All posts by GreenPages Blog

Featured, Miscellaneous IT, tech gadgets, tech gifts

Top Tech Gifts of 2017 from Team GreenPages

Just in time for your last minute holiday shopping! Here are our picks for the top tech gifts this holiday season, chosen by Chris Williams, Tony Ramsey, Tim Ferris, David Jones, and me, Jake Cryan. Hopefully, this will help you find something for the techies on your list!

Chris Williams
Enterprise Consultant

2nd Generation Amazon Echo
All of the same features and sound quality of the original Alexa, but smaller, more stylish, and cheaper at $100!

Nintendo Switch
It’s a great gaming platform both for at home and on the road. With several great games already and more coming out in time for Christmas, now is the time to get it!

Fitbit Charge HR
I’ve been using this fitness wearable for the past year and it’s still the best mid-range priced device out there. Compatible with both Android and iPhones, synchs with phones GPS for running, biking and hiking and many more activities. If you want to go high end, get the Fitbit Ionic and you’ll upgrade to waterproof (for swimming) and built-in GPS.

Tony Ramsey
Practice Manager, Network & Security

Bose Sports Wireless Earbuds
Bose is well known for the best quality sound, however, these are perfect for any type of sport and listening to music or audiobooks. They’re also weather and water resistant, perfect for use anywhere. The best part is, if you lose them, there’s an app that will help you find them!

Quadrocopter Drone
This drone is great for beginners, kids and adults alike. It also comes equipped with a 720P camera and one key return. You simply press a button and it’ll fly back to its place of initial take off! You can also control it by remote control or smartphone. Plus, at $60 you won’t be breaking the bank for your first drone.

Tim Ferris
Solutions Architect

2nd Generation Amazon Echo Dot
The perfect starter device for your home. If you aren’t ready to make the plunge and buy an Amazon Echo, invest in the more affordable, Echo Dot. This simple device gives you access to all of Alexa’s skill and the ability to control a variety of smart home gadgets. P.S. most retailers are currently offering it for a discounted price before the holidays.

David Jones
Enterprise Consultant

Amazon Echo & Wink Hub
One Two Combo
I use this combination of devices to control my entire house. Lights, fans, door locks, you name it. I’ve created “macros,” so by telling Alexa “goodnight,” she will turn off most of the lights in the house, dim the remaining, lock the front door, and set the thermostat. It’s pretty amazing stuff. I also use it in conjunction with sensors, and my garage doors to automatically turn lights on when certain doors opened (like the one to my basement) without having to fumble in the dark for a light switch.

Jake Cryan
Digital Marketing Specialist

Skyroam Solis

A 4G LTE global wifi hotspot and power bank. As an avid traveler, this is the perfect device to connect to fast wifi anywhere in the world. It helps me get online when I’m away, whether it’s for work or personal reasons, I get access to high-speed internet in over 100+ countries. I had it with me while on a recent trip to Iceland and no matter how deep into the isolated snowy tundra I was, it worked perfectly. The bonus of the Solis is that it’s also packed with a 60000 mAh power bank, allowing you to charge your gadgets while you are on the go.

 

Featured, Miscellaneous IT, Tech News, Tech News Recap

Tech News Recap for the Week of 12/04/17

If you had a busy week and need to catch up, here’s a tech news recap of articles you may have missed the week of 12/04/2017!

Dell EMC makes big hyper-converged systems push with new servers. Configure a complete enterprise DaaS deployment. Ransomware: A cheat sheet for professionals. VMware targets cloud and container networking with latest NSX-T launch and more top news this week you may have missed! Remember, to stay up-to-date on the latest tech news throughout the week, follow @GreenPagesIT on Twitter.

Tech News Recap

Featured

IT Operations

Microsoft

  • The missing link in Microsoft’s AI strategy
  • Seven end-of-year maintenance tips for Windows client systems
  • Company of the Year: Microsoft
  • Microsoft Monday: Windows 10 hits 600M, Edge for iOS and Android, massive Redmond campus expansion

HPE

Dell

  • Dell EMC makes big hyper-converged systems push with new server
  • Dell EMC all-flash surge collides with softening storage demand

VMware

Cloud

Security

Thanks for checking out our tech news recap!

By Jake Cryan, Digital Marketing Specialist

While you’re here, check out this white paper on how to rethink your IT security, especially when it comes to financial services.

Amazon Web Services, AWS, Featured, Miscellaneous IT

AWS re:Invent 2017 – re:Cap from Chris

AWS re:Invent 2017By Chris Williams

This was my very first AWS re:Invent conference and there are so many things to talk about!

I’m going to briefly talk about the new services that have were announced, but I’m not going to do a deep dive on any one of them… the reason being that (a) there is going to be MUCH more coming out on the services in the future & anything I say here will probably be incorrect and (b) you can go straight to the source... so I’ll link where appropriate, and (c) there were so many new services that I’m only going to hit on the big ones that I have better than passing knowledge of anyway 🙂

  • Amazon Sumerian 
    • Create and run VR, AR, and 3D applications without requiring specialized programming or 3D expertise.
  • Alexa for Business
    • Start meetings, shared devices, use for conference calls, create private skills for your business… the sky’s the limit with this & I’m excited to see where it goes.
  • Amazon ECS for Kubernetes (EKS)
    • This has been a long time coming.  Most of the Docker instances on EC2 were managed by K8s anyway.
  • New EC2 instances:
    • M5
    • H1
    • T2 Unlimited
  • Lambda
  • Amazon Time Sync Service (NTP)
  • AWS Serverless Application Repository
    • … Just signed up for the preview – can someone do WordPress please!?  😉
  • AWS Server Migration Service for Hyper-V
  • Aurora
    • Multi-Master – scale write nodes across multiple AZs increasing scalability and availability
    • Serverless – A new serverless mode that will save time and money by automatically adjusting database capacity to match application needs
  • DynamoDB
    • On-Demand Backup
    • Global Tables – Fully managed, multi-region, multi-master.
  • AWS Cloud9
    • It is a browser-based IDE where you can write/run/debug.  As long as you have a web browser… you have access to your code to work and share.  I haven’t tried it yet but it sounds very cool.
  • IoT
  • Machine Learning (or as I call it the Skynet initiative…)
    • DeepLens – Skynet eyeball, but I still WANT ONE
    • Comprehend – “analyzes text and tells you what it finds, starting with the language, from Afrikans to Yoruba, with 98 more in between. It can identify different types of entities (people, places, brands, products, and so forth), key phrases, sentiment (positive, negative, mixed, or neutral), and extract key phrases, all from text in English or Spanish. Finally, Comprehend‘s topic modeling service extracts topics from large sets of documents for analysis or topic-based grouping.” … not super creepy at all…
    • Rekognition Video – Rekognition, but for video now
    • SageMaker
    • Translate – a neural machine translation service that uses advanced machine learning technologies to provide fast language translation of text-based content
    • Transcribe – add speech to text capability to your apps!

There were many more announcements.  If you want the whole comprehensive list please go here: https://aws.amazon.com/new/reinvent/

Alternatively, if you are on the road I recommend listening to the AWS Podcast & the AWS Tech Chat, both are excellent.

Something else to keep in mind:

I suggest you go to as many hackathons, chalk talks, hands-on labs, and workshops that you can. Basically, anything that isn’t being recorded that you can watch later that you want to do, go do that. I met some really excellent people at the 1 hackathon that I attended. Next year I will try to hit at least 2. In terms of getting the most value out of my time, Hackathons, the Expo hall (here’s my interview with Linux Academy!), and simply walking up and talking to people were my top 3.

My hackathon team thanks to Calvin’s 360 camera… which I am now ordering 🙂 

 

Team Nakatomi in the house #reinvent #awsjamsessions – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

All in all, I had a great time. Sure the conference had some issues that needed tweaking, but I learned more, came away with more energy and excitement than I have from a conference in a long time. Now I need to rest up on the couch with #ITKitty, Kim, and a giant iced coffee 🙂

Thanks for checking out my AWS re:Invent re:Cap 2017!

Featured, Miscellaneous IT, Tech News, Tech News Recap

Tech News Recap for the Week of 11/27/17

If you had a busy week and need to catch up, here’s a tech news recap of articles you may have missed the week of 11/27/2017!

How SDN can improve compliance and customer experience. How blockchain can transform the manufacturing industry. Barracuda Networks is sold to Thoma Bravo for $1.6 billion. Why 2018 will be the year of the WAN and more top news this week you may have missed! Remember, to stay up-to-date on the latest tech news throughout the week, follow @GreenPagesIT on Twitter.

Tech News Recap

Featured

IT Operations

  • Networking verification: Predictions the future of complex networks
  • How blockchain can transform the manufacturing industry
  • Barracuda Networks is sold to Thoma Bravo for $1.6 billion
  • How VDI became the workforce transition solution that’s been staring us in the face
  • Data center cooling market set to explode in the coming years
  • How artificial intelligence will self-manage the data center
  • Why 2018 will be the year of the WAN

[Interested in learning more about SD-WAN? Download, What to Look For When Considering an SD-WAN Solution.]

Amazon

Microsoft

Dell

  • Dell EMC one year in: How are they performing and how did they do it?
  • Dell EMC updates hyperconverged VxRail XC Series systems with latest PowerEdge servers

Cisco

  • What to expect from Cisco in 2018

VMware

Cloud

Security

Thanks for checking out our tech news recap!

By Jake Cryan, Digital Marketing Specialist

While you’re here, check out this white paper on how to rethink your IT security, especially when it comes to financial services.

Featured, Network Infrastructure, SDN, Software Defined Networking

Software Defined Networking: Improved Compliance & Customer Experience

Software Defined Networking Upgrade

Check out the infographic below to learn about how GreenPages recently helped a global billion-dollar banking client provide more flexibility and support business scalability with a software defined networking upgrade. While also meeting strict compliance mandates around micro-segmentation. If you are interested in learning more, check out the full summary here:

Engagement Summary: Software Defined Networking

Learn how we can help you lower cost, reduce risk and increase services efficiency.

If you have any more questions, reach out to us.

Software Defined Networking

By Jake Cryan, Digital Marketing Specialist

Disaster Recovery, DRaaS, Featured, Network Infrastructure

6 Key Questions When Considering a DRaaS Solution

Questions When Considering a DRaaS Solution

I recently sat down with our very own Tim Ferris—Solutions Architect, Yankees fan (don’t hold that against him 🙂 and DRaaS Guru. We talked about some of the common questions customers ask when considering DRaaS and the common themes Tim sees when helping customers plan and implement DRaaS solutions. Check out our conversation below about the key questions when considering a DRaaS solution. 

  1. Does your company really need a DRaaS solution?

There are a variety of reasons why a DRaaS solution isn’t always the best fit for an organization. Depending on the type of business, an offsite disaster recovery strategy might not be a great match if the business is site dependent.  Another factor is the cost consideration. Companies need to make the business determination if disaster recovery is something that’s strategic for the company to invest in vs. putting the cost into purchasing a powerful insurance policy.

  1. How are DRaaS solutions priced?

Traditionally a huge barrier to offsite DR adoption has been price, however, DRaaS makes DR and the supporting infrastructure much more affordable and attractive to companies. DRaaS cloud billing and pricing is still a challenge though because pricing models vary widely across different companies. This can be a huge point of contention and another reason to use a solution provider who can model out true cost comparisons and estimates across various cloud partners.

  1. Is your company ready to embrace a modern DRaaS strategy?

For many traditional IT organizations, the move to DRaaS can be intimidating since you’re moving your DR environment off-site to a third party. You may also be concerned about losing data stewardship and need to understand the differences that living on a shared infrastructure can pose. In addition, there are some applications that require physical dependencies and can’t be handled by virtual DRaaS, so evaluating your application portfolio is crucial. Finally, eliminating most of your capex cost and turning it into a monthly recurring cost can be valuable to many companies.

  1. How simple is it to implement a DRaaS solution?

There’s a lot of marketing hype around this idea that DRaaS solutions are very simple: “Buy our DRaaS solution and we’ll have you up in an hour!” While many providers can technically get the DRaaS framework up quickly, there are a lot of variables that are unique to each company. (See #5) Because DRaaS is not one-size-fits-all, many companies work with IT solution providers (like GreenPages) to help create and implement a DR migration plan and implementation strategy. Compounding the issue is that the DRaaS solution provider market is very crowded so it can be challenging to navigate the options—it’s important to choose based on your company’s specific requirements.

Tweet This: “Because DRaaS is not one-size-fits-all, many companies work with IT solution providers to help create and implement a DR migration plan and implementation strategy.” via @GreenPagesIT

  1. What sorts of barriers or common problems will I encounter?

You must make sure as an organization that you have created a business impact analysis and overarching disaster requirements before someone can come in and implement the technical solution. Another prerequisite is understanding the interdependencies of all your applications so that you aren’t just replicating VMs, but are protecting business solutions and applications critical to the company. While ongoing management isn’t a barrier to DRaaS, the testing can be challenging no matter what DR solution you implement. (See #6).

  1. Can’t I just have a backup solution rather than a DRaaS solution?

Most companies do have a backup solution but not always a practical DR plan. Restoring from backup tape could take from days to weeks to restore. A true DRaaS system would provide you with recovery within minutes to hours. Backup is vitally important, but you may need the combination of backup with DRaaS to restore your systems properly as these systems can complement each other. Another important thing to keep in mind is that many companies do have a DR plan but have never tested it. Without testing, it’s not a plan, it’s just a theory. In addition, you will learn plenty of helpful and interesting information when you test your plan. Most important, you don’t want to learn that your DRaaS plan was faulty on the day you push the DR button due to an actual emergency.

Tweet This: “Most importantly, you don’t want to learn that your DRaaS plan was faulty on the day you push the DR button due to an actual emergency. ” Tim Ferris, @GreenPagesIT

Thanks for checking out our blog post! If you have any more questions about implementing DRaaS or would like to speak to a technologist, please reach out to us or click below.

By Jake Cryan, Digital Marketing Specialist

Featured, IT Management, Tech News, Tech News Recap

Tech News Recap for the Week of 11/13/17

If you had a busy week and need to catch up, here’s a tech news recap of articles you may have missed the week of 11/13/2017!

How GreenPages can help with Office 365 design and migration. How a disaster recovery process can go hyper-converged. The future of cyberwar: weaponized ransomware, IoT attacks and a new arms race. The top 3 benefits of AI adoption and more top news this week you may have missed! Remember, to stay up-to-date on the latest tech news throughout the week, follow @GreenPagesIT on Twitter.

Tech News Recap

Featured

IT Operations

[Interested in learning more about SD-WAN? Download, What to Look For When Considering an SD-WAN Solution.]

Amazon

Microsoft

HPE

  • HPE’s Blockchain as a Service offers faster deployments and ‘massive scalability’
  • Rackspace partners with HPE to introduce pay-as-you-go private cloud

Dell

  • Dell EMC high-performance computing bundles aimed at AI, deep learning
  • Dell EMC: Big data lakes will like our Elastic Data Platform
  • Dell EMC looks to speed machine and deep learning adoption with new product bundles

Cisco

  • Cisco: Most IoT projects are failing due to lack of experience and security

VMware

  • VeloCloud SD-WAN user Brooks Brothers assesses VMware buy

Cloud

Security

  • This phishing attack pretends to come from someone you trust
  • Cybersecurity predictions for 2018: it’s going to be “a lot more of the same”
  • Equifax breach gives IT $87.5 million reminders to apply critical security patches
  • Phishing attacks, not breaches, represent the biggest security risk for Google users
  • How hackers crack passwords and why you can’t stop them
  • What is a cyber attack? Recent examples show disturbing trends
  • The future of cyberwar: Weaponized ransomware, IoT attacks, and a new arms race

Thanks for checking out our tech news recap!

By Jake Cryan, Digital Marketing Specialist

While you’re here, check out this white paper on how to rethink your IT security, especially when it comes to financial services.

Featured, IT Management, Microsoft, O365, Office 365

Office 365 Design & Migration: How GreenPages Can Help

Check out the infographic below to learn about how GreenPages recently helped a global manufacturing company simplify management, increase security and improve user experience with Office 365 design & migration.

Learn how we can help you lower cost, reduce risk and increase services efficiency.

Office 365 design & migration

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey there! While you’re here, check this out:

Interested in a managed services or help desk solution? If you’d like to decrease time to resolution, measure service improvement, build a first-class knowledgebase, and leverage support communities, listen to this recent presentation from Jay Keating, SVP of Cloud and Managed Services, and Steven White, Director of Customer Service.

By Jake Cryan, Digital Marketing Specialist

Cisco ACI, Featured, Networking, Networking & Security, VMware NSX

VMware NSX vs. Cisco ACI: Where Are We Now?

Just over a year and a half ago, GreenPages posted a video  and of Nick Phelps (below) and held a webinar discussing how it’s not VMware NSX vs. Cisco ACI, but the synergistic benefits of running both VMware NSX and Cisco ACI simultaneously which was, at the time, a bit “science-fiction-y.” Fast forward to present day and the tech world has had plenty of time to test how these two products work together. Check out Nick’s update on why using both technologies together can create “a beautiful orchestra of automation!”  

As a vendor agnostic solutions provider, GreenPages is in a perfect position to help you evaluate and deploy the best tech depending on your unique business goals. Please reach out to us or your account manager to get started.

By Jake Cryan, Digital Marketing Specialist

 

Featured, IT Management

Tech News Recap for the Week of 10/30/17

If you had a busy week and need to catch up, here’s a tech news recap of articles you may have missed for the week of 10/30/2017!

What might happen with the Reaper botnet? How to decide on an SD-WAN solution. How big data won the World Series. The nasty future of ransomware and what’s coming next. VMware acquires VeloCloud and more top news this week you may have missed! Remember, to stay up-to-date on the latest tech news throughout the week, follow @GreenPagesIT on Twitter.

Tech News Recap

Featured

IT Operations

[Interested in learning more about SD-WAN? Download, What to Look For When Considering an SD-WAN Solution.]

Microsoft

Dell

Cisco

  • How Cisco drives its industrial IoT business forward
  • Cisco unveils AI-powered voice assistant to schedule and manage meetings

VMware

IBM 

Cloud

  • Workloads are moving to the cloud, but also moving back on-premises
  • How the cloud is turning every business into a subscription business
  • How cloud will elevate data science teams
  • 4 reasons to consider cloud-hosted VDI for business continuity & desktop DR
  • Cloud computing: How to make the move without losing control
  • Validating cloud applications before going live

Security

  • Report: UK’s NHS ignored patch warning months before WannaCry, leading to wide-scale devastation
  • Google expands its bug bounty program to include third-party Android apps
  • Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec: Cybersecurity at work is everyone’s responsibility
  • Fear the Reaper? Experts reassess the botnet‘s size and firepower
  • Malaysia data breach compromises 46.2 million mobile numbers
  • The nasty future of ransomware: Four ways the nightmare is about to get even worse
  • Malware-laden apps in Google Play store mine cyptocurrency from mobile victims, discovered by Trend Micro
  • Shark Tank’s Herjavec tells how to get one of 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs that will be open by 2021

Thanks for checking out our tech news recap!

By Jake Cryan, Digital Marketing Specialist

While you’re here, check out this white paper on how to rethink your IT security, especially when it comes to financial services.