New Managed Office for McGrath O'Toole

As you might already know, McGrath O'Toole have been the creative agency rebranding Network Integration. Well, like all growing companies they needed to move offices. They've taken some space in Leeds and have naturally asked us to help them with this process. We'll be making sure that they are warm and comfortable in their new home, with the latest wireless and wired networking, cloud services, managed services and managed voice. They are taking technologies that will specifically help them grow their business and enable them to be more efficient.

Solarwinds Orion Network Management

As our WAN and LAN managed services portfolio have been increasing in recent times we took the decision to invest in the best network management suite in the market at the moment. We'd been trialling Solarwinds Orion for the best part of a year, and we have taken the decision to roll it out across the whole of our estate, starting with our own equipment and then rolling out to the rest of the world during the Summer of 2011. We're very impressed with Solarwinds as a company and their products are very detailed (also read expensive!) We can monitor pretty much anything, and also manage our Cisco estate very well from one location. I can't see Orion replacing some of the other monitoring we already do for example Nagios, but augmenting it and giving us reporting and detailed analysis. I have to add that we have no plans to give our customers access to it yet, we have a lot more trialling to do, and because of the costs involved it is something we are reviewing financially as part of our managed services offerings in the future.

What I think of Microsoft 365 (Simon is Away)

Simon's away at the moment, so my name is Jonathan Riley and I'm a Professional Services Engineer here at Network Integration. I have signed us up to the Beta of Microsoft 365 beta today as we sell Google Apps and should definitely be aware of what similar products are offering within the market place in the way of features.

Now, I know a number of people will roll their eyes at this point at the word Microsoft, however MS 365 is an amazing product it is as if you have stepped from your laptop or PC into an exact copy of all your Microsoft applications and they all work flawlessly for a cloud application.

As I have now worked with Google Apps for a year now and experience the other side of the coin. Sure they have a few bugs here and there but it’s a beta at this moment in time.

MS 365 could be a serious contender for Google Apps so watch out Google there's a new kid in town...

I am a great believer in creating jobs by steady solid growth. I've run companies in the past that have seen immense growth and then had to suffer the horror of making people redundant. This BBC article is great as it re-inforces why our country is a 'nation of shop keepers' who are very good at building and running their shops. These 'shops' employ a lot of quality people. Let me illustrate my point with an example I am very familiar with. We started Network Integration in late 2005, early 2006. In the early days it was me and Jonathan and Anita. Within our first year we employed a contractor and sales person, followed by a second sales person. Four years later we employ twelve, and have current positions for another two members of the team. Jonathan and I can see us being twenty five staff within the next eighteen months to two years.

So what extra conditions would I like to get to the stage of twenty five staff ?

Clearly, if we see more positive economic recovery we will see confidence return. This increase in customer confidence would permeate down to business's like ours.

A tax incentive for employers - to directly affect some sort of credit or tax credit for employing younger people who are looking to work in the knowledge economy.

As the government itself is now the UK's biggest employer, it would be useful if government made it easy for small companies to supply them with goods and services. It shouldn't be the preserve of 'large corporates' who 'assume' they are best placed to deliver.

If I don't get these three conditions, then I won't worry. Network Integration has thrived during the worst recession on record. So although it would be nice to get some assistance, we will thrive without it. Of that I am certain.

Rob is Incredible !

Rob passed his CCDA on Wednesday, and we're really proud of him ! We're currently ticking off the exams we need to become a Cisco Premier Partner (only got a couple more to do now) - we're currently a Select Partner, but Cisco (and us) are keen to get Premier, and then work our way upto Silver or Gold collecting specialisms on the journey for voice and datacenter. Jonathan Hirst (on his way to meet the Orient Express) had a very kind thought, and sent Rob some 'Incredibles' characters in a gift set. It made Rob's morning !

Barrcuda Hacked - Another security vendor admits a mistake

So, recently it was RSA, and now Barracuda. Who next ?

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2011/04/11/barracuda_networks_attack/

I think that I agree with one of the postings on the register. If Barracuda, (a vendor who makes/promotes WAF's) admit even their own site wasn't protected by their own technologies - because their WAF was in monitor-mode - then that is unforgiveable. How can you promote and sell this stuff if you are then compromised ? How many more vendors will be watching this from afar and thinking - will we be next ?

It's time to fix the firewall webinar

I'm delivering a webinar in association with Brighttalk and Hayes (our recruitment and resourcing partner) called 'It's time to fix the firewall' on the 14th April.

You can sign up to see it above. A recorded playback will be available.

Interestingly I went to see a local university this afternoon (not Leeds) and they have the perfect requirements for an NG firewall replacement for their Cisco solution. It was almost as if the customer had already read my presentation ! spooky ! :-)

Testing Aerohive

We took delivery of some Aerohive Access Points today, and Rob had a play with them briefly. First impressions are that they are very neat and we like the cloud control of them. He hasn't got the Guest access enabled yet - but he will have a play next week. They aren't a Cisco replacement, more a cheaper, more simple form factor as the AP's integrate the controller. For customers who want a very simple basic guest access they are ideal.

Wireless Survey Gear

We've just won another wireless Cisco network deployment ! (cool) - and we're debating what to do to replace our existing wireless audit software (freeware)

I really fancy having some dedicated hardware we can use (rather than a laptop running software) so that we can quickly throw it into a rucksack, do an audit, go back to the office and upload the results and run a report. Wireless audits can take a long time if you have a large area to cover (warehouse, or school or open air) so speed is important as well - rugged handheld devices sound attractive to me. Time to get on the hunt for the latest tech !

Abra - Checkpoint

we're trialling Abra today and tomorrow for a customer. the customer is ideal (on paper) to take Abra to replace an ageing SSL VPN solution. Abra is cost effective in small units, so it seems perfect. Will update on progress.

Cisco UCS - FAIL

ok, so I tried to 'sell' a UCS server to my team instead of HP. They weren't buying it. There were several concerns at this stage that they had.

1. We haven't time to trial them with VMware
2. We've used HP for years and trust them for servers
3. We want to try and match other servers we have
4. We had problems with rail kits for previous Cisco 'Servers' (IBM oEM)

So, my way to counter this 'resistance' is really simple. We take a trial box from Cisco and test it at the same time as we're deploying HP. If the guys like it, then we buy UCS as well as an HP server. No problem, we get more NFR $ in July so the cost isn't an issue.

I really think that if Cisco can ovecome objections like these above, and the price is right (not just selling to die in sand Cisco bods) then they will have a chance to break the server market dominated by HP, IBM and Dell.

Cisco UCS

http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/how-to-turn-up-a-ucs-over-your-lunch-break-and-still-have-time-for-lunch/#comments

I'm going to persuade the team to not chose the HP servers for our new project, but try UCS instead. We're a much bigger Cisco partner than HP anyway.

Our plans for infrastructure improvements at NI towers.

Here at Network Integration Towers (Carrwood Park, Leeds) we're always thinking about how we can improve our own network and network infrastructure. We've kicked off a new project to improve several things.

1. Virtualise all of our servers (vmware vmotion) and make better use of our SAN.
2. Use our hosting facility to provide Disaster Recovery facilities
3. Reduce our carbon footprint by replacing older servers
4. Improve network and server performance of key apps (mainly Sage Act and Accounts and Helpdesk)
5. Build a 10Gb backbone
6. Reduce our reliance on an overnight window for backups
7. Build new firewall resiliency
8. Further tighten our perimeter security
9. Re-design our wireless network

We're breaking this down into three stages, but by the time we've finished, we will have a network and infrastruture that will be more advanced and resilient than anything our customers currently have. It will be a showcase for network, storage, security and voice integration.

Rob will doing most of the hard work, but I'm going to take the opportunity to document our findings and work in progress on the blog so that you can see what we're upto. Feel free to comment, or ask questions as to why we're doing what we're doing.

Why is my Cisco stock down so much ?

Cisco is probably the first vendor I was introduced to when I entered the industry in 1993 whilst at University. At that time it seemed a huge anonymous corporate that made metal boxes. Over the last 18 years I've grown up in an industry that has been 'founded' on the Internet, therefore Cisco. If it wasn't for the Internet I wouldn't have the business and opportunities and quality of life I have today. It is therefore with great sadness and concern that I read about how Cisco are struggling. Not financially, (they have one of the industry's biggest war chests) but with its own identity and size and future direction. I'm a Cisco customer, an investor and a partner. Cisco are one of my top three partners. They are intrinsic to my success. I am intrinsic to theirs'. How can I help Cisco I thought ? What would I do if I was John Chambers ? What advise can I give Cisco ? In reality they won't listen to little old me. But hey what have I got to loose by trying ?

Three short term (i.e immediate) things they must do.

1. re-energise their own employees that manage the channel. they need to drop the arrogance and roll up their sleeves and work with their partners to drive new business.

2. they need to sort out their supply issues. I'm fed up of telling customers in the UK about silly leadtimes for common kit

3. They need to drop this 'licence' complexity. Cisco were always well regarded for having 'simple' licensing. trying to complicate and milk licences is very, very dangerous. it annoys everyone and doesn't inspire customers to back a brand that ties them in knots with licences.

Long term

Start doing what Cisco are famous for. Push technological boundaries. Wireless and Voice is dated. Switching and routing is not price competitive.

Buy yourself a storage vendor. You missed the boat with Equallogic. Would have been perfect for iscsi/switch sales.

Buy Riverbed.
Buy Checkpoint.

Push video HARD. its the big one we're waiting for. Especially with Call Manager customers.

Cisco. You are a great company. I NEED you to be the best. Your TAC technical teams are the best in the world. Your pre-sales is pathetic and only accessible via disti's. Drop the arrogance, get tech hungry again, and the sales will follow. Keep the messages clear simple (you can learn a lot from the upcoming rebrand of Network Integration !) I love you to bits, but if you're going to change, do what we did at Network Integration. Listen to your customers and your employees, and listen to your investors/partners. They want you to succeed.