Arraya Insights

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Employee feedback earns company recognition as one of the best places to work in the Philadelphia region

Arraya Solutions announced today it was named a 2015 Philly.com Top Workplace. Arraya ranks 23 out of 35 in the small company category, which includes organizations with under 150 employees in the Philadelphia region. This is the first time Arraya has been recognized on the list.

The Top Workplaces are determined completely based on employee feedback. The confidential employee survey of 6,000 companies was conducted by WorkplaceDynamics, LLP, a leading research firm on organizational health and employee engagement based in Exton, PA. [Read more…] about Arraya Solutions Selected as 2015 Top Workplace by Philly.com

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At Arraya, we’re all about innovation. We’ve written a number of blogs on it, and we’ve made it one of our core values so that it’s at the very heart of what we do as a company. Recently we started getting questions from our customers about a tech issue that’s been making headlines lately and that also ties directly in to innovation: net neutrality. Each side of the net neutrality issue believes theirs is out to defend innovation, while the other guy is out to stifle it.

So it was with great interest that we watched as the FCC weighed in and issued a historic vote on the matter. As you’ve undoubtedly heard by now, the FCC voted in favor of net neutrality. In the opinion of the FCC, the decision ensures the Internet will continue to be an enabler of free expression, economic growth and yes, innovation. There’s that word again. Of course, those on the other side of the issue had a less-sunny view of things. [Read more…] about What Does the Net Neutrality Ruling Mean for Me?

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Just a few months back, we pondered whether or not 2015 would be the end of the line for email. It didn’t seem likely then, however, it suddenly may be a little more plausible as far as three of your company’s departments are concerned. The latest release from ServiceNow promises to boost the proficiency of corporate Legal, Marketing and Finance teams in a number of ways – including by significantly reducing the volume of email traffic they face. 

ServiceNow is already well-known for providing IT, Facilities and HR with the lights-out, no-touch automation needed to develop more effective service processes. By adding three new departments to that list, ServiceNow looks to use its cloud platform to wean even more components of the enterprise off their dependency on inefficiencies such as email and spreadsheets. [Read more…] about New ServiceNow Capabilities Increase Efficiency Opportunities

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The status quo is something few if any IT leaders are being pressured to maintain. Instead, most are asked to tie IT in more closely with the objectives of the overall business while wringing everything they can out of budgets that aren’t exactly skyrocketing. Hitting those targets has made evolving away from the current state of things and changing the IT infrastructure a near necessity.

A way that many companies seem to be going about that is with hyper-converged solutions. These appliances can be used to ease resource-related challenges through provisioning and scalability, while optimizing IT environments by way of automation, ease-of-use and orchestration.

And the industry is booming. In 2014, the revenue growth rate of the hyper-converged solutions in 2014 was 150%, according to the white paper “EMC Launches VSPEX BLUE for VMware EVO:RAIL Hyper-converged Systems with Unique Feature Set Enabling IT Transformation.” When compared to the overall IT spending growth rate of 3–4% for the same period, it appears hyper-converged solutions are an area where IT leaders see real value in spending their budgets. [Read more…] about Simplify Virtual Infrastructure Deployment and Management with EMC’s VSPEX BLUE

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Just in case companies didn’t have enough incentive as it is, Microsoft could be about to add yet another reason to hurry up and migrate systems off of Windows XP and onto a more modern operating system. There are new rumblings that custom support for the aging operating system could cost companies even more once spring rolls around.

A licensing expert recently told ComputerWorld to expect Microsoft to double the per-PC price of custom support agreements (CSAs) for XP this April. That increase would bring the price tag of CSAs to roughly $400. It would also come about a year after Microsoft retired XP and slashed the CSA cost per PC to the previous rate of $200 per device (capped at $250,000). [Read more…] about Microsoft Hikes Price for Supporting Aging Operating System

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When Arraya Solutions first started, it was only myself, my partner David Bakker, and a plan. Flash forward fifteen years and Arraya has become a leader in our field, with a team that’s 80+ strong (and growing) and strategic partnerships with some of the tech industry’s biggest names. Both David and I are extremely proud of the success we’ve had, but we also firmly believe with that success comes the responsibility to give back.

In that spirit, we’ve formed relationships with four main charities over the years: Simon’s Fund, The JAG Fund, The Timothy School, and Cradles for Crayons. We didn’t happen to come across that group at random. Each of those organizations plays a vital role in our community and each has a special, sometimes deeply personal, meaning to the Arraya team. [Read more…] about How Arraya Gives Back

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You’ve heard of the generation gap, well, it turns out there’s also an IT-security-perception gap. The name doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, but here’s how it works: Ask IT leaders about the state of their companies’ security and there’s a decent chance they’ll reply with a rosy image. Ask companies’ lower level management that same question, however, and the reviews may not be as glowing.   

That’s the state of things according to the 2015 Annual Security Report from Cisco. To get a balanced, more in-depth look at the state of IT security, researchers looked to gather security insights from multiple levels of a company’s infrastructure. To get the view from the top, they polled Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) – or their equivalent. Researchers also picked the brains of those organizations’ Security Operations (SecOps) Managers for an alternate perspective. [Read more…] about Cisco Study Reveals Perception Gap on IT Security

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Company Recognized for Exemplary Approach to Delivery of Managed IT Services

Arraya Solutions announced today it has earned recognition on The Channel Company’s 2015 CRN Managed Service Provider (MSP) 500 list as one of the MSP Elite 150. This annual list distinguishes the top technology providers and consultants in North America whose leading approach to managed services enables their customers to improve operational efficiencies, elicit greater value from their IT investments, and successfully leverage technology to achieve greater competitive advantage.

In today’s world of outsourced IT, the expertise of MSPs has become increasingly important to organizations. The plethora of choices in terms of consumption and procurement of technology can become overwhelming. To help facilitate companies’ selection and adoption of managed services and providers, CRN, the leading media outlet for technology vendors and solution providers who serve end-user customers, has identified the top 500 MSPs. [Read more…] about Arraya Solutions Named to Manage Service Provider 500 List by CRN

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It may not be as punchy as “Be Mine” and it probably won’t fit on just one conversation heart, but what IT leader wouldn’t have loved to get the following message this Valentine’s Day: “Here’s a chance to upgrade your backup and recovery capabilities without breaking the bank in the process?” Well, guess what? EMC has delivered.

For a limited time only, EMC is offering customers a chance to purchase its Data Protection Suite for Backup 1-50TB at the exclusive EMC business partner purchase price of $3470/TB. This offer also includes one year of prepaid maintenance.

The Data Protection Suite delivers backup and recovery for your enterprise apps, including local and cloud-based protection. It also offers management and reporting tools. The end result? A best-of-breed backup which can lower the cost of ownership and provide peace of mind for IT. [Read more…] about EMC Offers Customers a Chance to Save on Backup and Recovery

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Cisco is the clear market leader for Integrated Infrastructure with solutions developed with VCE, EMC, NetApp, IBM, Hitachi, Nimble, and Simplivity using software from VMware and Microsoft.  Cisco’s strategy has been very clear, to offer customers choice.  Cisco is adding a new option, the Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform (UCSO).  I don’t know who came up with the name or whether they still have a job, but the new addition provides a very interesting platform for organizations who prefer OpenStack. 

The UCSO provides key building blocks ideally suited to supporting private, public, and hybrid clouds. The architecture combines UCS servers with Nexus switching, UCS Director management, and storage access for streamlined deployment of applications and cloud services.  UCSO will feature three offerings: a Starter Edition that enables quick and easy installation for enterprise private clouds; an Advanced Edition that enables rapid deployment and operation of large scale private clouds; and an Advanced ACI Edition delivering policy-driven infrastructure deployment and operation for large scale clouds by utilizing Cisco ACI.   [Read more…] about Cisco Data Center Partner Connection – Update 2: Cisco’s Integrated Infrastructure for OpenStack