So many organizations switched to third-party help desk solutions without really putting in place any performance measures or tracking mechanisms to really measure how good – or bad – the support is.
Some executives got a big bonus for “thinking out of the box” and coming up with a cost-cutting initiative to outsource IT help desks. Those same executives do not want to hear all the complaints of people getting no results and wasting a lot of time in repetitive phone calls as well as no solutions to their problems. Even routine problems become time-consuming nightmares because the third-party support person on the other end doesn’t understand the caller or the caller just doesn’t understand them.
Monthly Archives: January 2014
Everything-as-a-Service Demands New Approach to Accounts Receivables
When we first built our MetraNet billing platform our customers (large enterprises and service providers) generally offered services that were clearly defined in terms of character and scope, with fairly stable setup charges, usage charges, and periodic recurring charges. Back then, with some exceptions, it was normal to issue regular periodic invoices that consolidated all of those charges. The invoice would then trigger an entry in the service provider’s Accounts Receivable (AR) ledger. That in turn, again with a few exceptions, would constitute the point at which Revenue Recognition would take place. The few exceptions (for example, an invoice for a payment in advance for a service set-up charge) would be handled by adding a matching journal entry in Deferred (or unearned) Revenue until such time as the services had been delivered. The adjustment could be handled automatically (triggered by a flag from order management or billing) or manually.
Demand for Digital Business Technology Transformation
2014 will likely be a year of dual business goals for forward-thinking senior executives. Responding to ongoing needs for business efficiency and growth, but also adapting to exploit a fundamentally different digital commerce paradigm.
Commercial digitalization, based upon the latest and most effective business technology advances has already begun, but most chief information officers (CIOs) do not feel prepared for this next era, according to a global survey of IT leaders by Gartner, Inc.
Their latest market study showed that many CIOs feel overwhelmed by the prospect of building digital leadership while renovating their core of IT infrastructure. The Gartner survey found that 51 percent of CIOs are concerned that the digital transformation is coming faster than they can cope — and 42 percent don’t feel that they have the employee talent to face this future.
Looking to the Cloud to Drive Revenue? Turn to Identity
Over the past few years, enterprises have been moving to the cloud to streamline processes and operations. A study last year by TheInfoPro indicated that there is no sign of cloud investment slowing down – predicting an average growth rate of cloud spending of 36 percent from this year until 2016. As the Internet of Things continues its march to the mainstream, organizations have more opportunities to expand relationships with customers and partners by building and offering new services. These services have the potential to exponentially drive revenue and create business value.
The question is, what do CIOs need to do to make sure that their companies can take advantage of this potential? The first step is to look at their existing technical infrastructure to ensure that it can truly enable companies to drive change. One crucial component: security, including identity and access management.
How profitable is Cloud for the vendors?
The cost benefits that cloud computing offers to its users is something that has been discussed ad nauseam.
In a study conducted by researchers from UC Berkeley and INRIA, France showed that cloud computing can offer savings of anywhere between 40-95% depending on resource usage.
This potential for cloud based systems to bring about huge savings in their annual expenditure is what has been driving the massive migration from in-house server based technology sytems to cloud based alternatives. According to Mary Ellen Power, the VP of marketing at Silanis, a major client for cloud vendors like Amazon AWS, the cloud based services could be seeing as much as 50% growth rate annually in the near future.
However, what impact is this causing to the cloud vendor companies? While the mass migration to cloud helps customers avoid upfront technology investments and thus save money, vendor companies are now in a bind …
What Cloud Startups Need to Know About Hunting Elephants
“Cloud computing” is more than just a buzzword – it has transformed the tech industry. Having been in the business of building enterprise infrastructure for over 15 years, I’ve had the opportunity to witness how cloud has altered the landscape, including most recently at my company, Nexgate. It has not only ushered in a radical wave of innovation, but has also created new business models. The easily accessible and inexpensive nature of its on-demand structure has both paved the way for the rapid launch of new technologies and enabled the growth of businesses.
Yet, as with any technology, it also has its limits and risks, especially for cloud startups. If not configured well, cloud doesn’t necessarily fit hand-in-hand with the needs of large enterprises. While the benefits of gaining a big customer are certainly obvious, the demands of doing so are not talked about nearly as frequently, despite that both are important. Hunting elephants is a dangerous game if you’re a mouse.
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Asigra Named a Coolest Cloud Vendor by CRN Magazine
Asigra Inc., on Thursday announced it has been named as one of the Top 20 Coolest Cloud Vendors of 2014 by CRN. The annual list recognizes the most innovative cloud storage vendors and solutions tailored to address the channel industry’s unique needs. Asigra was honored for its cloud-based data recovery solution and the company’s unique recovery-based pricing model.
Each year, CRN honors the 20 Coolest Cloud Storage Vendors in an effort to help solution providers navigate the growing cloud marketplace and identify the best solutions to support the IT channel. Winners are named across the category for platforms and tools, infrastructure, hardware and software, based on data and information gathered from both solution provider nominations and the CRN editorial team.
IceWEB Enters into Consulting Agreement with Open Data Centers
IceWEB has signed a consulting agreement along with a separate Joint Marketing and Sales Agreement with Open Data Centers, LLC, a New Jersey limited liability company (“ODC”) and 1stPoint Communications, LLC, a New Jersey limited liability company (“FP”). ODC will provide operational and sales expertise to enhance the capabilities and operations of IceWEB’s Computers & Tele-com, Inc. and KCNAP, LLC subsidiaries (“collectively “CTC”) in Kansas City, Missouri. In addition, CTC, KCNAP, FP and ODC will jointly market and sell their services.
“We are very pleased to welcome Mr. Levitt to our team, and look forward to his participation in furthering IceWEB’s operational objectives,” stated Hal Compton, Sr., IceWEB’s Chairman and Interim CEO. “He contributes his experience and expertise in many areas of the information technology, telecommunications and data center fields, and brings a valuable perspective on the issues and opportunities facing the Company. In addition, we believe that the ODC sales agreement will be able to generate sales momentum in our data center and wireless businesses.”
Coraid and ATA-Over-Ethernet Technology
Data server admins are always on the lookout for changes in the industry that will help do their job better, keep their data safer, and speed up file access. The old standbys in recent years have been iSCSI and Fibre Channel. These high-speed technologies have been good matches for storage applications like database use and management where use can be intense. They can, however, be quite costly to keep up and running properly and they require a lot of care and maintenance. A new alternative to iSCSI and Fibre Channel is ATA-Over-Ethernet (AoE).
This open-source connectionless storage networking protocol was originally developed in 2003 by California company, Coraid. It connects servers and storage in a less complex fashion than iSCSI and Fibre Channel. The AoE Layer 2 design works to find the most efficient way to transmit raw disk I/O commands over raw Ethernet. The more connects that are added, the more bandwidth that is made available, the more resilient the pathways. It is important to note that AoE is not iSCSI. The only commonality between AoE and iSCSI is that they both use Ethernet for transport. iSCSI uses TCP/IP at Layer 4 and AoE Layer 2.