor are the struggles many organizations have had in developing their ITSM platforms to improve workflow, automation and transform service delivery. This is reflected in numerous manual processes, touches, and tasks to facilitate refresh, migration, and asset management.
With end of life support for windows 7 coming quickly in January 14, 2020 One of the most labor intensive portions of this customers are aggressively planning refresh and migration activities. Many process is the initial imaging and migration of end companies are also considering options for operating systems such Chrome user and accounting for their specific needs and and Apple. Legacy software contracts and the new subscription based digital footprint. On average customers report models offer a perfect storm of decisions and considerations in the planning between 2.5 and 4 hours of total touch time per and migration process. As a result, many companies will evaluate end point device. With the average loaded cost of technical models and look to reduce total cost of ownership seeking to transform their labor on the rise, refresh and migration expenses edge computing footprint. associated with windows 10 and other platforms can be significant. For these reasons many have chased the theoretical “zero touch” deployment. And why not? With mobile enterprise technologies migration from one smart device to another takes place with considerably less effort than traditional endpoints.
37 Processes associated with requesting new devices If you're behind in the planning process or need can have long cycle times associated with request help PCM can use our rapid start program to help For more information, please visit approvals, ordering of equipment, scheduling of the The reality is that a move quickly to execution. PCM also offers other www.pcm.com/mobility migration, and the actual deployment and migration targeted solutions aimed at reducing the overall itself resulting in frustration and higher expense. windows device can cost of ownership and cost per seat associated with Many organizations report that poor process and have 200,000 settings and end user computing and software usage to truly asset management make it difficult for them to introduce innovation to your end user computing control expenses associated with lease returns or files associated with it roadmap. Let one of our solution architects highlight About the Author: the disposal of purchased assets while devices still and demonstrate these solutions to show how PCM Dan Schneider maintain residual value driving additional cost per seat. can provide true Hybrid IT delivery and help your Vice President and CTO, Specialty Sales, organization to scale and optimize technology in PCM Inc. Many organizations report a higher percentage of For these reasons PCM developed a framework of your environment. mobile and remote workers making this is an attractive solutions addressing the entire lifecycle of the refresh model which can also facilitate the movement of data and migration process called PCMigration. PCM’s from end user devices to cloud storage solutions such solution frame work can optimize end to end time as one drive and others improving data protection and labor associated with refresh activities by as and security. much as 40% depending on the specific environment requirements, while at the same time improving end PCM has been recognized as a leader in managed user experience. Personality of the devices are services with a ranking of #2 globally by MSP Mentor. specifically targeted. By comprehensively migrating Our knowledge as a leader in managed services system settings, user data—regardless of where is reflected in our systems and ITSM platforms. it may be located—there is a significant reduction We use that knowledge and experience to help of migration times and issues that would trigger our customers mature their ITSM approach and additional support touches with the end users post streamline the process from request to fulfillment migration. This results in significantly lower cost per associated with the asset lifecycle to improve seat with less end user down time, and an improved overall request times, labor cost, and automation of experience. This process can also be leveraged to service workflow. This lays a strong foundation for support end user self-migration truly introducing a asset reconciliation and asset management as an zero or low touch solution that actually delivers. optimization to the overall refresh process.
To assist our customers with quickly closing the gap on their refresh projects PCM offers a Rapid Start Services (RSS) program to help customers quickly navigate all of the decisions they face with their architecture, including:
• Evaluating OS options and alternatives
• Client management options
• Endpoint Security
• Collaboration & Office productivity platforms
• Subscription Cloud and on premise models
• Migration & Image planning and development
• Service models – Outsourced, managed, or utility KTC-PCM-Tech-Journal-AD.pdf 1 6/11/18 2:28 PM
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41 MOBILE SECURITY FOR THE MODERN WORKPLACE HOW TO BOOST REMOTE PRODUCTIVITY WHILE REMAINING SECURE
The state of workplace mobility solutions they claim to be a “silver bullet” for The continued white-hot proliferation of personal whatever threats may arise. In reality, a single devices has led to businesses adopting cultures solution rarely provides complete protection, where employees can contribute remotely, using leaving businesses vulnerable as a result. whatever device is accessible. For many, this has led to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives, Another reason some struggle with mobile security where businesses formally embrace the use of is that budgets force businesses to prioritize personal devices and enable remote access to their security measures. In these situations, many a specific line of business drives the increased opt for other, more traditional security measures usage of personal devices, such as a sales team that fail to secure the network from the end-user becoming increasingly mobile or a customer-facing device. These organizations must understand team leveraging tablets to execute transactions. there are countless ways for cybercriminals to access corporate data, and they will move to According IDC’s Worldwide Semiannual Mobility the point of least resistance – even if you spend Spending Guide, worldwide spending on mobility heavily on firewalls, they will seek out weaker areas solutions is forecast to reach $1.72 trillion in to attack. Part of mitigating threats means you 2021. IDC also found that two of the industries need to understand your weaknesses and act to leading this surge – professional services and fortify them. According to Dimensional Research’s manufacturing – are largely driven by a “highly The Growing Threat of Mobile Device Security mobile, on-the-go workforce.” Breaches, 20% of companies’ mobile devices have been breached. While workplace mobility strategies are both gaining traction and clear drivers for productivity, This last point particularly applies to businesses pursuing them means that you’re introducing that are understaffed or lack security expertise: numerous entry points into your network your mobile security posture is only as strong environment, inherently increasing your attack as the personnel deploying the solutions and surface. This article will shed some light on the managing the environment. According to ESG’s importance of mobile security and detail how you 2018 annual global survey on the state of IT, can enable effective personal device usage with 51% of respondents believe their organization software that hardens your environment has a problematic shortage of a cybersecurity from threats. skills – a number that has grown each year since 2014. Some of the larger security problems that The shortcomings of existing organizations run into stem from a failure to approaches to mobile security configure the solutions correctly. Further, if your Worldwide spending on Even as BYOD and workplace mobility strategies team is not familiar with managing the solution or mobility solutions is have gained traction, many businesses have you lack the manpower to monitor the environment neglected to complement these strategies with an 24/7, you limit your ability to assess threats and forecast to reach $1.72 effective security implementation. There are a few make intelligent decisions to mitigate them. trillion in 2021 reasons for this. team leveraging tablets to execute transactions.
First, workplace mobility strategies are relatively Your mobile security new and emerging, which commonly leads to a posture is only as strong misunderstanding how to properly secure them. This problem is exacerbated by a confusing as the personnel marketplace where many security vendors offer deploying the solutions
42 43 Keys to a successful mobile vendor, anti-malware from a third, and so on). It is Tip: Mobile security is not one-size-fits-all. Your security approach common for these solutions to not work well with one business has unique needs that are driving the While it is important to understand how bad actors another. Additionally, some teams are not well-versed adoption of workplace mobility. When evaluating operate and the inadequacy of some current with operating each of the solutions. This, in turn, consultants, find a partner that will work with you to PCM Mobile Security approaches, you shouldn’t be intimidated into avoiding can limit visibility and the ability to monitor ongoing understand these needs and help you select a solution PCM is a vendor-agnostic and customer-centric workplace mobility altogether. In an increasingly threats in your environment. Security vendors are that compliments your business, your existing security technology consulting organization with a mobile world, BYOD strategies can massively boost beginning to respond by delivering holistic security approaches, and your personnel strengths. breadth of knowledge across the IT landscape. end-user productivity. A proper workplace mobility platforms. Leveraging a more complete, integrated By taking the time to understand your needs, implementation with the right protection is in the best set of solutions like this can help simplify security while also leveraging knowledge on deploying interests of your workforce. team leveraging tablets to management and enable greater control over your and managing solutions, PCM will help you execute transactions. environment. About the Author: choose a mobile security solution that makes Gary Miglicco the most sense for your business. To learn more Senior Vice President of Security, Key 2: Deliver a good user experience PCM Inc. about PCM’s mobile security solutions, visit Your end users want to access corporate applications pcm.com/security Special thanks for his contribution: and data in the most user-friendly way possible. At the Gabe Perez (PCM Security Solutions same time, you have numerous security needs that Architect Manager) may limit their experience: making sure only approved devices can gain access to the network; controlling what aspects of your network the device is connected to; verifying who is behind the device, etc. However, if you deliver a poor user experience, you may risk end-users working around your solutions or resisting the technology to a point that it is abandoned by the company altogether. With this in mind, it is in your best interest to find the right balance of stringent security measures and user-friendliness. This can be realized through a wide range of solutions (depending on your organizational needs), including single sign-on identity management tools or desktop and application Below are some keys to a successful mobile streaming services that take into account securing security implementation: sensitive data and ensuring end-user performance.
Key 1: Take a holistic security approach Tip: It is common for a company’s network team to be The core value of any mobile security approach is in charge of workplace mobility initiatives, while the the prevention of malicious hackers from accessing security team manages its protection. In many cases, sensitive information. In this context, you must these groups aren’t in sync with one another and don’t remember that personal devices serve as the point collaborate to the extent they should. This can result in of access to your corporate resources, but should either limited remote performance or poor security. To other weaknesses exist, they too can be exploited. ensure both stakeholders fulfill their needs, you should When implementing mobile security, you must take a bridge any silos that separate these groups and holistic approach that accounts for how the solution ensure they have the means to collaborate throughout works with your existing security implementations to the project. protect your environment from top to bottom: from the Key 3: Leverage an expert devices, through the operating system and software If your team is understaffed or lacks security stack, to the public or private cloud. By doing so, you expertise, you should consider leveraging a security will be better equipped to eliminate any gaps in your service provider. Service providers can help you security posture and ensure for consistent protection. navigate the marketplace to find a solution that fits your needs. Once you have chosen a solution, Tip: Many businesses have implemented solutions it is easier and more reliable to utilize this provider for from numerous vendors over time across their implementation and/or managed services (depending environment (i.e., a firewall from one vendor, intrusion on your personnel strengths), rather than increasing detection and prevention systems from another staff size or providing ongoing training.
44 MAKE YOUR WORKFORCE EFFICIENT AND MOBILE
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46 47 Today's modern enterprises would be wise to address their voice networks first
From traditional landlines to collaboration gold mines
In its infancy, SIP services were expensive due to a small number of providers. With new entrants to the SIP market and increased competition, prices have become more enticing to enterprise leaders who were previously on the fence about migrating. In fact, No Jitter notes that SIP trunk prices are dropping by 5 percent to 7 percent annually.
Additionally, mergers and acquisitions are proving to be triggers for migration, in which enterprises want to unify their communications across their combined companies. Others simply can no longer ignore the advantages of converging their voice network with What is SIP? their other multimedia services over the internet. A Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is an internet SIP technology is becoming increasingly appealing, protocol used to direct and control multimedia such especially when compared to the limited legacy as voice, video, and data between two or more Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM) solutions that many participants. The solution has been making waves enterprises still have. in the telephony industry, attributed especially to its TDM is essentially a physical voice network cost efficiency and versatility. SIP trunks, telephone comprised of copper wire used to establish and Improving collaboration is a common, overarching organizations right now is their reliance on outdated lines virtualized and delivered over the internet, are maintain a connection between two parties. Once goal for many organizations. Managers spend phone systems, which don’t have the agility and quickly becoming the preferred solution over TDM the only player in town, TDM solutions have since countless hours thinking about it, discussing it, and scalability that modern businesses require. systems. According to IHS Markit’s research, the become obsolete. They are becoming increasingly researching ways to achieve it. global SIP trunking market’s revenue is expected to difficult to troubleshoot, maintain, and fix. TDM’s To optimize collaboration, organizations often attempt reach $9 billion by 2021. Additionally, the number of ability to scale is also limited. Adding lines to TDM A recent survey conducted by The RBL Group found to modify processes or implement new software tools. SIP trunks is forecasted to reach 53 million in 2021, requires additional hardware and rare technician that 95 percent of organizations acknowledge a While these tactics make sense in theory, they aren’t up from 30 million in Q2 2017. need for effective collaboration. And though the always achieved in the most logical order. Today’s services. As this technology’s application is importance of collaboration is widely recognized, modern enterprises would be wise to address their SIP integrates with your organization’s existing diminishing in the modern enterprise, so are the only 21 percent of survey respondents feel they voice networks first, instead of implementing new internet connection and makes all means of skills required to fix them. already collaborate well. This could be related to apps or procedures. Specifically, these enterprises communication, whether it’s voice, messaging, data, several issues—one of the biggest ones affecting should seriously consider migrating to a SIP solution. video, etc., available as software—transferring these communications to participants over the internet with Voice Over IP (VoIP) technology.
48 49 Ready to optimize your collaboration? Can your numbers be ported? 3 questions to assess your readiness for SIP 3
So, is SIP right for you? Before you start cutting your Most of the time, the answer is yes. If you can have copper wires, start by answering these questions: your numbers ported, then you’ll avoid the hassle of provisioning new phone numbers. If you plan to use What are you spending each month in the same carrier that provided your TDM service, 1 TDM costs, repairs, and support? let them know and they’ll be happy to convert your TDM numbers to SIP. Or, if you plan to move to a It’s important to know what your TDM costs are new carrier for SIP, they will handle the process before you discuss any options with a SIP provider. of porting your numbers. In both scenarios, the In this situation, it’s helpful to partner with a trusted process should be painless. technology adviser to ensure these providers understand your current costs and infrastructure. Once the provider knows your costs, they should then be able to give you a more dialed-in estimate of Starting the move to SIP? your monthly cost savings when switching to SIP. PCM can help
When does your current contract expire, or If you’re wondering where to turn to for migration 2 what is the penalty for disconnecting early? and implementation support, look no further. PCM If you are currently at the end of your contract with partners with the best SIP providers around the your provider, then it will be a lot easier for you to world to make sure your switch to SIP is smooth switch. However, many organizations do not have and meets your unique needs. such a luxury. While learning of the dollar amount Visit www.pcm.com/collaboration to learn more. for early termination may sting a bit at first, your SIP provider will be able to demonstrate an attractive Numerous advantages, just one SIP ROI and significant monthly savings. Depending on how close to end of contract you are and how much SIP solutions have the upper hand on TDM for their statuses. Once the request is in your provider’s money you already spend on TDM, you may decide many reasons. The first, and most obvious, is the hands, your work should be done. it’s worth the penalties. About the Author: cost savings. Steve Glowacki Finally, SIP is enabling employees to work more Director of Collaboration, Many SIP partners will guarantee their customers a collaboratively, regardless of where they are. By PCM Inc. minimum of 30 percent savings before even learning utilizing SIP, you make it possible for your employees Special thanks for his contribution: of their current costs. While such commitments might to access their business phone services while they Paul Harrold (PCM Vice President of appear a bit extreme, market research supports the are on the go. With voice now converged with video, Collaboration) growing confidence of SIP providers. According to messaging, and data over a single connection, Gartner, the average company making the switch employees are equipped to work from anywhere and to SIP can cut their monthly telecom bills in half. at any time, increasing their overall productivity. Whether you’re an enterprise with thousands of employees or a startup looking to grow, those are Frost and Sullivan’s Unified Communications and serious savings. Just think of how you could spend Collaboration Analyst, Michael Brandenburg, that money in other ways to benefit your business. speaks highly of SIP technology and its possibilities: “Through SIP, organizations are able to adapt SIP solutions also scale easily. Since no additional their communications infrastructure to match hardware or infrastructure is required to provision the requirements of new and existing business for SIP solutions, the process of scaling your SIP processes, rather than the other way around. The up or down is hassle-free. The steps involved are result is a highly agile set of advanced services that, minimal, and usually require nothing more than a in turn, enhance the agility of the entire organization.” brief conversation with your SIP provider to specify By keeping your employees always connected, how many additional lines you need. The top-tier they can communicate more effectively and get providers even have a portal interface that allows more done. you to make service requests online and monitor
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52 53 BUILDING A cleaner, more intuitive A SMARTER solution for the construction JOB SITE industry has arrived.
DIGITIZING THE JOB SITE and iPhone. Enhancements take advantage of features in iOS to allow the ability to drag and Construction represents an over $1.2 trillion drop photos and documents, multitasking, and industry in the United States. An incredible 20% improved tools for Drawings and RFI creation. of the industry, or roughly $1.5B, is waste and rework during the build phase of a project.1 Often, Texas-based construction firm Rogers O’Brien this waste and rework is the result of traditional began deploying iPads in 2013 with the goal workflows involving paper based drawings and of replacing paper. In 2018, all 190 of Rogers documents that leave out of date information in O’Brien’s operations employees utilize an iPad at the hands of project managers and contractors at the job site. This $100K investment yields a $1.8M the job site. Thousands of dollars and hundreds savings annually, or $9,500 per iPad! In addition of hours of work are wasted by retaining these to reducing waste and rework, Rogers O’Brien legacy approaches. Bringing a “single truth” saves 55,000 hours of employee time previously model to a construction project eliminates errors spent walking to and from on-site trailers to and waste of materials and labor. check references by providing access to those references anywhere.3 Bringing a “single truth” to the job site requires more than the world’s best in class tablet, it requires an amazing application designed and built for the unique challenges of the construction industry. Procore Technologies, Inc., is a For over 30 years, leading provider of cloud-based applications for construction. Procore connects people, PCM has been an applications, and devices through a unified platform to help construction professionals innovation leader, manage risk and build quality projects—safely, on time, and within budget. Procore has a diversified helping customers business model with products for Construction Project Management, Construction Financials, across various Quality & Safety, and Field Productivity. industries with first- Headquartered in Carpinteria, California, with offices around the globe, Procore has more than in-class solutions 2.5 million users managing billions of dollars in annual construction volume.2 In June of 2018, Procore released fully redesigned apps for iPad
1. Statista.com 2. constructiondive.com 3. Businessinsider.com 54 55 the program from procurement, integration, mobile device management, kitting, logistics, help desk, warranty and refresh. PCM has worked At Rogers O’Brien The Enterprise Technology Group at PCM has closely with worked closely with construction industry leaders to create a powerful, rugged and scalable solution construction industry that will allow construction firms and project teams to reduce costs and wastes. Designed by Mike Stamos, leaders to create a Principle Consultant – Specialty Sales, the Digital Job powerful, rugged and Box packs everything needed to connect the job site and the home office to the “single truth”, while also MOBILITY scalable solution including everything needed to protect, connect, IS collaborate and charge the technology wherever it’s being used. THE As more construction firms and project managers REVIEWING THE SPECS NEW embrace mobile technology at the job site, new HAMMER ways to become more efficient are emerging. Drone The Digital Job Box starts with a 24” x 48” steel gang technology can provide accurate renderings of a job box, outfitted with a marine-grade power charger, site in less than 5% of the time existing manual site ready for commercial power. Inside, the kit includes survey workflow. Communication tools like FaceTime ruggedized iPad, magnetic inductive charging stands, allow collaboration between workers in the field an uninterruptible power supply and a 40” display for and remote experts, no travel required. Devices are collaboration, powered by Apple TV. Available in six Workers save 6-8 hours per week by staying at the job site also increasingly being seen as health and safety and ten iPad configurations, the Digital Job Box can Superintendants save 30-45 minutes per day on reporting tool which can be used to review Material Safety also be enhanced with additional accessories such as Data Sheets immediately in the event of an incident, printers, drones, sirens and mobile Wi-Fi hotspot. Company saves 55,000 person hours annually and can provide useful first aid information to those assisting someone injured in the field. Available with the Digital Job Box is a fully managed service offering that includes integration, deployment, LAYING THE FOUNDATION PCM-hosted mobile device management with Mobile Iron, monthly updates, help desk, and advanced Although it’s clear that a mobility program is vital for depot replacement service. The mobility experts construction firms to reduce at PCM will integrate all costs, many IT departments Company saves $1.8 M / Year accessories and activate the within those firms are devices, enrolling them in Eliminates $10K in printing costs per job not ready to manage Apple’s Device Enrollment such an undertaking. Program. Utilizing a hosted Each project saves 7% of reworks from working According to the 2017 and managed instance from a “single Truth” Annual Construction Report of Mobile Iron, PCM will released by JBKnowledge,4 configure your devices to 30.1% of construction adhere to your corporate companies outsourced policies, and will push out all or a portion of their IT apps, content and updates support needs. Those who to each device over the air. are not outsourcing already Reduced safety incidents with drone inspections Your Digital Job Box arrives may be well-resourced on site, ready to work. Provide immediate first aid information to the jobsite in their legacy Windows Should you need support, desktop circle of comfort, or have a damaged device, Keeps MSDS available instantly in the event of a spill but may lack the knowledge PCM’s Apple-certified help base needed to deploy desk is ready to assist with and manage a mobility Pricing on PCM’s Digital Job Box solution troubleshooting or setting environment successfully. begins at $12,500 for a Job Box with six up an advance replacement It is important for the cellular-enabled iPad devices. Monthly repair. At the end of your success of a construction managed services are available for $25 per project, PCM has a variety mobility project to work with month per device, paid annually. Lease the www.pcm.com/DigitalJobBox of options to assist including an experienced mobility entire managed solution for 24 months warehousing, re-deployment services provider, who for as low as $614/month. to a new job site, or trade in. can handle all aspects of
4. jbknowledge.comw 56 For more information contact us at [email protected] 58 60 PRSRT STD Mailing Management Dept. US POSTAGE 1940 East Mariposa Ave. PAID El Segundo, CA 90245-3467 PERMIT #200 Aberdeen SD 57401
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