Mobile Device Management – Hot Topic at Tyler Tech Expo
We tremendously enjoyed attending the Tyler Tech Expo last year. East Texas is a tight knit IT bunch, and we are glad to be part of the collaboration that exist. As you will hear in the Tyler Chamber Radio except below, we at Cima Solutions Group are truly interested in delivering reliable and efficient IT solutions for our clients.
Since last year, we have embraced new solutions and technologies that we perceive will bring great value to the East Texas crew and all of our clients. One huge topic of interest is Mobile Device Management and End Point Management. Yes, end users are no longer working with the traditional desktop. New mobile devices are giving them the ability to work anywhere, and solutions today are allowing them to work at any time.
We realize how important it is for IT to protect, secure and provide reliable data to its end user. Doing this in a highly efficient way, optimizing the resources available can be challenging. We look forward to sharing with you our insights, and a proven method of managing this ever increasing end user adoption of using mobile devices in the workplace.
First of all, we look forward to seeing you at the 2013 Tyler Tech Expo, Booth #121 with our hybrid storage solution partner, Tegile Systems, on May 14th. You can also learn more about the process of defining a strategy and the journey to implementing MDM in your IT environment by:
Attending our 2nd Annual Open House in Lewisville, Texas May 15th. In addition to MDM, you will also learn about flexible integrated systems, storage optimization, virtual backup and business continuity.
Register for our Spring Tech Lunch & Learn in Austin, Texas May 22nd. See the same solutions as at our 2nd Annual Open House in Lewisville, plus hybrid storage solution, VDI, secure mail and data solutions, and more.
Sign-up, anytime, to schedule and attend a RightCloud Workshop or RightStor Workshop at our RightCloud Innovation Center, in Lewisville, Texas
We look forward to seeing you soon!
About the Author
Todd Brown is the VP of Sales and Marketing at Cima Solutions Group and the Co-Founder and CEO of Cowork Suites. He has 19 years experience in the technology sales, marketing and strategy. Prior to joining Cima Solutions Group, Todd worked at IBM in various sales and sales executive roles including IBM Business Unit Executive for Midmarket West and Global Mid Market Strategy Leader. Todd has a degree in Sociology from Michigan State University.
Going Beyond Blades with IBM PureFlex System
It’s no secret today that the interdependency between the CIO and CEO is now greater than ever. An organization’s productivity can be positively or negatively affected by the actions of IT. So if you currently have blade technology, what are your plans to expand its utilization going forward?
The concept of the modular compute system is evolving, and the IBM Flex System(TM) and IBM PureFlex(TM) Systems are taking it to a whole new level, providing a no-compromise, flexible infrastructure integrating compute, storage, and networking resources. Developed as an expert integrated system, targeted for high performance, ease of use and simple deployment, it is designed as part of the next generation of smarter computing. So what are your plans to ensure that your core business systems are supported for the next decade?
Schedule some time to talk with us at our RightCloud Workshop. Let’s together discover how the IBM PureFlex System can help you stay ahead of the game.
About the Author
Pamela Lapeyrolerie is the Marketing Director of Cima Solutions Group. Pamela has 28 years of IT experience in the areas of consultative and technical sales, sales management and marketing. Prior to joining Cima, Pamela worked at IBM in various sales and sales management roles. Her most recent role being Sales Account Leader in Houston. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiological Studies from Texas Christian University.
Related Links
Uptick Interest in Integrated Systems
Cima 2nd Annual Open House – Lewisvill3 – May 15th
Spring Tech Lunch & Learn – Austin – May 22nd
The Flexibility of the IBM PureFlex Hardware Video
Disappearing Performance Issues with Tegile
Feliciano Financial Group, has spent the past 28 years developing a holistic approach to wealth management that supports their client base as their trusted advisors — ready to assist in the areas of retirement, investments, insurance, business, and tax and estate planning. The pillars of their holistic planning approach are Advance Planning and Client Relationship Management.
In the Fall of 2012, Kelly Miller (Director of Information Technology) came to Cima to discuss options for improving some performance issues they had been experiencing which were impacting daily activities for their end users. Kelly had isolated the performance issue to their storage environment.
He participated in a Cima RightStor workshop to share with our experts what his current environment consisted of, combined with performance expectations and future requirements. As a result of this workshop, Cima was able to architect a solution leveraging Hybrid Storage Technology from Tegile Systems. The combination of Solid State and Spinning disk offered FFG the performance they needed to drive their virtualized server and VDI environment. The inline deduplication and compression capabilities offered them the capacity they needed at a price suitable for a mid-market company. With this, Cima and Kelly were able to develop the required business case to support this investment in optimized infrastructure.
“We deployed this technology with the help of Cima and Tegile in a matter of days in the winter of 2012. We have seen the performance issues disappear and we are getting a 5:1 inline data reduction ratio. We looked at several options to address this issue. We made the right choice with Cima and Tegile.” Kelly Miller, Director of Information Technology
So if you are in East Texas, give Kelly a call to see Tegile in action, or better yet, check out one of their various Wealth Management Events or Workshops and be well informed.
About the author:
Todd Brown is the VP of Sales and Marketing at Cima Solutions Group, and the Co-Founder and CEO of Cowork Suites. He has 19 years experience in the technology sales, marketing and strategy. Todd has a degree in Sociology from Michigan State University. Contact at tbrown@cimasg.com.
Related Links
Hybrid Storage Solutions Delivering on Their Promises
VMware Horizon Suite – Putting It All Together
At VMware Partner Exchange this spring, VMware announced the release of a new suite of products centered on Endpoint Management called VMware Horizon Suite. The announcement is simply the finishing touches on two recent acquisitions combined with their already strong Virtual Desktop Solution. The dedication to provide a complete endpoint device solution is exemplified in the VMware Horizon Suite.
I spent time at the solutions center to fully understand and witness the various components of this suite, and was impressed with the direction VMware is headed. I discovered the following:
View
Though Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is definitely not new, the case for it is finally starting to take hold in more than just pilots. Multi-device requirements have driven companies to re-look at the business case for VDI in their enterprise. Sales people and executives will find a way to get to corporate data and applications from any device anywhere, so rather than deal with managing dozens of devices and access avenues, it’s time to look at providing them access to their desktop from any device –organized and secure. VMware View is a proven leader in the VDI space.
Horizon Mirage
The cost of managing a traditional desktop is one that most companies today are afraid to even discuss. An even larger concern is the time their valuable IT resources spend doing, what is considered, a very low value activity. When Horizon Mirage is installed on a PC, it scans the entire device and categorizes all of its contents into a number of logical layers. Note — it is not moving anything around on the PC — just categorizing the content so IT can do more granular management of the PC going forward.
After the logical layers are determined, Horizon Mirage then sends a complete copy of that PC to the datacenter and keeps it synchronized. If an end user goes offline, Horizon Mirage will simply perform a synchronization the next time that user comes back online. That synchronization will include updates IT has made to the IT-managed layers, and also updates that the end user has made to their data, profile, or user-installed applications.
Everything is run locally on the end user’s PC. This gives IT the ability to leverage native PC performance, persistent personalization, and user-installed applications regardless of the end-user online or offline status.
Horizon Mirage addresses a number of key IT business initiatives which include:
- Streamline Windows 7 Migrations
- Simplified Desktop Backup and Recovery
- Easily Manage Remote and Branch Office PCs without additional infrastructure
Workspace
I found Workspace to be the most intriguing. VMware does not like the term Mobile Device Management to describe this suite, but frankly, that’s like Puffs saying they are not a Kleenex. You can think of this product in two simple ways.
- It’s similar to creating an internal private cloud version of Google Drive for your enterprise. It allows users to share and access files in a very organized fashion from any device.
- More importantly, it is a centralized management console that enables you to deploy applications and data seamlessly to any device.
Basically, envision taking your cell phone. The first screen of apps is your personal apps such as Angry Birds, Facebook etc. When you swipe to the next screen of apps, you will see the corporate apps which are controlled and secure based on the policies of your company. What I like about this solution is that it allows for the personal touch most employees want on their cell phone, but also offers a secure corporate environment accessible to those who need it. In a way you could say…VMware, the leader in virtualization, has now virtualized the smartphone.
To learn more about this suite of products and their practical business value, please join Cima Solution Group at the Tyler Tech Expo on May 14th. Attend our VMware Horizon Suite presentation, and stop by our booth, #121, to discuss the presentation and talk with our partner Tegile Systems about hybrid storage solutions. Additionally, you can visit our RightCloud Innovation Center in Lewisville, TX to see these products in action at a RightCloud Workshop.
About the Author
Todd Brown is the VP of Sales and Marketing at Cima Solutions Group and the Co-Founder and CEO of Cowork Suites. He has 19 years experience in the technology sales, marketing and strategy. Prior to joining Cima Solutions Group, Todd worked at IBM in various sales and sales executive roles including IBM Business Unit Executive for Midmarket West and Global Mid Market Strategy Leader. Todd has a degree in Sociology from Michigan State University.
IBM Storwize V7000 – My Clients Best Friend
Recently, a number of my clients have moved to the IBM Storwize V7000 to solve different storage needs. The IBM Storwize V7000 is a mid-range storage system that includes features to virtualize other storage arrays behind it. It possesses disk interoperability, the ability to use block level data compression and IBM’s Easy-Tier capabilities to ensure the data being accessed the most resides on faster disk while dated and not frequently accessed data can be stored on larger, less expensive disk.
It is a combination of the above features that has my clients interested and moving to it because they can get the most out of their storage spend. Using storage virtualization capabilities also means they can keep their existing storage arrays and still take advantage of the features of the V7000.
The top three areas of interest in my client base have been in the following areas:
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Storage Virtualization. Use the v7000 to virtualize storage arrays behind it. This allows the customer to manage all of their storage arrays with one tool using the v7000 external virtualization feature, simplifying management for customers that have storage from different suppliers. This is made possible by the fact that IBM’s V7000 has a very large compatibility matrix for IBM and non-IBM storage arrays.
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Data compression. Provides the ability to compress data before it gets stored on disk. Even at a conservative 2 to 1 data compression, my clients can effectively double their capacity, and defer the costs associated with future capacity additions.
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Easy Tier. Instead of investing in the same size, speed and quantity of disk they have always purchased, my clients are now using a handful of solid state disks to provide the performance they need, while combining them with large capacity SAS disks as the data repository, and let Easy Tier move the data as needed. Easy Tier brings frequently used data to the faster disk and stores the data not being accessed to the larger disk that provide better cost per GB.
The IBM Storwize V7000 is also a great fit for existing users of IBM’s SAN Volume Controller virtualization technology. It uses the same code as the SVC but has an attractive enclosure-based licensing policy that makes for a great TCO when consolidating older, smaller spindle disk enclosures.
Because of its many capabilities, the IBM Storwize V7000 is a great fit for almost any mid-tier storage need. I would encourage you to discover how this solution can bring value to your storage infrastructure through our RightStor process. Check it out and let me know what you think.
About the Author
Michael Beecham is a Senior Account Excutive. He has 16 years of IT consultative sales experience. Prior to joining Cima in 2005, Mike was an Account Manager at Soccour Solutions and Quest Software. His first technology sales experience was at IBM from 1996 through 2001. Mike has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska. He has a number of sales certifications in VMware, and IBM storage, software and servers.