Arraya Insights

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VMworld 2014 can almost be summed up in one word: realization.

Among the event’s major talking points was the rebranding of VMware’s Management Suite, vRealize. Essentially, many of the announcements and updates to the product sets and capabilities were just that: a realization (or a promise of realization) of the initial value propositions of the major VMware titles and much more true integrations of the titles within each suite.

There was, however, one notable exception to this trend and that was the announcement of EVO Rail and EVO Rack, a Hyper-Converged infrastructure.

Here’s an in-depth look at some of the biggest stories to come out of VMworld 2014, concerning a wide range of products and platforms: [Read more…] about VMworld 2014 Recap

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When two employees who do similar jobs sit next to each other five days a week, 52 weeks a year, it’s easy for them to share tips, bounce ideas off one another and learn from each other how to do their jobs even better.

Now take those same two employees and put one out on the road or at home or even just in a different part of the office and then it becomes a little tougher to maintain that environment of social learning.

At Arraya, we want our employees to feel empowered to be innovators. We want them to always have one eye on what they or the company could do better or should focus on next. But that sort of innovation rarely exists in a bubble. So we knew we needed to foster an atmosphere that encouraged employees to always collaborate, pool their knowledge and learn from each other.   

The thing is, many of our employees don’t spend a lot of time in the office. They’re either out in the field working with customers, hammering out solutions or maybe they’re just working from home for the day. [Read more…] about Making Social Learning a Habit in the Workplace

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The use of video collaboration in healthcare has been available for many years.  However, its use has been very limited.  With recent changes to EMR regulations and insurance company reimbursement policies, video collaboration is receiving renewed interest from providers across the country.  Providers who are implementing this technology are seeing decreased costs and improved patient care and satisfaction.

Healthcare providers are leveraging video collaboration in many TeleHealth and TeleMedicine applications including:

  • Emergency Room Support – connects emergency providers with medical specialists who would otherwise not be available
  • Intensive Care Support – provides round the clock back-up and supervision to ICU staffs
  • Specialist Consults – primary care providers can consult with specialists who are not local
  • Observation – specialist can examine and observe patients who are not local or who are unable to travel
  • Institutionalization – provides the ability to give care to patients who are incarcerated or institutionalized
  • Psychiatry – deliver psychiatric care to remote patients
  • Healthcare Education – conduct education programs to attendees in multiple locations
  • Patient Education – deliver important healthcare related information in a more personalized format [Read more…] about Video Collaboration Enabling Better Patient Care

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Police departments, health service providers, even the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have all fallen victim to attacks from foreign-based hackers recently.

This rise in digital espionage and thievery from overseas hackers has forced IT leaders from all kinds of companies – even those that don’t have a global presence – to expand their security concerns.   

But what’s the best way to ward off cyber threats from abroad?

For some companies, the answer is shutting those countries out completely. Companies ratchet up their firewall settings and simply block IPs based out of parts of the world they don’t plan on doing business with any time soon. 

However, this strategy might still be leaving organizations vulnerable. [Read more…] about Combatting Global Hackers: Is IP Blocking the Best Solution?

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While the rest of us were at the beach or enjoying a picnic over the long holiday weekend, a band of unsavory hackers were hard at work flooding the Internet with a wealth of stolen data.

On Sunday, a massive collection of personal photos alleged to have been swiped from the iCloud accounts of a wide range of celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton appeared online.

How exactly did hackers manage to get their hands on these images? Well, as of now you’d have better luck trying to get a consensus about what the real purpose is of Area 51. The web is bursting with theories about how the attack went down, but so far little has been confirmed. [Read more…] about High Profile Data Breaches Bring Digital Security to Forefront

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It’s every IT decision-maker’s worst nightmare: Thinking a system is sealed up tight, only to have a hacker find a backdoor no one even knew existed. For one healthcare provider, that bad dream became a reality.

Community Health Systems, Inc. (CHS) has admitted it was the victim of a devastating security breach which took place this past April and June. All told, hackers may have made off with the personal information of a staggering 4.5 million patients.  

During the attack, which originated in China, hackers nabbed patient names, addresses, birthdates, telephone numbers and social security numbers. If there’s a silver lining to be found, it’s that hackers weren’t able to get their hands on patient credit card details or any medical or clinical information. [Read more…] about Devastating Hack Reinforces the Need to Beef Up Healthcare IT Strategies

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This summer hasn’t even ended yet but it’s not too early to start thinking about the next one considering that’s when Microsoft’s extended support for Windows Server 2003 runs out.

Come July 14, 2015 all versions of Windows Server 2003 will officially reach their end-of-life. Once that date hits, the updates and security patches from Microsoft will dry up, and organizations still running the old software will be left to fend for themselves.

That can put them in danger of having marauding hackers or cybercriminals get their hands on sensitive corporate data. [Read more…] about End of Life Nears for Critical Microsoft Workload: How to Prepare

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I’d like to start this series on innovation with what we’ve done here at Arraya Solutions to create a positive working environment that encourages employees to learn, grow and contribute new ideas. This article will explore how Arraya continues to adapt by incorporating social tools and practices that promote more efficient, effective means of communication. 

In just over five years from now, millennials will comprise nearly 50 percent of the workforce. The increasing rate at which the 77 million baby boomers are retiring means company dynamics are going to change. As we risk losing the experience in 77 million heads, the ability to store that knowledge in a place that can be accessed later is crucial. Equally important is laying the groundwork now to create an engaging workplace for the future generation. [Read more…] about Laying the Groundwork to Engage the New Generation

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Innovative industry leader well positioned to grow the company’s cloud and managed services offerings.

Arraya Solutions announced today the appointment of Jim McKernan to the role of Senior Director, Enterprise Solutions. In this role, McKernan will oversee the Microsoft, VMware, and Arraya 365+TM Managed Services practice areas. He will report to David Bakker, Arraya’s chief technology officer.

A respected industry veteran, McKernan is a high performance leader with more than 20 years of services, software, and solutions sales success. Most recently, McKernan served as Senior Director, Enterprise Services at VMware, where he led a team of services sales executives and solution architects targeted at the largest enterprise and global accounts in the east division. In this role his focus was on selling VMware’s SDDC, Hybrid Cloud, and End-User Mobility solutions, leveraging a growing portfolio of customized consulting services offerings. McKernan notably created and built the first Cloud Practice and Management & Automation Practice at the company. Before joining VMware in 2006, McKernan served as Global Client Solutions Director – EMC Consulting Services at EMC. [Read more…] about Arraya Solutions Appoints VMware Veteran Jim McKernan as Senior Director, Enterprise Solutions

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Innovation is key to growing a company.  It’s a trend that will soon become a standard – taught in college business classes along with entrepreneurship and organizational behavior. Co-founder and CEO of Google, Larry Page, once said, “Incremental improvements are not good enough. The standard for success is whether we can get these into the world and do audacious things.” 

Every business has the potential to be innovative, but the challenge is finding the right mix of tools, people, process and culture to foster it. 

Arraya Solutions has experience in producing tailored services and products for customers in the areas of infrastructure consulting, application development, and managed services. We’ve been applying that same agile mentality to the workplace – working with different techniques to see what works best and what’s well received.  [Read more…] about Arraya’s been Embracing Innovation and Feeling the Impact