All posts by Journey to the Cloud

BYOD, End-User Computing, Featured, Unified Communications, VDI

Breaking Down a BYOD Initiative

An Interview with Matt Mock, IT Director at GreenPages Technology Solutions

Ben: What encouraged GreenPages to adopt a BYOD policy?

Matt: The biggest reason we implemented a BYOD policy was that it offered the ability to give users the flexibility to use the technology that they are most comfortable with. Our IT department was getting frequent requests for non-standard equipment. This forced us to do one-offs all the time and made support very difficult.

Ben: How was the policy made? Who was involved in creating it?

Matt: The policy was created after many months of research. We looked into what other companies were doing, researched the costs for hardware and internal support, and interviewed different departments to see what was needed. We involved people from the top down, getting buy in from senior management to start. In addition, we also worked closely with the accounting department to make sure BYOD wouldn’t cost more than traditional hardware refreshes would. Our department did a proof of concept, then a pilot group, and then a gradual rollout. This allowed us to tweak the policy as needed.

Ben: Who has access to the BYOD program?

Matt: Not all departments. The program is for those where it makes the most sense from both a financial and support perspective. We didn’t want to grant BYOD to someone who couldn’t handle the issues on their own that would in turn create more technical support. We rolled it out to groups with specific requirements that weren’t going to cause us to spend more time on internal support.

Ben: Can you describe some of the highlights of the policy?

Matt: Within the policy we specify eligibility for the program, provide exact cost and reimbursement methods, and outline user responsibilities and requirements such as how to get hardware support. We also provide more specifics around what is and isn’t covered in the policy.

Ben: How do employees go about getting hardware support?

Matt: The user assumes responsibility of hardware support and is required to get a warranty. IT will help facilitate support but will not be responsible for the device. This goes back to making sure IT doesn’t spend more time supporting BYOD than they would have previously.

Ben: Makes sense.

Matt: I should also mention that GreenPages’ VDI environment allows us to offer the flexibility of BYOD with multiple devices because everyone can get the same experience regardless of the device used. Utilizing VDI also alleviates concerns around corporate data loss. If a device is lost or stolen, a person doesn’t have access to corporate resources just because they have the corporate device.

Ben: What have some of the main benefits been of the program?

Matt: The main benefits have been employee satisfaction and a decrease in hardware support for internal IT.

Ben: Some people think there are immediate cost savings from BYOD, but Chris Reily (GreenPages’ Director of Solutions Architecture) recently wrote a blog post cautioning people not to expect ROI in the first couple of years. Is this true?

Matt: Correct. You end up spending the same amount on hardware but support costs go down and employee satisfaction goes up. Direct ROI is difficult to measure when offering reimbursements. A company can avoid offering reimbursements but then you are greatly effecting employee satisfaction. If you give reimbursements, you probably end up spending the same over all amount.

Ben: What is your overall opinion of BYOD?

Matt: BYOD is not for every company nor is it necessarily for every employee within a company. A key thing to remember is that your infrastructure has to be ready for BYOD. If it is, then it’s a great perk and a great way to reduce time spent on internal support. It’s also a great way to allow new technologies into the organization and not have to give strict guidelines on what is and is not allowed.  Our BYOD initiative has also helped save my team time so that we can focus on more strategic projects that will help the business.

If you have questions for Matt around his experience implementing a BYOD policy, leave a comment or email us at socialmedia@greenpages.com

 

Cloud computing, cloud management, Featured, hybrid cloud, IT Management, Journey to the Cloud, Saas

Cloud Spending Will Increase 1 Billion% by 2014

By Ben Stephenson, Journey to the Cloud

It seems like every week a new study comes out analyzing cloud computing growth. Whether it’s that Public Cloud Services Spending will reach $47.4B in 2013, Global SaaS spending projected to grow from $13.5B in 2011 to $32.8B in 2016, the public cloud services market is forecast to grow 18.5 percent in 2013, or cloud spending at Dunder Mifflin will increase 200% by 2020, the indication is that cloud adoption and spending are on the rise. But how is that relevant to you?

Does it matter to the everyday CIO that cloud spending at midsized companies west of the Mississippi is going to increase by 15% over the next 3 years? The relevant question isn’t how much will cloud adoption and spending increase, but why will it do so? It’s the “why” that matters to the business. If you understand the why, it becomes easier to put context around the statistics coming out of these studies. It comes down to a shift in the industry – a shift in the economics of how a modern day business operates. This shift revolves around the way IT services are being delivered.

To figure out where the industry is going, and why spending and adoption are increasing, you need to look at where the industry has come from. The shift from on-premise IT to public cloud began with SaaS based technologies. Companies like Salesforce.com realized that organizations were wasting a lot of time and money buying and deploying hardware for their CRM solutions. Why not use the internet to be able to allow organizations to pay a subscription fee instead of owning their entire infrastructure? This, however, was not true cloud computing. Next came IaaS with Amazon’s EC3 initiative. Essentially, Amazon realized it had excess compute capacity and decided to rent it out to people who needed the extra space. IaaS put an enormous amount of pressure on corporate IT because App Dev. teams no longer had to wait weeks or months to test and deploy environments. Instead, they could start up right away and become much more efficient. Finally, PaaS came about with initiatives such as Microsoft Azure.

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The old IT paradigm, or a private cloud environment, consists of organizations buying hardware and software and keeping it in their datacenter behind their own firewalls. While a private cloud environment doesn’t need to be fully virtualized, it does need to be automated and very few organizations are actually operating in a true private cloud environment. Ideally, a true private cloud environment is supposed to let internal IT compete with public cloud providers by providing a similar amount of speed and agility that a public cloud allows. While the industry is starting to shift towards public cloud, the private cloud is not going away. Public cloud will not be the only way to operate IT, or even the majority of the way, for a long time. This brings us to the hybrid cloud computing model; the direct result of this shift. Hybrid cloud is the combination of private and public cloud architectures. It’s about the ability to be able to seamlessly transition workloads between private and public, or, in other words, moving on-premise workloads to rented platforms where you don’t own anything in order to leverage services.

So why are companies shifting towards a hybrid cloud model? It all comes down to velocity, agility, efficiency, and elasticity. IT delivery methodology is no longer a technology discussion, but, rather, it’s become a business discussion. CIOs and CFOs are starting to scratch their heads wondering why so much money is being put towards purchasing hardware and software when all they are reading about is cloud this and cloud that.

{Free Whitepaper: Revolutionizing the Way Organizations Manage Hybrid Cloud Environments}

The spending and adoption rates of cloud computing are increasing because the shift in the industry is no longer just talk – it’s real and it’s here now. The bottom line? We’re past hypothetical discussions. There is a major shift in the industry that business decision makers need to be taking seriously. If you’re not modernizing your IT operations by moving towards a hybrid cloud model, you’re going to be missing out on the agility and cost savings that can give your organization a substantial competitive advantage.  This is why cloud adoption and spending are on the rise. This is why you’re seeing a new study every month on the topic.

Cloud computing, colocation, Featured, IT Management, Journey to the Cloud, Miscellaneous IT

Moving Our Datacenter: An IT Director’s Take

An Interview with Matt Mock, IT Director, GreenPages Technology Solutions

Journey to the Cloud’s Ben Stephenson sat down with GreenPages’ IT Director Matt Mock to discuss GreenPages’ recent datacenter move.

Ben: Why did GreenPages decide to move its datacenter?

Matt: Our current contract was up so we started evaluating new facilities looking for a robust, redundant facility to house our equipment in. We needed a facility to meet specific objectives around our business continuity plan. In addition, we were also looking for cost savings.

Ben: Where did you move the datacenter to and from?

Matt: Geographically, we stayed in a close area. We moved it from Charlestown, MA a couple of miles down the road into downtown Boston. Staying within a close area certainly made the physical move quicker and easier.

Ben: What were the benefits of moving the datacenter?

Matt: Ultimately, we were able to get into an extremely redundant and secure datacenter that provided us with cost savings. Furthermore, the datacenter is also a large carrier hotel which gives us additional savings on circuit costs. With this move we’re able to further our capabilities of delivering to our customers 24/7.

{Register for our upcoming webinar on 11/7 on key announcements from VMworld 2013}

Ben: Tell us about the process of the move? What had to happen ahead of time to ensure a smooth transition?

Matt: The most important parts were planning, testing, and communication. We put together an extremely detailed plan that broke out every phase of the move down to 15 minute increments. We devised teams for the specific phases that had a communication plan for each team. We also devised a backup emergency plan in the event that we hit any issues the night of the move.

Ben: What happened the night of the move?

Matt: The night of the move we leveraged the excellent facilities at Markley to be able to run a command center that was run by one of our project managers. In the room, we had multiple conference bridges to run the different work streams to ensure smooth and constant communication. We also utilized Huddle, our internal collaboration tool, to communicate as our internal systems were down during the move.

Ben: Anything else you had to factor in?

Matt: Absolutely. The same night of the move we were also changing both voice and data providers at three different locations, which added another layer of complexity. We had to work closely with our new providers to ensure a smooth transition. Because we have a 24/7 Managed Services division at GreenPages, we needed to continue to offer customers the same support during the move that we do on a day-to-day basis.

Ben: Did you experience unexpected events during the move? If so, what were they and how did you handle them?

Matt: With any complex IT project you’re going to experience unexpected events. A couple that we experienced were some hardware failures and unforeseen configuration issues. Fortunately, our detailed plan accounted for these issues, and we were able to address them with the teams on hand and remain on schedule.

Ben: You used an all GreenPages team to accomplish this, right?

Matt: Correct. We did not use any outside vendors for this move – all services were rendered by the GreenPages team. Last time we used outside providers and this time we had a much better experience. I’m in the unique position where I have access to an entire team of project managers and technical resources that made doing this possible. In fact, this is something we offer our customers (from consulting to project management to the actual move) so our team is very, very good at it.

Ben: What advice do you have for other IT Directors who are considering moving their datacenters?

Matt: Detailed planning and constant communication is critical, having a plan in place for every possible scenario, and having an emergency plan ready so that in the middle of the night you’re not scrambling with how to address those unforeseen issues.

Ben: Congratulations on the successful move. See you Monday after the Patriots crush your Steelers.

Would you like to learn more about how GreenPages can help you with your datacenter needs?

Featured, Miscellaneous IT, Project management

How to Project Manage When it’s Not Your Job AND Everything is a Priority

By Melanie Haskell, Project Manager III

Over the years, we have heard customers repeatedly ask for tips on how they can manage their initiatives when project management is not their only job function and everything is a priority.  Before you can manage your time, you need to know what it is you must manage.

  • Create a list of what needs to be done. The first draft of your list should capture only high level items; don’t worry you will add more details later. At this point, you’re focused on what you need to get done, not how you are going to get there.
  • Prioritize the items on the high level list. In order to create realistic priorities, set aside the concept of “everything has to be done yesterday.” This is a first pass so prioritize the list based on what you know now. You can create any coding technique that works for you (for example, high, low and medium) – the only thing that matters that the coding works for you.
  • Now take the highest priority items and determine what needs to be done to complete the objective of that item (this is called a Task List). Eventually you will work through all items on your list.  This is an iterative process.  You might be able to create this task list on your own, or you might need to pull in other entities to flesh out the details. The more complex the item, the more help you may need. For example,  upgrading the firmware on your non-production SAN is a much easier item then moving your on premise email to a hosted cloud solution or embarking on hybrid cloud computing projects. When you start talking to people, you start discovering what needs to happen, and the picture becomes clearer.
  • Organize the task list conceptually – see if you need to pull in others just like in the step above. Since you did your due diligence during the discovery stage, now your objective is to chunk out the work.
  • Assign resources – ask for help if you do not have the ability to assign anyone.  You might end up owning all items, but if you can delegate tasks do so.  Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to do it all. You can be much more effective if you can delegate tasks as necessary.  Make sure individuals understand the overall goal and how it benefits the organization, as well as how their role affects the overall initiative. Gather feedback as much as possible as this will help identify risks, missed steps in the plan etc.
  • Determine if there is a tool you want to use to help you manage the task plan (i.e. the to-do list).  Some popular tools are Microsoft Project, Excel or Word. It does not matter what tool you utilize as long as it helps you with task management (i.e. what needs to get done, who is doing it and when will it happen).  Use technology to help you!
  • Set a communication plan – How will you know a task status?  This information can be gathered in many ways. Find what works for you and your resources.  Set schedules and follow up with people to make sure they are meeting their deadlines. Make time to monitor the task list to verify the team is in alignment with the committed tasks and timelines.

 

This all might sound like a lot of work, and you’re probably already over-tapped, but this will create efficiency and save a lot of time in the end.  It’s better to plan out how you will build your house before you pick up a hammer, nails and some wood and start building. Good luck and remember, if needed, our Project Management team is here in the wings to offer you professional advice any time!

 

Collaboration, Featured, Miscellaneous IT, Project management

Collaborating Through Crisis and Change for Successful Outcomes

By Brian Shaw, Program Manager, Managed Services Solutions

 

Crisis management and change management begins long before an incident occurs with the creation of a collaboration and decision making framework prior to project implementation.

A collaboration strategy needs to address the types of change to be communicated (perhaps based on thresholds for schedule and cost impact), who change needs to be communicated to, and what actions may result from that change. Actions resulting from change collaboration may be as simple as accepting the impact to the project schedule or as complex as allocating additional budgets and personnel. Follow the below steps prior to project implementation and your project team will be ready for change when it occurs. [Note: the method of applying these concepts should scale to the complexity and duration of the project.]

Preparation

Could it be coincidental that “preparation” and “Project Manager” both begin with a “p?” I think not. It is the responsibility of the Project Manager and the project team to create an environment for project success. A communication plan is a key component of project preparation. The plan should take into consideration the multiple audiences for project related information. All too often a single communication method is selected (such as emailing weekly status updates); however, this strategy doesn’t take into consideration that each audience has its’ own needs. A project engineer will require information regarding architecture and device level access that would be extraneous noise to an executive audience.

Additionally, most projects have a threshold for which change can be quickly accepted versus change or crisis that requires escalation. Define these thresholds as early as possible. If the duration of the work effort changes by less that x% or the cost changes by less than $x, can the project team quickly move forward without engaging an executive for approval? Prior to project initiation determine what types of change need to be escalated and who those changes need to be escalated to.

Control Sheet/Project Dashboard

Believe it or not, some audiences of project information don’t like reading MS Project plans and Ghantt charts…go figure. Both executive and client audiences often prefer a succinct format which quickly identifies task families that are on track, those at risk and those that have failed. This type of shorthand project metrics update is often referred to as a project dashboard or control sheet.

A project dashboard should quickly communicate project budget to actuals, project timeline and the status of milestones and/or important tasks. A popular method of sharing the status is the red, yellow, green light methodology. The critical benefit of this communication strategy is that audiences of this information can move quickly to problem areas and work towards resolution actions. If you are using a risk register then the yellow and red lights may kick out to the risk management work stream.

Collaboration Tools

Knowing what you are going to communicate and when you are going to communicate is only part of the collaboration strategy. It is critical that the project team determine how to collaborate and share types of information. Collaboration tools such as SharePoint, Drop Box and Huddle are commonplace, and I highly recommend your project team adopt a collaboration tool if you haven’t already done so.

The collaboration tool you use should allow the storage of multiple types of information along with selective access to information. The best tools allow access control at both the folder and file level. This level of information control allows sensitive information such as access credentials to be locked down to those that need access only.

The control sheet should be maintained within your collaboration tool so appropriate consumers can pull up a live project status at any time. Additionally, the collaboration tool should not replace individual action. If an important change or crisis occurs an update to the control sheet should not suffice as engaging decision makers. Those changes should be escalated in an active way to decision makers.

Execution:

Creating a communications plan around change is only the beginning. Once you’ve determined how you are going to communicate change, what changes will be communicated and how crises will be handled, it is then the responsibility of the Project Manager to ensure that consumers of this plan are informed and clearly understand the expectations. The plan is actionable and when change occurs the project team should be familiar enough with the plan to easily put it in motion.

 

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Cisco, Cloud Corner, Featured, Unified Communications

Cloud Corner Series – Making Sense of New Cisco Product Announcements

In this segment of Cloud Corner, Lou Rossi, VP, Technical Services, at GreenPages-LogicsOne provides some clarity around new product offerings from Cisco.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0qWff1IUT4

 

If you have questions around any of the products mentioned in the video send us an email at socialmedia@greenpages.com

 

Remember you can also follow us on…

Twitter @GreenPagesIT

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/greenpages-technology-solutions

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GreenPagesTechnologySolutions

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/GreenPagesTechnology

Cloud computing, Featured, Journey to the Cloud, Miscellaneous IT

Journey to the Cloud: An Insider’s Perspective

By Ben Stephenson, Journey to the Cloud

Our Journey to the Cloud blog has been live for a little over two years now, and I’ve had the privilege of running and managing it from the start. I wanted to touch base about the site, share my unique perspective from managing it, and hear from our readers about what we can do to make it even better.

Our goal from the very beginning was to establish ourselves as thought leaders in the industry by providing high quality content that was relevant and beneficial to IT decision makers. We wanted to make sure we let our authors keep their opinions and voice, while at the same time taking an unbiased, agnostic approach. The last thing we wanted to do was start blathering on about what a great company GreenPages is or bragging about the most recent award we won (it was being named to the Talkin’ Cloud 100 if you were wondering…).  Over the course of the two years, we’ve posted over 200 blogs and seen the number of page views and shares across various social media sites increase drastically. We’ve brought in some big time guest bloggers such as ConnectEDU CTO Rick Blaisdell, CA’s Andi Mann, the Director, Advanced Analytics and Sr. Research Scientist at Gravitant, and more. We’ve incorporated a lot of video as well – in fact for whatever strange reason someone thought it was a good idea to let me host our Cloud Corner Series. We’ve covered topics ranging from cloud, virtualization, end user computing, BYOD, network infrastructure, storage, disaster recovery, shadow IT, project management, and much more.

Have there been challenges along the way? Absolutely. Have I had to go after people and chase them down, scratching and clawing until I get a blog to post? Yes. Have tears been shed? Has blood been shed? We’ll keep that to ourselves as it’s generally frowned upon by HR. And, yes, I have had to give William Wallace-like speeches to attempt to rally the troops. While there have been some challenges, all in all there’s been a great amount of enthusiasm and support from our writers to produce a high quality publication. For me, being in the industry for two years now with no previous technological background, the amount I’ve learned is ridiculous. Before starting at GreenPages, I would have rather listened to a Ben Stein Lecture or Bill Lumbergh explaining TPS Reports than read an article on software defined networking and the impact it will have on businesses in the next 5-10 years. I can see why our customers get excited to work with our consultants because they truly love and believe in the technology they talk about. I completely buy into their enthusiasm and passion and it makes me genuinely interested in the topics we cover. I’m in my mid-twenties and have, sadly, found myself out drinking at a bar with my friends having a great time before somehow winding up in a heated debate over the pros and cons of moving to a hybrid cloud architecture.

 

So, in case, for whatever deranged reason, you haven’t read all 200 of our posts, I’m going to list out my top ten from the past two years (in no particular order). Take a look and let me know what you think:

 

 

To close this out…I want to hear from you. What can we do to make Journey to the Cloud better? Are there any specific topics you’d like to hear more about? Any specific authors you’d like to hear more from? How about any features or functionality of the site you’d like added, changed or improved? What have you seen on other sites that you like that we don’t have? Leave a comment here or tweet us at @GreenPagesIT or @benstephenson1

Featured, IT Management, Miscellaneous IT, Project management, resource scheduling

Behind the Scenes of IT Resource Scheduling

By Ryann Edwards, PMP, Resource Specialist, LogicsOne

 

A few years ago, we made a change at GreenPages-LogicsOne to streamline how we handle the resource scheduling process.   It’s a good thing too, because so far in 2013 there have been close to 400 engagements that have used this new process.  While scheduling a large group of resources may sound easy, at times it feels like it takes a team of highly skilled scientific specialists and analysts to get it right.  Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but there is actually a bit of a science to it.

I should begin with the disclaimer that the ­process hasn’t always been so efficient. In fact, most of my new hire trainings begin with the “back in the day” spiel because it brings to light the lessons we’ve learned.  This in turn leads to where we are today.  So where did we begin? We were slightly blind. Our services team of Account Executive, Solutions Architects, and Project Managers were working in silos when it came to choosing and selecting resources for our services engagements.  Everyone involved had the best of intentions: to find the right resource for the project, meet our customers’ deadlines or requests, schedule the project, and implement a highly successful engagement. The problem came when multiple Project Managers had “just the right project” for “just the right Consultant” who, yes, happened to be just the same person.  Needless to say, as our professional services organization has grown and matured over the years, the need became strong for a streamlined scheduling system.  That brings us to present day where we now have a Resource Specialist team to handle scheduling requests.

As I mentioned above, there is quite a bit of thought and strategy (“science” may have been pushing it) that plays out behind the scenes when it comes to the scheduling of service projects. It is imperative that at the forefront of it all is our customers’ best interests, including special requests and internal deadlines. While some might joke that we should just throw darts at a board of names to figure out who to schedule, I assure that you that we really don’t.  In fact, we look at each Statement of Work and scheduling request that comes in to our queue in great detail. From researching the background and history that Consultants may already have with a client, to looking at geographical location, travel, availability, customer dependencies and deadlines; there are a lot of considerations.

At the end of the day, our objective is always the same: to make sure we are looking at the big picture and are doing everything we can to keep our internal and external customers satisfied.  Our top priority is making sure the resource(s) assigned to a project are a good match for all parties involved, so the outcome is a successful professional service engagement for our customers.  Believe it or not, our customers can help in this process. Here are some things that help us ensure a successful engagement:

  1. Sign Off. The signed Statement of Work is crucial. It is the only way we can fairly and accurately prioritize requests for services.
  2. Information. The more details you can provide regarding the project or services, the better. Does a key resource on the project have an upcoming vacation?  Are there outside dependencies that will effect when your project can start?  Do you have an important internal deadline that you need to meet?  All of those things are pieces to the scheduling puzzle.
  3. Be open-minded. While you may have worked with one Consultant in the past and would like to use them again, we have a full staff of highly qualified resources that welcome the opportunity to work with you!

Streamlining the scheduling process has allowed members of the services organization to focus on other important aspects in the project lifecycle; project planning, managing, and executing. Having a team dedicated solely to resourcing has improved efficiency in scheduling, increased visibility into utilization of the solutions team, and is a key piece of the puzzle for successful project delivery.

 

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End-User Computing, Featured, Journey to the Cloud, Storage, Storage and Information Management, VDI

Top 10 Ways to Kill Your VDI Project

By Francis Czekalski, Consulting Architect, LogicsOne

Earlier this month I presented at GreenPages’ annual Summit Event. My breakout presentation this year was an End User Computing Super Session. In this video, I summarize the ‘top 10 ways to kill your VDI project.’

If you’re interested in learning more, download this free on-demand webinar where I share some real world VDI battlefield stories.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9w1o0O8IaI

 

 

Cloud computing, Collaboration, Featured, IT Management, Unified Communications

Cloud Corner Series – Unified Communications in the New IT Paradigm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHp6Q5RMMR8

 

In this segment of Cloud Corner, former CEO of Qoncert, and new GreenPages-LogicsOne employee, Lou Rossi answers questions around how unified communications fits into the new IT paradigm moving forward.

We’ll be hosting a free webinar on 8/22: How to Securely Enable BYOD with VMware’s Next Gen EUC Platform. Register Now!