In my previous installment of this “Why HPE ProLiant” series, we reviewed HP’s Insight Remote Support (IRS) capabilities and the Integrated Lights Out 4 Engine (iLO). With this article, I’ll discuss some of the most exciting benefits of selecting the Generation 9 server platform. Many of the most popular server models have been available on this platform since late 2014.
As a solution provider, a common refrain from clients and prospects is that “a server is a server.” They don’t see the rationale in paying more for a “brand-name” server, such as an HPE ProLiant, vs. a “white-box” server. In this article, the goal is to uncover some of the top specific reasons to go brand-name, in addition to included capabilities such as IRS and iLO.
My goal for this article is to help educate the technology decision maker and purchaser to understand more completely why choosing HP ProLiant is a sound and effective decision for your critical technology needs.

• • HPE OneView (and Lights Out Advanced Pack) now available as an “instant on” orderable SKU! Inform your account manager to include the “electronic” license for OneView Advanced or iLO Advanced software solutions, and your license key will be installed onto the server during factory integration and ready to use as soon as you boot up the server in your environment – providing for a quicker time to deploy and setup the server.

 

• • Vastly Improve Compute Economics: With 2X the compute capacity per watt and up to 60% lower total cost of ownership over three years (including initial acquisition costs) vs. many existing installed ProLiant G6 or similar servers. How?
    • Intel Haswell E5-2600 v3 CPUs
    • HP DDR-4 SmartMemory
    • 12Gbps SmartArray RAID controllers
    • HP PCIe Workload Accelerators

 

• • Accelerates IT Service Delivery: Per IDC whitepaper titled “Achieving Organizational Transformation with HP Converged Infrastructure Solutions”, ProLiant Gen 9 provides up to 60X faster service delivery with simple automation for a competitive advantage.

 

• Boots Business Performance: Up to 4X faster read and write workload acceleration with HP Smart Cache (a technology built-in to HP SmartArray RAID controllers), which accelerates performance so you can get your data faster (based on HP internal testing).

 

Value Added Features/Capabilities:

HPE OneView – Advanced License provides for a converged management platform that mitigates infrastructure complexity with automation simplicity. Standard use license is provided at no-cost with every Gen 9 ProLiant server (Advanced license is a one-time fee). Standard license can provide important system details such as inventory, health reporting, alerting, and reporting for Gen 9, 8, G7, and G6 servers. HP OneView Advanced license also includes the iLO Advanced license functionality.
HPE Insight Remote Support – Covered in detail in my March blog post, provides remote monitoring and alerting from embedded iLO 4 chip directly to HP Support and/or your channel partner such as Zunesis.

 

 

 

HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) – Covered in detail in my June blog post, provides a 4th generation dedicated ASIC for a variety of systems management, remote access, and control functionality – all built-in! Gen 9 includes iLO Federation which allows for discovery of up to hundreds of servers in seconds, and manage numerous servers as one. Gen 9 also includes a pre-boot health summary as a simple diagnostic screen for critical server data.
HPE Intelligent Provisioning – Ideal for small to medium business, as the configuration and deployment tool for Gen 8 and 9 servers, Intelligent Provisioning can also be used for system maintenance needs. Now includes an “opt-in” capability to utilize the free 1TB StoreVirtual VSA software-defined storage license upon system setup.

HPE Smart Update Solution – A breakthrough systems management tool that provides systematic and organized updates for ProLiant servers, which is composed of HP Smart Update Manager (SUM) and Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP). These services are provided to facilitate ongoing system updates, a “no-brainer” activity condensed into as few as two updates per year for firmware, drivers, and Smart Components on Blade or rackmount/tower servers.
Where can you go to learn more about this technology? Please follow the below links for access to in-depth information, demos, and implementation information. As always, contact your Zunesis account manager for more information as well!

HPE OneView
HPE Insight Remote Support
HPE Integrated Lights Out
HPE Intelligent Provisioning
HPE Smart Update Solutions

 

Join us for a Night of Miracles

 
The Bedrock Foundation and Zunesis invite you to join us for the fourth annual Night of Miracles. We hope to raise all of the money needed to build a home in our community in a single evening! Please help us achieve our goal and join us for an evening of camaraderie and entertainment.

 

The founding members of Zunesis believed that “together, we could accomplish great things”, and that is exactly what Zunesis has been doing for Habitat for Humanity over the past seven years. Zunesis has donated over $314,000 in support of eight Habitat homes since 2008, and has contributed over 1300 volunteer hours.
 

In 2012, Zunesis sponsored a home for Haider, Muntaha and their two children. Before Haider and Muntaha came across Habitat for Humanity, they struggled to find safe housing for their children. They were living in a dangerous neighborhood filled with crime. Also, their apartment did not provide adequate heat during the winter, and their whole family suffered through the cold. With the help of Zunesis’ home sponsorship, Haider and Muntaha were finally given the chance to provide a safe and comfortable home for their family. They are very grateful to Zunesis for giving them a chance of a lifetime to achieve their dream of homeownership. Zunesis’ 2015 sponsored home will be completed in November 2015.
 

In addition to contributing time and money towards Habitat homes, Zunesis also sponsors one of our annual philanthropic events, “The Night of Miracles.” This event is used to celebrate the mission of Habitat and create awareness in the community. Zunesis CEO Steve Shaffer, who sits on the Board of Directors for Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver, has seen firsthand how Habitat homeownership opportunities uplift families and help them succeed.
 

 
 

About Habitat for Humanity

 
Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver was established in 1979 by a group of passionate volunteers. These volunteers worked tirelessly to fund raise, acquire land, select families and manage all of the logistics to build the first Habitat homes in Denver.
 

Since then, Habitat Metro Denver has become one of the largest affiliates in the U.S., celebrating the construction of our 500th home in 2012.
 

Today Habitat for Humanity has completed more than 600,000 homes around the world, completing the construction or repair of a home at the rate of every 5.5 minutes.
 

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In my last blog, we explored the Customer Service Pillar of being Strategic in the context of what customers are expecting from IT Solution providers today.  As a reminder, I am writing from a customer service roadmap called CustomerFIRST where the word FIRST is the following:

 

• Flexible
• Invested
• Responsive
• Strategic
• Trusted

This week I am addressing the final Pillar of successful customer service – being Trusted.

Trust is the Holy Grail of customer service.  All of the other characteristics of CustomerFIRST are typically required for trust to develop.  Our clients must see us being flexible to their needs and requirements, invested and credible in the solutions we sell and implement, responsive when they need our help, and strategic in how we interact and the value we provide.  Assuming we do all of these consistently well, then we have the opportunity to pursue a trust-based relationship.

Over the years, I have spoken with many senior IT executives about trust and what it takes to earn their trust.  I have been surprised by the desire that clients have to be able to trust their IT Solution Providers.  The reality is that CIOs, CTOs, Directors, & VPs of IT strongly desire trust-based relationship.  These IT leaders have all told me that when they have total confidence in an IT Solution Provider, their lives get easier and better.  When they trust, they don’t feel the need to constantly look over their shoulder or second guess every decision.  When they have trust, they sleep easier at night because they believe that their IT Solutions Partner will do the right thing if something goes wrong.  It is helpful to understand that trust is a desired trait on both sides of the table.
Look at any IT Solution Provider’s Vision or Mission Statement, and you will see the words “Trusted Advisor” embedded somewhere.  It turns out that all IT Solution Providers say they aspire to be a trusted advisor to their clients, but how many actually achieve this distinction?  I would argue that very few truly reach this goal.  Assuming this is true, what it is that makes achieving trust with clients so difficult?
Trust, I believe, is an elusive objective where time, experience, and adversity are all required.  As we have all heard many times, “Trust must be earned.”  Therefore, if we as IT Solution Providers truly want to achieve this lofty ideal of being a Trusted Advisor, we must seriously understand what is required.

If people like you they will listen to you, but if they trust you they’ll do business with you.
~Zig Ziglar

 

First, we must recognize that trust takes time.  To earn trust, we will need to demonstrate consistent behavior for an extended period of time.  That behavior will also need to be demonstrated in a way that serves the best interest of the client – not our own.  All individuals develop trust at different speeds and many factors play into this.
Maybe your Director of IT or CIO clients have extensive baggage from other IT Solution Providers NOT doing the right thing; and, therefore, they will require substantially more time to build a trust-based relationship.  The bottom line is that time, patience, and consistent behavior are required for trust to have a chance to build.  Too often, our expectations as IT Solution Providers is that a single successful project lights the torch for a lasting and permanent relationship.  In most cases, a single successful project allows us a chance to take a swing at another project, but it does little more than that.
Second, we must have a variety of experiences with a client to create the opportunity to build trust.  Typically, a variety of experiences can involve a variety of projects, interactions, and different individuals from the same firm working with a variety of client personnel.  While trust can develop faster with a single individual, it is much more difficult to develop trust at an organizational level.
Finally, trust requires adversity.  Simply stated, this means that WHEN we make a mistake – and we will all make mistakes – the client needs to see us do the right thing, even when it hurts.  “So, are you suggesting, Steve, that having a perfect track record with a client is less beneficial to building trust than making mistakes and fixing them?”  I guess I am.
Think about the times in life when you personally grew the most.  Those times were likely difficult, challenging, and may have involved major failures that required you to take a personal inventory and change directions or make a really tough decision.  The same is true with relationships.  We seldom build meaningful relationships without walking through the valley with another individual or group.
The big idea here is that any of us doing IT stuff will make mistakes.  Information technology is difficult, ever changing, and just hard.  As a result, we must consistently choose to accept responsibility and take immediate corrective action (on our nickel) if we want to build trust with any client.  If we don’t care about building trust, we will point fingers, run for the hills, or choose a liberal interpretation of the statement of work (SOW).
Over the years, I have put together a short list of characteristics to help guide our employees at Zunesis in their interaction with clients.  These, I believe, are fundamental to building and earning trust:

• Always put the best interest of the customer first.
• Follow through on commitments.
• Communicate exceptionally well, and identify and communicate problems quickly.
• Accept responsibility for failure, and take swift corrective action.
• Always do the right thing, every time, even if it hurts.

 

Those of you reading this are probably asking yourself if earning trust is even worth it.  I believe it is, but earning trust doesn’t exactly square with our immediate gratification culture.  It is hard to find things like (1) time & patience, (2) variety & experiences, and (3) adversity on many business playlists today.
But these are the mandatory ingredients of building and earning trust.  If you are one of the few IT Solution Providers that desires trust with your clients and are deliberate in your efforts to get there, I commend and respect you.  Your business will continue to succeed and your clients will have a broader smile on their faces more of the time.
This is my final BLOG in this series on CustomerFIRST.  I wish you the very best in your efforts to serve customers in the ways they wish to be served.

Annual List Features Trailblazing Solution Providers Transforming Business with Emerging Technologies
Denver, CO (PRWEB) August 19, 2015

Zunesis announced today it has been recognized in The Channel Company’s exclusive 2015 CRN® Next-Gen 250 list. The annual list honors forward-thinking technology solution providers who have transformed their business by breaking into emerging technologies such as cloud computing, unified communications, virtualization, mobility, business analytics, and business intelligence. These solution providers, each in business for less than 20 years, have adapted to an evolving marketplace with precision, clearly identifying themselves as the leaders of the future.

 

As of October 2015, Zunesis will have been incorporated for 15 years. In those 15 years, the industry has transformed time and again as old technologies improve and new technologies emerge. Zunesis’ commitment to excellence and agile corporate structure have allowed them to adapt quickly and effectively as the technology landscape changes.

 

One of the things that has made Zunesis successful in adapting to technological advances is their fully-equipped, on-site lab. This asset allows the Zunesis solution architects to test out and stay up to date on the workings of new technologies. “As technology changes at an ever-increasing rate, it’s important for us to stay ahead of the new technologies that are available so that we can confidently recommend – or not recommend – them to our clients,” notes Zunesis CTO, Michael Gosselin. The lab also provides a place for Zunesis’ clients to test out technologies in a live setting before making a purchase.

 

“As emerging technologies come to market, so do the new delivery models needed to support them. Agile integrators are in demand now more than ever to architect new technology solutions to meet customer needs,” said Robert Faletra, CEO of The Channel Company. “The trailblazing solution providers honored in this year’s CRN Next-Gen 250 list continue to innovate and evolve to meet market demands and have clearly established themselves as the next generation of leadership in the IT channel. We congratulate the honorees named to this exclusive list for their achievements and look forward to following them in the future to see what they have in store.”

A sampling of the Next-Gen 250 list will be featured in the August issue of CRN and online at both http://www.crn.com and through the CRN Tech News App for iPad and Windows 8.

 

About Zunesis
Zunesis is a leading IT solution provider with locations in Colorado and Nevada. Our vision centers around an intense focus on serving our customers and bringing value to their business through strategic IT solutions. In April 2015, Zunesis was named to the CRN TechElite 250 for the 6th consecutive year as a best-of-breed solution provider with deep technical expertise and premier certifications.

 

About The Channel Company
The Channel Company, with established brands including CRN®, XChange® Events, IPED® and SharedVue®, is the channel community’s trusted authority for growth and innovation. For more than three decades, we have leveraged our proven and leading-edge platforms to deliver prescriptive sales and marketing solutions for the technology channel. The Channel Company provides Communication, Recruitment, Engagement, Enablement, Demand Generation and Intelligence services to drive technology partnerships. Learn more at http://www.thechannelcompany.com.