According to IDC research, businesses are prioritizing resiliency and agility as foundational elements of their IT strategy. They want more visibility, cross-platform control, better data management, and protection from the edge to the core. While consumption-based models are playing an increasingly important role in powering those goals to accelerate digital transformation, many business leaders are hesitant when it comes to Network-as-a-Service (NaaS). Some still think of as-a-service in terms of software, compute, and storage. However, as budgets grow tighter amid an inflationary economic environment, organizations need a better way to predict the ebbs and flows of the network, with flexibility to adapt as business needs change. That’s where NaaS comes into play.

Among the newest as-a-service approaches, NaaS combines­ hardware, software, services, and support in a pay-as-you-go model that delivers network services on a subscription basis. Allowing users to consume network infrastructure through flexible OpEx subscriptions, NaaS helps businesses shift their focus from managing their architecture to driving business outcomes.

 

If you haven’t transitioned to Network-as-a-Service yet, here are five reasons why you should:

 

1. Cost savings: Network-as-a-Service allows you to acquire the network you need, when you need it, to avoid overprovisioning—in a pay-as-you-go OpEx model. Because you’re not locked into expensive infrastructure and rigid contracts, Naas allows you to more predictably manage costs and align budgets to business priorities. Additionally, with insights into all aspects of usage, including power, capacity, bandwidth speeds, and service levels, you can make more profitable financial decisions about workloads and upcoming projects.
2. Security: As the prevalence of data breeches and ransomware continues to soar, enhancing network security is crucial. With proactive network monitoring, preventative maintenance, and real-time insights into network performance, the NaaS model offers enhanced network infrastructure protection with enterprise-grade security. With that, any nefarious activity can be immediately identified—and patches can be applied to address the breech before it becomes a problem.
3. Performance and Productivity: Network-as-a-Service ensures your network operates efficiently by assessing traffic volume and making necessary adjustments. A better performing network means less downtime and greater staff productivity. Additionally, by outsourcing the full lifecycle of your enterprise network deployment, day-to-day operational management, upgrades, monitoring and troubleshooting activities to a NaaS partner, you free up your internal IT resources to focus on business-enabling tasks that add measurable value.
4. Keep up with the pace of business: NaaS provides the financial flexibility to shorten planning cycle times and the agility to keep pace with changing conditions. By ensuring your network technology is refreshed as needed to support new workloads and changing requirements, a NaaS model makes it easy to scale your network as needs change.
5. Environmental impact – NaaS offers a more sustainable way to consume network technology. With the ability to rent sustainable networks from a NaaS provider on a subscription basis, you don’t have to worry about where and how to dispose of old equipment. Plus, NaaS providers are committed to sustainable ‘reuse and retirement’ practices—and also well versed at configuring networks that are purpose-built to optimize energy consumption. By turning to a NaaS solution, you are making an environmentally sound decision that reduces your carbon footprint.

As market conditions continue to change at a rapid clip, your business needs to be one step ahead of your competition. With NaaS solutions from Aruba, Zunesis can help you move from reactive network management to a proactive approach that uses the network to deliver innovation and power profound business outcomes.

For more information about how you can accelerate business outcomes with Aruba’s subscription-based network consumption model, contact us here.

Evolution of Monitoring

Having started my IT Career in the 80’s, I’ve had a front row seat to the ever-evolving landscape that makes up IT Infrastructure. In the days of centralized systems, with Dumb Terminals, monitoring and managing systems was simple relative to today’s environments. As distributed computing made its way into the data center and across desktops, monitoring and management became far more challenging. Troubleshooting, software/hardware upgrades, and deployment often means visiting each desktop in the organization.

As centralized and distributed infrastructures began to converge over time, we never got back to the simplicity of centralized systems. We saw day-to-day monitoring and management improve with centralized software distribution and updates, remote desktop access, centralized alerts and notifications, etc. However, the management solutions that evolved to support a world in which Hypervisors, co-location, and multi-site infrastructures rule, have themselves become large, complex, infrastructures to deploy and maintain. Today, managing the IT Infrastructure means dealing with a multitude of device managers and monitoring tools across a siloed environment of storage, compute, network switches, and firewalls.

 

Simplify the Monitor Experience

Our IT Infrastructures are becoming more diverse and geographically distributed than ever before. It’s no surprise that we are now starting to see solutions that simplify the Monitoring and Management experience. These solutions are going to be mandatory as IT Infrastructure continues its evolution to a hybrid, compute anywhere landscape.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has embraced the idea of managing and monitoring a compute anywhere environment. They have underscored their commitment based on tools like InfoSight. They have recently announced new solutions in the spring of 2021. To get to the point where they are now, there were many HPE developed technologies and hardware/software acquisitions along the way.

One of their most visible and telling acquisitions was Nimble Storage. While the Nimble Storage technology has been a solid solution by itself, we were told from the start that HPE really purchased Nimble because of its InfoSight AI/predictive analytics platform.

 

HPE InfoSight

In 2017, InfoSight was a tool used to monitor and report on Nimble storage arrays from anywhere you could access a browser. But, at the time, Nimble was the only device included. Today, HPE InfoSight has expanded its use cases. Most all HPE Storage and Compute as well as the virtualized environments are supported by InfoSight.

InfoSight uses cloud-based machine learning to build Global Intelligence and insights for IT Infrastructure. The platform simplifies IT operations by predicting and preventing problems across the infrastructure stack. It makes decisions that optimize application performance and resource planning. This intelligence is based on telemetry data from many of HPE’s global installed base. I can personally attest to the power and usefulness of InfoSight. It has helped many of our clients troubleshoot issues and plan for expansion using the information provided through HPE InfoSight.

HPE continues to grow the capabilities of HPE InfoSight predictive analytics and monitoring across their compute and storage solutions. They have also been working on tools to improve the deployment, provisioning, and management of those solutions. Starting in April of 2021, HPE has made announcements for solutions built on a cloud-native architecture. It manages infrastructure components through a SaaS-based control plane that abstracts infrastructure control from the physical infrastructure.

 

Aruba ESP

In April, HPE announced The Aruba ESP (Edge Services Platform), designed to address fragmented network operations and simplify the network management lifecycle. ESP converges the management of wired, wireless, and WAN networks across campus, branch, remote worker, and data center locations. It will be no surprise, to those who have managed Aruba environments, that the Unified Infrastructure announced with ESP is based on Aruba Central, a cloud-native, microservices-based platform that has been part of the Aruba portfolio for some time.

With the inclusion of ESP, Aruba Central provides a full range of management services for the network.
To continue the theme of SaaS management solutions, in May, HPE announced their Data Services Cloud Console. Data Services Cloud Console is based on the Aruba Edge Services Platform. Because Data Services Cloud Console is delivered as SaaS, there is no software to deploy, manage, or maintain. You can constantly stay current on the latest software features, without any action or involvement required.

 

New Solutions

Data Services Cloud Console (DSCC) is a subscription service integrated with the new Alletra platform and will also support Primera and Gen 5 Nimble Arrays. It is deploys, provisions, and monitors supported storage arrays through role based access controls. DSCC delivers global unified management. It enables customers to manage and monitor geographically distributed systems across edge to cloud from a single web interface. So, managing hundreds of systems is as simple as managing one.

 

 

In June 2021, HPE announced an expansion of the Cloud Console with its Compute Cloud Console solution. Like ESP and DSCC, Compute Cloud Console is another part of the SaaS platform that will allow you to manage your Compute environments from anywhere and wherever they are across your infrastructure.

Hybrid infrastructure is here to stay. It is essential that we find ways to deploy, manage, and monitor  infrastructure without proliferating the siloed tool sets and manual processes that have become common in geographically limited environments. Since our infrastructure is geographically dispersed, it is likely that those who manage that infrastructure will also be spread across, the country, and around the globe. So, role-based, self-service deployment, management and monitoring should also be part of how we plan to support our IT Infrastructure.

With InfoSight, Edge Services Platform on Aruba Central, Data Services Cloud Console and Compute Cloud Console, HPE has provided a suite of tools that will support our journey to the next evolution of the IT Infrastructure landscape.

Contact Zunesis to find out more about the solutions discussed throughout this blog.

Blogs typically are not hard to write. The trick is to find something relevant for the readers and something that is passionate to you. Just take a look at some of the blogs my teammates here at Zunesis have written.

The year 2020 and how the Covid-19 pandemic are affecting our world, a topic which is dominating every news cycle, no matter the industry:

2021 – It’s Only a Date Change – Peter Knoblock

Going Back to Basics – Tom Savage

2021 Strikes Back – Caleb Clark

CARES Act Funding to Assist with Distance Learning – Sara Wessells

Another Zunesis blogger, a fitness enthusiast, compared IT Health Checks and Assessments to doing Yoga.

Yoga + IT Health = Nirvana – Stacy Lara

These blogs were easy for the authors to write because they are passionate about their topics, our world, the industry we serve, and the customers we serve.

 

AD Health Checks

Over four years ago in May 2016, I wrote a blog titled: Why You Need to Check the Health of Your Active Directory.

First, I cannot believe that was four years ago, and second, it is still very relevant today. In fact, I would say more relevant, enough to expand the AD Health Checks to the entire server infrastructure.

In that blog, I compared Active Directory to the central nervous system of the human body.  How, just as you see a doctor for regular checkups, AD also needs these types of checkups. If AD is the central nervous system, then the servers which support the infrastructure are the major organs. Just like the AD Health Check, the servers must be checked periodically.

 

Screen for Diseases

1. Verify backup solution: Be sure your backups are working. Daily reports need to be reviewed for completion and to identify issues. Perform test recoveries to be sure the backup solution is working at 100%. Don’t have a backup or unsure about your current solution? Zunesis has a blog for that:

Are You Sure You Can Recover Your Backups? – James Hughes

Protecting your Data with Veeam Backup – Adam Gosselin

2. Monitor Disk Usage: Servers generate a lot of data which can add up over time. Make sure you are getting rid of old log files.  If they are needed, then archive them to permanent storage. Remove old applications that can leave significant security holes. Review the removal as some uninstallers can leave old files. A smaller data footprint means faster recovery.

3. Monitor system alarms for hardware: Check for any type of hardware warnings, errors, or failures. Warnings tend to lead to errors, which can lead to failures.

4. Monitor server resource utilization: Monitor disk, CPU, RAM, network utilization, and log files. Check for OS or Application issues.

5. Updates, updates, updates: Check for Operating System updates. Check for Application updates. Check for Hardware (Firmware) updates. Hackers are very quick and can develop variants within hours of an issue being disclosed. Rapid response is key.

6. Review privileged user accounts: Validate for accuracy and check account permissions to make sure they are appropriate for each user.

7. Review Password Security: User passwords should be changed every 45-60 days. Service Account passwords should be changed annually.

 

Future Health Precautions

Assess Risk of Future Medical Problems

• Review Microsoft Server Roadmap for planning migrations.

Encourage a Healthy Lifestyle

• Review and discuss current administrative practices surrounding the Servers.
• Review and discuss and recommend monitoring strategies around the Servers.
• Review and discuss and recommend auditing strategies of the Servers.

Maintain a Relationship with Doctors in Case of an Illness

• Good to have a relationship with an infrastructure provider, like Zunesis, when issues arise and advanced assistance is needed.
• Good to have an independent third-party, like Zunesis, doing the health checks. You aren’t allowed to prescribe your own medication, are you?

These should be included in a larger Infrastructure Monitoring Program with documented Policies and Procedures. The checks and the levels may vary depending on the organization.

Just like the human body, proper monitoring and care can assist in keeping your Servers healthy. Your Servers can only benefit from these periodic “doctor” visits. The Zunesis Infrastructure Health Check will assess your current Server Infrastructure and deliver a report providing a third-party review, validation, and recommendations for improvement. Contact Zunesis today to schedule a health check for your organization.

Back in March which seems like ages ago, Aruba Networks announced the release of Aruba ESP. It’s the industry’s first cloud-native platform designed to automate, unify and secure the Edge. Why the need for this new platform in today’s world? What are its secret powers for your network?  And, how does it work?

 

Why the Need for Aruba ESP?

According to IDC, 55 billion devices will be connected within the next two years and are expected to generate 79.4ZB of data by 2025. Combine that with the shifts to work from home and distributed work forces, there is a definite need for the right tools to keep pace. With this large amount of data at the Edge, today’s networks and the teams that manage them are struggling to keep up.

Organizations need to ensure they have the right network foundation while being ready for the next big technology transition or event. This is where the need for Aruba ESP came in.  Aruba ESP combines AIOps, Zero Trust Security, and a Unified Infrastructure.

 

What can Aruba ESP do?

 

 

It helps IT with the following:

• Identify and resolve issues quickly, preempting problems before they impact the business.
• Protect against advanced threats from a vanishing security perimeter.
• Monitor and manage thousands of wired, wireless and WAN devices across campus, branch, data center, or remote worker locations.
• Quickly deploy network services at scale at support changing business needs.
• Allow continued infrastructure investment in the face of uncertain financial changes.

Aruba ESP offers services at the Edge that include onboarding, provisioning, orchestration, analytics, location and management. These are accessed through Aruba Central. The SaaS consumption model enables rapid deployment and provides unified management, AIOps, and security. Through Central, network admins can use AI insights to help quickly troubleshoot, identify, and resolve issues before issues occur.

 

Significant innovations within Aruba ESP

Several new innovations are within the Aruba ESP platform:

• Cloud-native management for any size enterprise: The industry’s only controller-less, cloud-based platform that provides full-stack management and operations for wired, wireless and SD-WAN infrastructure of any size campus, data center, branch, and remote worker locations to be consumed on-premises or in the cloud.
• Simplified daily operations with unified infrastructure: The latest version of Aruba Central has simplified navigation, advanced search, and contextual views.
• Reduced resolution time with AI and automation: Aruba’s new AI Insights reduces troubleshooting time by identifying hard-to-see network configuration issues and providing root-cause, prescriptive recommendations and automated remediation to continuously optimize network operations.
• AI-powered IT Efficiencies: AI Search enables IT Teams to eliminate “swivel chair” investigations. AI Assist uses event-driven automation to collect and post all relevant data for both the internal help desk and Aruba Technical Assistance Center (TAC)
• Granular visibility across applications, devices and the network: User-center analytics from User Experience Insight to identify client, application, and network performance issues faster.
• Extension of next-gen switching to distributed and mid-size enterprises: The Aruba CX6200 switch series brings built-in analytics and automation capabilities to every network edge where user and device connectivity occurs, generating insights that can be applied to informing better business outcomes.
• Ongoing innovation with new Developer Hub: A comprehensive resource for developers that includes Aruba APIs and documentation to streamline the development of innovative, next-generation edge applications leveraging the open Aruba ESP platform.

Recently, new enhancements were announced that help unify IoT, IT and Operational Technology networks to enable customers to quickly adapt to changing environments and user requirements. Unifying these networks, enables hyper-aware facilities that are safer, more adaptive, and enhance productivity. This is a big leap forward over what can be achieved with basic connectivity and machine learning-based monitoring.

These enhancements are integral to sensing, analyzing, and reacting to device data and contextual information. Virtually every subsystem spanning machine inputs and outputs (I/O) on a manufacturing floor through multimedia devices in the CEO suite can be accommodated. Solutions are available for education, enterprise, healthcare, hospitality, industrial, manufacturing, retail, transportation and government applications.

 

Some Use Cases

Some use cases with Aruba ESP-based hyper-awareness include smart buildings, industrial/manufacturing facilities and the broader Intelligent Edge.

Hyper-aware smart buildings for enterprises, education, healthcare, hospitality, retail, and government:

1. Building control and digital twin enablement: Identify sub-optimized processes, recommend operational enhancements, and monitor the trajectory of energy usage needed for proactive interventions.
2. Context- Aware, real-time integrated emergency response and notification.: It actively communicates with tenants, visitors and staff. The use of 4D Graphics for first responders enables them to quickly see where people are within buildings.
3. Seamless extension of the 5G Footprint with Wi-Fi: Mobile operators can extend 5G footprint into the building. It seamlessly powers Wi-Fi calling using Aruba Air Slice Technology.

Hyper-aware industrial facilities:

1. Migrating from break/fix to proactive maintenance: Enables machinery sensors to monitor equipment to identify points of failure. Notifies before they happen, improve productivity, reliability, and efficiency.
2. Reducing mean time to repair with location services: Provides site occupants with turn-by-turn navigation to a destination without human assistance.
3. Monitoring personnel and asset safety: Can deliver real-time 3D situational awareness by tracking the location of people and assets.  It can integrate with automated ventilation, geofencing, and vehicular navigation systems.

Aruba ESP produces AI- powered insights with greater than 95% accuracy.  It helps automatically improve communications and visibility across and among IoT, IT and OT Networks.

Have more questions about Aruba ESP? Attend our webinar on September 30^th or reach out to one of our account reps to learn more.