Able-One Blog

Guest post by Kathy Boulet, Evoke Marketing Group

Coming up this week on July 23rd and 24th:

Able-One, Atlantis Computing and IBM are hosting a pair of exclusive events, giving you the opportunity to learn about their differentiated approach to desktop virtualization, all while enjoying fantastic wines and gourmet food created by the Executive Chef of the McEwan Group: Shen Ousmand.

These are truly events not to be missed!

The details:

The Introductions!

I had the opportunity recently to host a meeting between Chef Mike Eckhardt, Executive Chef of Entertaining Elements, and Chef Shen, as well as McEwan Group Catering Manager, Mario Raposo. Chef Mike provided a gracious tour of the facilities where Chef Shen will be guest chef for our event on Wednesday evening, and all the logistics were ironed out!

We are looking forward to a fantastic time showcasing superior storage and desktop virtualization, together with fantastic food and wine! If you haven't registered as of yet, there are a few more spots left!

What will we be covering at this great event?

Preview exciting new solutions supporting all virtualized workloads & discover how to address today's desktop virtualization challenges:

• Reduce costs and complexity of storage and networking infrastructure

• Reduce deployment risks that derail VDI projects

• Delivery a user experience that is equal to or better than a desktop PC

• Enable management of VDI at scale - up to tens of thousands of PCs

• Provide high availability and rapid recovery from failure and natural disasters

• Cut CAPEX and OPEX costs by supporting up to 20x more users on IBM FlashSystem

• Optimize server workloads with the Atlantis USX Solution

By Eden Watt, VP of Application Innovation, Able-One Systems www.futureday.ca/bio/

Advances in technology have transformed the way businesses operate and the way they interact with customers, prospects, and suppliers. While this has been evident throughout the history of Information Technology, the pace of change and effect on business is growing at an exponential rate.

Software is no longer just a cost centre; it has become a strategic commercial advantage (or disadvantage). In today’s high-tech world, innovation and new business processes can typically only be accomplished with the assistance of new software or by updating, changing or extending existing software.

This means that flexibility with enterprise software can be a major, differentiating factor for organizations that need to rapidly innovate in our increasingly competitive world. 

Four key ‘disruptors’ or game changers are driving the current need to innovate:

• Mobile – consumers now have access at their fingertips all the time.  This is necessitating continuous evolution of employee, customer, partner, and prospect interactions and integration with core systems.
• Social Business – customer interactions are coming from new and emerging channels, many of which businesses can no longer control. To be a leader today, organizations must engage in these new areas.
• Cloud – the ability to deploy everything from hardware\infrastructure to software and services in the virtual world is changing the way IT can deliver and the way users behave.  The considerations and possibilities are endless but how do you decide the most secure, cost-effective, flexible approach for your enterprise systems?
• Big Data – An unprecedented amount of data can be collected today on everything, including customer behaviour, location, travels, and buying habits but how do you sift through it all to introduce more advanced application capabilities that will affect the bottom-line?

With the emergence of these four key disruptive technologies, there are more empowered users with expectations for higher quality customer experience.  Meeting these requirements with the additional situation of a volatile world economy and tighter control over budgets and resources plus ongoing regulatory changes and demands is a significant challenge that IT must face today.

But meeting these challenges can be especially complex for organizations managing traditional business systems that were implemented before these ‘disruptors’ were in play.  Some enterprise systems may even be decades-old and considered legacy but regardless, the day to day business depends on them and they are typically very rich in functionality and not easily replaced.

So the need to adapt traditional systems so that business can react to the advanced needs of today’s technology savvy consumer and leverage current capabilities is at the heart of where Information Technology needs to focus so that IT can lead the business to new frontiers and remain competitive.

In future posts, we will explore these challenges in greater detail and discuss how to overcome them.

Also coming up on November 26^th, we will be hosting the “IT is Business, Business is IT” Event at Entertaining Elements in Kitchener, Ontario. Join guest speakers from Able-One and IBM for appetizers and drinks, and a special presentation where you will learn how your IT drives business agility. To ensure you receive information about this event and how to register, please send an email to events@ableone.com.

by Todd Cox, Chief Technology Officer and Lead IT Architect

Click below to download the Cyber Security Risks Infographic.

by Todd Cox, Chief Technology Officer and Lead IT Architect 

Cloud Storage: Making the choice between Public Cloud and Private Cloud services.

Cloud Storage has increased in popularity with services like Dropbox and Google Drive. These products have made it simple to synchronize files between your phone, desktop, laptop, and tablet. The companies that offer this service have sophisticated redundant data centers where downtime becomes almost nonexistent, providing the ability to get your files anywhere, anytime, from any device.

While this may sound very attractive, there are some drawbacks. One obvious downside is the need for a reliable high-speed Internet connection in order to access your files, assuming they are not being stored locally in addition to the cloud. For this reason, cloud does not compete well with a local file share where access speed and time to open a file are critical. Even opening a simple Word document can be frustrating when downloading from the cloud when you are used to a local file share.   

Certain use cases are certainly more suited towards cloud computing. Many companies are using cloud storage as their preferred backup storage, since it is offsite. Should anything happen to the primary location; users are able to switch over to the cloud location, providing a fantastic option to prevent downtime or data loss.

Another common complaint with cloud computing is that companies are unaware of where their data is physically being stored; this is done by the hosting company to provide extra security. However some companies have restrictions on whether sensitive data can leave the country or even their own premises. Of course, just because data is in the cloud with a reputable hosting provider does not mean there will never be a security breach.  With the media making some of these security breaches very visible (think Amazon), many companies are not willing to take the risk.

With all of this considered, Able-One Systems typically recommends that a business use secure private storage but take advantage of cloud technology such as ownCloud or similar. This product offers all of the benefits of cloud computing while allowing the business the ability to control security and know where their data is being kept.

P.S. If you would like to understand more about cyber security risk and the cloud, sign up to attend one of our upcoming Cyber Risk Management events in the Toronto area. Click here for details.