AMS.NET Blog

VDI Enables Workforce Flexibility- Work Anywhere, Anytime

Work is no longer a physical place you go to every day. Work is something you do whether you are at the office, on the road, at the local coffee shop or at home. Just as the place of work lines are blurred so is the line between work and personal time. Employees are working after hours, on the weekend in between family activities and even on vacation. VDI and the virtualization of Unified Communications support workforce flexibility and allow employees to work anywhere, anytime.

Virtualization began with servers and with further advancements in hypervisor technology; organizations now can virtualize desktops and mission critical applications such as Unified Communications (UC). Since UC delivers real time communications with call control and instant messaging, careful consideration should be made to the platform that supports this virtualized application so that it provides high availability and quality of service. A virtualized infrastructure should support virtualization features such as vMotion and Storage vMotion for high availability, optimization of resources and consistent security.   

VDI coupled with virtualized Unified Communication applications enable employees to access company resources from virtually anywhere, from any device at any time. From a company laptop, employee owned device or a thin client, employees can access their desktop. Along with user and organization benefits, a virtualized UC solution minimizes the traditional desktop maintenance. The desktop image is pushed from the virtualized data center. If there is a breach of security or malware attack, the session can be terminated and another desktop pushed to the user. Integrated Unified Communication phones and virtual desktop thin clients provide a smaller footprint on the user’s desk and further reduce IT maintenance and support.

Delivering UC services with VDI on a virtualized architecture enables the flexibility required of today’s workforce. Successfully delivering these applications requires planning, consideration of the virtualized data center and the virtualized desktop infrastructure. To learn more, please join us at one of our VDI Technical Seminars coming to a location near you.

I have a phone that works just fine... why Unified Communications?

For more than a decade, manufacturers such as Cisco Systems and value added resellers have been encouraging customers to move away from a traditional land line to a VoIP solution and in the last few years to a Unified Communications solution all with the promise of increased productivity and reduced costs. It wasn’t just lip service! Chadwick Martin Bailey on behalf of Cisco conducted research that identified six proven Unified Communications Application Benefits. You’ll be amazed at the findings.

Six Unified Communications Application Benefits:

1. Presense, IM, Clients
   Unified Communications solutions integrate VoIP capabilities with presence indicators that show user availability and the best way to be contacted to facilitate faster decision making. Instant Messaging provides quick real-time communications that can be easily escalated to group chats or web conferences if necessary. Research shows that 49% of user organizations saved up to 20 minutes per employee daily by reaching workers on the first try. 54% of user organizations saved up to 20 minutes per employee daily by escalating IM chats into phone calls. 50% of user organizations saved up to 20 minutes per employee daily by escalating IM chats into Web conferences.
   
   
2. Telepresence
   A telepresence solution provides an in-person experience with reduced travel costs and increased frequency of face-to-face meetings with customers, employees or prospects. Chadwick Martin Bailey found that 46% of user organizations realized travel savings of more than 5 days per employee annually. 68% of user organizations reported productivity improvements between geographically-dispersed functional groups.
   
   
3. Unified Messaging
   Unified messaging speeds up user productivity by enabling users to check voicemail messages from their inbox, via their desktop, or from their mobile device. Speech-activated tools allow workers to organize messages and quickly respond to messages. 50% of user organizations saved up to 20 minutes per employee daily from more efficient message management.
   
   
4. Conferencing & Collaboration
   Conferencing and collaboration tools such as Cisco’s WebEx provide a virtual meeting space to conduct client meetings, team brainstorming sessions, demonstrations, and more. Collaborating and sharing content and video at the same time enables a highly engaging meeting or event. Over 75% of user organizations experience improved productivity of employees across geographically-dispersed locations due to voice and video conferencing. 64% of user organizations experienced reduced travel costs of over 10%.
   
   
5. Mobile Communications
   The workforce is becoming increasingly mobile with telecommuters, sales people who are in the field and executives with demanding travel schedules. Mobility allows these remote workers reliable and secure access to company resources wherever they are located. Features such as single number reach streamline communications by giving callers one number to dial and by redirecting incoming calls to multiple phones. Research showed that 33% of user organizations saved 11 to 20 minutes per employee daily from corporate director access, click-to-dial, presence and visual voicemail on mobile devices. 67% of user organizations reported increased mobile worker productivity and faster problem resolution. 40% of user organizations indicated 11 to 30 minutes saved per employee daily with single business phone number voicemail regardless of device.
   
   
6. Contact Centers
   Contact centers when integrated with your phone system and business process can be powerful tools for call routing, contact management, email management, call recording and quality control. 41% of user organizations reported contact center upgrades lead to a 6 to 10% increase in first call resolution. 33% of user organizations reported contact center upgrades decreased average call response times by 11 to 25%.

A Unified Communications solution has the power to transform communication and improve business with improved productivity therefore reduced costs. By removing location barriers, reducing phone tag to reach subject matter experts and by increasing the number and quality of communication tools, businesses have so much more than a telephone. They have a communication solution to power their business.

 

Top 5 Use Cases for Desktop Virtualization

Top 5 Use Cases for Desktop Virtualization

The workspace is evolving into a collaborative, mobile and multi-device platform. The increase in hand-held devices, diverse user preferences, mobile workforce and demand for anytime, anywhere access is challenging IT to deliver this new workspace while retaining control and security. Desktop Virtualization or VDI is addressing these new challenges.

VDI address IT challenges and helps:

1. Simplify IT management
   As we discussed in the previous blog post 5 Things to Consider Before Your VDI Deployment, deploying a VDI solution affects traditional IT roles. Typically network and storage administrators have separate roles and defined tasks. In a VDI environment with virtual servers and unified storage, these groups must work closely together and the roles are not definitive. The entire virtualized infrastructure is centrally managed allowing for a holistic view of the virtualized infrastructure and enabling IT efficiencies. Centralized management also allows IT to easily support branch and mobile workers. A unified, centrally managed virtualized infrastructure brings IT efficiency and frees up time for IT to help with business initiatives.
   
   
2. Deliver secure access and compliance
   Maintaining control and security while adhering to compliance regulations is a top concern of many organizations. As users participate in BYOD programs and use multiple handheld devices for work and personal use, IT must provide secure access to ensure productivity. Desktop virtualization is the optimal workspace for providing users with device choice and secure anytime access to information. In a VDI environment, data is stored in the data center and is somewhat shielded from threats and malware. Data is tunneled through a secure network and a firewall to minimize risks. If a device is lost or stolen, the session is ended and all data remains in the secure datacenter.
   
   
3. Ensure business continuity
   Ensuring business continuity is critical to most IT organizations. It’s simple, downtime costs the business money. A virtual desktop environment makes desktops available anytime, anywhere and therefore supports business continuity. In the event of a natural disaster, employees can get to their desktops from home or a remote office. On a smaller scale, if a virtual desktop is attacked by malware or a device is stolen, IT can recover the desktop session and get the user back up and running in no time therefore minimizing loss.
   
   
4. Enable mobile workers
   Workers are no longer confined to their desks. They work on the road, in airports, in hotels, at customer sites and require anytime, anywhere access to do their jobs. To ensure employee productivity, IT must be able to support this new workspace with a desktop virtualization solution. Desktop virtualization supports these mobile workers with a consistent secure desktop that provides the same user experience of an office worker. WAN optimization and high-definition support for video and collaboration tools should be considered and supported.
   
   
5. Provide an agile infrastructure
   Business today is dynamic and IT needs to respond to those ever changing demands. As the work force increases or offices expand and move, IT must be able to modify the infrastructure to accommodate these changes. A virtual infrastructure and desktop virtualization enables IT to quickly provision and roll out new desktops. Remote locations can be managed centrally to provide the same service as corporate headquarters. Applications can be easily upgraded and desktops are kept consistent across the enterprise.

Whatever your business and IT challenge, a VDI solution addresses today’s key IT challenges of security, IT management, business continuity and more. If you are interested in learning more about VDI solutions, join us at one of our upcoming VDI Technical Seminars coming to a location near you.

5 Things to Consider Before Your VDI Deployment

While virtualization has been the hot topic over the last several years, organizations are now ready to deploy desktop virtualization to realize the benefits of increased access, improved collaboration and tighter security among other benefits. A recent IDC study showed that 45% of CIO’s state that virtual desktops is their number one interest in 2012. As your organization plans for desktop virtualization there are 5 main things to consider to ensure a successful deployment.

1. IT Roles
Technology is in constant change and IT roles respond accordingly. Organizations will still need network administrators, security professionals, hardware professionals and desktop technicians but their roles may change somewhat as you move to a virtualized architecture and transition to VDI. Network and storage administrators traditionally have separate rolls. In a virtualized architecture with virtual servers and unified storage, these groups will work closely together. The same applies to the security professionals as they need to ensure that the security profiles apply to this entire, fluid architecture. Desktop technicians will be thankful to minimize the headaches of managing a traditional desktop and will spend more time making sure that virtual desktops are in the correct pools, mapped with the correct resources and if necessary re-imaged or re-loaded.

2. Users
Careful consideration should be given to users and their desktop devices. Users should be documented and categorized based on physical location, connection type, job requirement/application set, device type and mobility requirement. Often these users are categorized by task workers, knowledge workers and power users. These user types and their requirements affect how VDI is deployed. User types that are primarily task workers or knowledge workers may affect the VDI software that is deployed. User type will also affect the type of virtual desktop mapped to that user, persistent or non-persistent, as well as how the desktops are pooled and load balanced.

3. Virtualized Infrastructure as the Platform for VDI
A virtualized infrastructure is critical to the performance of a VDI deployment. In a VDI environment, the operating system along with the data and applications are housed and run in the data center. Bandwidth, storage area network (SAN) and CPU requirements should be considered. It is important to optimize the data center and build a virtualized infrastructure that can adequately support a VDI environment.

4. Collaboration Support
A big driver of VDI is supporting users anytime, anywhere to enhance collaboration and productivity. The virtualized architecture and VDI solution should be able to support your VoIP, video and other corporate applications. VDI allows users the freedom of device choice and gives IT the control and security they require.

5. Security Across the Enterprise
A virtualized architecture increases security with data and applications residing in the data center. Consideration should be made to the security of data whether at rest or in motion with virtualization features such as vMotion. Security professionals need to deploy a VDI solution where security profiles are consistent throughout this fluid architecture. Centralized management helps with the traditional security challenges.

Organizations, users and IT administrators can realize dramatic results when key factors are considered and properly planned for when deploying a VDI solution. Technology solution providers, such as AMS.NET, have the expertise and knowledge to perform the assessment, conduct the pilots and finally implement and support these types of technology solutions.

3 Steps to Makeover Your Desktop into a Virtual Workspace

Often the consumer market drives technology adoption in business as is the case with virtual desktop deployment in the workplace. The PC is no longer center stage. Whether corporate assets or personal property; smart phones, tablets, laptops and other portable devices are being used at home and work. Employees are working differently and IT needs to be able to adapt to these users. A makeover of your desktops and the ability to provide secure access to various endpoints will provide that virtual workspace that your end-users demand.

Step 1. Modernize Your Current Architecture
The first step to providing a virtual workspace is to modernize your current architecture to make it virtual desktop-ready. Products such as the Cisco Unified Computing System integrate the compute, virtualization hypervisor, fabric interconnect and storage functions usually found in separate platforms. VMware vSphere is an integral part of this virtualized architecture that enables the abstraction of the physical processor, memory, storage and networking resources into multiple virtual machines. It also provides the means to create, manage, optimize, and migrate virtual machines from a centralized management interface. The third essential component of a virtualized architecture is unified storage from manufacturers such as EMC. Unified storage allows for resource sharing and supports VMware’s vMotion. EMC’s unified storage solution provides advanced failover and fully automated storage tiering to virtual desktop environments.

Step 2. Integrate Virtual Desktops
With a virtualized architecture in place, virtualizing desktops with VMware View, Citrix XenDesktop or other desktop virtualization software is the next step to providing your end-users a virtual workspace. These solutions provide the platform to create, administer, and deliver virtual desktops. They enable the delivery of secure desktop services so that users can access data, applications and other network services. 

To provide a consistent user experience from a variety of devices from anywhere, IT must improve performance and security controls. Cisco WAAS application aware DRE enhances virtual desktop user experience and improves efficiency across the WAN. Products such as Cisco’s policy based Network Access Control uses Identity Services Engine (ISE) to provide user-based security on any device therefore enabling a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) model to the workplace.

Step 3: Migrate to Integrated Voice and Video Thin Clients
Thin clients, software thin clients or Zero client devices that attach to the back of an IP phone integrate the virtual desktop with voice and video capabilities. These types of devices optimize processing to use network and data center CPU resources more efficiently. HD delivers quality graphics and provides a high quality user experience.

Makeover your desktop environment and provide your customers, the end-users, with a virtual workspace that supports their need for anytime, anywhere access from a variety of devices while maintaining control and security. Give your customers the workspace that they demand!

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Like our Facebook Page, Comment on our Facebook Post and Comment on our Blog Post for a chance to Win. Each participant will receive one entry. The winner will be announced on our blog Wednesday, February 8th and will receive the $250 Visa gift card just in time for Valentine's Day!

Participate for your chance to Win!

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The 5 Musts of a Borderless Network to Support BYOD

We recently blogged about how VDI can support the rise in tablets and mobile devices and the BYOD model being adopted by many organizations. In addition to extending virtual desktops to personal devices, an organization must provide a mobile or borderless network infrastructure. Consider these questions: Can your wireless network handle the wave of mobile devices that are brought onto campus? Do you provide secure access and support of these various devices? There are 5 essential features of a Borderless Network that are necessary to effectively provide access, support and security of these BYOD devices.

1. Transparent mobility for anytime, anywhere, any device access
Network connection should be consistent whether connecting to a LAN or via wireless. Users are increasingly mobile and the network should support access to critical applications whether they are in the field, a guest in a meeting room or roaming the office. Considerations should be made as to the number of wireless access points, the bandwidth, frequencies and so on. Cisco’s Borderless Networks provides the framework to provide mobility and wireless access and performance management across any device. 

2. Security to enforce corporate policy and meet regulatory requirements
An integrated security solution including VPNs, firewalls, intrusion detection systems and access control lists provides tighter security than point product solutions. Cisco’s Borderless Network solution provides context-aware policy with distributed enforcement delivered through the Cisco ISE. This solution also enables segmentation of the network into logical domains which allows tighter security for compliance requirements or added security. IT organizations maintain visibility and control whether you are connecting at headquarters, a branch office or are a remote worker using wired or wireless.

3. Optimized performance to support real-time collaboration experiences
Mobile devices on a borderless network utilizing 802.11n networks can offer 5-10 times the bandwidth to support collaboration and high-definition video. Cisco’s Medianet technology understands the common types of video and can prioritize video flows for the optimal experience.

4. Provide remote and mobile employees with a LAN-like experience
Adding WAAS onto the network, improves application performance and access to network resources providing a LAN-like experience wherever you are located. Headquarter employees benefit from a better user experience with business applications and remote or mobile workers have the connection and experience as if they were working from headquarters.

5. Bandwidth maximization
By maximizing bandwidth with WAAS solutions, organizations can often extend the time until bandwidth expansion is necessary. With the WAAS compression techniques, policies and controls of applications and content, organizations are able to make better use of their existing bandwidth therefore postponing or avoiding upgrades in circuits.

Providing mobility and wireless access to support the BYOD model requires a well thought out and architected borderless network. Cisco’s Borderless Network comprises of integrated hardware and software technologies that provide transparent, secure and optimal user experience. Partners such as AMS.NET can help determine your business requirements and architect a solution that provides true mobility anytime, anywhere from any device.

Top 3 Storage Musts to Boost IT Efficiency

Organizations of all sizes are experiencing ever-increasing data growth and a growing demand for storage. Increased use of video conferencing and video surveillance in the workplace along with government compliance requirements have resulted in an overwhelming amount of data that must be organized, protected and archived. IT is tasked to manage this storage demand with limited IT staff and budgets. Unified storage as a part of a virtualized infrastructure has been significant to enabling IT organizations to accommodate this growth. In addition to consolidation, organizations demand that their storage solutions be flexible, efficient and easy to use. 

1. Flexibility
   Organizations run many different applications with various network protocols that require storage including iSCSI, FCoE, NFS, and more. Unified storage consolidates legacy block storage, file servers and direct-attached application storage and enables organizations to cost-effectively manage multi-protocol file systems and multi-protocol block storage access. Flash-optimized solutions deliver the highest system performance and the lowest storage cost with auto-tiering. With Unified Storage, IT managers don’t need to decide between cost and performance.
2. Efficiency
   IT managers require that their storage solutions are efficient and support virtualization features such as thin provisioning and automated data movement. Block compression and file-level deduplication are important to reducing disk space and allowing IT to regain capacity for the most efficient use of storage resources.
3. Easy To Use
   Storage solutions must have a centralized, simple to use management interface to setup and manage storage pools. Unified storage solutions deliver snapshot capabilities, replication and wizard-based management tools for provisioning. Unified storage solutions must integrate with VMware or other virtualization software to ensure an efficient server and storage virtualized infrastructure. Application administrators or generalists can manage storage pools.

Storage used to be a balancing act between performance and cost. Today, IT efficiency is a top priority and is solved with a unified storage solution. Unified storage solutions have the flexibility to support all types of applications, the efficiency to make the most efficient use of resources and an easy to use management interface to simplify storage management.

Why move from Telephony to Unified Communications?

As we dive into the year 2012, is increasing performance and productivity top of mind? If the answer is yes, you are not alone. Each year, businesses of all types and sizes strive to increase productivity in order to gain a competitive edge. A unified communications system does more than just provide call connectivity; it can be a valuable tool to enable employees to increase productivity. Unified communications provides features to speed up decisions, reduce response times and improve cross-department communication all resulting in increased productivity.

According to Aberdeen Research, businesses achieve the greatest value from a unified communication solution through mobility, presence, web conferencing among other integrated communication features.

Mobility
Mobility refers to providing a single business voice mailbox and a single-number-reach application that intelligently manages, filters, routes and connects calls between a worker’s IP desk phone and mobile cellular or home phone. Users can transition active calls between their IP phone and mobile phone without interruption. Employees can originate enterprise calls from a mobile or other remote phone as if they were calling from their desk IP phone. With mobility, remote workers have the same directories and call resources as headquarter-based employees and users can provide more responsive service with no additional effort.

• Give callers one number to dial
• Remain mobile by moving active calls between desk and mobile phone
• Direct unanswered calls to a single voicemail box

Presence
Presence allows employees to easily communicate regardless of their physical location. Presence indicators show the availability of colleagues based on the desktop, mobile, telephony and calendar information to reduce communication delays. They also indicate the most appropriate communication method such as phone or instant messaging. Presence can also facilitate instant messaging between Cisco Unified Communications and other applications.

• Speed up decisions by viewing availability information prior to making a call
• Increase first-call resolution by quickly reaching appropriate resource
• Improve customer satisfaction with proper call routing

Web Conferencing
Web Conferencing allows employees to simultaneously speak to each other and customers while sharing content. Web conferencing is available on-premise, off-premise or a hybrid solution that takes advantage of on-premise audio conferencing with off-premise web conferencing. These tools allow remote or distributed employees to easily communicate face-to-face without travel costs. Employees can also increase customer face-time with web conferencing tools.

• Improve meeting effectiveness with audio and content sharing
• Increase customer face-to-face time without travel costs
• Support sales meetings, marketing events or corporate announcements

Businesses large or small benefit from an integrated Unified Communications solution. Small to mid-size businesses need to scale and work more efficiently to stay competitive. With mobility features and conferencing, employees can frequently stay in contact with employees and customers wherever they are located. Large businesses with a distributed workforce can improve communications and speed up decisions with mobility and presence information. Upgrading to a unified communications solution can give your business the tools to increase productivity and gain a competitive edge.

Come to work and BYOD!

A new trend has emerged in business; BYOD or bring your own device to work. With the increase in remote and mobile workers and the rise of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets in the consumer market, workers expect these tools and access in the workplace. One way organizations are providing these tools is through BYOD programs that subsidize the cost of the device and service plans. With these programs in place, businesses can allow employees to pick their device of choice and eliminate some of the maintenance and desktop management headaches of maintaining PCs and other devices.

Security, management and device ownership should be carefully considered with this model. Employees using a subsidized laptop, smart phone or tablet will undoubtedly be using the device for work and personal use putting the device and corporate intellectual property at risk. If IT manages these devices, maintenance becomes more complex when mixing different types of devices. If employees use a subsidized service plan, IT steps away from the desktop management and at the same time gives up some control and security.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, VDI, allows you to provide a BYOD program and retain control and more importantly provide secure access from many types of devices. With a VPN connection and a browser, users can securely access company resources from anywhere, using any device.

In a VDI environment, data and applications reside in the data center and users are provided a centrally controlled desktop image on demand. Employees can work from home, in the field or from a hotel room. Contract workers or visitors can gain temporary access without sacrificing security.

In the event of a security breach, the VDI session is ended and upon login a new clean VDI session is initiated. Instead of focusing on a long recovery process, the focus is on productivity and getting the user quickly back to work.

Centralized management tools allow IT to setup profiles based on user type and security requirements to ensure the appropriate rights and access. Virtual desktops can always be reached for software maintenance activities such as patches, upgrades, and removal of unsupported software to further enhance security.

VDI not only supports the BYOD model, it provides increased security and minimizes desktop management for both BYOD users and organizations with traditional PCs or thin clients.