Blog Posts

New additions to the User Docs include:

Microsoft SCCM - Quick Start Guide and Migration Utility Download

HP Out of Bound Management - Solution Brief and Registration Link

Enjoy!
Michele

If there’s one constant in small and medium business, it is this: change. (SMB) Having to deal with the various pressures of a changing or growing business. From the cost of doing business (gas, electricity, etc…) to finding (and keeping) customers. All while trying to keep their technology infrastructure running efficiently and reliably.

I have the opportunity to talk to a lot of small businesses about technology, and two topics keep coming up: 1)How do I maintain the infrastructure I already have in place, while also staying current with any new tools for a my industry, and 2)How can my business make a difference when it comes to the ‘Green” movement? These are two key issues that do not have one correct answer.

The basics of technology for many small businesses is three things: capable PCs that will run your business apps without delay, the right software tools for your industry or job function, and a network to improve communications and share resources across the company.

While simple on the surface, just keeping all of these pieces up and running from a maintenance point of view can take more time than you expect. Because of this, are seeing more and more small businesses turning to their IT service providers to keep their technology infrastructure up and running, and by deploying PCs that are easier to manage remotely (example: PCs with Intel vPro technology). These hardware, software, and services resellers are know as ‘managed service providers’ or MSPs. There are many advantages for a SMB to use a managed service provider. First, MSPs have expertise in PCs management, networks administration, and software implementation - expertise often found only in businesses with established IT groups. Some businesses can’t afford to hire full time IT, or even if they do have an IT staff, they don’t want them spending their time on maintence – they want them building solutions the bring more capabilities to the business. You may want to talk with a local MSP in your area to see how they can help you. You can find a MSPs in your area by going to https://intelmsp.goirctools.com/IntelMSPLocator/Search.aspx

The other technology issue that small and medium businesses are trying to understand is how can they make a contribution to the ‘Green’ IT movement – especially when their plates are already full with day to day business. Most larger corporations are already introducing initiatives within their company: expanded recycling, increased telecommuting opportunites, and lower power consumption. When I talk with small businesses about what they are doing around “Green IT”, I hear over and over again is reducing power consumption, and for obvious reasons: it not only helps our environment, but it also lowers the cost of doing business.
You maybe wondering how do I reduce power consumption if my business is growing? . One approach that many businesses don’t consider is this: focus on what you can do during non-business hours (6pm to 6am). For example, if you have PCs (Desktops or Mobile) that are not turned off on Friday night and run the entire weekend - well, there are 2+ days of wasted power with no business benefit. If you look at a small business environment where there are more than several desktops, notebooks, and servers (which often consumer even more power), the energy saved by having all machines shut off for the weekend can make a real difference in energy costs.

How do you get started? I recommend you start by looking look at which PCs and servers are still on when you are leaving the office this Friday. This will give you a good idea of the initial impact your company could provide by reducing your power consumption. In addition, if you are already using a manage service provider (MSP) to manage your network, ask them if they have a power savings plan that you could implement.
So while there may not be one single answer to more effective technology management, or for making your business more green, there are a few relatively simple steps you can take today that won’t disrupt your business but that will allow you to spend more time doing what you should be doing, and doing it with less impact on your environment - not to mention bottom line.

Manageability & Automation - It is all about planning!!!

How can Architecture help:

The primary role of architecture is to provide an orchestrated plan to meet short term and long term Manageability & Automation (M&A) objectives. Architecture is all about technical planning and can enable reduced operational costs and agility if done correctly. I strongly believe that architecture can help accelerate the rate of change and provide real value for "M" and for "A".

Some specific Architecture-enabling activities include:

• Service Definition - Define the core Services and what are in/out Scope. Example below.

• Taxonomy - Define the next level of Services details. Example below.

• Establish a high-level Strategy and Conceptual Architecture (5-10 year vision). Example below.

• Define a strategy with a set of guiding principles / policies to enable the M&A. These may include:
  • Vendor strategy (single / multiple sourcing)
  • Integration "Frameworks and/or Point Solutions" (or combo) strategy
  • Operation model strategy (centralized / distributed)
  • Data strategy

• Define a 3-year horizon "capabilities" roadmap with the first year committed (partnership of Architecture, Operations and Engineering) and the last two years a best guess based on realistic funding, estimated vendor product delivery schedules, business trends, emerging / disruptive technologies, etc. Use this roadmap to communicate and synchronize with vendor roadmaps, driving your requirements into their products.

• Establish governance to insure compliance to guiding principles and capability roadmaps.

• Define specific detailed architecture (reference, service and solution) to connect the dots. Depending on the detail, they may include: logical diagrams, ports, protocols, product names, configuration standards, naming conventions, etc.

• Be vocal when it comes to new concepts/technologies and push back it they do not make sense or pull if they do. In our enterprise, some worthy examples include: SOA, OS/Apps streaming, virtualization, IAMT.

We have seen architecture help. Two years ago, we started assembling an architecture plan (definition of the business, conceptual architecture and a capabilities roadmap). We focused resources and funding (consistent with the roadmap) on improving the "M" (Manageability) first. We have been very successful in key areas like compliance auditing, patching, basic autonomic responses to exceeded thresholds, etc. for servers and clients. We will focus the next couple of years on: increased "A" (Automated responses) and prevention for core platforms, integrating data (for business health reporting and enabling Automation), extending capabilities (like more event sources from storage and data center facility), extending remote management (IAMT), developing Capacity & Performance Mgt to a new level of sophistication and actively enabling automation to meet the operational business needs. The key is to have an agreed to vision and deliverables with some meat around governance to make it happen. This is more like a marathon, not a sprint.

I hope this was thought provoking.

Regards,

Bob

For context, Introduction of the "Relevance of Manageability & Automation Architecture" topic.

Supporting content is at:

Relevance of Architecture: Part 1 - Observations
Relevance of Architecture: Part 2 - Current Situation

One of the subjects I’m most interested in is how MicroTCA and AMC modules are evolving to open up opportunities in lower cost spaces such as the enterprise and industrial markets.

As many people know, the AMC specifications were driven out of the need for hot swappable mezzanines for ATCA blades. The MicroTCA specification was kicked off based on the belief that by plugging the AMCs into a backplane wrapped by a smaller enclosure that the AMC market would be greatly expanded. One of the more contentious issues in the specification discussion was about potential cost targets. At the time, it must have been difficult to imagine how new integrated devices such as the Intel Atom processor would drive system level pricing down when combined with lower cost packaging and other optimizations. Now, a couple of years after the MicroTCA specification was ratified, I am often amazed by some of the applications for which potential customers are thinking of using MicroTCA systems. Maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised, as I started my own career by using open standards-based boards for embedded applications, but that’s another story.

Back to the subject, one question I’ve been asked is whether it is possible to remove some of the built-in AMC features such as hot swap, in order to save cost. Most of these questions come from people who have legacy hardware and who believe that hot swap particularly is not of any use to them. I suppose a typical application might be in industrial automation where the system is controlling and/or monitoring a process. Typically, to carry out maintenance the controller is switched off, as well as the equipment or production line, so there is no need for hot swap and therefore it appears irrelevant.

As industrial automation becomes more complex, I have seen installations that are complex to shut down and take a long time. Having the ability to add an additional module on the fly, even if only for troubleshooting, can be extremely beneficial.

I have also started to see a few instances where one MicroTCA box is used for more than a single function. For example, the ability to add an additional Intel-based processor for monitoring or server functionality without requiring all the existing modules to be powered off is extremely useful. The idea of upgrading these embedded systems while live seems to be gaining a bit of momentum, especially now that other techniques such as virtualization have started to break the mental barrier that one module does a single task in one box.

If anyone has similar views on how they envisage hot swapping to be used I would be interested to hear.

Just as we are consistently aware of cost per gallon a
gasoline, IT managers are looking at the cost per gigabyte. Old formulas looked
at the cost per gigabyte of storage since the corporate databases relied on
data storage. Now with the Internet boom and the needs to support remote data
access, Kontron has observed that IT managers are also looking at the cost per
gigabyte of data throughput, blending the system storage and usage costs into a
more accurate number when considering system ROI. Customization
services can maximize storage as needed for emerging system configurations.

An interesting example of the changing way the world is
looking at cost per gigabyte is the 3G iPhone. The cost in the US of the 8 GB iPhone
went down by 50%, giving the user a smaller cost per gigabyte of storage, while
the cost of the data service from AT&T went up by 50% for consumer plans. There
is a 20 month breakeven which should seem pretty attractive to users even with
a 2-year contract. Since data usage charges are for unlimited use – the more
data the lower the ongoing cost per gigabyte.

For the IT manager the enterprise Internet access costs and
the equipment costs are an important piece of the overall cost per gigabyte
formula. Kontron has new IU and 2U network platforms, the KNP-1000 and KNP-2000,
that are ideal for minimizing cost per gigabyte by taking advantage of the dual-core
Intel® Xeon 3000 Sequence processorand Intel® 3100 chipset and optional
rear hot-swap SATA hard drives, to help the enterprise accelerate and manage
traffic. Kontron customers have cited that the combined cost per gigabyte on
the system with network access is significantly reduced of late.

It may be time to start referring to cost per terabyte.

Kontron - Nancy Pantone

It’s pretty unthinkable to have launched a social media site and to have your commenting tool disabled, isn’t it? But, that is exactly what happened. Of course we wanted to point fingers at everyone and my personal favorite – blame corporate – but ultimately what’s done is done and thank goodness YOU the community told us how lame were by not allowing you to comment. We finally heard you, fixed the problem (affecting not just this zone but our friends in the Embedded Comms as well) and believe me we want to hear you.

So please help raise the spirits of our many bloggers and let us know what you think. There are a ton of great topics out there such as telecommuting (wouldn’t we all like to sit in our PJs and work from home), social media, containerized data centers and more.

We’re just glad you complained. We’re listening, so … can we hear you now?

Here are the latest issues posted to the wiki - check'em out!

• Using Intel(R) AMT wirelessly without user intervention

• Local Manageability Service (LMS) does not allow host VPN traffic when environment detection is not defined

• Unable to remove wireless profiles in Intel SCS