squeezeIT

I read with interest the other day that Google notified its users that an issue with the software in Google Docs had inadvertently allowed some subscribers unauthorized access to files that were not theirs. Now it is fair to say that Google, Microsoft and the other hosting companies do a very good job in keeping these systems secure and available. Well at least that’s what we believe.

My point is, that this highlights a consideration when choosing “cloud” computing services or “web hosted applications” as we called it not very long ago. It should always be weighed in the pros and cons, that  when choosing a service or application that is outside your direct control or the that of the company, you share twin risks. The security of your data and the availability of the aforementioned. Obviously there are usually lots of pros, including availability anywhere with Internet access, price, lower ongoing costs.

So back to the cons – it should be said that if you do put data in the cloud then consider firstly the sensitivity of your data and how well protected it is and if it meets your company’s security standards. You should go through strict evaluation and request technical details of how the service will protect your data.

From the availability standpoint, I am fairly confident that 24 x 7 availability metrics of these hosted services will be at least as good as your business can deliver and that’s if you are a very large, deep pocketed corporate. If you aren’t then 99% or 99.9% availability will be a good and realistic achievement. Now, I have experienced system issues with certain suppliers of hosted email in the past and in that customer’s case we had to move from the provider to internal systems and so far (touch wood) it has worked out better, but I don’t believe this to be the norm.

Saying that, I have moved my own business email out to Microsoft hosted Online services as I like to eat the cake I am serving up and so far it tastes good!

Part 6 – Alternatives to the Norm

For my last entry in the series on Cutting IT Costs I want to talk about “alternative products”. By this I mean, alternatives to the de facto standards that most businesses would default their product choices to.

The alternatives are generally a lot cheaper or free to acquire and that can make a big difference to capital budgets. Just remember, the acquisition price isn’t always the largest part of the total cost – your business needs to evaluate how much the product is going to cost you over it’s lifetime and this calculation needs to take in deployment costs, maintenance costs (which may be charged by the vendor), management costs and support costs.

A Comparison

For example Microsoft Office is not the only option for a business these days when it comes to office productivity tools. OpenOffice (and the many flavors that are derived from its code base) is a free alternative to Microsoft Office that provides similar functionality to Word, Excel etc. It is a no brainer that it present s a significant saving per user for any business and it has all the applications you would expect. It would be unfair to say the product is functionally identical to MS Office however, and anyone who is used to specific features of MS Office may require some time to get used to the new product or the lack of a key component that they used everyday. The temporary loss of productivity needs to be considered.

Google Apps also provide tools that are free and require zero installation, however functionality compared to Microsoft offerings is limited. Then again, what do you want for free. There is the old argument that 80% of users only use 20% of the features in MS Office so for your particular needs, it may be met by Google Apps or more likely OpenOffice. I heartily recommend a pilot project to evaluate how users will get on day to day.

A big consideration for me is how you communicate and share information with suppliers or customers. If your business only ever sends out PDFs to customers and suppliers then OpenOffice could be perfect for you, but if you collaborate with other businesses and they use Microsoft apps then you have a little more work to do because OpenOffice cannot save in Office 2007 formats (though it can read them).

I definitely think both products have a place and for any company that is looking to upgrade their office suite and is tight on cash, free makes a lot of sense.

Not Free, But Better Value

I’m actually get excited by some product offerings that offer the alternative and do things in better ways and still work out cheaper. My favorite is an old one but more relevant today than ever. That is Faxing! I still cant get over that so many people want to fax and the only choice for dealing with them is still by fax. Online fax services win for me in multiple ways. Firstly, I don’t have to have a dedicated line for a fax machine (for which I use once in a blue moon), second, I don’t have to own a fax machine, third I don’t have to buy consumables for that fax machine that I don’t have and finally I am desperately trying to operate a paperless office and I scan everything. Having to print a fax out then scan and throw the paper away is sacrilege . Instead I spend $7 per month (and there are free ones) and have my faxes go to and from my inbox with no hardcopies in between. It costs much less than the phone company would charge for a second line.

Here are a few others (I am aware that there are hundreds of free applications to replace paid for versions):

1. Skype – No phone line costs, free Skype to Skype calls and you can have a “call as much as you like plan” for $1.50 per month

2. Bullzip PDF – Converts printouts to PDFs at no cost – instead of printing documents just send them to the PDF Printer object and it will save them to a folder where you can view with Acrobat Reader (less paper again)

3. Hosted Exchange – Mailboxes for around $10 per month with all the features of the server product but with none of the hassle.

Remember free isn’t always free and the important thing is that the application or tool doesn’t hinder productivity and doing business, then you may find free costs more than the Rolls Royce version.

Part 5 - Outsource IT or parts of it

Outsourcing is probably a dirty word to some, especially when it is referring to jobs being sent overseas. That is not what I am referring to here, though it is difficult to know where the employees are if you use a large corporations services. I am talking about outsourcing either components of your system or perhaps all of it, but in the case of all of it, it should be done in a considered way or it may not work for you.

Partial Outsourcing

The first type of outsourcing I want to cover from a perspective of saving money is that of outsourcing one or more components – which could be an application or service that you currently run in house but could be done better by partners, either because it is not your core competency or it simply can be done cheaper in an alternative fashion.

My favorite current example of a component of IT being outsourced is that of email and in particular Microsoft Exchange. First of all, Exchange is a fabulous product that has been one of Microsoft’s best over the long haul and I have been involved in many implementations over the years and have never had a customer unhappy with the product or delivery. However, Exchange is a complicated product that requires continuous management and maintenance performed by someone with good messaging skills – there is more to it than meets the eye.

So consider this, even in the smallest organization, say with 5 users all with mailboxes, all requiring calendaring, contacts, tasks etc, the cheapest way to have the benefits of MS Exchange is probably to buy Small Business Server and a basic piece of hardware. Now the cheapest server with SBS 2008 costs around $3000 in the box, and that doesn’t include setup, backup and restore or anything else. Once it is in and all up and running, you then have the ongoing management costs, the upgrades, the electricity, etc.

Microsoft also provides Exchange via their Online Services (as do others but I haven’t been impressed by several other offerings I have tested) and for around $40 per month you can get your 5 mailboxes, the exact same benefits but literally none of the other costs from purchasing to managing and maintaining. You could enjoy the same features using the online edition for 6 years before it will cost you more than the initial outlay for hardware and software for your own internal version. To me that makes economic sense for any small or medium business.

The decision point as to whether it is relevant to you will be the number of users you have as there is a cross over point where it may not be so viable but I believe this could be a very high number in the thousands due to the increased levels of hardware and software you need to support big installations. Also for consideration is whether you use the server for other tasks. SBS will definitely provide other benefits that make it cost effective, as the server in a small environment will be performing multiple roles. Once you have Exchange on its own server the online version works out even better. I would love to see many companies taking advantage of this and having a professional email domain name to go along with it!

Total Outsourcing

Total outsourcing or outsourcing your entire IT operation provides definite savings if managed correctly. By removing your employee costs (and maybe re-allocating them to business growth tasks) and moving to a fixed cost contract you can save a large amount of money per year. A fixed cost contract means no more payroll, no more benefit expenses, no more overtime when the servers go down at 6pm on a Friday and instead hopefully a team of people who specialize in running IT for a business as their main task. They will have the procedures and skills in place to deliver a consistent security baseline, alert you to issues before they occur and be able to present to you improvements as technology develops and becomes relevant to you.

Here are a couple of thoughts:

1. If you do outsource, consider that local outsourcing is the way to go as you need to know that the company will have people on the ground to understand your environment and service needs quickly in the event of a problem - also the IT team external or otherwise is a key function of your business and knowing who they are is critical for success.

2. Key to saving with outsourcing is ensuring your IT house is in order before committing to a relationship, otherwise your fixed cost quickly becomes very variable. By this, I mean that if your systems are not standardized and rationalized first and you just handover a mess, then you are going to endure ongoing issues that will generate additional charges on top of the standard rates. Systems should already be built to a well documented standard then the outsourcer will only have to perform to the contract rather than performing continual ongoing fix projects. It is these fix projects that generate the extra fees and all of a sudden make outsourcing less effective.

Now for the shameless plug – Squeeze Technology (www.squeezetech.com) can hook you up with either of these options if you so wish and can help you evaluate which is more beneficial to you, as always, these are multi-faceted issues.

Part 4 – Remote Working

Everyone knows that allowing your employees to work from somewhere else other than your office has many benefits.

From a business point of view first and foremost you can save on office space – perhaps reconfiguring your office to a place where people can come in to collaborate flexibly rather than sitting in cubes. The saving here is pretty easy to calculate in terms of square footage not being rented, moreover you need less furniture, less maintenance staff, less electricity, which all means less expenditure.

From an employee viewpoint, you don’t have a commute so you could save several hours per day, you can start work earlier, finish later and still be home earlier than ever!

Also as I understand, people are more productive working from home. I am not an expert in this area so I will take it that it is probably true – just the fact you cant be in relentless meetings all day is a bonus.

What Are The Basics To Getting This Running?

A lot of what you need depends on what you want your users to be able to do when they work away. In a simple scenario they may require access to documents, they will want to run some specific applications (other than standard office apps which would be installed locally) and they will require email access. Here is how you might choose to deliver this:

Documents – the two most common ways are either to provide VPN access to your corporate network which will require at least at VPN server at the office end and a client on the user side . Once the VPN is connected files can be accessed using the same drives that you use when in the office. The downside is when file structures are large or you need to move lots of files around, it can be very slow over DSL connections. The second option is to use an intranet document management store such as SharePoint which can either be exposed on the internet (so no VPN required) or kept internal (VPN required). A web system will work well when users need to upload / download documents, work on them for a while and then move on to the next. Normally version control and document management features such as check in / check out are included to save multiple users editing the same documents at the same time.

Applications – if the application is traditional client / server type and doesn’t require very much bandwidth then you might get away with running the client over a VPN so it can connect to the server. If it has heavy duty network requirements then delivering the client component via terminal services will probably be your best bet. Here you have several choices as you could connect via VPN, then connect to the server via a remote desktop, or you could put the server directly on the internet and connect to the service without using the VPN to establish a remote desktop or you could finally host the Remote Desktop client on a web site that connects into the corporate network. If the application is web based or hosted (see my next blog Part 5 for more details) then the key applications may not even be on your corporate network which makes life even easier as all the users need is most likely a web browser.

Email – Microsoft Exchange provides many ways to get at your email, but if a user is going to work heavily on email , then the best choice by far is using a full Outlook client configured with RPC over HTTPS. By using this technique you don’t need a VPN up all the time and it feels like you are sitting in the office. Alternatively you can still run it over a VPN connection if it happens to be up for other reasons. Outlook Web Access also provides a great solution, but I find that it is better for brief email spells or a quick check. It’s a great solution but I still prefer the full client. The extra benefit of using RPC over HTTPS is that once you are set up server side it is just a few seconds of effort to have your Windows Mobile or Apple iPhone connected to your corporate email too. No middleware or Enterprise servers required, it works straight out of the box, mobile data plans not withstanding.

Coming Soon. Direct Access

Now here is a really exciting development, that builds on the discussion – Direct Access technology in Windows 7.

For any one who uses Outlook with RPC over HTTPS you will now how liberating and flexible it is – wherever you are in the world as long as you have an internet connection Outlook behaves as if it is on the corporate network without you knowing any different, all over an encrypted connection and no VPN needed. With Direct Access you get the same advantages but now for the whole remote experience not just email. You can work on company systems, files, intranets, email, everything as if you are connected directly and without a need for a VPN. No clunky VPN clients, connection processes or VPN devices at the business end. Direct Access will therefore save money on network hardware.

The best bit is from a management point of view the laptop appears as if it is on the corporate network and you can apply group policies, deploy software, patches or anything else just as if the computer was in the office.

The only small downside is you need Windows Server 2008 R2 in place at the back end and of course, Windows 7 as the client. Once these two platforms are more common, you will be getting all the solutions above solved with the purchase of software you would have bought anyway.

For more information on Remote Working, please visit www.squeezetech.com or contact the author.

6 Ways to Cut IT Costs …

Part 3 - Automated Desktop and Applications

A disproportionate amount of time is spent by technical staff, end users and management in making sure that applications are installed on PCs where a user is going to work, in additional to providing a stable operating system for those applications to reside on.

Implementing an infrastructure with automated desktop builds and applications that install wherever the user goes will dramatically cut the amount of time spent by all parties, but especially IT staff, in keeping the show going. End user productivity can be measurably enhanced when you take away the frustration of getting the tools they need and fighting with the system.

Most businesses don’t realize that Microsoft ships all the tools you need to “hands free” install Windows and any application. Sure you can buy Systems Center Configuration Manager or a third party product too, but all you need, especially in a small and medium business (10 to 1000 seats) environment is included.

What’s the Deal?

A scenario: a new user joins your organization (yes this must be a public sector example!), you un-box their PC that meets the corporate standard, plug it into the network, power on and hit a few keys. Shortly afterward you have a pristine operating system installed with all the base configuration, core applications and security settings deployed and applied. The new user sits in front of the PC, signs in for the first time and immediately the 3 specific applications they require are installed in a few minutes. Finally, the system is automatically patched for the latest security holes.

If the user then has to use a PC over the other side of the building for a week, they can sign in at that PC and once again the users applications will install instantly for them and their environment will be exactly as they expect.

Finally, if the user encounters a problem with the system, you can simply pick up the old system, swap in a pre-built one, and have the user log in.

What Do I Need?

So how do you achieve all this.

Well firstly it has been possible since the NT4 days – give or take a few items. Some of the components and tools have been renamed (some many times),some have been improved, expanded and gained sophistication, they have even given you a multitude of ways to do the same thing, but bottom line you can have a fully automated (that reacts to new hardware and devices), centrally controlled, standardized desktop infrastructure out of the box. No extra costs, no extra software and this is just the tip of the iceberg of whats available FOC.

Here’s what you need:

1. Windows Server (2008 preferably)
2. Windows XP (or Vista or Windows 7)
3. Active Directory (included with Windows Server)
4. Group Policy (included with Active Directory)

That’s it. Now, you can add to this, embellish, but this solution will scale to many sites and many thousands of users, desktops and applications.

At this point people will stop me and say, yes but we use Ghost and it only cost $70 to do the whole company. My usual answer to this is twofold, Yes, Ghost is great the first few times for automating a build. It is very fast and when you only have one to two types of PC it is easy to manage, however once you have multiple hardware types, multiple configuration standards then Ghost loses it’s appeal quickly. More importantly though, Ghost rightly has to be licensed per system managed and one retail copy supporting 500 users is actually breaking the law.

Anyway, you will already have all the items on my list , even if you are a Small Business Server operation.

Remind Me of The Benefits?

Ok, so by doing this kind of infrastructure you can ensure that users have the applications they need wherever they go, always installed in the prescribed way with no deltas. You can ensure that, all PCs are built and maintained to corporate standards for usage, approved applications, system lock downs, security policies and all this without ever having to get out of your seat.

The savings flow through also in greatly reduced support calls and desk side visits. This means you can re-deploy helpdesk staff and minimize the waste of your user’s time – which over a year adds up to significant numbers.

We have seen 40% drops in overall logged calls when this is applied and it is viable for any size business – though once you scale, you will definitely want to consider further tools or systems that address particular enterprise requirements.

The Same Only Different

Over the years I have seen organizations avoid dealing with a proper managed desktop infrastructure by going down solution routes that have been totally inappropriate and horrendously expensive and eventually deemed a failure, when they had the tools and proven methodologies to make this work. In the past, Terminal Server / Citrix was the solution du jour for avoiding the problem of delivering a managed desktop, all it did was move the issues to the data center but you still had the desktops out there essentially un-managed, and I see the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure is trying to become the new flavor. Beware! See a future blog on this topic.

For more information on this, please see my web site for the expanded version of this topic (www.squeezetech.com).

Part 2 - Computer Power Management

Power Management for your PC and server estate is one of the easiest quick wins your company can implement.

Consider the following example, the average PC combined with the average LCD screen (not a CRT as they are far hungrier) uses 100 Watts. If that PC runs 24 hours per day 365 days per year then it will use around 100 x 24 x 365 = 876 KW hours of electricity which on average is about 11 cents per KWh. Therefore we have a total electricity cost of $ 0.11 x 876 = $ 96.36 per year. That is also equivalent to half a metric ton of C02 emissions per PC per year!

Now bear in mind that Hawaii pays far more per KWh than Kentucky so if you are based in a higher charge state – and lets face it they are all increasing over time, you could be paying far more.

PCs are left on for a number of reasons from pure laziness on the part of the user to IT Directives that insist they stay on so they can be maintained at night.

So How Do We Address This Problem So Easily?

By implementing Power Management, such as Squeeze Technology’s product Powerwise.

Here’s how it works. A lightweight server product is installed on the network and an agent is installed on each PC. An administrator can then configure “power” profiles for groups of computers, and using a sliding bar, can set each group for more normal energy saving to aggressive saving. Normal savings would make sure the computer is powered off at a certain time, powered up in the morning and can also be set to turn the PC and screen on and off at night as many times as required to match any update / patching windows a company might have. On the aggressive front, the software can detect how long it has been since someone touched the computer and put it in sleep mode, if for instance you have gone to a meeting or got distracted at the water cooler.

The entire Powerwise architecture is written with conserving network bandwidth as a priority. The agent refreshes policy data when it starts, and only contacts the server at certain intervals to store report data. This communication is compressed, and only updates and changes are sent.

What Are The Benefits?

For an average company the electricity savings per PC are large, even using the less aggressive modes you can look to cut costs by 70% so our example PC will now only cost $28.90 a saving of $ 67.

If you company has 100 computers you can look at $670 savings per year and if you have 500 computers we are looking at $ 33500 per year.

There are other benefits too. All these PCs idling away throw out a lot of heat, which increases the ambient room temperature, which you then have to spend more money on powering the air conditioning. We therefore have a positive impact on HVAC costs too from running costs, through to maintenance.

The software can be used on servers too, though a little more care has to be taken to ensure you don’t turn off critical 24 x 7 systems. Many servers though are not used at night. The savings from one server are much higher than a standard desktop PC.

The final benefit is the reduction in carbon emissions, leading to an immediate improvement in ‘Green’ credentials. These ‘Green’ credentials of businesses both large and small are of increasing importance to customers, and as part of their Corporate Social Responsibilities are becoming main stream issues for businesses. Indeed the government will no doubt in the future start setting all sorts of targets. Implementing Power Managements puts you ahead of the game!

How Much Will This Cost Me?

The return on investment (ROI) for this type of product is extremely fast and Powerwise can be had for as little as $9 per seat meaning you are making savings from month 2 of operation.

I will be covering more on Powerwise on the Squeeze web site (www.squeezetech.com) and on future blog posts to continue to promote this very easy way to conserve energy and money for the long term.

If you would like more information on this product, a free trial then please email me.

As I hinted yesterday, over my next 6 posts, I am going to be talking about real ways to cut IT costs which are relevant now - in difficult economic circumstances - but are equally relevant during more normal times.

Part 1 – Virtualization

For people too busy to keep tabs on the latest technical developments, Virtualization has been a huge buzz for at least the last 3 or 4 years, though it is debatable that only now is it really hitting the mainstream and becoming a useful tool to organizations of all sizes.

What is Virtualization?

In a nutshell, virtualization is the creation of an operating environment that functions separately from the host system it is running on. There are many flavors available from Server to Desktop to Application and a number of players in the market, the main ones being Microsoft, VMware and Citrix.

Why Should My Company be Interested?

There are many benefits but here are a few key benefits to your business that are game changers when using Server virtualization.

1. A physical host server can run many virtual machines all running different operating systems and different applications. One server, for example, could support 8 separate virtual machines that you would have had to host on 8 separate physical servers. This one benefit means a reduction of 7 servers in your server room, 7 less machines to power and 7 less machines generating heat that you would have to spend yet more money on to keep cool. We have 7 less pieces of hardware to maintain and 7 less sets of components to fail. You get the idea.
2. If your business needs to deploy a new application, lab or throw more resources at an existing system, virtual servers can be brought online in seconds and made ready to service the business demand. Your infrastructure becomes dynamic and can be matched to changing requirements. No longer do you need to purchase more hardware, wait for the systems to be assembled delivered, racked and then prepped. Resources can be made immediately available.
3. Have you still got an old NT4 server running a key application on a dusty server that you know is going to give up at a critical moment. By using physical to virtual conversion, you can have the system up and running on a virtual platform in no time and that old dinosaur can finally be removed along with the legacy support issues.
4. Most servers run at low utilization and could be doing more -by making a server pull it’s weight you get a much better ROI on any server hardware investment, reduction in electricity bills which could be cut down to 20% of what they were and the green credentials that go with that, let alone the ongoing monetary savings.
5. If you were to render a virtual system inoperable, you can have a new one back up and running in seconds without impact to your users. No system rebuilds necessary or long outages (assuming you keep backups and haven’t corrupted your data, but that’s another story!)
6. If you mix Server Virtualization with a few other technologies like iSCSI, you can have a fault tolerant, highly available system that used to be the realm of the biggest organizations for next to nothing in expenditure. Its possible to rig this up on three laptops!

OK, What Types of Virtualization Are There?

Here goes in a nutshell:

Server Virtualization

Server virtualization creates a separate operating system environment that is logically independent from the host server but to an end user or applications installed they will not know any different.

Desktop Virtualization

Desktop virtualization can come in several styles, the first allows you to run the actual desktop system on a server and the users access it by using a remote protocol, so all your desktops are in one place even if you users aren’t. In its second guise, a user can have a virtual machine running on their desktop which gives them a second system (or more) to use for a particular application. This is popular with Mac owners who run a version of Windows in a Parallels box on MacOS.

Application Virtualization

Products such as Microsoft App-V use an idea where each application runs in it’s own cut down environment or sandbox, that is in a layer separate from the host OS. It can remove the issue of conflicts, multiple installs, relentless updates on each PC as instead it can be managed in one central place and delivered on demand.

Presentation Virtualization

The final type is actually Terminal Services with a new name, where the desktop or application is run on a shared server and only the screen images and mouse and keyboard are sent between the user and server. It is a great choice for remote working.

Some of the above options deliver different benefits that suit specific situations that I will cover in future blogs. The main thing to remember as always is that if the system isn’t designed and managed carefully it can easily cause issues just as in the physical world.

So as you can hopefully see, Virtualization benefits are many-fold, from reduction in hardware, electricity costs, servers costs, C02 emissions, management costs but also giving your business infrastructure a dynamic edge and agility that can be switched on in an instant.

And the best bit? The vendors are falling over themselves to give you the software for free!

This is a hello from Elliot Lawrence, founder and CEO of Squeeze Technology in Orange County, California. Welcome to my new blog. I can almost feel the anticipation and excitement over the web waves for what I am going to write

Here at Squeeze Technology, one of our main priorities is saving businesses money through better use of existing investment or new technology, and in this current climate it is more apt than ever. My blog will be covering the tips and techniques to deliver these benefits and will cover areas I think potential business readers will be interested in and more specifically will improve their business effectiveness and bottom line.

Now I am not a miracle worker but I have been working in this field for about 12 years and have had some pretty good results at the customers I have worked with and as of yet I have never been told to “take a ride”.

As time passes I hope to cover new issues, gotchas and specific technologies that I think will make a difference. For my next post I will be introducing 6 ways to save money and improve IT efficiency in measurable ways. If you want to know more in the meantime, please feel free to contact me.