End User-Centric Network and Application Performance Analytics
Increasing reliance on Wi-Fi for Enterprise and IoT applications mean IT departments are facing new challenges to deliver the best user and client experience possible. To provide a consistent level of performance, the Aruba Service Assurance solution enables IT to proactively simulate real-world user and client experiences.
IT can continuously monitor network connectivity and the performance of wireless and Ethernet connections in critical, high-value locations like office spaces, retail, education, healthcare, and similar types of environments.
How it works
The Aruba Service Assurance solution includes simple to deploy sensors, cloud-based data processing and an easy to learn web-based administrative dashboard. It can be accessed from anywhere using either Chrome or Safari browsers.
It’s a great tool for any organization and IT team tasked with delivering the best possible network experience with their user’s connectivity and app performance in mind – especially the “C-suite” or users with cyclical problems reported to the help desk.
Components to the Solution
Purpose-built Sensor
Aruba LTE sensors can be placed within any area where users or IoT devices are located to reduce the time to identify and resolve application responsiveness and user experience issues. The sensor is placed at the same height where user’s devices are placed or held, to run accurate simulated tests over Wi-Fi. Wired connections are also supported.
Tests can be set up for LAN and WLAN connectivity, DHCP, DNS, authentication, captive portal response, cloud and internal applications. Installation of the sensor, even in extremely remote locations is easy due to built-in out-of-band cellular connectivity. This reduces the time and effort normally required to go on-site, diagnose a problem and put a resolution into action.
Configuration and visibility: Web-based dashboard
The cloud-based analytics and insights engine provides a robust and scalable model that allows IT to centrally configure and run tests for today’s cloud-based (SaaS) or internal applications. Pre-configured templates or custom defined tests can monitor the most important apps and services. For example, tests can automatically ping a server to confirm responsiveness, or run a script through a browser to see how an application is performing before users encounter a problem.
The web-based service assurance dashboard is designed with simplicity and one-glance visibility in mind. It changes how an assurance dashboard should work. A unique, five-column traffic light model easily lets you see when things are working great and when they’re not.
The status of each sensor, SSID, service and application being tested are highlighted under each of the traffic light icons. This provides IT a good understanding of overall user experience, Wi-Fi connectivity and quality, responsiveness of core network services, and the reachability of internal and external services. Smart notifications can be setup to keep you informed on your mobile device.
How can Zunesis help?
Zunesis is an Aruba Platinum partner, which is the highest level of achievement. We can help any customer or prospective customer on even a small project with a concern such as we have outlined in this post.
A simple deployment of a single sensor and a 1 year subscription to the data and analytics gathering would cost only about $1200. Zunesis can install a quick test solution for our clients who need to get to the bottom of a tough end-user experience issue through our unique Customer Connect Program. This program provides 2-3 hours of no-cost onsite consulting with customers.
For instance, we could use that time to setup a basic Service Assurance sensor and dashboard. We then provide another hour or two of time after deployment to work with the client on reviewing results of the data gathering.
Plus for that small cost, the sensor is available to use for other testing, and one would simply need to renew the annual service subscription (or purchase up to 5 years up front!).
More Information:
Aruba Networking Service Assurance
Didn’t you just love the music from the 80’s? Of course, I did! That was the era in which I got to dress in my neon clothes and put as much Aqua net as possible to my hair and party like its “1999”!
Just like the great Janet Jackson said in her famous 80’s song, “What have you done for me lately”, you may be wondering the same about your IT Support!
What has my IT support done for me lately?
Like all 80’s lovers such as myself, a good song can really put you in the best mood ever! Like, totally! It will either bring back the best of times or sometimes even the worst of times! Today, you can get any 80’s song you love from any streaming company out there. RAD!
For me, I totally rely on my streaming service to get me the best of the 80’s. To make sure those streaming services are always on, most companies rely on some type of support. Support that will keep their IT infrastructure up and running at all times for those 80’s lovers out there! You want to get the service experience you expect which should be totally awesome!
Preventative Care and Support
In today’s IT world, preventative care and support are so important to keep things running properly. You never want to be “Dancing in the Dark”. You want to reduce the number of problems and respond rapidly when they do occur by leveraging Proactive Care.
HPE Proactive Care provides both reactive and proactive support service deliverables for your IT devices and systems. It helps you focus on your business and not have a “Blue Monday”.
This service provides the key information you need to make better decisions and manage your environment efficiently “All Night Long”. It helps you monitor the telemetry from products connected to HPE on a 24×7 basis and send out pre‑failure alerts to help you avoid outages and not be “Livin on a Prayer”.
Additional Services
Operational reports are available about firmware levels and software revision levels. Patch update recommendations are delivered to help you keep your infrastructure stable. This is Totally Awesome! Proactive scanning will be performed to provide a health check that identifies and resolves potential configuration issues.
Because, you gotta have “Faith” in knowing as an HPE Proactive Care customer, you can talk to a technical account manager about any of the content in these reports to get their expert insights and tailored advice on what your next steps might be. “Don’t Stop Believing” in proactive services! You get visibility into opportunities to improve your environment from a best practice perspective, as well as the ability to head off potential threats. Tubular!
Never feel “Under Pressure” with HPE Proactive Care. With many decades of support experience, customers can feel confident that when they need help they can get through to the right person in the fastest way possible. Providing an enhanced call experience and faster resolution, “Time after Time”. To achieve that, HPE built a support organization with exceptionally high levels of training, highly streamlined processes, and prioritized access on escalations.
We believe it’s a service that’s unequaled in the industry. This will give you “Sweet Dreams” knowing HPE has your best interest when it comes your business. Give your business the right edge with the right level of targeted, proactive support services and “Kiss” all your worries goodbye!
Zunesis RDCAS
When you “Just Can’t Get Enough” of the Proactive Services, layering on top of the proactive care from HPE is the Zunesis Recurring Data Center Advisory Service. This service allows you to “Fight for Your Right” and get additional proactive features such as: Assess your current environment and your future needs. Design to improve your current environment and meet future goals. Implement what we propose. Maintain your environment to keep it secure, reliable, and available. Protect your applications and data through BU/DR best practices.
Available to review will be limited to the following HPE infrastructure devices including:
- Blades and rack mount servers
- HPE Storage
- HPE Fibre Channel Switches
- HPE Synergy Frame
- HPE Simplivity Hyper-Converged platform
During pre-planning sessions, Zunesis will validate what equipment will be included in the assessment. We will “Whip It” into shape!
An Inventory Service is available which includes initial firmware, configuration information, and capacity. We can also act as the customer advocate when service tickets need to be escalated. Helping to manage these calls through completion.
The Zunesis services organization has the experience and expertise to help your business meet your goals and objectives faster, with less risk. We are a consulting organization who assists customers in achieving their business objectives with the use of technology. With a Zunesis experienced Engineer, you will “Bust A Move” to get this service.
Contact your local Zunesis Account Manager to work up a quote for you today!
IoT, Internet of Things, isn’t just a word that you see in “IT buzzword bingo.” It is rapidly becoming unavoidable. Whether or not you want it to be, it is likely going to be a part of your life. Fighting this trend would be like trying to fight the growth of the Internet in the 1990’s and 2000’s. It is taking over, and there is nothing that can be done to stop it. To borrow a phrase from Star Trek, “Resistance is futile.”
IoT adoption in our lives
If we take a step back and analyze what’s going on, the number of use cases for IoT is astounding. In our personal lives, we are inundated with it. From mobile devices, wearable tech, Alexa, Google Home, internet connected light bulbs, doorbells with integrated cameras, thermostats, door locks, to automotive dash cameras that upload data in real time to the cloud (using WiFi to your phone, then uploaded over your Cellular provider)… and the list goes on and on. The smart “everything” market is exploding. Even if IoT hasn’t become a huge part of your life, you can be sure that it will in the very near future.
Video surveillance is everywhere these days. Smart monitoring of our utilities such as electricity and water is another trend. If you don’t live in a smart city already, chances are you will soon. According to a headline from IEEE , the folks who are involved in standardizing much of the technology in our lives, …
“The Forecast of 50 Billion Devices by 2020 is Outdated.”
Though the article goes on to trim down estimates a bit, this is still HUGE.
Everyone is creating IoT “Things”
Raspberry Pi and Arduino are creating massive amounts of human exposure to the development of products for the IoT ecosystem. Anybody these days can create their own IoT products with a Raspberry Pi or Arduino. There is an endless supply of accessories and sensors. One can often complete a project for less than $100. As this market continues to grow and provide more capabilities and accessories, it becomes significantly cheaper to mock up products. This will lead to the development of even more products that do more – for less money.
IoT- DIY Style
Here is an example that I haven’t implemented. You can find plenty of example projects to help get you started. Using a Raspberry Pi or Arduino, you can easily hook up sensors to monitor moisture, temperature, or dust. You can then integrate a camera for easy viewing over the network. We can apply all of this into a simple data center monitoring appliance. The total cost would be very low. The ability to customize and automate using Linux would be endless.
There are plenty of data center monitoring devices readily available. Some can be quite costly. You may also find that you are unable to customize to the degree of what some might want or need.
Imagine taking this custom appliance, and integrating it into your favorite cloud provider for off-site sensor and video data collection. Then, tie it all together with AI to analyze the data for trends. You can use TensorFlow or whatever your favorite framework happens to be. This will help solve the problem of “you don’t know what you don’t know.”
In the event of a problem detection, the device can fire off some Python or other scripting language. This will automatically migrate VMs to another site, power down physical servers, and send an alert with sensor data and video clip. Once the kinks are worked out, you can have it manufactured in scale to reduce costs and drive up efficiency even further.
Although this is a simple example, the possibilities and use cases for both business and home are endless. The point here is that innovation is taking place in the world of IoT at a dizzying speed.
Smart EVERYTHING
We are now measuring and controlling just about everything imaginable. Here are some examples of IoT use cases for business:
-
- Smart cities
- Smart energy
- Smart signage
- Smart cars/trucks/planes/buses/etc
- Smart agriculture
- Smart Buildings
- Smart Hospitals/Health Monitoring
- Smart Retail
- Smart Manufacturing
- Smart Supply Chain
Smart Almost Anything You Can Possibly Imagine….
Are you prepared for the massive flood of data on your network?
With devices that either produce or receive video streams, data flowing through our networks is growing at an exponential scale. On top of IoT taking over the world, AI is analyzing this data in ways like never before. We are increasing our collective knowledge about everything imaginable at a speed never thought possible.
Wireless devices are consuming network resources like it’s going out of style. The wired network required to support it continues to require growth as well. We also have to worry about our security posture for all of these devices on the network. Is your network ready now? Is it ready to handle demand 3 years, or even one year from now?
If you are considering an IoT or AI project, or the wireless and wired network and security required to support it, Zunesis has the expertise. Schedule an assessment today, we’d love to help!
IoT, Internet of Things, isn’t just a word that you see in “IT buzzword bingo.” It is rapidly becoming unavoidable. Whether or not you want it to be, it is likely going to be a part of your life. Fighting this trend would be like trying to fight the growth of the Internet in the 1990’s and 2000’s. It is taking over, and there is nothing that can be done to stop it. To borrow a phrase from Star Trek, “Resistance is futile.”
IoT adoption in our lives
If we take a step back and analyze what’s going on, the number of use cases for IoT is astounding. In our personal lives, we are inundated with it. From mobile devices, wearable tech, Alexa, Google Home, internet connected light bulbs, doorbells with integrated cameras, thermostats, door locks, to automotive dash cameras that upload data in real time to the cloud (using WiFi to your phone, then uploaded over your Cellular provider)… and the list goes on and on. The smart “everything” market is exploding. Even if IoT hasn’t become a huge part of your life, you can be sure that it will in the very near future.
Video surveillance is everywhere these days. Smart monitoring of our utilities such as electricity and water is another trend. If you don’t live in a smart city already, chances are you will soon. According to a headline from IEEE , the folks who are involved in standardizing much of the technology in our lives, …
“The Forecast of 50 Billion Devices by 2020 is Outdated.”
Though the article goes on to trim down estimates a bit, this is still HUGE.
Everyone is creating IoT “Things”
Raspberry Pi and Arduino are creating massive amounts of human exposure to the development of products for the IoT ecosystem. Anybody these days can create their own IoT products with a Raspberry Pi or Arduino. There is an endless supply of accessories and sensors. One can often complete a project for less than $100. As this market continues to grow and provide more capabilities and accessories, it becomes significantly cheaper to mock up products. This will lead to the development of even more products that do more – for less money.
IoT- DIY Style
Here is an example that I haven’t implemented. You can find plenty of example projects to help get you started. Using a Raspberry Pi or Arduino, you can easily hook up sensors to monitor moisture, temperature, or dust. You can then integrate a camera for easy viewing over the network. We can apply all of this into a simple data center monitoring appliance. The total cost would be very low. The ability to customize and automate using Linux would be endless.
There are plenty of data center monitoring devices readily available. Some can be quite costly. You may also find that you are unable to customize to the degree of what some might want or need.
Imagine taking this custom appliance, and integrating it into your favorite cloud provider for off-site sensor and video data collection. Then, tie it all together with AI to analyze the data for trends. You can use TensorFlow or whatever your favorite framework happens to be. This will help solve the problem of “you don’t know what you don’t know.”
In the event of a problem detection, the device can fire off some Python or other scripting language. This will automatically migrate VMs to another site, power down physical servers, and send an alert with sensor data and video clip. Once the kinks are worked out, you can have it manufactured in scale to reduce costs and drive up efficiency even further.
Although this is a simple example, the possibilities and use cases for both business and home are endless. The point here is that innovation is taking place in the world of IoT at a dizzying speed.
Smart EVERYTHING
We are now measuring and controlling just about everything imaginable. Here are some examples of IoT use cases for business:
-
- Smart cities
- Smart energy
- Smart signage
- Smart cars/trucks/planes/buses/etc
- Smart agriculture
- Smart Buildings
- Smart Hospitals/Health Monitoring
- Smart Retail
- Smart Manufacturing
- Smart Supply Chain
Smart Almost Anything You Can Possibly Imagine….
Are you prepared for the massive flood of data on your network?
With devices that either produce or receive video streams, data flowing through our networks is growing at an exponential scale. On top of IoT taking over the world, AI is analyzing this data in ways like never before. We are increasing our collective knowledge about everything imaginable at a speed never thought possible.
Wireless devices are consuming network resources like it’s going out of style. The wired network required to support it continues to require growth as well. We also have to worry about our security posture for all of these devices on the network. Is your network ready now? Is it ready to handle demand 3 years, or even one year from now?
If you are considering an IoT or AI project, or the wireless and wired network and security required to support it, Zunesis has the expertise. Schedule an assessment today, we’d love to help!
What is HPE GreenLake?
According to IDC, by 2020, consumption-based procurement in data centers will account for as much as 40% of enterprises’ IT infrastructure spending. Businesses today expect rapid access to resources that allow them to pay for only what they use. This allows businesses to not only be competitive in today’s market but economical as well.
Introducing HPE GreenLake which provides enterprise customers with a compelling value proposition of a consumption-based IT model and the comfort of managed services. It gives a company exactly what it needs and when it needs it. It is a suite of curated solutions that deliver IT outcomes with hardware, software, and expertise on premises. Payment is simple and based on a single pay-per-usage metric that is relevant to the particular solution and your business.
Five Reasons to Love HPE GreenLake
CRN recently shared five reasons to look into HPE GreenLake:
- Eliminating Over Provisioning: The average customer utilization rate for IT is 45% which means 55% of assets are not being used. Customers are buying excess compute, storage or networking capacity for on premises solutions. Customers who have adopted the GreenLake model on average are seeing a 22 – 30 percent cash flow savings.
- Provides Detailed Consumption Data: Critical data is being collected via HPE’s “consumption manager”. This gives detailed analysis on what is being consumed, who is consuming it and what trends may be for the future.
- Speeds Up IT Provisioning: There is no more waiting period to buy and provision new IT on premises solutions. The solution works to figure out what the work requirements really are, deploys that and buffers it for the client.
- Metering Advantage: Using the Cloud Cruiser tool, GreenLake can meter down to the core, Gbyte, or VM or in any way the customer wants. A portal is provided that shows detailed consumption metering. This data can be tracked by project, business unit or external customer. This allows for a more detailed financial background check on each and every IT service.
- Capex or Opex: Customer has the choice of how financially they would like to focus their work service contract. A company may be focused on EBITDA where they prefer to depreciate IT asses in a capital expenditure deal. Or a company may want to focus on freeing up cash to use elsewhere. The client has the option to decide what matters to them: Capex or Opex.
There are quite a few HPE GreenLake packages available including Hybrid Cloud, Backup, SAP HANA, Database EDB Postgres and Big Data. Zunesis and HPE would work with your business to find out what package is the most beneficial for your organization.
Why Consumption Based IT?
Many companies and organizations are looking to take the advantage of more of a hybrid environment where they can use the advantages of the public cloud while having the option to run workloads on premises. Businesses are moving away from capital-intensive models to more of a consumption-based approach where they can be more agile and save money and IT resources.
Here are three reasons why a Consumption Based Approach may make your IT more efficient.
- Improve IT Operations: IT admin and operations staff are bogged down with the tasks of software updates and/or troubleshooting technology problems. By having a vendor that takes over these tedious tasks on a monthly basis via a consumption model, this frees up time for the IT to focus on projects that actually help a business generate revenue.
- Understanding Where to Place Workloads: 40 percent of organizations with public cloud experience have moved workloads off of the cloud and back to their on-premises setups. Moving these workloads can cause additional costs, dealing with a reduced size of their IT footprint and other unexpected problems. A consumption-based IT model can help set up an IT solution within a quicker time frame. The business is only paying for they used so you don’t overspend. The vendor also helps determine the best place to locate each of the workloads.
- Capacity Planning: 451 Research found that 59 percent of enterprises wait three months or longer for new capacity to come online. 50 percent of enterprises typically suffered downtime as well due to poor capacity planning. With a pay-as-you-go approach, an IT provider works to determine a business’ current capacity needs and continually plans for future capacity requirements.
Is HPE GreenLake and a Consumption Based IT Approach a fit for your business or organization? Contact Zunesis to do an assessment of your current infrastructure to determine what may work best for your needs.
