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Cloud Migration Checklist: 8 Things to Do Before Your First Project

So your organization has decided to move to the cloud – but the question remains: what now? There’s still quite a lot to do even after the destination has been chosen. Mapping out the finer points of how the journey should unfold often falls to IT. There’s plenty riding on nailing that itinerary. Missteps early on can cast doubt on the ROI of such a move, putting the present (and future) of the entire migration in jeopardy.

Tasked with kicking off a cloud migration? Here are eight tips on getting off to a strong start:

  • Define your motives. What’s the driving factor behind your organization’s pursuit of the cloud? Is it reducing or reforming expenses? Or is it building stronger (yet still flexible) bonds between your user base? Survey key organizational stakeholders to find out what they most want to accomplish by moving to the cloud. The results of this survey should help shed light on which specific project should lead the way. For example, if reducing or reforming expenses ends up as the leading vote-getter, it might be worth looking into starting by migrating workloads out of an onsite data center and into a more cost-friendly home in the cloud. 
  • Engage stakeholders. Even after a starting point has been settled on, stakeholders shouldn’t be allowed to fade to the background while IT leads things from there. Instead, you should continue to engage with those set to be most directly impacted by a move to the cloud. Early on, their insights can help identify existing operational pain points, ensuring the cloud resources selected function as true solutions to legitimate problems. As a project continues, they can provide strategic guidance and troubleshooting as it pertains to their existing processes and approaches. When the time comes, these stakeholders can populate a pilot program to work out any last minute kinks prior to widespread rollouts.      
  • Assess your environment. The cloud’s reputation as a disruptor is well earned – and it’s not just your people who will be impacted. You should spend time mapping out your current technology landscape, documenting both existing solutions and how those technologies interact. This information should then be cross-referenced against your cloud migration plans to reveal any areas of potential conflict. Legacy or proprietary technologies may not be able to interface with the cloud without rework – or at all. Plans will need to be made to prevent these solutions from going offline and the cost of updating or replacing them (as well as the time required to do so) should be incorporated into overall migration timelines and expenses.  
  • Crunch the numbers. Many look to the cloud as a way to ease the strain on perpetually-strapped technology budgets. But will it? By how much? And how much cloud will it take to achieve that objective? Prior to committing to the cloud, IT should run the numbers on the total cost of ownership of the cloud. It’s worth gathering data points like the size of your projected cloud footprint as well as the cost of moving into and inhabiting that space. Those numbers should be run against the cost of keeping workloads on prem. While the cloud is often a cheaper avenue, that’s not always the case. Having this information in-hand from the start can help stop a journey destined to disappoint.    
  • Set expectations. Following up on the above point, many organizations expect the moon when they move to the cloud. When initial results fall short of hyper-inflated targets, the project can be viewed as a failure and future endeavors scrapped. Optimism is fine but it’s important to keep expectations grounded in reality. Initial forays into the cloud can be as much a learning experience as anything else. Stakeholders should understand that initial results may not be indicative of the long term value of a project. Instead, that might not be achievable without several phases and revisions.
  • Plan out your journey. Cloud migrations are typically multi-step projects rather than an all-at-once kind of thing. As with any journey, participants need to agree on logistics such as where they’re going, when they’ll be there, how long they’ll stay, etc. Technology resources and organizational stakeholders should work together to set migration priorities, determining which workloads should be moved right away and which others should be held in reserve. Clear, achievable timelines and milestones should be laid out and dated to keep a project on track and moving forward.      
  • Consider your controls. One of the most important discussions to have before moving to the cloud, one that is often overlooked, surrounds governance. Part of that includes navigating within the “shared responsibility model” of securing workloads in the cloud (wherein a provider takes responsibility for their infrastructure and a customer secures everything else). Governance also involves putting controls in place to check access, the ability to make changes, regulatory compliance, etc. All of these elements come together to inspire confidence in the integrity of workloads moved offsite and into the cloud.

Next Steps: Seek out a helping hand before moving to the cloud

One final piece of advice to those planning to move to the cloud: don’t go it alone. Planning and executing a successful cloud migration can be daunting, especially for those new to that world. There are plenty of obstacles waiting to derail a migration or prevent an organization from seeing the full value of their efforts. Arraya Solutions’ team of cloud experts have been down that road many times. They can help organizations handle each of the above steps, charting an efficient course based on an organization’s unique needs.

Visit https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/ to connect with our team now.

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VMware Horizon 8: 6 Significant Additions (and 2 Subtractions)

Last month, VMware released Horizon 8, the newest iteration of its application and desktop virtualization platform. As updates do, this one brought plenty of changes, adding new features and capabilities for admins to deploy and subtracting others that, while familiar, have grown replaceable. Horizon, by its nature, is an almost essential tool for the remote-first, dispersed workforce era that we find ourselves in right now. These latest revisions seem set to only amplify that fact.  

Since the solution’s release in early August, the members of the data center team here at Arraya have dug in to the most noteworthy additions (and subtractions) coming as part of Horizon 8. Here’s what they found.

Addition: Expanded Instant Clones availability and functionality  

When the Instant Clones feature officially debuted in Horizon 7, it was limited to only the upper, enterprise edition. That’s no longer the case as of Horizon 8. Organizations at both the standard and advanced product tiers will also now have access to Instant Clones, on top of ongoing access at the enterprise level.  

For those new to Instant Clones, this feature involves splitting, or forking, a running VM into a newly spun-up child VM. This allows for rapid, just-in-time VDI deployments. Once created, the clone can be customized (MAC address, etc.) while still sharing characteristics with its parent VM (memory, disk). Any modifications are saved separately, however, preserving space as well as keeping a secure gap between the two machines.

The very presence of Instant Clones across all Horizon 8 tiers isn’t the only change on tap for this feature. Smart Provisioning lets Horizon decide the best and most efficient way to spin up a clone. When speed is of the essence, Horizon can provision a clone tied to a parent VM. When speed is less of a concern, a clone can be created independent of a parent. Also new to Instant Clones in Horizon 8 is Dynamic Pool Expansion and Elastic Distributed Resource Scheduler. This lets Horizon leverage host public or private cloud resources to pivot dynamically in the event of a spike in demand.     

Subtraction: Linked Clones

As a direct result of Instant Clones’ expansion, another Horizon feature has been rendered somewhat superfluous. Horizon 8 marks the end of the line for Linked Clones, which formerly served as the standard and advanced tiers’ less speedy answer to Instant Clones. It’s worth noting, Linked Clones will still be available for those organizations not yet ready to leave Horizon 7 behind. Those who do choose to upgrade, will be able to switch to Instant Clones-only.

Addition: Cloud capabilities

Horizon 8 will include expanded support for VMware’s cloud portfolio. Organizations can use one (or more) of these solutions to scale and provision workloads as needed. Right now, this includes support for VMware Horizon on Google Cloud VMware Engine and VMware Horizon on VMware Cloud on Dell EMC. Support for VMware Horizon on Azure VMware Solution will be possible upon the release of that particular solution. All three of these technologies are built on a base of VMware Cloud Foundation.

Subtractions: Entitlement support

A trio of entitlements have been removed from Horizon: vSAN Advanced for Desktop, vRealize Operations for Horizon and, lastly, Fusion. Note: Organizations with existing Support and Subscription Services (SnS) contracts for any of these solutions will retain access to them and these contracts can be renewed. Furthermore, ongoing vSAN Advanced for Desktop and Fusion licenses can both be purchased as necessary. The solutions will just no longer be built in to (and bundled with) Horizon.   

Addition: Support for ControlUp

Horizon 8 has added support for ControlUp. Admins will be able to use this utility to perform the various advanced monitoring, reporting, troubleshooting and root cause analysis they used to do via vRealize for Operations. ControlUp can be run either in the cloud or on prem and will need to be purchased as an add-on to Horizon.

Addition and Subtraction: Revised profile management

Horizon users at the standard and advanced levels will no longer need to rely on Persona Management to oversee profiles. Instead, they’ll now have access to VMware’s Dynamic Environment Manager (Standard Edition) utility for that purpose. Dynamic Environment Manager offers a simplified end-user profile management experience. It gives admins a single spot from which they can manage profiles and policies from all corners of their on prem and cloud-based environments. They can do so while also getting end users access to the desktop or app they need faster by streamlining profiles and logons. 

Addition: Support for RESTful APIs

Full support for new RESTful APIs is standard in Horizon 8. RESTful APIs deliver some much-needed consistency across products as well as data formats. RESTful APIs can be interacted with in the same way, no matter the product and they traffic data in a consistent, JSON format. By way of these abilities, admins can automate and orchestrate formerly manual environment monitoring duties as well as user and machine management services.       

Addition: Linux application hosting

Good news for Linux shops: Horizon 8 plays nicely with the operating system. As a result, organizations can publish their Linux apps directly from a server hosted on Horizon. This, again, contributes both to management simplification and reduced costs. 

Next Steps: Tallying up the pros and cons of Horizon 8

One other feature worth noting? Horizon 8’s scalability. VMware boasts that the platform can support up to one million users in a cloud pod architecture. When you weigh this (and the above) new additions against the subtractions, to our team, it seems like those who make the move to Horizon 8 should have no trouble seeing a return on their investment and coming out ahead.

If you’d like to learn more about Horizon 8, or would like to have a conversation about the present and future of your data center, reach out to our team of experts today!

Visit https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/ to connect with our team now.

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This VMC on AWS News Could Make You Rethink Your Approach to Backups

Back in the summer, VMware announced the general availability of 2-node cluster support within VMware Cloud on AWS. With this news came the ability for organizations to deploy a production-ready presence inside VMC on AWS using only a pair of vSphere hosts. Previously, VMC on AWS support was limited to 3+ node clusters (as well as a single host offering for proof of concept and dev workloads). This streamlined architecture offers entry into VMC on AWS at a 33% lower cost than the 3+ host offering, making it a viable option for organizations with more diverse budgetary needs (and use cases). Those new to the solution will want to pay close attention to one potential use case in particular.

Considering the realities of both the modern threat landscape as well as the vital role technology plays in keeping us all productive and connected, no organization can afford to be without a disaster recovery plan. With its new 2-node configuration option, VMC on AWS has a compelling case to make to any organization considering an “as a service” approach to disaster recovery.

VMware Site Recovery is VMware’s DRaaS solution. Here’s how it leverages VMC on AWS and how both could fit into any organization’s DR strategy.

Putting VMC on AWS to work for your business continuity strategy

VMware Site Recovery is actually three separate utilities all working together to make sure an organization’s key data sets and apps are available when called upon. First, there’s Site Recovery Manager (SRM) which executes orchestration, automation and testing. There’s also vSphere Replication which handles the actual copying of data from the production site to the DR site. VMC on AWS is the final piece of this puzzle, serving as the DR site that houses all of that replicated data.

Protecting critical workloads using VMware Site Recovery stands apart from traditional approaches to disaster recovery – and even some other DRaaS solutions. Here are the biggest differentiators:

  • Cost: Traditional approaches to DR require substantial investments in hardware and the in-house expertise needed to keep it running. That’s to say nothing of associated costs like the space needed to house it all and the power demands of powering it and keeping it cool. By making the move to the cloud and DRaaS, organizations are able to avoid those CapEx costs, shifting instead to a more moderate, recurring fee. Cost remained an issue even with VMware Site Recovery due to the high cost of reserving backup space using VMC on AWS. However, with the recent introduction of 2-node cluster support lowering the price tag on VMC on AWS space, this may no longer be a concern.       
  • Recovery Time Objective (RTO): How long can an organization afford to be without access to its data or apps? Most would respond: “Not very.” Recovering using legacy approaches can be slowed by things like transport delays in the case of offsite, to-tape backups or by the inherent capabilities of deployed hardware. Shortening RTO windows, if it can be done at all, can be expensive, bringing us back to that first bullet. DRaaS solutions can be subject to their own RTO obstacles. Cloud-based compute and network resources may need to be spun up to accommodate the traffic generated by a recovery attempt. The Site Recovery Manager component of VMware Site Recovery handles these details automatically, on the back end, resulting in a more seamless and speedy process.        
  • Replatforming: Application mobility is a shortfall of many DRaaS solutions. Onsite VMs don’t always align format-wise with those of many public cloud providers. In order for an application developed for on-prem VMs to successfully transition to the cloud during failover, the VMs will need to be replatformed. Doing so demands a significant investment of both time and resources. By virtue of its vSphere, vSAN and NSX base, as well as the broad availability promised by VMC on AWS, VMware Site Recovery workloads can make this transition without the need for replatforming. This leads to substantial savings on the behind-the-scenes projects that support business continuity.
  • Testing: Organizations must know their DR strategy will perform as intended when they need it most. That confidence can be hard to come by, however, without a lack of regular testing. Many shy away from this necessary step because testing is often disruptive, forcing costly delays in the name of peace of mind. This is not an issue with VMware Site Recovery, which offers non-disruptive testing. With this capability, organizations can test as often as they need to feel comfortable – without sacrificing productivity in the process.    

Next Steps: Leverage rightsized VMC on AWS as part of your digital transformation

Budget-friendly, high-performing DRaaS is only one of the doors opened by VMware’s release of 2-node cluster support for VMC on AWS. If you’d like to learn more about this change and how else your organization can benefit, reach out to the Arraya Solutions team today. Our cloud and business continuity experts can answer any questions you might have and help you gain confidence that you’ll be ready for anything a worst case scenario can throw your way.

Visit https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/ to connect with our team now.

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Managed Cyber Security or In-House: Which is Right for You?

Who wouldn’t love a cyber security silver bullet? Something guaranteed to stop attackers in their tracks. Unfortunately, the reality on the ground is far more complex. What works for one organization may not work for another. This is true not only of the solutions needed to build out a cyber security posture, but of the people tasked with making sure those tools live up to the hype.

For some organizations, the best approach to the all-important people side of security is building a robust in-house team of cyber security experts. For others, it makes more sense to lean on outside expertise in the form of a managed services provider. Others may even decide the right solution is a combination of the two.

Finding the correct fit for your organization requires taking stock of your needs and goals and then weighing them against the strengths and weaknesses of these two diverse approaches.

In-house or managed? Pros and cons

While that first step calls for a level of introspection that falls outside of the scope of this blog post, we can at least help you with what comes after. Here are six factors to consider as you evaluate the pros and cons of managed cyber security versus handing it in-house.  

  • Budget. Cyber security talent doesn’t come cheap. One recent estimate pegged the average annual salary of an experienced security analyst at about $100K. Last summer, separate research assessed that the average salary for a general cyber security job was 16% higher than that of a traditional IT role. At those rates, maintaining a full team of skilled cyber security professionals in-house can tax a budget quickly. Those who elect to go with a managed cyber security partner will be charged a flat rate for access to an entire team of knowledgeable resources. While this cost will vary depending upon the partner and the type of contract, it will almost certainly represent substantial savings compared to an in-house team.
  • Time. Hiring talented cyber security professionals isn’t just expensive, but it takes time. How long can vary, however, one estimation suggests it can take up to eight months to fill a vacancy on a cyber security team. In a different study, more than a quarter of those surveyed (27%) have found themselves unable to fill cyber security roles at all. Even going with the less bleak finding; that is still a long time to go without being at full strength in today’s high stakes security climate. These concerns are off the table for those working with a managed cyber security partner. Not only is the partner responsible for the hiring process, but a partner’s ability to carry a larger team will prevent any noticeable service disruptions in the event of turnover.  
  • Training. Once a new hire is brought on board, he or she won’t be able to hit the ground running. Expert level resource or not, it’s going to take time to learn the inner workings of an organization and its unique environment. This could take up to four months according to one industry insider. Once again, this is an area where a managed cyber security partner can take work off an organization’s plate. A partner can train a new resource on the fly while relying on other experienced members of its team to shoulder the majority of the workload.  
  • Availability. Not to keep harping on team size, however, it is a chief distinguishing characteristic between these two approaches to cyber security. As a result of its larger team size, a managed cyber security partner is able to offer a level of availability that would be hard for in-house teams to match. Vacations, sick days – all of these things can leave an in-house team scrambling to continue meeting its obligations. Managed cyber security providers, again, have enough resources on-staff necessary so as to avoid allowing these types of concerns to become an issue for their customers.   
  • Organizational Knowledge. Here’s one area where in-house teams shine, although the gap may not be as great as one might think. No one knows a system quite like those who work inside it every single day. That’s to say nothing of the vast amount of organizational knowledge that comes from working with only one team, as part of one organization, day in and day out. It is possible a good managed cyber security partner can give in-house teams a run for their money. A partner should spend ample time early on integrating itself with an organization with the goal of accumulating some of that specialized internal knowledge. A partner’s team should interface with all areas of an organization, developing contacts and comfortability throughout. After all, cyber security is a company-wide concern and the relationships developed by a managed cyber security partner should reflect that.     
  • Holistic Knowledge. This point ties in the solution side of cyber security. The tools companies have come to rely on don’t exist in bubbles. Instead, they often find themselves layered between varieties of other technologies, from a plethora of other providers. Tending to a technological web that grows more complex with each passing quarter requires a broad set of skills, beyond those associated with particular security solutions. Many managed cyber security partners also cover a wide range of disciplines outside of security, e.g., cloud, data center, networking, etc. Having that broad base of knowledge allows the partner to more holistically address an organization’s technology environment. If a security solution isn’t playing nicely with, say a piece of the network, a managed security partner may lean on its deep bench of experts to figure out why. It would be difficult for any organization to afford that depth and breadth of knowledge without detracting from its ability to perform core business functions.

Next Steps: Putting the right approach to work securing your organization

Organizational priorities and industry regulations are two factors that can certainly shift the balance during conversations about managed cyber security versus building out in-house teams. If you’ve assessed your existing capabilities, your goals, and everything else that makes your organization stand apart, and would like to learn more about managed cyber security services, Arraya Solutions can help. Our team can provide insights into our unique approach to managed security and how it could fit into your strategy. 

Visit https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/ to connect with our team now.

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How Microsoft’s Surface Duo Just Changed the Game for Mobile Devices

After months of build-up, Microsoft’s highly-anticipated Surface Duo is now available for purchase. While its moniker seems a reference to the device’s two screens, it’s a fitting name for many other reasons. Even though the Surface Duo is a Microsoft device, it runs on the operating system of a second technology leader: Google. Then, there’s the dual nature of the device: It’s not-quite-a-phone and not-quite-a-tablet, but instead unites, and builds upon, many of the best characteristics of each. Another reason the name makes sense? It’s a great resource for those who always seem to find themselves doing two (or more) things at once.    

The Surface Duo was dreamed up with multitasking in mind, particularly, multitasking on the go. Considering many are still tethered to laptops and multiple monitors in home office setups, its full impact as a productivity tool might not be felt right away. However, as things open up and coffee shops and airports become viable temporary workspaces once again, that’s when the Surface Duo could really come into its own.

Let’s take a look at why the Surface Duo could be a perfect companion for multitaskers and business travelers.

Unboxing Microsoft’s new Surface Duo

The Surface Duo sports two 5.6-inch high-resolution PixelSense Fusion displays connected by a pair of 360-degree hinges. This design – which stands apart from many in the burgeoning foldable device space – grants the user a huge degree of flexibility in terms of how they utilize the Surface Duo. Microsoft calls the various positions and orientations possible with the Surface Duo “postures.”  

Many of the potential postures allow both of the Surface Duo’s screens to be leveraged at the same time. When the device is positioned a certain way, users can have one app open on one screen and a second open on the other. The result is a seamless multitasking experience that includes the ability to drag and drop contents from one open app into another. 

Other postures will span one application across both screens. Apps that have been optimized for this positioning, such as those found in the Microsoft 365 suite, will present users with a uniquely tailored experience. For example, Outlook will put a user’s inbox on one screen and an open email on the other. Amazon’s Kindle app has also been optimized to take advantage of this, mimicking the layout of an open book, with a page on each screen. This puts more information at the forefront and recreates the feel of a more traditional work environment no matter where a user is working from.

Another way to bring a traditional work feel to a non-traditional workspace? Sit the Surface Duo on the back of one screen with the other folded up at an angle. This gives it the appearance and some of the functionality of a mini laptop. In this posture, the lower screen can transform into a keyboard, while the upper screen displays an open message, email, or even an Office document. It’s a far more intuitive way to work on a large document than what a standard mobile device would necessitate.

The Surface Duo can also be folded into an upside-down “v” or tent posture, with one screen (and the device’s built-in camera) facing toward the user and the other facing away. This makes it possible to participate in a Microsoft Teams meeting while keeping an on-the-go user’s hands-free to take notes. It’s also an effective posture for catching up on any videos someone may have missed while on the road, all work-related, of course.

Lastly, whenever a user does have the chance to pull out their Windows 10-enabled laptop, the content on their Surface Duo won’t be far away. Microsoft’s Your Phone app creates a link between the devices. Users can drag files between devices, manage their device’s notifications, as well as access mobile apps and manage texts from their laptop.

Next Steps: Bring the Surface Duo to your team

Interested in learning more about the Surface Duo? Arraya Solutions can help! Our team can walk you through more of the features and capabilities that make this device so innovative.

Visit https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/ to connect with our team now.

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VMworld 2020 Recap: 9 Announcements You Need to Know

In a lot of ways, VMworld 2020 couldn’t have been more different than previous iterations of VMware’s annual solution showcase. This year’s event – like so many others in the industry – was all-virtual due to COVID-19. All you had to do to attend was sit down in front of your computer and log in. If there was one way in which the event felt very familiar, however, it was in its sheer newsworthiness. As they do every year, the VMware team pulled the tarp off of plenty of noteworthy new releases, updates, and partnerships during the course of the event. Far from just generating headlines, these announcements seem poised to reverberate throughout data centers of all sizes.

Members of our Data Center team were among those who logged in to this year’s VMworld from the comfort of their homes. Here are some of the announcements they think should be on most organizations’ radars moving forward.

VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery

Back in July, VMware announced its acquisition of a firm called Datrium with a mind toward expanding its own disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) capabilities. The idea was to take VMware’s performance-optimized in-house Site Recovery Manager offering and pair it with Datrium’s cost-optimized utility to create a best-of-both-worlds solution. At VMworld, that vision became a reality with the debut of VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery.

A few key points to note about VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery:

  • On demand recovery – Time is everything in a disaster scenario. VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery can accelerate an organization’s return to normalcy in a few different ways. First, failover VMs can be powered on at instant speed in the event of a problem, instead of having to wait until impacted data is fully copied and rehydrated into a DR landing spot (VMware Cloud on AWS). Further shortening response times is a “Pilot Light” option that pre-provisions and configures a small number of hosts before they’re ever needed. Additionally, VMs stay in their native, vSphere format for the duration of the recovery process, eliminating the need for time-consuming conversions.  
  • Simplified management – During a worst case scenario, there’s no time to break out the manual on a DR solution. Admins need a familiar, easy-to-use set of tools that they can use to get things safe and stable for the organization. There’s plenty in VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery that won’t require an introduction. Admins can manage the solution suing vCenter and it leverages many tried and true vSphere concepts (e.g., resource pools, datastores, etc.). Further simplifying things for admins? VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery automates both routine health checks and its own audit-readiness. This should ease “What if” concerns about both the solution’s ability to perform when called upon and its compliance with necessary regulatory requirements.
  • Budget-friendly – For many, the whole idea of moving to the cloud in the first place is to help right-size their technology spend. If left unchecked, the cloud can unfortunately became a resource drain all its own. That’s not an issue with VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery. Failover resources housed in VMC on AWS are only spun up for legitimate recovery scenarios and for testing purposes. Organizations won’t have to pay for idle resources. This focus on intelligent utilization exists throughout VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery. Backup storage, recovery points, failbacks – all of these elements have been optimized to allow organizations to take full advantage of the “economics of the cloud” they sought.
  • Ransomware ready – Ransomware isn’t just a headline-grabbing boogeyman, it’s a real and growing threat to organizations of all sizes and specialties. VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery can help organizations bounce back from ransomware attacks rapidly and fully, without having to pony up any bitcoin to attackers. Since failover VMs can be powered on instantly, without having to first be repopulated, admins can search through their backups quickly, separating a clean, malware-free copy from those that might be tainted. They can then failback to that unaffected copy. 

Project Monterey

Even though it feels like a lifetime (or more) away, VMworld 2019 actually only took place just over a year ago. Project Pacific – VMware’s effort to reimagine VMware Cloud Foundation so as to intertwine Kubernetes and vSphere – was one of the hot topics of that conference. A lot may have changed since last year’s VMworld, but the aftershocks of Project Pacific are still being felt. So much so, in fact, VMware announced a sequel, or a follow up if you will, to Project Pacific at this year’s conference: Project Monterey.

Project Pacific opened the door to a host of new applications built on a newly-reconfigured VMware Cloud Foundation base. These modern applications brought with them new opportunities as well as new challenges for the organizations leveraging them. Compute resources were stretched thin, risky gaps were opened, and the cost of dealing with these challenges spiked. Project Monterey is a direct response to those issues.

Once again, Project Monterey involves rethinking VMware Cloud Foundation, although this time the changes start at the hardware level. This program leans on a new technology called SmartNIC to boost performance, enhance security and allow for simpler management. At a high level, SmartNIC combines NIC technology with a general-purpose CPU that can be managed “out-of-band.” SmartNIC can also enable core systems and apps to treat virtual devices as physical ones.

Project Monterey isn’t hurting for potential use cases. Organizations struggling with network performance issues could use SmartNIC technology to intelligently reroute core traffic while still emphasizing ecosystem security. Those looking for more flexibility and simplicity in their storage environment could see it through Project Monterey’s ability to efficiently accelerate compression, encryption and erasure functionality. Additionally, those interested in simplification through “bare metal” or “bare metal as a service” should also keep Project Monterey in mind.  

SaltStack Acquisition

VMware also announced plans to acquire infrastructure automation provider SaltStack. VMware has famously been on an acquisition binge of late. However, SaltStack looks to be more than just another feather in its cap.

In a blog post detailing the company’s intentions, Ajay Singh (VMware’s Senior Vice President & General Manager, Cloud Management Business Unit) said “SaltStack will help us to complete our automation story.” VMware plans to utilize SaltStack to bring automation deeper into the organization, stretching its reach beyond infrastructure to the entire application stack. In his post. Singh notes that this will include “the software and packages inside virtual machines and containers.” He also stresses this move, once finalized, will streamline the deployment and management of on-prem and cloud-based workloads.    

What else is new from VMware?

There were more announcements than we can fit in a single blog post. However, a few more that our team felt were worthy of special mention include: 

  • NSX Advanced Threat Protection combines NSX Distributed IDS/IPS with the advanced malware detection and AI-powered analysis capabilities of another recent VMware purchase: Lastline. This solution, which will be generally available this month, promises unprecedented threat response capabilities, including allowing organizations to apply virtual patches beyond the perimeter, to every workload.
  • VMware vRealize AI Cloud is VMware’s acknowledgment that the needs of applications are always in flux. This “self-tuning” cloud service is designed to adjust to the changing needs of modern applications at near-real-time speeds. VMware vRealize AI Cloud will debut in the weeks ahead with vSAN compatibility, with additional use cases to follow.
  • Workspace Security VDI combines VMware Workspace ONE Horizon with VMware Carbon Black Cloud to better secure today’s dispersed workforces. With demand for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure is at an all-time high due to COVID, Workspace Security VDI can help keep remote users safer through behavioral detection while simplifying management through its agentless approach. This solution is now generally available. 
  • NSX-T 3.1 utilizes API-powered routing and multicast functionality to support, among other use cases, large-scale global deployments and disaster recovery services. NSX-T 3.1 will be generally available in the coming weeks. 
  • vRealize Network Insight 6.0 maps the build and function of an organization’s network, covering virtual, physical and multi-cloud environments. That information can then be used to spot and work-around performance dips before they occur. VMware vRealize Network Insight 6.0 will be released in the coming weeks.
  • vRealize Cloud Universal is a hybrid subscription service that seamless transition between vRealize Cloud solutions without the need for multiple licenses. VMware vRealize Cloud Universal is available now.      

Next Steps: Continue your digital transformation with the latest from VMworld

As mentioned, these are just some of the announcements to come out of this year’s VMworld. If you’d like to learn more about any of the subjects covered in this post – or those we were unable to get to – reach out to our team of data center experts today!

Visit https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/ to connect with our team now.

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Microsoft Reveals the Future of Exchange Server as 2 End of Support Dates Near

With support set to run out on a pair of Exchange Server solutions in the coming weeks, Microsoft spent part of its annual Ignite conference shedding some light on the future of the platform. As it turns out, that future may end up looking a lot like the present. Those organizations planning to continue leveraging Exchange Server as part of their broader Microsoft footprint can soon expect a familiar approach to both licensing and product updates.  

At Ignite, Microsoft announced plans to release the next version of on premises Exchange Server (alongside SharePoint Server and Skype for Business Server) during the back half of next year. As has become the norm for many Microsoft solutions, each of these new server versions will necessitate the purchase of a subscription in the vein of Microsoft 365.  

News about this latest version of Exchange Server – currently dubbed Exchange Server vNext until it receives a permanent designation – comes just as two other versions of the solution near crucial end of support dates. Exchange Server 2010 is set to reach the end of its extended support phase on October 3 of this year. This comes more than five years after mainstream support dried up for the solution. Also, Exchange Server 2016 will hit its end of mainstream support date this October 13. The last generally available planned update for Exchange Server 2016 is due to arrive this December. Meanwhile, extended support for that solution will continue on until October 14, 2025.

What’s next for those leveraging Microsoft Exchange Server?

Obviously, the timelines don’t sync up. Any organization that will be impacted by either of these end dates won’t be able to upgrade directly to the newly-announced next generation of Exchange Server. So what does that leave the upgrade path looking like for those who want to leave either Exchange Server 2010 or Exchange Server 2016 behind prior to 2021?

Exchange Server 2019 is the clearest option for a few use cases: those looking to keep all their mailboxes on prem and those with true hybrid environments who plan to keep at least some onsite. Organizations moving fully into Exchange Online can continue to use their existing Exchange Server deployment to oversee their remaining hybrid environment until a more advanced, permanent management option arrives from Microsoft.

Making the move to Exchange Server 2019 will perfectly position organizations for a Microsoft first when Exchange Server vNext does arrive. Those using Exchange Server 2019 will be eligible for an in-place upgrade to Exchange Server vNext, making a seamless, safe transition to the most modern Exchange Server available.

Next Steps: Preparing to leave legacy Exchange Server behind

Need help planning for life after Exchange Server 2010 or 2016? Ready to make the move to Exchange Server 2019 or to learn more about what the future holds for the platform? Arraya’s cloud and workspace experts can help. Our team has helped countless organizations modernize their Exchange environments. They know where the risks lie and how to avoid them. Reach out to our team today to start a conversation about your organization’s next steps in its digital transformation journey.

Visit https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/ to connect with our team now.

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Concerns around data privacy and data security didn’t vanish with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. They’ve only been amplified, especially of late, as reopening organizations have sought to collect more information on their users in the effort to keep them safe. Routine temperature checks, contact tracing – many are counting on these (and similar) practices to help bring users back onsite and carefully usher in a return to normalcy. While useful toward promoting physical wellbeing, such procedures can leave organizations exposed from a cyber security and compliance perspective.

Here’s an example: Albion College, a small liberal arts school located in central Michigan, earned the wrong kind of national headlines after mandating the use of a contact-tracing app for returning students. The app would record a student’s COVID-19 status and track their movements around campus. If a student were to test positive, the app could help identify any others who may have been in contact with that person. This raised the anxieties of privacy-conscious students and parents. Those fears were heightened after the app was found to have a pair of security vulnerabilities. One of these allowed access to the app’s back-end servers. The other left details like a student’s name and COVID-19 test status accessible to prying eyes. Both have since been corrected by the app’s manufacturer.    

Such scenarios certainly aren’t unique to Albion or even higher ed in general. Organizations in all industries are grappling with how to gather and use data to ensure a COVID-safe workplace without doing so at the expense of privacy. While this issue is still playing out in real time all around us, there have been some lessons learned.

6 questions to ask about data privacy in the face of COVID-19

Here are six questions our security team believes can help organizations strike a balance between data collection and data security. 

  • Do you have a data classification policy in place? These policies define data sets as public or private, sensitive or open, etc. Those definitions should then be used to determine how data sets are stored and who has access to them. Organizations that don’t have policies of their own in place regarding data classification should consider developing them, as data volume grows, either in-house or with the help of a security partner.
  • Is your existing classification system set up to handle an influx of COVID-generated data? It’s not likely many employers were tracking their employees’ temperatures or scrutinizing their peer interactions too closely prior to COVID. Now? It’s commonplace. This newly-generated data will need to be classified under an existing system. How it should be classified remains up for debate. Right now, it’s best to lean on the interpretation of an in-house or partner resource with a legal and/or regulatory background. Should there be any lingering doubt, it’s best to err on the side of stricter designations rather than go too loose.
  • What are our regulatory obligations? We’re in uncharted waters right now in terms of both data privacy and the ongoing pandemic response. Organizations should seek clarity on just what regulatory obligations they have, if any, regarding the new data flowing into their network. The risk – and cost – associated with playing catch up on this topic is too great. Instead, organizations must get out in front and seek the advice of an expert resource in the field.  
  • What’s the lifespan of this data? Once collected, how deep should a repository of employee temperatures go? Organizations will need to determine how long they want to/are obligated to retain this newly-targeted data. Longer retention periods will give rise to increased concerns around both security and storage. Organizations will need to clarify their individual responsibilities in this space from a compliance perspective and then make the necessary adjustments to their data center environment and cyber security posture.
  • How are we going to collect this data? Albion’s experience shows the importance of choosing carefully when it comes to gathering data. If an app is the chosen avenue, will it be developed in-house or purchased from an outside organization? No matter where it comes from, what steps will be taken to ensure a safe and efficient rollout, including user training? Long-term, who owns the app and is therefore responsible for basic maintenance, such as implementing patches and updates? In the push to reopen, the security and functionality of the way in which all of this new data enters a network in the first place can’t be overlooked.
  • What’s this data being used for exactly? The answer to this question is some variation of: “to make sure, as much as possible, that those who enter a facility are healthy and to keep them that way.” Good intentions, as evidenced again by the Albion example above, aren’t always enough to earn people’s trust. Organizations must be transparent with their users. Policies regarding why certain data is being collected, how it’s being used, where it’s being stored, that it’s being secured, etc. all must be put in writing and communicated to user bases. A more open process is less likely to be greeted with pushback and suspicion.

Next Steps: Keeping your users – and their data – safe

Need a hand auditing your organization’s approach to data privacy, including as it pertains to COVID-19? Arraya Solutions can help. Our team can work with you to analyze your approach and, if necessary, adjust to ensure your most sensitive data stays out of the wrong hands. Reach out to us today to get a conversation started!

Visit https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/ to connect with our team now.

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3 Operational Challenges Solved by Cisco ACI Anywhere

Your data is no longer hemmed in by four walls, so, why should those physical boundaries continue to define your data center? Cisco’s belief (one which Arraya shares) is that they shouldn’t and its ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure) Anywhere solution is one way to begin deleting those legacy barriers. This software-defined network offering represents a freeing of traditional data centers, albeit one that doesn’t overlook the need to strike a balance between flexibility and security.

The scalability and portability of ACI Anywhere start, but don’t end, with the public cloud. Cisco relies on a pair of technologies to build a bridge between ACI and the public cloud: Cloud ACI Controller and ACI Multisite Orchestrator. The former translates ACI policies across environments to create a simplified management experience for on-prem and cloud-based workloads. ACI Multisite Orchestrator acts toward a similar goal by allowing admins to push policies out to up to a dozen data centers and global cloud regions in one step, no matter the platform or OEM. Additionally, Cisco ACI vPod offers a software-only version of ACI, allowing organizations to extend the reach of their on-prem ACI networks to remote environments, custom clouds, and more.

That’s how ACI Anywhere works at a very high level. What are the practical, operational benefits of those innovations? We reached out to our in-house networking experts for their take.

Letting your data center go where your data is

Here are three operational and management challenges you (and your organization’s data center networking team) can solve with Cisco ACI Anywhere:

  • Organization-wide spikes in IT complexity. The functionality of Cloud ACI Controller and ACI Multisite Orchestrator say it all, really. Data centers, and the technology environments they help support, have grown more complex. Organizational data spans multiple in-house sites and even across clouds from more than one provider. For example, IDC research suggests almost 9-in-10 (88%) organizations work with more than one cloud services provider. The average, according to the IDC team, is 16. It’s not hard, given that level of complexity, to envision misconfigurations occurring. Simple misfires can prove devastating from both a security and compliance perspective. Cisco ACI Anywhere can help prevent these issues through consistency in policy management as well as the ability to automate tedious tasks. 
  • End users’ growing application dependence. Applications have become irreplaceable parts of most employees’ workdays. Experts don’t see this changing in the years ahead. Again looking to research from IDC, the market intelligence firm’s team projects a 50% increase in the number of applications organizations are tasked with supporting over the course of the next two years. ACI Anywhere allows new applications to be rolled out at scale more quickly and relocated across cloud or on-prem environments as the need dictates. Additionally, the availability of those applications can be more easily ramped up or down based on what a situation demands.       
  • The ever-present focus on cyber security. Concerns over cyber security need to be woven into every action an organization takes and every solution it embraces. A study by MeriTalk, focused on workers in the federal government, found that 83% said their agencies were increasing multi-cloud adoption to support, in part, ongoing telework mandates. Building off that, 91% of those surveyed felt better securing those environments would be a top tier priority over the next two years. A solution such as ACI Anywhere can help enable and secure multi-cloud environments in a number of ways. It can do so through whitelisting, policy rollouts and enforcement, and micro-segmentation, among other avenues.   

Next Steps: Dive deeper into Cisco’s ACI Anywhere

The potential operational upsides of Cisco ACI Anywhere extend beyond those covered above. If you’d like to learn more about this topic, you can do so by reaching out to the Arraya team through our website (https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/) or any of our social media channels: LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

You can also join us for the 6th Annual Arraya Solutions Tech Summit. While this event may look a little different than it has in years past due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it will still deliver the same expert-level, “by techs, for techs” content attendees have come to expect. This year, the Tech Summit will take place from Oct. 19-23, with 12 all-virtual, expert-led, technologically-oriented deep dive sessions into today’s hottest IT topics.

One session, called “Leveraging ACI to Unify Your Cloud and On-Prem Environments,” will offer practical insights into how admins can successfully maintain and secure hybrid technology environments using ACI as a single pane of glass and management hub. If you’d like to learn more about this session or any of the others our in-house experts have on tap – or would like to secure your spot – you can do so by visiting http://arraya.info/techsummit.

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10 New Features (Besides Pop Out Meetings) Set to Reshape Microsoft Teams

Blink and you might miss a new feature or ability going live in Microsoft Teams. After all, as we stated in a recent video on the subject, Teams is anything but a stationary platform. That video focused on Pop Out Meetings, which is just one of several enhancements Microsoft has made recently to its unified communication and collaboration platform. Pop Out Meetings may have gotten the video, but that doesn’t mean those other new features aren’t worthy of their own spotlight.

Up next are ten announcements that are set to shape the future and present of Teams as well as those of the organizations that have come to depend on it to keep their workforces connected. After the list, we’ll cover how you can bring them to your organization.  

Teams Calling

Calling, once the domain of desktop phones, has been reimagined on the fly as organizations adopt more flexible work arrangements due to the coronavirus pandemic. Microsoft Teams has been a huge part of that progression. As those arrangements have continued to evolve, so too has Teams. Most recently, Microsoft has announced several upcoming changes as well as reaffirmed its commitment to others in order to remain supportive of organizations’ shifting needs.

Among the latest announcements are:

  • extended support for Skype for Business (3PIP) phones. This support was set to expire in 2023, however Microsoft has extended it to enable late adopting organizations to continue using their 3PIP phones while migrating to Teams.
  • new SIP phone support. Starting in the first half of 2021, Teams will be able to handle the core features of a variety of leading SIP phones, from leading providers like Cisco, Yealink, Polycom and more.
  • a new line of Microsoft Teams phones. Also available in the early days of 2021 will be a new batch of Microsoft Teams phones from manufacturers such as AudioCodes, Yealink and more. These devices will sport physical buttons, high-quality audio and baseline calling functionality.
  • new USB peripherals. Due out later this year is an expanded portfolio of USB Teams phones. These peripherals will feature out-of-box functionality, dial pads and a modern interface that includes a Teams button. It’s also worth noting these devices will be compatible with both PC and Mac operating systems and their initial run will ship from Yealink.   

More new meeting experiences

We’ve covered Pop Out Meetings pretty extensively already (If you haven’t already, check out our explainer video). While definitely noteworthy, the ability to split a meeting video out from the Teams client (resulting in unimpeded access to the app’s other functions) isn’t the only change Microsoft has implemented recently. The company is also rolling out:

  • a revised meeting control panel. Controls have been gathered into a single, always-on dock and relocated to a fixed spot at the top of the meeting window. This change allows control buttons to be both at a user’s finger tips and out of the way so as to not overly clutter a display.   
  • an expanded gallery view. Holding a larger meeting no longer requires sacrificing (digital) face time with attendees. Teams meetings with 10 or more attendees are able to be switched over to “Large gallery” view, compiling up to 49 separate video streams into a single screen. 
  • a new way to bring attendees together virtually. If even the expanded gallery option still feels like too much separation, Teams is also offering “Together mode” for meetings of five or more. This feature transposes the video streams from meeting attendees against a generic auditorium background. The end result gives the rough impression of talking to a room full of peers. 
  • revamped meeting notes. Meeting notes can now be taken in one of two places. By default, they can be taken directly into the Meeting notes tab in the main Teams client. Attendees also have the option to take notes into a Popped Out Meeting window itself, via the Meeting notes panel. 
  • help staying focused. Distractions during meetings have never been more plentiful. Teams can help reduce these to some degree with Focus mode. Meeting attendees can activate Focus mode anytime content is being shared. Doing so will remove the distraction of multiple attendee video feeds, letting viewers home in on shared slides, spreadsheets, etc. 
  • spotlighted attendee feeds. Due in September, the spotlight feature allows presenters to shift attendee attentions as the need dictates. Presenters will be able to lock on to an individual attendee feed and make that the common view for all other attendees. Upon its release, this feature will be available for PC, Mac and Teams Rooms operating systems. 

Next Steps: Modernizing your approach to meetings with Teams

It feels like a lifetime ago that Microsoft announced a July 31, 2021 end of support date for Skype for Business Online – but in reality it’s only been about a year. Even with all that has happened, Microsoft is sticking to that plan. With that date looming, and given all of the new features outlined above, there’s never been a better time to consider a move to Microsoft Teams.

If you’d like to learn more about any of the newest features coming to Teams – or about Teams itself – Arraya’s cloud and workspace teams are here to help. Our team has the experience and skills needed to help your organization audit and modernize where appropriate its approach to meetings.

Visit https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/ to connect with our team now.

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