Arraya Insights

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Arraya Insights Radio

Episode 6: Building & Maintaining the Best Security Operations Center for Your Business

This month on Arraya Insights Radio, our podcast team explores the increasingly mainstream phenomenon that is cyber crime. In addition to covering some of the biggest recent headlines generated by the topic, our team also looks at the steps businesses need to take in order to build and maintain a Security Operations Center (SOC) that is up to the threat posed by today’s cyber criminals.

Host: Thomas York (Director, Quality and Operational Excellence)

Guest: Tom Clerici (Practice Director, Cyber Security)

Further Reading:

Join us: On April 24, Arraya Solutions will present Bourbon & Duct Tape: How NOT to Handle Security Incident Response. This multi-session event, which will be held at Davio’s Northern Italian Steakhouse in King of Prussia, PA, will feature a keynote presentation from Sean Mason, Director of Cisco’s Incident Response Team. Register now by visiting: arraya.rocks/events.

Theme Music: “I Don’t Remember (Yesterday)” by Hygh Risque

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Support contracts aren’t a sexy topic. They’re tedious, they consume a ton of time and energy, and, when the process is over, those efforts may net IT an even larger expense to fit into budgets. Actually, saying support contracts typically aren’t a sexy subject may be putting it mildly, however, as any organization that’s run into an outage can attest, they can fast become a hot topic.

In the event of a hardware or software malfunction resulting in network downtime, all eyes invariably turn to support contracts during remediation. No longer allowed to lurk in the background, suddenly everyone from other IT personnel to organizational leadership will be thinking and talking about support. At some point during these outage-inspired support contract conversations, the following questions are almost certain to come up:

  • Was manufacturer support even purchased or was it decided that the warranty was sufficient?
  • Is the hardware still covered by the manufacturer support contract or warranty?
  • Is there an SLA from the manufacturer concerning when the replacement tool or component will arrive, e.g., four hours, next business day, best effort?
  • What avenues are available in the event that the support contract or warranty has expired?
  • Does the business have access to a spare solution or component? If not, where and how can one be secured? Will the purchasing process slow the order and arrival of a replacement? Can it be overnighted?
  • Once the replacement arrives, who is going to configure it? Is a backup available for all of the pertinent and mission critical saved on the downed solution? Is someone available with the skills needed to ensure continued access to that data?

In truth, most of these questions can – and should – be answered before an outage as part of a regular contract review process. Additionally, reviews must include identifying when solutions and tools are nearing their end of support dates and budgeting for their eventual replacements. Of course, these things take time and that is not something anyone in IT has in abundance these days.

Next steps: Expert support for your vendor support contracts

Working with a strategic partner for support contracts can take work from the plates of busy technicians, allowing them to focus their energies on their daily tasks, on-going projects and/or dealing with the latest fire drill. Partners bring a wealth of firsthand experience in the support contracts space, giving businesses the peace of mind that comes from knowing that, should something go wrong with their mission critical technologies, they won’t be on their own.

Arraya Solutions has spent years managing support contracts for businesses in all industries. We have a proven track record of helping organizations answer the above questions and we can make support contract management less of a headache by:

  • Assisting with determining risk levels
  • Mitigating risk where applicable
  • Reconciling contract discrepancies
  • Co-terming contract end dates when necessary
  • Executing regular high-level reviews of contracts
  • Providing notification of expiring contracts
  • Performing support contract budgeting exercises
  • Identifying and securing cost-savings opportunities

Want to start a dialogue regarding how Arraya can help your organization manage manufacturer support contracts more efficiently? Reach out to us today by visiting www.arrayasolutions.com/contact-us/. We can also be contacted through our social media presence: Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Be sure to follow us for all of our latest blogs as well as alerts about upcoming special events.

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Even though Android is the top dog in the mobile device market these days, Apple devices factor heavily into most organizations’ BYOD programs. IT teams who support a core of Apple fans will want to keep June 2018 on their radars because, once it arrives, so too will a major change to how Cisco Jabber functions on iOS devices. Unless steps are taken by IT to adjust accordingly, BYOD iOS users will be left in the dark in terms of incoming calls and instant messages.

Previously, Jabber would regularly connect to the Cisco Unified Communication Manager or IM and Presence (IM&P) server using a socket connection & keep alive method to relay messages and calls to an iOS device. This put a strain on device compute power and so, in an effort to optimize the performance of its phones and tablets, Apple set a ticking clock on this type of connection, one that’s finally set to run out this summer.

Apple actually laid the foundation for this change way back in September 2016 with its iOS 10 release. This version of its mobile operating system dumped the APIs needed to alert users to calls and Instant Messages coming across Cisco Jabber when the application was running in the background. Without this functionality in place, users were at a high risk of missing an important incoming call or message – unless they kept Jabber running front and center on their Apple device. The final phase of this evolution was rolled out last September as part of Apple’s iOS 11 update – although, as mentioned it won’t fully go into effect until this June. This release will sunset the last two infrastructure pieces that supported Jabber’s legacy approach to mobile connectivity, namely:

  • SetKeepAliveTimeout:handler – Jabber leverages this UI application to refresh its connection to UC servers and WebEx, keeping the lines of communication open between a mobile device and an organization’s internal collaboration stack.
  • VoIP Sockets – Any time Jabber is transferred to the background on an iOS device, the system monitors this socket in search of incoming communications.

In place of the legacy, socket-based approach, Apple is mandating a move to a cloud-to-cloud connection model. This new architecture sees a call notification travel from the Cisco cloud to Apple’s cloud, more specifically to its Apple Push Notification (APN) service. From there, a call or message alert is then routed to the device itself. It’s a more efficient method that won’t overly tax endpoints. In response to Apple’s decision, Cisco announced it would introduce support for APN to its Jabber service.

Next steps: Keep your Apple fans connected

So, what does this mean for organizations whose BYOD strategies include users leveraging Jabber on iOS devices?  Without appropriate action from communication admins prior that June cutoff date, users will be unable to continue using Jabber from their Apple devices. Admins will need to update and reconfigure their organization’s Cisco UC Manager and IM&P services. Additionally, they’ll need to ensure their Expressway, Jabber, and iOS platforms have all been upgraded to a more modern version capable of supporting Apple Push Notifications.

Need help assessing and ensuring your IT environment’s readiness for this update? Arraya’s Collaboration team has decades of hands on experience, supporting the tools and technologies that have brought workers – regardless of physical location – together. By partnering with Arraya, you can rest easier knowing your communication environment is primed for what comes next.

Want to continue the conversation around APN or discuss another transformation coming to workplace collaboration? Visit us at: https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/. You can also find us on social media – LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Follow us so you can share your thoughts on all of our latest blogs and be the first to know about our exclusive upcoming IT learning sessions.

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Organizations of all sizes are expecting to spend more on the cloud this year than they did in 2017. In fact, just 11% of enterprise-sized participants in RightScale’s 2018 State of the Cloud Report believe their cloud spend will hold steady or decrease while 24% of SMBs make a similar claim. There’s plenty of range regarding exactly what that growth is going to look like but, as far as the cloud goes, it appears the trend is onward and upward. Someone will have to manage those new cloud resources and, for many businesses, that responsibility remains somewhat up in the air.

Before we get into the challenge of managing the cloud, first let’s pull back and explore the scale of that projected growth more closely. According to the report:

  • 20% of enterprises and 17% of SMBs expect their cloud spend to grow by 100% or more
  • 17% of enterprises and 16% of SMBs believe cloud spend will increase by somewhere in the range of 50% – 100%
  • 34% of enterprises and 29% of SMBs think their cloud spend will go up between 20% – 50%
  • 18% of enterprises and 14% of SMBs see cloud spend rising by less than 20% this year

That brings us back to the issue of supporting all those new cloud investments. One way to do so is by consolidating the responsibility internally as part of a “central cloud team.” These groups function as something of an internal hub, housing the best practices, policies, and tools necessary to ensure cost-effective, efficient cloud usage. RightScale’s study also looked at how many organizations have such a team in place. Once again, the researchers broke their findings down by company size:

  • 57% of enterprises currently have a central cloud team while just 31% of SMBs have one
  • 24% of enterprises and SMBs respectively are planning to create a central cloud team
  • 19% of enterprises have no plan to implement a central cloud team, sharing that directive with 45% of SMBs

Without in-house experts driving intelligent cloud migrations, that increasing spend could fail to achieve full impact. Still, bringing that talent in-house can carry a sizeable price tag of its own. The good news is there’s another option.

Next Steps: Enjoy a smooth journey to the cloud and beyond

Arraya Solutions offers two Advisory Services designed to help organizations maximize the ROI they see on cloud investments. These services cover:

  • Cloud Strategy – Connects onsite IT personnel with our team of experts as part of an ongoing engagement designed to help businesses develop and execute their short and long-term cloud strategies. As part of this service, Arraya provides executive-level support covering documentation, best practices, and more. Our team can also get in the weeds, analyzing existing cloud infrastructure and tailoring recommendations for improvement based on unique business needs.
  • Productivity – Bridges the gap between what large corporations and SMBs can achieve with cloud-based productivity tools such as Office 365. Arraya’s team of experts can provide insight at the executive and the administrative level, ensuring a fully-optimized solution experience. Our team can search for procedural gaps, lead instructional demos, and serve as an internal cloud advocate. With Arraya’s help, businesses will be poised to overcome the challenges keeping them from achieving their cloud-enabled productivity goals.

Want to learn more about either of these services, or any of our full slate of cloud and on-prem offerings? Visit us today at https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/. Or, you can strike up a conversation with us on social media. Arraya can be found on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Be sure to follow us so you’ll stay updated on all of our latest industry insights, unique educational opportunities, and more.

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One of the most effective weapons today’s IT security professionals have at their disposal is knowledge – and there is plenty of that packed within the pages of Cisco’s 2018 Annual Cyber Security Report. This year’s report includes insights gleaned from Cisco’s own threat experts, from those of its partners, and from roughly 3600 professionals representing more than two dozen countries. All of that combined experience could prove invaluable to organizations looking to avoid the negative headlines generated last year by the likes of Equifax, Yahoo, and Uber to name a few.

Let’s take a look at six takeaways from the report and how each should factor into your cyber security plans for the rest of 2018 and beyond:

Takeaway #1: Machine learning dramatically boosts threat detection

Attackers have grown adept at co-opting legitimate technologies and then using them against businesses. This has proven to be a popular attack vector, particularly in the case of encryption. Cisco’s report cites a 12-point increase in encrypted traffic traversing the Web between November 2016 and October 2017. During that same period, researchers observed a threefold increase in suspicious traffic leveraging encryption.

Action Item: Machine learning solutions can cut through such smokescreens, quickly identifying activity patterns consistent with known-known (common) threats as well as known-unknown (variations of more common) threats. Additionally, this technology can sift through complex behaviors to spot signs of potential unknown-unknown, or emerging threats.

Takeaway #2: Buying the “best” yet netting uneven results

Some security professionals swear by the so-called “best of breed” approach in which they pick and choose solutions from a multitude of vendors. The reasons cited for preferring this approach over a more integrated solution include the fact that it’s easier to conform to their needs, plus they see it as more cost effective. One thing best of breed is not, in this context, is easier to manage. Products not designed to work together can result in much more to do for admins and can lead to the security gaps attackers love.

Action Item: While a one vendor, fully integrated security environment might not be an option for all, consideration must be given to finding solutions able to integrate with each other – or perhaps even a third party service that can ease the workload generated by managing these disparate technologies.

Takeaway #3: Alerts are often seen but not acted upon

Included in the Annual Cyber Security Report is a wealth of statistics depicting organizational struggles to run down and remediate the alerts created by their monitoring systems. In terms of organizations that receive daily security alerts, 44% of those alerts go uninvestigated. Furthermore, only 51% of alerts deemed legitimate are actually remediated, meaning just under half of legitimate alerts are going unaddressed.

Action Item: Businesses must take strides to close this chasm, although many are struggling to find or afford the expertise needed to do so. Still, leaving legitimate threats unattended seems a large enough risk to inspire organizations to explore alternative solutions, including using third party vendors to add expertise without increasing in-house staff size.

Takeaway #4: Good help is hard to find – and costly to retain

As mentioned above, too many organizations fail to investigate and remediate alerts and incidents due to a lack of in-house talent. There are precious few resources with the specialized knowledge needed to strengthen organizational security postures. As such, competition for these resources is through the roof – as are the costs of landing and keeping it.

Action Item: Organizations should look to a strategic partner for help with their security needs. By doing so, they can address everything from the hands-on duties of supporting solutions, to the executive level expertise necessary to instill and amend corporate security strategies. In this way, they’ll gain the know-how needed without incurring the rising costs associated with it.

Takeaway #5: Cloud offers security – but it too must be monitored

Some 57% of respondents cited in the Annual Cyber Security Report see the cloud as offering better data security. While it’s true that the cloud can provide something of a data safe haven, it’s not immune to assault. In many organizations, cloud has created a gray area. Different lines of business spin up applications independent of IT and then go about their work. The responsibility for managing – and securing – this new environment is left up in the air. Much like encryption, cloud becomes another legitimate resource hackers can turn against the business.

Action Item: Businesses must be prepared to monitor and defend their cloud environments just as they would their on premises data centers. This means investing in solutions designed to automatically enforce corporate policies concerning data stored in the cloud as well as hardening cloud-based applications and infrastructure.

Takeaway #6: Malicious email campaigns never go out of style

Times may change, but email will always remain a popular attack vector for cyber criminals. With the right blend of social engineering prowess and advanced malware, attackers can bypass organizational controls and make direct access with a possible target. Should that person make the mistake of opening an attachment or clicking on a link, they can set off a chain reaction across their organization, opening the door for ransomware or even something worse, like a NotPetya-style data destroyer.

Action Item: Organizations must layer security on top of their email platforms whether they resides on premises or in the cloud. However, tools are only part of the equation. They must also make time to train employees at every level of the business – and across departments – on how to identify malicious messages.

Next Steps: Building a security program to contend with today’s threats

If you’d like to learn about how Arraya’s Cyber Security team can help you address these action items or any of the trends highlighted in Cisco’s 2018 Annual Cyber Security Report, visit us now at arrayasolutions.com/solution/security/.

Don’t forget that we’re listening! Leave us your comments or questions on this or any of our blogs via social media. We can be found on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. After you’ve let us know what you think of a post, follow us so you can stay updated on our latest industry insights and be the first to know about our upcoming opportunities to advance your IT knowledge.

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Businesses seem to be hearing the “call of the cloud” loud and clear if a pair of recent studies concerning Office 365 are any indication. According to research by Barracuda Networks, Inc., , while 49% of those who aren’t yet doing so plan to within the next six months. Meanwhile, in a separate study, this one executed by Gartner, 61% of those surveyed said they use Office 365 while another 23% plan to roll it out within the next six months. Those figures depict an upward trend from the 35% and 31% Gartner captured back in July 2014. The thing is, once in the cloud, many are encountering an age-old question: “What now?”

A closer examination of Gartner’s study finds Office ProPlus and Exchange sitting at the top of the Office 365 pack in terms of both usage and perceived value. This makes sense given the desire to shed email management duties as well as gain access to critical business applications while on the go are both quintessential cloud migration motivators. However, even as usage remains high among utilities such as OneDrive for Business, SharePoint, and others, their perceived value took a sizeable dip.

What gives? Are these technologies simply unworthy of an organization’s time? Far from it. In a blog analyzing the results of this study, one analyst concluded: “… this isn’t a judgment on the quality of the technology, but rather it is an indication of how much work is ahead for organizations to learn how to best use these newer technologies and slowly change working behaviors.”

This rationale is something Arraya has seen come to life in numerous real world cloud migrations. Office 365 applications like Teams and OneDrive are natural disruptors, tools specifically built to change the way employees approach their jobs in order to make workdays easier and more productive. Successful adoption of these types of tools necessitates as much a cultural and operational shift as a technological one. Without a tried and true cloud expert overseeing those shifts, organizations may struggle to extract full value from Office 365 licenses.

Cloud productivity expertise – as a service

Organizations can bring that expertise in-house, but doing so can prove costly. Arraya’s Digital Advisor – Productivity offering stands as an alternative, making expert-level Office 365 knowledge and experience available as a service. It’s an ongoing partnership that connects organizations with Arraya’s team of solutions experts to ensure a maximum return on investment on Office 365 as well as other productivity tools.

Specifically, Arraya’s Digital Advisor – Productivity service can:

  • Analyze existing procedures in search of gaps that can be plugged via the tools and technologies included within Office 365
  • Evaluate existing staff workflows, using information gathered from team members themselves, in search of ongoing productivity roadblocks
  • Facilitate organization-wide demos and training sessions to help employees from all levels and focus areas feel comfortable incorporating Office 365 solutions into their workdays
  • Work with representatives from both the business and technology side of an organization to formulate Office 365 deployment strategies geared toward both short and long term success stories

If you’d like to learn more about Arraya’s Digital Advisor – Productivity service, or any of our other solutions and services designed to help your business evolve beyond its legacy borders, visit us at https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/.

We’re listening! Leave us your comments or questions on this or any of our blogs via social media. We can be found on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. While you’re there, in addition to letting us know what you think of the post, follow us so you can stay updated on our latest industry insights and be the first to know about our upcoming opportunities to advance your IT knowledge.

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Arraya Insights Radio

Episode 5: Simplifying the Complexities of Data Center Modernization

Arraya Insights Radio is back for a new year of podcasting on the topics and trends shaping today’s IT environments! In this episode, our team goes beyond the refresh cycle to explore and explain the realities of bringing data centers into the modern business world. Topics covered include hyperconverged, the cloud, all-flash, and more!

Host: Thomas York (Director, Quality and Operational Excellence)

Guest: Ron Longley (Practice Manager, Data Center)

Further Reading:

Theme Music: “I Don’t Remember (Yesterday)” by Hygh Risque

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The Olympics provide the world’s best athletes with an incomparable platform upon which to show off their skills and, this year, they’ve proven an irresistible target for hackers eager to do the same. In fact, according to new evidence, the efforts to hack the Pyeongchang games were ramping up long before the first medal was even awarded. Just like a true Olympian, attackers didn’t start at the highest level. Instead, they had to work their way up.

In this case, that meant going after Atos, the official IT partner of the Pyeongchang games. Evidence suggests attackers breached Atos’ systems in December of last year. It’s believed this was the first phase of a “supply chain attack,” with attackers leveraging their foothold in Atos’ environment to gather information on, and potentially invade, the Olympics’ system. In support of this theory, researchers point to Atos employee login credentials embedded in a strain of malware called “Olympic Destroyer,” which, as the name suggests, was dispatched to inflict serious cyber damage upon the games.

Even though it hasn’t managed to destroy the iconic competition, Olympic Destroyer has certainly caused trouble for organizers. During the opening ceremony, the games’ official website was taken offline for hours, which, among other issues, disrupted ticket sales to events. Additionally, local Wi-Fi networks also went down. So far, the exact origins of Olympic Destructor are unknown. Although the usual suspects of Russia, China, and North Korea are all being considered.

How Olympic Destroyer carries out its malicious activities is unique. First, the malware scans an infected system for user credentials, taking any it uncovers and using them on other systems. This design allows it to gain entry to even more systems, maximizing its reach. As it moves, Olympic Destroyer wipes clean any and all data it encounters, potentially leading to issues like those encountered during the opening ceremony, and, in theory, much worse.

Next steps: Plug security leaks wherever they occur

Atos is no mom and pop vendor. It’s a global technology corporation with a vested interest in cyber security and yet, allegedly, it too became just another access point for attackers. In theory, once those attackers made it inside, they were able to work their way through the organization’s systems before eventually reaching a bigger fish: the Olympics. This scenario is one that has played out all too often in the cyber security space and it’s one businesses of all stripes and sizes need to keep in mind.

Still, worrying about your own IT environment and your own end users consumes enough of the workday, leaving little time behind for vendors. So, what can be done? Businesses need to ensure they have a defensive grid in place that’s ready to intercept malware, no matter its point of access. One such option is Cisco’s Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) suite. These solutions use global threat intelligence to identify and block malware intrusions in real time. Even if a file enters your network without raising any red flags, AMP will continue to monitor it in the event that it reveals its true malicious colors later on. Should that happen, AMP will alert IT and provide data on where the file came from and where it’s been on your network. With a solution such as AMP in place, your organization’s data will be that much safer – even if a piece of your supply chain falls victim to an attack.

To learn more about Cisco AMP or to discuss building or refining a holistic strategy to defend your business against today’s most dangerous attack vectors, reach out to Arraya’s Cyber Security Practice by visiting: https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/. You can also reach our team through social media – LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Follow us so you can share your thoughts on all of our latest blogs and be the first to know about our exclusive upcoming IT learning sessions.

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I’ve spent almost my entire professional career in Sales. The tools of my trade have evolved over that time, and these days, they include smart phones, laptops, and all sorts of high-powered devices that fit comfortably in a pocket or briefcase. Last month, a group of my Arraya co-workers and I were given the opportunity to try out a set of tools that were completely foreign to us. While they were definitely high-powered, they weren’t the sort of thing you could use and then forget about – not if the aches and pains many of us felt the next day were any indication!

Back in late January, Arraya spent a day working with the folks from Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia at one of their downtown build sites. I can’t say enough good things about the job those people do, building affordable housing for those in need. Every single person from Habitat that I spoke with showed a level of knowledge and passion that was just infectious. It was an honor to be welcomed by them with open arms, despite most of us knowing more about input jacks than, say, a jackhammer. (Although, I learned more about the latter than I ever thought I would that day.)

A group of us from Arraya arrived at the build site, just a short walk from Temple University’s campus, on a predictably freezing January morning. However, the Habitat team wasted no time in helping us warm up. After a brief orientation, we were outfitted with the appropriate safety gear and then it was right to work. We were split up into multiple crews and paired with an expert from Habitat who showed us the ropes. Some of us spent the day laying floor joists, while others were up and down ladders, wrapping the future home in a weatherproof barrier.

I had no trouble forgetting the frigid temperatures in my job: clearing out a run of old sidewalk in front of the property. This had to go so electrical and plumbing lines could be run. My crew armed ourselves with pry bars and pick axes, and went to it, breaking up the sidewalk and lugging the chunks to an awaiting dumpster. As we soon realized, heavier duty machinery would be necessary – and we would be allowed to help run it. After learning the ins and outs of proper jackhammer operation from our extremely patient sidewalk crew leader Stefone, we each took a turn with it. I like to think I’m in pretty good shape, but, let me tell you, running a jackhammer requires a whole different kind of fitness. When we broke for lunch, I think we were all eager for the chance to rest up. Of course, it was only a temporary breather. There was still plenty of sidewalk in need of our attention that afternoon.

At the end of the day, the sidewalk had put up a heck of a fight, but we came out ahead. From what I could see as we began cleaning up, it looked like each of the teams had made some impressive headway in their projects. As we all went our separate ways, I think we were all feeling the same thing: sore! More importantly though, we were also feeling good about the work we’d put in.

I wasn’t sure what to expect going in to the build day, but looking back on it now, I really can’t express how grateful I am to Arraya and Habitat for letting me have this experience. I was able to work shoulder-to-shoulder with co-workers that I don’t often get to spend time with and I did so in support of the great work Habitat does for less fortunate families in the Philadelphia area. I came away from that day with so many fond memories as well as a renewed respect for the men and women who build all of our communities. Speaking on behalf of myself and my colleagues, I know we’re all eager to devote more time to this incredibly worthy cause and once again set aside our everyday tools in favor of something with a little more kick!

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It’s still early in 2018, but it’s not too soon for IT pros to start thinking about September, more specifically, September 19. That’s the day VMware’s vSphere 5.5 hits end of support. As they do with any end of support, end of life announcement, businesses will have a number of options in terms of a path forward. One such choice is to simply solider on with their existing vSphere 5.5 deployments. However, that strategy does carry with it a few downsides that could make life very difficult for the folks in IT.

Businesses who elect to continue leveraging vSphere 5.5 after September 19 will have to contend with:

  • Life without patches – It’s hardly a revelation but, once support goes, so do the patches and upgrades that keep business data safe from the litany of threats that make headlines regularly. Putting together a defensive front that is up to the challenge presented by that environment is the best reason to modernize. In certain industries, continuing with an unsupported solution may even be a regulatory violation because of the security vulnerability it represents.
  • Integration complications – Maintaining a legacy solution makes things more difficult should an organization attempt to upgrade other pieces of its data center. For example, with vSphere, if they want to add or refresh a host, those might not refer back to an older version. Also, newer storage arrays that hit the market won’t play nicely with these sorts of aging infrastructure solutions either.
  • “Leap frog” updates – Upgrades are inevitable. However, if an organization has fallen multiple versions behind, they may not be able to reach the latest iteration directly. In a previous blog, we detailed “leap frog” upgrades, but, in short, organizations would have to endure a multistep process that sees them jump from one version to the next – 5.0 to 5.5 to 6.5 – before landing on their desired solution. This adds time and complexity to the upgrade process, increasing risk and delaying ROI.
  • Trouble with new capabilities – Many of the newest features and capabilities VMware has introduced – tools such as App Defense amd VMware Cloud for AWS – are designed to run on newer editions of vSphere, e.g., 6.5. Attempting to utilize these tools on a legacy version of vSphere can seriously hinder their ability to perform at the highest level. Only organizations who are at the latest version of vSphere will be able to experience and utilize these advanced new features as VMware intended.

Next Steps: Assess your vSphere upgrade readiness

Considering making the move away from vSphere 5.5 and onto a more modern version of the platform? Arraya Solutions can help. Our virtualization and data center experts can perform a free assessment of your existing environment in order to assess whether it is right for vSphere 6.5. They will take an inventory of existing hardware and software deployments and validate each piece of the environment to confirm compatibility with the proposed upgrade. Arraya’s engineers have performed hundreds of these assessments and they know where problems typically reside. Should this assessment turn up any red flags, they can work closely with onsite IT to architect a solution – or present appropriate alternatives.

Ready to get started? Visit go.arrayasolutions.com/vsphere-upgrade to learn more about what vSphere 6.5 has to offer and to schedule your free upgrade assessment. We can also be found on social media: Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook. You can use any of these platforms to comment on our blogs, interact with our team, and keep track of our upcoming special events and learning opportunities.