OT and IT Working Together
At one time, IT managers and staff may have been holed up in corporate headquarters, far away from the action on the factory floor. Now, they find themselves working side by side with their operations technology (OT) counterparts: the operators, engineers, technicians, and maintenance personnel.
Collectively, they’re tasked with marrying existing OT processes with cutting-edge IT infrastructure. The convergence of the IT infrastructure (dedicated storage, compute hardware) with OT processes and systems (heavy machinery, industrial robots, niche factory equipment) has resulted in the creation of cloud-based applications, sophisticated sensors, and other components that make up the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
“The edge is a place where OT has traditionally resided,” says Dr. Tom Bradicich, vice president and general manager, IoT and Converged Edge Systems, at Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
“The manufacturing floor, a wind farm, a submarine, a smart car, a smart city, a power plant, a smart grid, an industrial oil refinery—those are all OT domains. And more and more, IT is moving out there.”
HPE’s Converged Edge Systems
Enter HPE’s Converged Edge Systems to physically bridge OT and IT. With the same compute and storage capabilities as those running in the cloud and data centers, organizations can process full, unmodified enterprise workloads at the edge. This essentially gives businesses a second on-premises environment (along with the traditional data center) and removes the need to move data and workloads back and forth between the edge and the cloud, providing faster response times and lower bandwidth costs.
HPE EL300
Specific to the convergence of OT and IT at the Edge, HPE has introduced the EL300. The EL300’s ruggedized hardware profile and flexible networking, compute, and storage options make it an ideal candidate for deployment in harsh Factory Floor edge environments.
The EL300 is embedded with the new HPE Edgeline Integrated System Manager (iSM) to manage local Edgeline systems complete with edge-specific capabilities such as remote management over WiFi and LTE connections. It is also supported with the Edgeline Infrastructure Manager (EIM), providing a dashboard view into the health of hundreds to thousands of managed systems at a site. EIM can also automate discovery of new devices and be used to easily deploy firmware and software updates.
The EL300’s OT data acquisition, control and networking modules allow Edgeline systems to “talk” with a greatly expanded variety of OT equipment, from IoT sensors to sprawling SCADA systems. Additional tools simplify management of connected equipment, and the workflows that drive them.
They include:
- HPE Edgeline OT Link Platform software, which automatically recognizes and exposes all OT Link certified hardware in the system. It lets non-coders create and supervise data movements using a simple drag-and-drop workload flow designer
- The optional HPE Edgeline Workload Orchestrator (EWO), which provides centralized deployment and management of containerized applications, middleware, and flows.
Stay tuned for more from the HPE Edgeline team as the converged OT and IT systems make configuration and support easier, and by a wider range of people, from OT specialists to trained IT staff.
Credit and Leasing
In today’s world, you rarely, if ever find someone who does not have a payment schedule for something they couldn’t or didn’t want to buy outright. Between phones, cars, houses, and credit cards, most of us have something that we put on credit. The concept of credit is not new, and it has had many different faces and reputations over the years.
In fact, I find it somewhat assuming that as a society we depend on credit. Yet in general our concept of credit is one of disdain. Or we use it just because we have to, not because we want to.
Leasing options in the IT industry have been met with similar attitudes. In fact, there are some companies and agencies that will make a hard and fast rule that you CAN’T lease.
But what if things were different?
What if there was a way to purchase the technology you need, pay for it on a yearly basis as your budget becomes available and still not sign a lease?
Subscriptions or subscription agreements have been around as long as credit/leasing have. With the rise of software and cloud computing, subscriptions have become more and more prevalent in our IT world.
So the brain trust here at Zunesis thought this through, and we said to ourselves:
“What if we could provide a subscription agreement for on premises hardware and remove the stigma of a lease from our customers minds?”
What would this look like?
Customer Challenges
First, we wanted to come up with a list of challenges our customers are facing. Here is what we found:
- Traditional storage infrastructures have hard limits on capacity and data growth is unpredictable.
- Traditional infrastructure refresh cycles are typically every 2.5 – 5 years, and these refresh cycles require extensive planning and time-consuming data migrations.
- The rate of data growth today is unprecedented. This growth is being driven by analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, video, and edge-based Internet of Things (IoT) applications.
- Capital costs continue to rise on enterprise storage because of demands for faster I/O, greater redundancy, and enhanced security. Finding cost-effective ways to provision storage is a major challenge for most organizations today.
So after some careful thought, we realized that we would need a procurement model that allowed our customer to purchase all the infrastructure necessary for a complete data center refresh. It needed to be sufficient enough to support current operations and five-years of planned growth.
Subscription Agreement
To make that happen, Zunesis teamed up with Hewlett Packard Financial Services to create a SLED/Nevada compliant agreement that would allow our customer to make cost-effective annual payments for managed infrastructure.
We would set this up as a subscription agreement, providing the following benefits:
- An annual cost that is consistent year over year. No surprises.
- Proactive support from vendors is included, off-loading administrative overhead of updates, migrations, and end-of-life transitions.
- The Subscription Agreement allows for rapid and unpredictable storage / infrastructure growth.
- The Agreement enables costly and risky data migration to happen only once (in 5-year life cycle).
- The Agreement enables consistent and predictable budgetary planning.
This agreement would be created to allow organizations to buy best in class infrastructure at sufficient scale to allow the organization to be supported today and into the future. This would be beneficial to our customers by eliminating the need to incrementally improve their infrastructure and remove all of this risks of frequent migrations with this incremental upgrades.
Now in theory and on paper we thought this would be a great benefit and something our customers would really gravitate toward, but as my mother used to say, “the proof is in the pudding.”
Would customers ever sign an subscription agreement like this? Well, I am happy to announce that we signed our first customer subscription agreement in March of this year. We have several other customers that are working to be next on the list for this option.
If this sounds like something you may be interested in looking in to, we would welcome you to contact us to see if this will fit your needs!!
Buzz around Machine Learning
There is a lot of buzz in the news lately relating to Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Video Analytics and Facial Recognition. The airline industry is just one area example of this. In fact, the Orlando Airport announced last summer that facial recognition technology will be used on all international travelers.
Travelers from Boston’s Logan International Airport to the Caribbean islands on Jet Blue started a trial program to use Facial Recognition software that acts as a boarding pass. This is the first trial between an airline and Customs and Border Protection. Other airports are also running pilot programs.
So, what does this all mean?
Recently, I heard about an Artificial Intelligent Robot that was taught to take on and beat the best poker players in the world. The first attempts, the robot lost. After the robot spent a year learning, it was able to beat the best players in the world.
We are still in the very early stages of AI and machine learning. For example, the chess playing robot has learned how to win the game of chess. If another occurrence happened like a fire breaking out, the robot would not know what to do. A human would be able to process the information about the fire and determine they should get out. The Robot would still be playing chess.
What I am trying to say is as humans, we have the ability to take on so much more information and process that information based on a lifetime of learning. Machine learning, or AI is still in it’s infancy by comparison.
HPE and Machine Learning
HPE is utilizing Machine Learning with HPE InfoSight to improve customer support. Infosight has been supported with the Nimble and 3PAR storage platforms and recently added support for the Proliant Servers. Look for additional platforms to be supported in the future.
Using HPE Infosight, HPE has been able to prevent downtime on the Nimble storage platform using the InfoSight Predictive Analytics. HPE recently published a white paper titled HPE Nimble Storage Sets Six Nines Availability Standard. This standard of system availability is a result of using the predictive analytics along with machine learning.
InfoSight collects and correlates data from every storage array implemented across their install base, enabling global visibility and learning. This allows InfoSight to predict potential issues before they happen, before they cause outages for customers. This in turn provides a better support experience for the customer.
This capability will also be available for the Proliant, BladeSystem, Synergy and Apollo systems. InfoSight for Servers will proactively collect and analyze each servers Active Health System data to identify configuration, health and performance information, then recommend solutions. It will also provide warranty and support status. All this information is consolidated and provided through a global dashboard.
Video Analytics and Facial Recognition
Machine learning can also be utilized in Video analytics and facial recognition. As stated previously, the airline industry is looking at using facial recognition software to replace the boarding pass.
There are also several other use cases. Facial recognition is beginning to be implemented in law enforcement, corrections facilities, stadiums, schools, casinos, along with the airports and other transportation industries. Where this goes over the next 2 years is going to be very interesting.
Artificial Intelligence and Video analytics can be used in several ways. Here are just a few:
- Improve traffic flow
- Detect a firearm
- Determine if a person is in a location they shouldn’t be in
- Determine if a person is underage
- Detect aggressive behavior
The use cases are limitless as people look at what can be done and has this technology become more mature.
Several things we have noticed that make video analytics a reality is better quality cameras, the ability to do real time alerting, the integration with mobile devices, scalability of the software, accuracy of recognition and above all, the privacy of the individual.
Hold on, this is going to be interesting.
Zunesis recognized by CRN as a top IT Solution Provider with deep technical expertise and premier certifications. Tech Elite 250 Lists Recognizes Highest Achieving IT Solution Providers in Vendor Certifications.
Denver, CO March 25, 2019
Zunesis announced today that CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has named Zunesis to its 2019 Tech Elite 250 list. This annual list honors a select group of North American IT solution providers that have earned the highest number of advanced technical certifications from leading technology suppliers, scaled to their company size. These companies have distinguished themselves with multiple, top-level IT certifications, specializations, and partner program designations from the industry’s most prestigious technology providers.
To compile this annual list, The Channel Company’s research group and CRN editors work together to identify the most customer-beneficial technical certifications in the North American IT channel. Companies who have earned these elite designations— which enable solution providers to deliver premium products, services and customer support—are then selected from a pool of online applicants.
Zunesis places a significant emphasis on technical expertise and certifications. Since their inception in 2004, they have sought to hire, retain, and equip only the best solution architects who can bring the highest value to their clients. It is this deep commitment to extensive technical knowledge that often sets Zunesis apart from their peers.
“CRN’s Tech Elite 250 list recognizes solution providers with extensive technical knowledge and premier certifications,” said Bob Skelley, CEO of The Channel Company. “Pursuit of vendor certifications and broader skill sets in a wide range of technologies and IT practices, proves a solution provider is committed to delivering maximum business value from those technologies and giving their customers the highest level of service.”
“I could not be more proud of our team for achieving this award,” commented Zunesis CEO, Steve Shaffer. “Our solution architects work diligently to stay on top of, and even ahead of, what is happening in the technology space. Because of their commitment and dedication to be the best at what they do, Zunesis is able to offer top-tier services to our customers.”
Coverage of the Tech Elite 250 will be featured in the April issue of CRN, and online at www.CRN.com/TechElite250.
About Zunesis
Zunesis, headquartered in Englewood, Colorado has been an HPE Platinum Partner for 14+ years. Zunesis has expert engineers in HPE server, storage and networking technologies along with common software applications like VMware and Microsoft. Zunesis serves clients large and small but our sweet spot is the mid-market organization – the heartbeat of the US economy. Our mission is to make the lives of our clients and community better. www.zunesis.com
Follow Zunesis: Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook
About The Channel Company
The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelcompany.com
Follow The Channel Company: Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook
Copyright ©2019. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.
The Channel Company Contact:
Jennifer Hogan
The Channel Company
Zunesis Contact:
Rachael Stiedemann
Zunesis
rachael.stiedemann@zunesis.com
Microsoft Office is a product everyone knows, and it has been a household name for decades at this point. Office 365 is the slightly lesser well-known cloud version of office. It was a massive step forward for Microsoft at its release.
Over the past 8 or so years, Microsoft has been fine-tuning the suite, adding features and entirely new programs as they go. This has resulted in the powerhouse of productivity we know today. While moving everything in your organization to the cloud may not be a great idea, this is one area where the cloud is almost universally a good idea for all companies.
You already know all the programs
The core programs included in Office 365, such as Word and Excel, are the same programs people have been using for years. It’s the same programs you used 20 years ago to write a paper, create a cover letter, and give a presentation. You can access these programs online without downloading anything. You can also install the desktop versions and work in the same manner you always have.
Work anywhere
One of the biggest advantages to Office 365 is the ability to work from anywhere, on any device. If you have an internet connection, you can access everything you need to continue working. This is especially great for people who travel a lot or use multiple devices. Just log into the web portal, and all your documents and files are ready to go.
Collaborate easily
If you have multiple people accessing the same file multiple times a day, this is where Office 365 really shines. Everyone who needs to edit a document can work on the same version. Rather than having multiple versions, or having to wait until a coworker closes the document, it’s accessible at anytime.
You can see real time changes without having to reload the file. You have the capability to share your documents directly with others. This eliminates the need to send the document as an email attachment. Sharing directly also enhances security. Office 365 allows you to set permissions so you can be sure its only shared with the people you want.
Communicate easily
With the addition of Skype and Teams, Office 365 makes it easy to manage projects and communicate with your team members. It has integrated video calls and screen sharing into its easy to use programs. You can create conference calls, do remote presentations, and even use your computer as your phone.
Don’t worry about updates
Office 365 will always keep your programs up to date. You will never have to worry about making sure you have the latest version. Everyone in the company will be on the same version so you won’t run into mismatches either.
Subscription based and pay-as-you-go
Office 365 is subscription based, which can lower the investment your company needs to make to get started. You only need to pay for licenses you use. You can add and remove licenses at any time. Adding and removing employees is simple. You will no longer have unused licenses just laying around. Since everything is tied to a central admin portal, there are no more license keys to worry about.
Easy to use admin portal
Speaking of the central admin portal, Microsoft has been designing Office 365 to make it easy to use, even for non-technical employees. You can perform most administrative tasks from the portal, without the need for an in-house IT department. Microsoft’s support options are also integrated in the portal, so you have everything you need, even if you run into a problem.
Security features
Office 365 has everything from spam filters for email, to data loss prevention cloud saves for documents. Even if you are in the middle of working on a document and your computer explodes into a million pieces, you will be able to log into your account from another machine and resume right where you left off. Office 365 offers many security features like email encryption, mobile device management, and email recovery.
Microsoft has been working hard to streamline daily office tasks for businesses. From collaboration, to file sharing, to communication, Office 365 makes it all very easy. Add the fact that it is being constantly updated with new features, bug fixes, and more robust security, its easy to see why Office is the giant that it is, and the cloud features of Office 365 only makes it better.
The Problem
Most mid-sized IT organizations suffer from inadequate time and resources to keep the business running. Organizations need to address the pressing IT changes required to keep pace with the evolving needs of their customers & competition. These same mid-sized IT organizations do not get the same love from IT vendors that larger organization receive. Often only seeing support when they are actively in the process of buying new infrastructure.
Add to these factors a very tight IT labor market and this leads to big challenges and disappointed end users. This impacts one of the largest customer segment in the US economy – the mid-market. When business owners and leaders can’t get what they need from IT, they start looking for other alternatives. This can include Cloud and IT Outsourcing.
An important piece of the Answer
Zunesis has announced a common-sense service (Recurring Data Center Advisory Service – RDCAS) that offers substantial value to our clients who operate an HPE server/storage environment. For customers operating IT data centers, this service is designed to provide on-going expertise and advice to minimize disruption, down-time, and operational risk.
The sweet spot for this service is mid-market and SMB clients who can benefit from on-going expert engineering support and guidance. This service is designed for the client who desires guidance and periodic expertise. In addition, the organization still plans to operate and manage their own HPE infrastructure.
The value of this service lies in its focus and consistency. The RDCAS approach combines a focused Managed Service with consistent high-end engineering engagement.
What is Included?
The service includes an upfront assessment of the client’s HPE environment (inventory, firmware, configuration, and capacity). From this upfront assessment, Zunesis will make suggestions and provide guidance on any needed upgrades or best practices.
From there, Zunesis will establish recurring quarterly sit-down, in-person meetings with senior Zunesis Engineers and Project Manager to review the following:
- Service tickets
- Contract support status
- Additions / subtractions to the environment
- Planned migrations / changes, O/S versions
- Customer advisory history & recommended updates/patches
- Performance & capacity
- Suggested list of priorities for remediation / updates.
Throughout the life of the contract, Zunesis will also serve as an advocate for resolving support issues with HPE. We will help to get support tickets escalated. Zunesis has 15 years working with hundreds of HPE clients. Our understanding of the HPE organization and the right knobs to turn and levers to pull will help our customers get the best support possible.
While the RDCAS is an advisory and consulting service only, Zunesis also offers follow-on hands-on services to implement suggested updates and best practices. Some clients want a turn-key offering where Zunesis recommends specific firmware upgrades, for example. Then Zunesis engineers would make those changes during a scheduled maintenance window.
The RDCAS is the ultimate preventative maintenance program. Zunesis recommends adding this service when your maintenance support renewals are due. This way the people at Zunesis can review and understand the current type of support you have and the current services you are already receiving from HPE.
What VPN services are a Good Fit for you?
I am certain that many people are familiar with the concept of a VPN or virtual private network. They are used to gain access to a corporate network while traveling or at home. I would assert though that few are familiar with the growing market of personal VPN providers who target non-commercial entities and individuals.
According to Orbis research Statista:
This market has grown eight billion dollars in the past five years
and is expected to grow another twelve billion in the next three years.
This emerging market has many players. Understanding which to use can be quite confusing to someone who is not well informed on the topic.
We will explore the concepts of how they differ from the often-provided corporate VPN’s. As well as discuss how to use them to protect your private information aside from how the company protects itself.
Corporate vs. Personal VPN
Most business travelers do utilize corporate VPN connections to gain access to company files and services. When the traffic is not destined to the business networks, the traffic is not tunneled back to the home office. This configuration is called split tunneling.
It is a very common configuration. Network engineers configure this so that users will not saturate the VPN concentrators with YouTube, Netflix and other non-business-related traffic. Additionally, as business travelers it is incumbent on us to use company assets such as bandwidth in a manner which is in line with our companies’ policies.
How do the personal VPN services work?
Most if not all personal VPNs use a client-based software to encapsulate and encrypt the traffic. This makes it very hard to unscramble if someone is capturing data from an open network.
The other mechanism used is to proxy the traffic to a third party where it is then sent to the eventual destination. The proxy or redirect mechanism ensures that the transmitted information doesn’t contain the public IP of the coffee shop or public network but the source IP address of the proxy service. This is important when connecting to financial institutions that monitor the public IP address that you normally connect from.
If for some reason another person attempts to connect to your bank account through the bank’s web portal, the bank would notice that it is not the normal public IP address that you would typically connect from and disallow the login attempt.
Who are they for?
Firstly, who should use a personal VPN? The answer is anyone who regularly uses free and open Wi-Fi at public places. Anytime you connect to the coffee shop Wi-Fi or to a hotels guest network connection, you are often at risk of someone intercepting the unencrypted traffic you are sending and receiving. This vulnerability has existed for many years and is called a, “man in the middle attack”.
This sort of intrusion used to be carried out by very skilled hackers but these days the attack is very well documented. Toolkits to exploit these common scenarios are being used by very unskilled characters.
Personal VPNs circumvent the vulnerabilities of open networks by using encapsulation and traffic proxying so that the connection is more secure and free from prying eyes.
Good rules to live by regarding when you should use a VPN include:
- Are you logging in to a private or personal account of any kind?
- Are you transmitting information that is proprietary?
- Is there personal or customer information being transmitted?
- Is banking or financial information being received?
If any of these conditions exist, I would recommend using a personal VPN to protect yourself. The many protective and anonymizing mechanisms that the VPNs employ would allow you to safely transmit and receive any data without the risk of intrusion.
Current major players in this market
I will not make any direct recommendation since at Zunesis do not sell these products directly. We can help with the implementation of them if requested. I would recommend that you find a solution that does satisfy the conditions I have covered.
This article from PCMag.com gives a great overview of how VPNs work and how each VPN company compared to the others.
How can Zunesis help?
At Zunesis, our expertise and offerings focus on corporate VPNs and other firewall services. We find it equally important that our clients and partners understand the risks involved when not utilizing some protective measures when they connect to open public Wi-Fi systems.
We have all heard of the unlucky Hollywood stars who have had their personal accounts targeted or hacked at great expense to themselves. Reputations are very important in business and in private life. Remember that the weakest link is not the traffic we monitor, it is the traffic we do not.
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:
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- 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!
