Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Office News - The new Office 365 subscriptions for consumers and small businesses
I shared this on Linked in and am posting it on my blog as well. It is some very helpful information about where Microsoft is headed with their Office product.
Office News - The new Office 365 subscriptions for consumers and small businesses
Office News - The new Office 365 subscriptions for consumers and small businesses
Saturday, September 15, 2012
to Cloud or not to Cloud
As you would expect much of my work lately has been discussion about the best way to use the cloud resources now available. My answer is a predictable "it depends". First, what is "the Cloud"? and Second, what questions should I ask to figure out if it is right for me?
1."the Cloud" is applications and solutions that are not located at your facility but are available through the internet and function as if they were at your facility. That is the simplest way that I can figure out to describe it.
2. Figuring out what questions to ask can be the tough part. I think the reason for this is that there is so much excitement and momentum around cloud solutions that it's easy to forget to ask questions. I'll say that I've spent a fair amount of time "un-clouding" customer networks. Too often sales people are anxious to sell what they've got because its the only tool in their bag. So that might be a good first question:
A. What type of solutions do you offer? Are they only cloud based solutions or do you provide customer premise based solutions as well?
I think for the time being the best solution providers will offer both types of solutions and will provide them based on the requirements identified in the discovery process. Most of the frustration I see has come from the inhibited performance that cloud based solutions can have when they are sold or configured incorrectly. The reason is that by moving your IT resources to the cloud you have the potential to greatly reduce your speed of access to those resources. In short, when you have to go over the internet to get to your cloud it can be slow going. Next question:
B. Can I see a demonstration of your solution and test it myself? Can you explain to me how your solution will work going through the internet as compared to my local LAN?
I think a lot of the confusion that I see lies in the fact that most people (because they are not in IT) don't understand the difference in speed on your office network (LAN Local Area Network) as it compares to the internet. Simply put: most LAN environments travel at 100 or 1000 MPH where as most internet connections are traveling at 10 MPH or slower. Can you see the potential for a traffic jam? What the best cloud providers do is make their application store information on both ends of the internet connection or they make it web based. That does not solve the problem completely. The next step is to make sure you have a large enough internet connection. I think the 50 or 100 MBPS connections from Comcast work great! Next question:
C. What size of internet connection will I need in order for this solution to perform at its best for me?
Final question:
D. Whats the best solution for my business based on my performance requirements and the ROI of the competing solutions?
I'm fortunate to be working for a company that embraces both cloud and non cloud assets for our customers. I'm not forced to guide my customers to a decision that they will later regret because of a limited product selection. Honestly I don't think I would do well with such a limited product offering. That being said there are some great cloud solutions like Office 365 and Backup and Disaster Recovery.
Thanks,
1."the Cloud" is applications and solutions that are not located at your facility but are available through the internet and function as if they were at your facility. That is the simplest way that I can figure out to describe it.
2. Figuring out what questions to ask can be the tough part. I think the reason for this is that there is so much excitement and momentum around cloud solutions that it's easy to forget to ask questions. I'll say that I've spent a fair amount of time "un-clouding" customer networks. Too often sales people are anxious to sell what they've got because its the only tool in their bag. So that might be a good first question:
A. What type of solutions do you offer? Are they only cloud based solutions or do you provide customer premise based solutions as well?
I think for the time being the best solution providers will offer both types of solutions and will provide them based on the requirements identified in the discovery process. Most of the frustration I see has come from the inhibited performance that cloud based solutions can have when they are sold or configured incorrectly. The reason is that by moving your IT resources to the cloud you have the potential to greatly reduce your speed of access to those resources. In short, when you have to go over the internet to get to your cloud it can be slow going. Next question:
B. Can I see a demonstration of your solution and test it myself? Can you explain to me how your solution will work going through the internet as compared to my local LAN?
I think a lot of the confusion that I see lies in the fact that most people (because they are not in IT) don't understand the difference in speed on your office network (LAN Local Area Network) as it compares to the internet. Simply put: most LAN environments travel at 100 or 1000 MPH where as most internet connections are traveling at 10 MPH or slower. Can you see the potential for a traffic jam? What the best cloud providers do is make their application store information on both ends of the internet connection or they make it web based. That does not solve the problem completely. The next step is to make sure you have a large enough internet connection. I think the 50 or 100 MBPS connections from Comcast work great! Next question:
C. What size of internet connection will I need in order for this solution to perform at its best for me?
Final question:
D. Whats the best solution for my business based on my performance requirements and the ROI of the competing solutions?
I'm fortunate to be working for a company that embraces both cloud and non cloud assets for our customers. I'm not forced to guide my customers to a decision that they will later regret because of a limited product selection. Honestly I don't think I would do well with such a limited product offering. That being said there are some great cloud solutions like Office 365 and Backup and Disaster Recovery.
Thanks,
Thursday, September 13, 2012
cool use of technology for education in Minnesota
Check out this story about our own Itasca Area Schools and how they are using technology to improve rural learning
http://www.iasc.k12.mn.us/sites/itascaareadistrict.new.rschooltoday.com/files/images/Story%20of%20Itasca%20Schools%2002%2012.pdf
http://www.iasc.k12.mn.us/sites/itascaareadistrict.new.rschooltoday.com/files/images/Story%20of%20Itasca%20Schools%2002%2012.pdf
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Looks interesting
I've been having a lot of fun with one note from Microsoft. I'm definately going to give this a try.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Microsoft Lync - Liking it so far
Here at Veracity Tech we are currently testing the new Microsoft Lync product. What is Lync? It is the latest version of a unified communication solution. This means it includes, Instant Messaging, Voice, Video, Screen Sharing, App Sharing and whiteboard. There is a lot to be said about Microsoft Office 365 and not all of it good but one truly attractive characteristic is that they are connecting local resources like Exchange server with cloud based resources like Office 365. Practically speaking this means that I can have a local mail server like Exchange and purchase cloud seats of Lync and they will work together as seamlessly as if I had purchased all the licenses for my local server. So...we rolled out cloud based Lync seats to our local Exchange server and it is working great!. Well...I guess the potential down side is that you could spend time and money setting up synchronization between your cloud and local resources and then when you wanted to change it you'd have to spend a bunch more time on configuration. So, it makes sense to spend the time up front testing the product to see how feasible it is for your business and then use the license that makes the most sense for your company from a cost and deployment perspective.
What I love about the product is that it fits with the Microsoft platform so many of my customers are already using. Up until now a lot of companies have been forced to start by using Skype (which is now owned by Microsoft) and set up users individually. Which can be a pain if you have a lot of users. This has been the way that a lot of people have their first exposure to voice and video simultaneously. Now we can wrap voice video and text all into the Exchange/Outlook platform that most people are already using in a business setting. The product works well and it is intuitive to set up a call or share a desktop. It integrates nicely with the calendar. I'm sure there will be some who have complaints. after all its part of the fun of new products in the IT business. You get to complain and then the manufacturers make them better. I hope people have a chance to try this product out. Its easy to order a few seats and pay on a monthly basis.
Feel free to contact me at Veracity if you have questions.
Best Regards,
Peter H. Zubert 952-201-0527
What I love about the product is that it fits with the Microsoft platform so many of my customers are already using. Up until now a lot of companies have been forced to start by using Skype (which is now owned by Microsoft) and set up users individually. Which can be a pain if you have a lot of users. This has been the way that a lot of people have their first exposure to voice and video simultaneously. Now we can wrap voice video and text all into the Exchange/Outlook platform that most people are already using in a business setting. The product works well and it is intuitive to set up a call or share a desktop. It integrates nicely with the calendar. I'm sure there will be some who have complaints. after all its part of the fun of new products in the IT business. You get to complain and then the manufacturers make them better. I hope people have a chance to try this product out. Its easy to order a few seats and pay on a monthly basis.
Feel free to contact me at Veracity if you have questions.
Best Regards,
Peter H. Zubert 952-201-0527
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