CoD: The Consumerization of Data
As everyone crawls back to work after their Christmas holidays, and people get back to productivity in the office, every IT Manager’s nightmare is being realized. It has been coined the ‘Digital Holiday Season’ and 2011 was a record year.
The biggest electronics purchase season has just passed, and users everywhere are carrying new gadgets in their bags. These are not just music players, this generation of devices are far more powerful, and carry capabilities that encompass real world work features. According to the Consumer Electronics Association, consumer electronics will account for 1/3 of holiday spending and manufacturers in the U.S. will ship more than 72 million wireless-capable devices. With the average price of these being $246.00USD, one can quickly see these are internet enabled, personal devices with a large list of use cases. Those use cases include mobile scenarios at work.
From the perspective of IT departments, this is the worst time of the year for these guys. These devices are connecting to corporate services like mail, and even in some cases line of business applications. Not all of the corporate workloads are rigged for device experiences, or the support of mobile apps. But what are people doing on their personal device of preference? Accessing, consuming, sharing and even creating data. Enter the world of the Consumerization of Data: CoD.
Today’s Dropbox generation of users and devices are not only technically wired to use alternate form factors to the classic PC for data access, they now expect it. They don’t involve IT in the process, and they expect to be able to simply get their data. Need an app to use that data? Their app store is a consumer experience portal (like Apple’s App Store) , or their search engine. Productivity has evolved beyond the classic laptop.
So what’s wrong with the scenario? Well, to the end user, nothing. They have easy access to most of what they need on their device they prefer. They chose it, and they are making it work with or without IT. To the IT Department? Everything. The more one looks into the implications of alternate form factors, the worse it gets. Security, Privacy, Compliance, and Regulatory enforcement are just a few. Data transported to unmanaged, personal (non corporate asset) devices through public clouds carries significant risk. The evolution of Consumer IT is a reality, and it’s a problem.
Take for example the Stored Communications Act. When it comes to cloud storage, or free services, this can be a crisis for users and their data. According to SCA, once a user submits content to a cloud service, they relinquish their rights to retrieve, protect or control that data. The bottom line, cloud based storage of data is a security, privacy and regulatory risk.
What are vendors doing about it? So far, only some progress. Lets go over what we know.
Citrix announced at Synergy 2011 in Barcelona the closure of their acquisition of ShareFile in addition to enhancements to their Receiver technology for what they term ‘Follow Me Data Fabric’ . (Demo video from keynote). In addition, the enhancements to GoToMeeting with Workspaces provides a collab platform for virtual teams to work together – in the cloud.
VMware continues to develop Octopus, their solution to the DropBox generation. Designed for public or private clouds, and designed to share with corporate colleagues, or external contacts. Announced at VMworld in Aug 2011, the scene has been relatively quiet with only a few blogs and social streams picking up news on it since.
Microsoft has continued to make available Windows Live Mesh, a new generation consumer version of a product they originally acquired several years ago called Foldershare. Yours truly here has been a dedicated user of this service for personal backup through replication, but it is not the collaboration tool that a drop box brings to the stage. The world awaits what will come to the market on Widows 8, but so far Follow Me Data seems a stretch, let alone supporting scenarios beyond a Windows centric platform.
The others. Dropbox, Box, Zumodrive and even Sharepoint all carry collaboration capabilities and have low cost entry points. Many of us are registered with these services today, using various combinations to share data with others either at work or socially. It is inconsistent, expensive (jammed with hidden or decentralized costs) and lacks consistent security, regulatory or corporate compliance. None of these services here are managed by my IT department.
So what is the answer? A balance between IT, Consumerization trends, and user acceptance that the fix wont get in the way. Users wont tolerate those pain points yet IT needs to deliver something that satisfies and protects with no impact.
What an interesting space. 2012 certainly seems like the year of CoD.
Keep sharing, stay classy
Jeff Wettlaufer
Sr. Director, Product Marketing, RES Software
A Quick look at BDA Sample Files
Hi everyone, if you are ever wondering about what apps, printers, networks, screen resolutions and more that your users are experiencing, you should check out the Baseline Desktop Analyzer from RES Software. BDA is a free, online, Azure Based service that provides you the ability to sample systems, and view these in report format.
The sample files also have another use. These sample files can be imported directly into Workspace Manager, or Workspace Manager Express to assist in creating Workspaces. The result is that the Admin can understand what their users are doing, and incorporate that into their workspace deployments.
I created a short video on how this all works. Enjoy……
Jeff Wettlaufer
Sr. Director, Product Marketing, RES Software
2012: The Year of Context-aware ITaaS
Happy New Year. Recently I guest blogged on VMBlog.com about the upcoming year in our industry and what it means to the RES portfolio. Here are some highlights.
With the increasing adoption of devices such as smartphones, tablets, touch sensitive screens and sub compact, ultra portable hardware, enterprises are going to realize that their employees are using these to access data and applications throughout the day. Android, Windows 7 (with the launch of Windows 8) and iOS all have enterprise and consumer experiences people desire. The biggest point of disruption to the IT department is Christmas, as new technology floats into the hands of corporate users. Where IT does not have a solution, niche point providers found across the internet deliver free of charge, or at one-off price points acceptable to the user. The Enterprise app store becomes the Search Engine.
The consumerization of IT is a reality, and in order for IT to maintain security, compliance, collaboration and mobile working scenario support, they will embrace IT as a Service, enabling users to work where they want on their hardware preference. IT will need to understand the contexts a user experiences across different devices, connections and points in time. IT will deliver their corporate workspace in a modernized format to an unpredictable list of targets. Enterprise platforms blended with consumer tools must be harmonious, compatible and supported. On and off premises, traditional and virtual, cloud and in-house all must contribute to the lowering cost of business that is simply expected with new technology.
Staying ahead of the 2012 Virtualization Curve with Context-aware Security
Over the past few years, virtualization has evolved from an initiative companies would like to take on to a viable solution for an organization’s IT infrastructure. IT managers are embracing the technology, but with new solutions come new challenges -particularly security. At a glance, desktop virtualization seems secure. However, many companies launch their initiative and oftentimes forget about implementing proper security capabilities. With so many organizations asking where and how their users are accessing data, context-awareness will be key for IT in 2012.
IT will embrace context-aware services through integrated, centrally managed, policy controlled workspace experiences that are delivered to a range of target systems. Users who roam throughout locations, devices and time will be able to remain secure and productive on their chosen device. This experience for the user prioritizes access to applications and data through various receivers, hosted sessions or local resources.
Migrating to Windows 7 will arrive as the enterprise standard as Windows XP experiences phase out of via support lifecycle and hardware replacements. With this trend, desktop virtualization scenarios pick up momentum to support a variety of business requirements. Job roles, security or application-based requirements will drive different types of virtualization solutions into mainstream. This is amplified by the increased adoption of tablets and smartphones, and the need for employees to use them in addition to and instead of their company-issued PCs. What’s more, those employees expect to be able to access all of their work applications from these personal devices at any time and any location. Instead of fighting a losing battle with device regulation, IT managers need to learn how to get a handle on these devices and the IT services users will need access on these devices to remain productive.
The evolution of the enterprise app store seems like an easy choice as one of the ways that IT managers are offering new delivery methods. Through the evolution of workspaces and modern desktops, access to applications will be a main point of contention for end users. Their comfort zones of searching, downloading and installing are expected at work as they are at home. Independent of the device, users will find a way to get to their software. Through IT as a Service, IT departments can now provide simple, easy-to-use catalogs of services that adhere to all stakeholders, including the user.
Enterprise application portals are one solution to help address the issue of security that is required of the hybrid workspace spanning multiple devices. While it’s a start, it’s not as easy as setting up a consumer app store as found in Apple and Android markets. There are several key differences between a consumer app store and an enterprise app store that IT departments cannot ignore:
- Security is important and IT managers need app stores to factor context into what is available to each user at any given time.
- Enterprise app stores need to span a hybrid delivery model as opposed to a consumer app store’s obligation to just one device at a time.
- Access to an application in the enterprise store needs to be compliance-qualified, based on the user’s context, whereas a consumer app store opens all apps to everyone.
- The consumer app store is self-serving and requires no approvals; enterprise app stores need to consider workflow -only 80% of applications can be delivered automatically upon qualification.
- Costs affiliated with a consumer app store are predictable in the form of a one-time purchase, but an enterprise app store’s costs vary based on the services being provided. IT needs to bring them back to a predictable state.
The coming year will be an exciting one for IT departments as they continue to develop and manage the evolving hybrid workspace. With an added emphasis on context-aware IT as a Service in 2012, the market will be poised for continued growth in this innovative industry.
I wish you every success in 2012.
Jeff Wettlaufer
Sr. Director, Product Marketing, RES Software
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Upcoming Webcast: Context Aware Client Management
Rachel Chalmers, Research Director of Infrastructure Management for The 451 Group will be joining RES Software for a webcast - "Context Aware Desktops: The Key to Delivering a Consistent and Secure User Experience", which will take place on November 10 at 11am ET (4pm GMT). This session is part of Next Generation Desktop, the online summit organized by BrightTalk.
Join Jeff Wettlaufer, RES Software Sr. Director of Global Product Marketing, in an interactive session with analyst Rachel Chalmers of the 451 Group, as they discuss desktop trends faced by IT and solutions available to address these new demands by enabling context aware hybrid desktops and automated service portfolios. Rachel will provide findings and recommendations based on the latest 451 research surrounding desktop virtualization technologies. You will learn:
- How IT can better navigate today’s hybrid desktop environments by introducing centrally controlled and flexible workspaces to provide users consistency across devices and delivery platforms.
- The importance of understanding context beyond user name and enabling their workspace to react to that context with dynamic services.
- The benefits of simplified and centralized automation portfolios to help implement, administer and support new desktop technologies.
- How workspace and automation management solutions can improve future OS migrations and infrastructure changes with minimal disruption to users.
You can register for the session here.
Announcing RES Automation Manager 2012
Hi everyone, this week we are announcing the launch of RES Automation Manager 2012 at Citrix Synergy Barcelona.
Automation Manager 2012 delivers the automation of Tasks beyond the traditional command line. AM2012’s bridges client, datacenter, physical, virtual and cloud services with centrally managed, relationship oriented tasks and runbooks. AM2012 also provides the ability to consistently provision complex tasks across an unlimited number of repositories by a range of IT staff levels with centralized automation, auditing and delegation of control.
Automation Manager 2012 provides lifecycle management to network resources. AM2012 allows Administrators to provision new services, maintain production resources with simplified automation, and reflect the ever changing needs of IT. AM2012 allows organizations to increase their capacity through an efficient tiered dispatcher hierarchy, and support ever growing service request complexity with simplified infrastructure management.
Automation Manager 2012 reduces help desk calls and desk side visits by providing an IT Service Catalog that either automatically delivers services, or through a Self Service catalog for end users, all based on business rules.
With automated delivery these changes are reflected immediately in the users context aware workspace without any help desk assistance.
So what’s new with Automation Manager 2012? Building on the robust platform of Automation Manager 2011, Automation Manager 2012 enhances existing capabilities and adds new features for our customers, including:
- Cross platform management support (including Red Hat, SUSE and AIX)
- Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager integration
- Scalability and performance improvements, including native 64-bit support
- Further support for multi-tenancy infrastructure, assisting systems integrators with Desktop-as-a-Service initiatives
- Launch window support, aiding risk mitigation by limiting what can be managed during working hours
- ·Agent, team and evaluator relationship enhancements. This allows for running a query and then automatically performing an action based on the outcome
- Advanced granularity for security permissions, helping achieve compliance and regulatory management
Automation Manager will be a release candidate in mid November, and general availability is scheduled for early December. At that time, additional content will be made available to you.
Jeff Wettlaufer
Sr. Director, Product Marketing, RES Software
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RES Software releases free Workspace Manager Express
Today at IP Expo in London UK, RES Software has launched a free offering, Workspace Manager Express, based on their enterprise class offering Workspace Manager.
The free Express edition includes fundamental features from the full RES Workspace Manager 2011 solution, including the ability to replace login scripts and move away from roaming profiles by managing a user’s application settings, context-aware personalization and data separate from the underlying device, operating system and delivery platforms. With Express, organizations can build a foundation for managing the composition and personalization that make up a user workspace.
Workspace Manager Express begins the transformation of an organization’s desktop infrastructure into centrally managed user workspaces through a guided step-by-step approach. RES Workspace Manager Express provides the foundation for:
- Simplified Management: Express introduces centralized user workspaces and empowers IT to eliminate login scripts and simplify the complexity of managing users. It empowers administrators to make changes predictable through an easy-to-use console.
- Context-Aware Desktops: Administrators can begin to provision basic resources such as printers, drives and application settings, so they follow users and adapt as their context changes.
- Enhanced User Experience: Express decreases the time to deliver desktop services, introduces desired user state management and improves the automation of existing desktop management infrastructures.
While the free Express edition provides fundamental workspace management capabilities, many organizations will benefit from more comprehensive features available in the licensed editions of RES Workspace Manager. Using licensed editions of Workspace Manager, organizations can deliver context-aware security, enhance compliance efforts through auditing, tracking and reporting and provide support for mobile workers through folder synchronization and application management.
Here is a brief intro video about evaluating Express.
RES Workspace Manager Express is available as a free download and offers no limitations on the number of users within an organization. Access to RES Software support is available on a per-incident basis.
For more information on RES Software and the new Workspace Manager Express Edition features please visit:
- RES Software Workspace Manager
- RES Software Solutions On the Web
- RES Software On our Blog
- RES Software On Twitter
Jeff Wettlaufer
Sr. Director, Product Marketing, RES Software
Citrix acquires ShareFile
Citrix Systems (Nasdaq: CTXS) has acquired file-sharing and online storage vendor ShareFile. Terms were not disclosed. With the deal, ShareFile’s former CEO, Jesse Lipson, will come on board to head Citrix’s newly formed Data Sharing Group as VP and GM. The six-year-old target provides online file and document sharing, data synchronization and storage to business customers for a monthly subscription.
This is a pretty big deal. Online storage management services are hot right now. Box.net reportedly spurned a $500m takeover offer from Citrix and Dropbox reportedly rejected an $800m offer from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL).
Citrix has been acquiring lately:
- 10/13/2011 ShareFile
- 8/10/2011 RingCube
- 7/12/2011 Cloud.com
- 8/30/2010 VMLogix
451 also commented that the message is consistent with Citrix’s ‘Follow-Me Data’ and ‘Personal Cloud’ mantras, and the acquisition of ShareFile fits well. Workers are already accessing their data from multiple work and personal devices, and ShareFile offers one more way for businesses to centrally manage the data these ‘consumerized’ workers create and access in the cloud. In addition, ShareFile brings a particularly compelling piece to Citrix through the native apps it has developed for mobile devices
Tweetchat Transcript now available
Hi everyone, a couple of weeks ago we had a chance to join a ‘Tweetup’ hosted by Douglas Brown. RES was joined by Glasshouse Technologies and we talked about the world of VDI, or Hosted Virtual Desktops.
It was a fantastic chat, with a lot of conversational insite into the challenges with VDI, what customers are asking for, and what vendors see as the strategy to succeed in delivering VDI capabilities.
you can read the entire Twitter conversation here.
Jeff Wettlaufer
Sr. Director, Product Marketing, RES Software
Windows 8: The next generation of Windows and its impact to IT
This week, Microsoft has released the Developer Preview of Windows 8 to the world. This release comes with some significant enhancements for End User, Administrator and the Developer Community. What does it mean for Virtualization, CoIT/BYoPC, Workspace Management, Context Aware computing and Task Automation?
Client – Coverage on Windows 8 has been heavily focused on the Metro UI, a new desktop look and feel to how client interaction is architected. This UI has a design focus towards the touch sensitive slate style device, and while it is supported on traditional laptops and desktops, it is optimized for newer hardware. Under the hood, the kernel is the same Win32 API. Win8 has a new WinRT API to enable development in Metro UI formats. This also includes support for HTML5, Javascript and more. Focused on the Consumer, this new look and feel can be flipped back to the traditional desktop. Applications are planned to be accessed through an Appstore, which is yet to be clarified in its position to the Enterprise. A highlight was the lower resource cost Windows 8 clients use. The same hardware running 8 takes significantly less, potentially as much as 30% less, than Windows 7. If you app runs on Windows 7, it will run on Windows 8. Does this answer the AppCompat challenge? What did organizations do to make that app work on 7?
Server – Windows 8 infrastructure has taken steps from W2K8R2 in a few areas. Performance, Storage, Network, Hyper-V are just a few areas. Several areas of W2K8R2 that have evolved from Terminal Server also continue to grow. Support for up to 2TB RAM, 32 vCPUs with up to 512 GB RAM per VM are just a few. More include:
- Remote Desktop Web Access (RDWA)
- Remote Desktop Connection Broker (RDCB)
- RemoteApp and Desktop Publishing (RADC)
- Remote Desktop Virtualization (RDV)
Storage - New and built-in data deduplication, which detects duplicate data in files and folders, puts it in a separate store (System Volume Information) and simply gets rid of the redundant bytes. The file itself is 100% intact, though once it gets accessed it pulls the (now missing) information back from the one single data store. Admins can determine which files get deduplicated based on their age. Think about a defragmented file by design combined with SIS (Single Instance Store). In addition, Storage Services including a new Server Manager allows Administrators to simply hang disks off Servers and manage them as storage pools. This is housed inside the OS, which means it’s deeply integrated and highly manageable. Windows 8 enables easy access to the contents of two important storage formats, ISO and VHD files. Windows 8 will allow users to access an ISO file without either needing to burn a new disc or needing to find/download/install additional software just to logically access the ISO. Microsoft is also intent on streamlining procedures related to the VHD, or Virtual Hard Disk, format. In Windows 8, VHDs will appear as new hard drives, one that users can work with just like any other file storage in your system. Support for SMB storage using Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) networks is now possible. Finally, Support for Bitlocker on Clustered disks is now possible.
Network – Windows 8 will significantly enhance network services. Support for Storage Live Migration, without a requirement for a shared storage backend is now possible. In addition, support for multiple concurrent Live Migrations is included. Introduction of Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX), which enables Hyper-V to offload storage features to the backend storage subsystem, comparable with the vStorage API for Array Integration (VAAI) functionality provided by VMware is included. Virtual Fibre Channel Support, where each VM can have up to 4 virtual Fibre Channel host adapters, and direct access to SAN LUNs using Multi-Path I/O (MPIO) is also included. VM boot support from fiber channel and iSCSI SANs is now available enabling new storage scenarios for VDI. Support for NIC Teaming, load balancing and failover in the OS, which until now was only supported by 3rd party vendors like Broadcom and Intel is a logical enhancement to be picked up by the OS. Built in support for JBODs, and Thin Provision on JBODs is now present.
Virtualization – Clearly Microsoft wants to drive the enterprise to live in the Hypervisor for either VDI or backend workload hosting. HyperV grows up in Win8. Support for up to 160 logical processors on Hyper-V hosts is a significant step, creating new levels of density. Support for 32 vCPUs with up to 512 GB RAM per VM means serious workload support at the VM instance level. Support for NUMA in the guest, so that the VM has processor and memory affinity with the host adds robust fault tolerance. Support for multiple concurrent Live Migrations saves Administrators time either when manually kicked off, or automated through (great J ) products like System Center or lower level Powershell . VMs can be stored, and run from alternate paths, no SAN required (VM boot support from fiber channel and iSCSI SANs), UNC, etc is included. A new virtual disk format, called VHDX opens the 2TB limit for the current VHD format, with a maximum of 16 TB. These numbers seem huge today, but they are not that far off in reality. VHDX also provides better performance, support for large block sizes and is more resilient to corruption. Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) moves storage to the backend subsystem, previously not possible. Virtual Fibre Channel Support, where each VM can have up to 4 virtual Fibre Channel host adapters, and direct access to SAN LUNs using Multi-Path I/O (MPIO) hammer performance through the roof.
Remote FX has also been improved massively. Windows Server 8 automatically detects what type of content gets transferred over the remote connection and chooses the right codec (e.g. for text, images, videos ). RFX adapts to the current situation and reduces the bandwidth load drastically; depending on what type of content you’re generally accessing remotely, predictions of up to a 90% reduction of bandwidth util are suggested. Remote FX supports full multi-touch (Metro UI). You can use a local touchscreen and control a remote machine with nothing but your fingers. Another great addition that’s likely to make admins happy is full USB pass-through.
Personalization – The Build coverage of Mesh did not necessarily open the door to new features. The long awaited Cloud hosted Profile Management has still not been disclosed. While Mesh has been announced, the demonstrations and slide points were largely similar to what is currently in market. Basic Office and Bookmarks are possible in addition to data replication. This writer has been using this service since before MS acquired Foldershare. Mesh is real, very good, secure, and consumer focused. Will enterprises adopt? Not unless it can be managed. Until then this type of service is a cog in the wheel of CoIT, BYoPC and other trends impacting today’s Administrative standards. Other elements of Windows 8 for Personalization are a strong tie to Windows Live. This OS is destined to be tethered to the Cloud, and the Live service line. Right through an install of 8 on my desk, the prompt to create your primary login using your Live creds shows how serious they believe this consumer focused effort will use Live.
What does all this mean to Virtualization, Management, VDI, and the Enterprise? Here are a few predictions:
- VDI adoption and acceptance will increase. Organizations will be able to increase density of VDI infrastructure, meaning more VM sessions hosted on less hardware. Will this actually deter the pursuit of stateless VDI and simply allow orgs to feel ‘well we can give everyone a personal VDI because its less of an issue’ ? No – that won’t come through. Organizations still want to pursue stateless VDI. Storage, Networking and HyperV enhancements will drive new levels of interest in datacenter workloads and VDI being used.
- The footprint of Windows 8 is smaller all around the houses. Less Resource needed at Proc and RAM, fewer system services running, faster boot times, all lend to a happier Administrator of classic PCs or VDI – especially when combined with HyperV Dynamic Memory.
- End Users will gain acceptance of VDI as a real world solution. Today VDI is perceived as this remote desktop that looks and acts like an old NT4 system. With some of these enhancements like Remote FX and USB Pass through, combined with technologies like RES Workspace Manager, VDX or Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 – that remote workspace will look and feel like their own. High performance from faster storage, rich graphics (RFX) and local resource access like USB will make them feel at home.
- Has Windows solved the Personalization issue? For the consumer, they are closer. For the enterprise, not yet. Neither Windows, or System Center have the ability to understand a user’s workspace definition, scope, context, or true use case scenario. Enterprise still needs Citrix, RES, and others to enable true personalization and workspace management that is context aware.
- Does this lower the cost of IT Services? There was no mention outside of application development for the cloud, of IT Service Orchestration, User or Resource Provisioning, or simple end user Task Automation. The message was new client side UI capabilities for a user to do tasks in themselves (go get an app from the appstore) or new elements of Server Manager capabilities. Windows 8 still needs System Center, and others like RES and Citrix to truly provide Automation services.
- Does this bring ability to define and manage context? No. Context continues to be an increasingly harder challenge to navigate, as CoIT, BYoPC, and other trends like alternative working scenarios increase. This author changed basic context (hardware level) 8 times today, across 4 different connections. As users take their Windows 8 clients around the world, from the house to the office, simple context changes like default printer, or broader definitions such as geo fencing become critical.
Thanks for reading, there will be more to come as Windows 8 enters broader availability, and gets closer to ship…………
Stay Classy…
Jeff Wettlaufer
Sr. Director, Product Marketing, RES Software
