Author: Alan Sears

I recently saw a YouTube clip of Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the MIT Center for Digital Business, discussing the concepts in his book, Wired for Innovation. Erik believes that we are only at the beginning of an era of IT-driven productivity gains. He cites companies like Harrah’s casinos that gather information on their customers with rewards cards who then use this data to model incentives to increase patronage from their clientele.

Erik talks about a recent trend in company data he has seen when comparing the top performers to the bottom performers that shows that the gap between these groups is widening at organizations that make better use of IT technologies to track historical business data. This is significant as the productivity of these two groups had paralleled each other until the current decade.

So what does this mean for a company’s storage requirements? With the competitive advantage Erik has shown in mining this data, there should be excellent justification in keeping more data around.

Check out the interview with Erik Brynjolfsson:

I came across an article recently that asked if Cisco was the new 800 pound gorilla of client virtualization. Now Cisco has long been labeled as the 800 pound gorilla of networking, but as a relative newcomer to the data center and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) space, could they be crowned the heavy-weight champion already? And what is an 800 pound gorilla anyway?

While the picture certainly lends some creative imagery to the phrase, urbandictionary.com defines it as “A seemingly unbeatable presence always to be reckoned with; whose experience, influence, and skill threatens to defeat competitors with little effort.” I am sure the expression can be traced back to the riddle: “Where does an 800 pound gorilla sleep?” with the answer being “Anywhere it wants to.” However, in actuality, gorillas only grow to be at most about 450 pounds.

So has Cisco earned this title yet? Client virtualization is still an emerging market, but with Cisco’s hat in the ring, you can bet more and more companies will be hearing about the benefits of VDI, as the powerful engine of Cisco’s direct sales force and channel partners take the messaging to the street. This alone will drive growth in the client virtualization market as a whole, giving legitimacy to competitive solutions as the concept becomes more mainstream thanks to Cisco. With Cisco already demonstrating its ability to deliver superior data center solutions with the Unified Computing System (UCS) platform back in the server room rack, having an end-to-end solution with end point devices on the desktop is a play that is very familiar to Cisco from their Unified Communications IP phone systems… and Cisco is now the number one provider of enterprise phone systems in the world.

Add to that the differentiating architecture of Cisco’s Virtualization Experience Infrastructure (VXI), which is a combination of new products and partner solutions to deliver rich media content to VDI end users without compromising the concept of the thin client, and Cisco pulls into its virtualization solution the success and experience of Unified Communications. Can you hear Cisco beating its chest?

Cisco’s much anticipated business tablet, the Cius, has been orderable for a month or so now. As any diligent technology evangelist would do, I made sure we submitted an order right away. A pair will be for customer demonstrations in the TBL office, of course, but I was also excited about the idea of being the trial user for the tablet at TBL Networks. I am a pretty mobile user, with several different use cases that would put the Cius to the test – and I wouldn’t feel right about making anyone else at TBL the guinea pig other than myself. What better way to chronicle the adoption of such a revolutionary new device than to keep a regular diary of my use of it on the blog.

So, Part I: The Wait. As with any new piece of technology, supply and demand kicks in and I anxiously await the delivery of the Cius tablets. So while we wait, let’s review the stats. It’s got a 7” diagonal, high-resolution color screen with contact-based touch targets delivering an elegant, intuitive user experience, HD video (720p) with Cisco TelePresence solution interoperability for life-like video communication with the simplicity of a phone call, HD audio with wideband support, and Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n) support with Bluetooth 3.0 to help employees stay connected and mobile. Loaded it with software to make it most effective, the Cius runs the Android operating system, with access Android marketplace applications, and has virtual desktop clients to enable highly secure access to cloud-based business applications, collaboration applications including Cisco Quad, Presence, IM and integrated, one-click access to WebEx Meeting Center, and of course, HD video as a Cisco TelePresence endpoint. With a detachable and serviceable 8-hour battery for a full day of work and a HD media station dock that supports Bluetooth and USB peripherals, 10/100/1000 wired connectivity, a monitor, mouse and keyboard, and a telephone handset, the Cius is the ultimate device for the user at their desk or on the road.

I look forward to reporting more on how the Cius effects my life.

It’s no great secret that server virtualization can save a company money. The statement, while the topic of many a blog post 5 years ago as a theorem, is accepted as a law today. This industry “given” has created a great deal of complacency in IT directors and financial officers alike. The simple concept of serving the same user base with the same level of computing using less physical hardware almost proves lower cost just in the statement alone, right?  Only if you believe that the only change in costs between the two scenarios (non-virtualized vs. virtualized) is in the cost of the hardware… and even then, aren’t you investing in more hardware for lager, higher-capacity servers at the very beginning of the virtualization project? Surely, as with any major change in technology, other devices, systems, processes, and administration are affected. This would surely suggest that the costs of these areas are affected as well.

Computer Associated performed a study of 800 organizations who had undergone a virtualization project. 44% of respondents who said they had deployed server virtualization were unable to declare their deployment a success. A key factor in their reluctance to claim positive results was their inability to quantify the ROI. These were companies who believe the theorem as a law, and trudged ahead believing cost savings would just materialize as soon as they started consolidating servers. Poorly planned virtualization projects with repeated surprises and adjustments, along with poorly executed virtualization plans can make any IT organization feel like they may not be getting the promised results from their investment.

With any scientific endeavor, the quantifying of investment savings being no different, a clear baseline measurement to measure against is a necessity. How can you say how much was saved if you can’t accurately compare it to how much you were spending before. And as discussed above, this has to include more than just the cost of server hardware. Additionally, a clear plan of consolidation by someone experienced in virtualization practices will provide the best opportunity to capture all the savings virtualization has to offer. A project that only implements part of the features of virtualization will only recognize a portion of the cost savings. Will that be enough to tip the scales to a positive ROI?

Don’t gamble with your IT budget and hope that virtualization it a sure bet. Ask us how TBL can perform a Virtualization Financial Impact Analysis on your server infrastructure and provide a plan for a project that delivers the technology and the cost savings.

TBL has come full circle. Yes, we have led the convergence of Cisco voice applications and virtualization with our Unified Communications and Data Center practices. Yes, we were the first to integrate Cisco TelePresence video to WebEx Meeting Center for fully integrated collaborative virtual meetings. But I am talking about really getting back to our roots, to where it all began. TBL has now installed a Cisco phone system for a client in the building where TBL was born.

In late 2006, the three soon-to-be founders of TBL realized that the others were also having entrepreneurial thoughts of breaking out on their own to create a new Cisco Value Added Reseller. Alan Sears, David Cantwell, and Patrick Tredway decided to meet over dinner to discuss the possibility of a joint partnership. As David lives in Charlottesville, the three chose The Hardware Store, a staple of the Charlottesville downtown mall area. Just off the bricks that pave the pedestrian-only Main Street, The Hardware Store was a typical American bar and grill. One of the large booths off to the side was the perfect setting for the three to map out their plans. A napkin documented the ideas brainstormed by the engineers on what would be required to start a new company from scratch. Like Jerry McGuire’s Mission Statement, the three added to the list of ideals that this new organization would stand for, covering how it would support its client base and interact with its manufacturers. The trio agreed that for this to work for each of them, they wanted to create the “perfect Cisco Partner.” A few months later on March 29, 2007 TBL Networks, Inc. was founded and opened its doors for business.

Fast forward four years later. TBL Networks has 17 employees, has been the #1 provider of Cisco voice products to the commercial market in Virginia for the last two years, was named Cisco Collaboration Partner of the Year for 2010, and has 5 of the 7 Voice CCIEs in Central Virginia on staff. And this month, TBL installed a Cisco phone system to a client who now occupies the space that The Hardware Store used to inhabit. Sadly, The Hardware Store is no longer around, but TBL is strong and flourishing. It was truly a full circle moment when I attended a planning session in the main conference room our of new client and saw this sign still hanging on the outside of the building:

TBL prides itself on designing solutions for our clients that allow their employees to connect to each other in ways that improve the quality and speed of interaction. Business isn’t just conducted over the phone and e-mail anymore. As technology infiltrates our lives as consumers, we see the benefits it has on our personal interactions, and naturally begin to integrate it into our work lives. Instant Messaging and Text Messaging are two such examples that are almost common to most workplace environments these days. Ten years ago it would have been difficult to find many occurrences of either for business, but we were all seeing the benefits of IM’ing and texting to stay in touch with our friends and family.

Today, we have moved beyond IM at home, and Skype is the predominant way we keep in touch with loved ones. And not just on the PC – every cell phone commercial on television boasts the ability to video call across the network. Yes, video is nothing new to the enterprise – we are all familiar with rolling cart video conferencing, or even the newer immersive room video systems, but video isn’t pervasive at the desk… yet. Solutions are just being introduced that are pushing video to every user on every device, and not just for live interaction. Any message that needs to be delivered is enhanced by video. Portals for video sharing, a corporate YouTube, now allow the publishing on content in a controlled authenticated, and searchable way that is suitable for corporations. Video will soon be a part of daily interactions in the workplace.

I was recently introduced to a woman who studies the use of technology by society. Amber Case refers to herself as a Cyborg Anthropologist. While a traditional anthropologist studies the tools ancient civilizations used to extend the physical self, Amber philosophizes on how modern man uses technology as tools to extend the mental self. We teleport ourselves around the world in an instant with global communications networks, can interact with acquaintances even when they are not online, and store a lifetime worth of memories on a device in the palm of our hand. It is technology that allows us to do this, but humanity that urges us to want to. If technology didn’t allow us to improve to way we interact with other humans, we wouldn’t use it. At TBL, we coined the phrase techumanity to describe the way technology allows people to connect in ways that are more human.

Amber gets techumanity, and we think it is pretty cool.