AMS.NET Blog

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.