Aruba scores a 6/6!

For 15 years, Convergent Technologies Group has been delivering effective IT solutions and strategies that help transform companies and move businesses forward. We give the same care and attention to every client, whether you are a small business, or a Fortune 500. CTG works with various partners to provide the perfect solutions for your business, Aruba being one of them.

In addition to being a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Report: Magic Quadrant for the Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure, Aruba is thrilled to be recognized as having the highest scores in 6 out of 6 use cases in the 2020 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure Report.

  

An AI-driven enterprise embraces experience as the new uptime. It’s about leveraging tools, interfaces and data to reduce reliance on manual actions, as the future becomes more focused on operations.

 

From configuring and deploying your network, to monitoring and controlling it, Aruba solutions simplify your life and bring you a step closer to realizing the benefits of a secure and automated multi-cloud enterprise to drive powerful business outcomes for years to come.

See why Gartner has scored HPE (Aruba) highest in all 6 Critical Capabilities use cases and why we believe this shows the depth of Aruba's end-to-end portfolio.

 

Read the Gartner Critical Capabilities Report

Read the Gartner Magic Quadrant Report

 

We would love to discuss Aruba with you further! 

 

Notes from the (Work From) Home Front: Episode 2

Episode 2: Day 7: March 23, 2020

As we begin the second work-from-home week, I’m happy to report everyone seems to be handling this pretty well. We’re able to serve the majority of our customer's needs in this remote capacity and for everything else, we’re diligent about reducing exposure as much as possible.

I did notice something this past weekend though. I have no idea if anyone else experienced this or not, so I’m speaking purely of my own story.

I had a hard time keeping myself busy. I had this nagging feeling that I should have been in my home office and working on things. I chalked it up to Saturday feeling just like Friday which felt like Thursday (and so on). Wash, rinse, and repeat for Sunday. I knocked out my normal weekend chores, but I couldn’t shake this nagging feeling that I was supposed to be working.

Blurring the line between home and office definitely has the potential to (& did) cause me to continue to have my "work brain” engaged whenever I wasn’t actively doing something else, which can’t be all that healthy and could quickly lead to burnout. Without my commute as the transition signal that I was no longer at work, I was on duty all the time. I realized this is how I’ve felt at the end of each day since we started the work from home thing.

This is no Bueno.

It wasn’t until Sunday that I started to really understand what was going on. I thought I’d immediately write down these things that my brain wants me to do, then perhaps it would relax for a bit. To a degree, it helped. It took a little while to capture all the tasks, calls, ideas, etc., and by late afternoon, I was more mentally home again. I still need to figure out how to reliably transition out of work mode. The odd thing is that I have purposely kept my morning routine the same to help me transition into the working frame of mind. It just never occurred to me I’d need to equally find a way to transition back to a home life mindset.

Jeff Garell

On a final note, last night was the best sleep I’ve had since we started this work-from-home effort. I’m hoping that’s the new trend and I can give credit to this revelation.

HPE Discover 2018 Recap

Dalton Gormus

Last month, I attended HPE Discover 2018 in Las Vegas, NV. This was my first time in Sin City and I was transported to a whole other world. When I stepped into the Transformation Zone in the Sands Expo, I felt like I was Alice in Wonderland, completely lost but entirely intrigued. You could find everything from Lego displays to the Hack Shack. HPE Discover was a 3-day event that featured various speakers from all over the world discussing topics ranging from Blockchain to Intelligent System Tuning (IST).

The first large session I attended was, Achieving IT Agility in Mobile, IoT and Cloud with Aruba, presented by Janice Le, Aruba Networks Chief Marketer and Parth Narasimhan, Aruba, CTO. Le began the session with introducing the idea that many industries are heading into an experience economy, we are no longer buying just a good or a service, we are buying an experience. The Intelligent Edge is the experience economy we are seeing in IT, it is where smart meets digital. Aruba Networks has recently partnered with major companies like CBRE and HermanMiller Furniture to create smart and digital workplaces to make you workspace feel like home, and this is only the beginning for Aruba. CBRE is using Aruba to create smart buildings for design and IoT sensors. HermanMiller is taking their office furniture to the next level with connected desks that adjust to your height and chairs that know when you are getting up to use the restroom or if you are leaving for the evening. Narasimhan later stepped out on stage to discuss Aruba Introspect, a sensor that is used in the network to alert engineers if there is any suspicious activity going on whether it is inside or outside the company. Introspect was noted by one of our own engineers as an IT trend to keep an eye on within the next year, it is something that many companies are going to want in their tool box.

GenZ Lego Display

The General Session was the most awaited session of the week presented by Antonio Neri, HPE President and CEO. Neri addressed the digital transformation we are experiencing and the three biggest factors that HPE will be tackling during the transformation. Much like what Le was discussing with an experience economy, HPE will be focusing on transformative technology, people and economics. And to enhance this transformation the products that HPE wants to focus on are, HPE OneView, a software-defined infrastructure that eliminates the complex manual processes and increases the speed and flexibility of storage. And, Infosight, which was discussed by Aruba Networks in the previous session is another product HPE will be focusing on; currently only available for 3PAR and Nimble, but soon it will be available for all HPE products. This transformation will be vital for HPE and how companies operate, Neri said, “our purpose is to advance how we live and work”. The way we can advance and transform all of this, is to live in the intelligent edge, the “future-edge” where we interact with customers. Neri announced that HPE will be investing $4 billion into the Intelligent Edge over the next four years, only to further enhance opportunities for businesses. Following that announcement, Neri brought out Ford Motors CIO, Jeff Lemmer. The two sat on stage and discussed the strong partnership between the companies and how they will continue due to the speed and innovation HPE has shown Ford. The General Session also touched on HPE Greenlake FlexCapacity. Greenlake was featured throughout the week with displays in the Social Media forum and various sessions and booths. It is a pay-for only what you use infrastructure capacity that essentially will never run out. Pat O’Conner from Business Alliances ONX came on stage to discuss the steps to take in order to make Greenlake a part of client’s infrastructure. It is flexible, because you should never run out of the IT resources when using, it is easier for customers to engage with and it will cut down contracts exchanged by a few pages.

HPE Greenlake display

HPE made it a point to mix education and entertainment equally, which made you feel like you were not working all day. The week ended with relaxed networking and a performance by pop-rock band OneRepublic. Discover was incredibly informative, and I am grateful I was able to attend this large HPE event after only being a member of the CTG team for a few months. The biggest piece of information I took from this event was that HPE is moving in a direction that will make things simple and unified to create a better experience for partners and customers. With products like Greenlake, picking and choosing what you want rather than having it all are becoming more popular and are designed to help you save and have stronger structures.

If you are and IT professional and interested in learning more about some of these products and our services, please reach out or register for one of our events to speak with HPE and CTG experts!

Support Center Confidential

We join our story, already in progress………

By: Jeff Garell

Yeah kid, another long, slow day in the support center.  Not like the old days.  When you were either an alpha geek or you got lunch eaten by them.  But only if you brought something good though…no one likes a cheese sandwich, ya know.  Here we only have alpha geeks.  But let me continue…. 

I got memories back to working my way up from level 1..ahhh, them was the days where 12 hours was the rule not the exception.  When your adrenaline pumped like a Texas oil well….non stop and messy.   When the phones never stopped ringing and the bosses were never happy.  You could guarantee one of them big wigs would come crashing through the door looking to take out his anger on the nearest poor soul.

Those were the days, kid.  It was like the wild west, Mardi Gras, and Carnival all rolled into one.  Every day.

But not anymore….not since we got Infosight watching our backs.  Who woulda thought that some AI would steal all the fun?  That we'd provide almost 90% of the support our customers need without sweatin' our gimlet and answer calls in less than a minute.

No call tsunamis wiping us off the map like an uninhabited pacific atoll.  No mass emails that have to be run through the approval gauntlet like a guilty soul looking for redemption.   No all hands calls in the middle of the night to figure out what has bedeviled the systems.

I don't know about you kid, but I can't run through millions of data points every second….no mere mortal can.  I tried once and stumbled like a drunk on a sidewalk made of ball bearings.  Yeah kid, it's not like it used to be…..

Now that we got Infosight watching everything, hoovering up all of that performance data from every device around the globe, we just sit back and wait for that AI to tell us what to do or what to go figure out.  Ya see, if it sees a problem that it already knows about, it'll send the emails but only to those admins that might be affected, it'll do the updates, it'll …. It'll take care of it like Tyson took care of Spinks in '88.

And if it don't know what to do it tells us where to start lookin'.  That's why we're here, son.  If one of dem customers call, we look at what our AI friend shows us and can find the answer lickety split, ya know?   Dat's why this here room is mostly empty…we don't need no level 1 or 2 fellas.

And ya know what?  This thing is spreadin'.  It ain't just gonna be our Nimble storage that the AI sees.   Quicker than a wink it'll be watching over 3PAR and I hear RMC too.  Imagine all of those systems - getting that support like ours do.  Those boys in the ivory tower are already countin' their dough with how much more productive people will be.

So that's the story, kid.  As John McClane once said, "Welcome to the party, pal".  I hope you brought a good Phillip Marlow book to keep ya entertained.    Keep yer head down and eyes open and don't bother trying to beat that AI.  Our competitors can't even get close to it, like it's a flamethrower on Guadalcanal, so you got no chance.

See ya tomorrow, kid….and Merry Christmas…

Thankful

While we wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving, CTG employees share what we are thankful for this year.

Grace SunDance, administrative assistant:

I am thankful for the growth and courage Convergent has given me. Being a part of a supportive, successful, and generous company is truly a blessing. I am enormously thankful for my family, my tremendous friends and my amazing fiancé, Aaron.

Elizabeth "Beth" Foster, inside sales representative:

I am thankful and blessed to have a great family. I am thankful that I work with some of the most talented and dedicated folks in our industry. I am thankful more than anything for my Lord, Jesus Christ and what He has done for me and the miracles that happen every day. He gives me strength when mine fails; He gives me insight when my vision is clouded and gives me Joy, Grace and Peace in turbulent times.

Carley Wessler, smb account executive:

I am thankful for my two gorgeous children, they always keep me smiling and make life beautiful and for my amazing husband who keeps me grounded, happy and loves me unconditionally.  I am also thankful to work with the amazing Convergent Technologies Group team who keep work challenging, entertaining and ensure we remain leaders in IT.

Charles Fowler, director of sales:
I’m thankful for France and Scotland.

James Kay, accounting representative:

I am thankful for my family and the health that I have. I am also thankful for my son Andrew who has brightened my life. 

Jeff Joyner, network architect:

I’m thankful for my family.

Brandon Samuel, sales manager:

I am thankful for most things, including my family, friends and wonderful CTG family!

John Monahan, co-founder and president:

I'm thankful for my staff, another successful year for CTG and my family and friends.

Chastity Loving, purchasing manager:

I am thankful for everything amazing in my life. I am so blessed and my heart is always so full!

Rod Knowles, solutions architect:

I am thankful for my two awesome kids and how much happiness they bring me each and every day.  I am also thankful for being able to work with the some of the best people in the world, old and new friends, family, my job and my health.  

Evan Joyner, smb technician:

I am thankful for my son, my family and my friends. 

Alexandra Suder, marketing director:

I am thankful for my incredibly awesome and loving family - far and near - especially my mother, father, sisters and my brother-in-law. I am thankful for my boyfriend who helps me in so many ways. I am thankful for all of the good energy, happiness, and health I am blessed with. I am thankful for ALL of my wonderful friends and their children, and for having a part in their life. I am thankful for my job and my team. I am thankful for my home. And I am forever grateful to God and for being here on this earth.

Jeff Garell, co-founder and vice president:
I'm thankful for my wife and for our two beautiful, smart, talented and caring daughters.

Jeff Garell Selected into HPE’s Worldwide Partner Ambassador Program

The Worldwide Partner Ambassador Program for Solution Architects brings together the top Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) product and solution engineers and executives, with top Solution Architects from our HPE partners. The benefits of the Partner Ambassador program for Solution Architects for both HPE and the Partners is to deepen the relationship to foster better collaboration and communication and to influence future technology direction at HPE.

The Ambassador program allows selected partners:

• Participation, in monthly Partner Ambassador calls hosted by technical experts
• Enhanced access to information
• Participation in a virtual Partner Ambassador Community with HPE business units and HPE Solution Architects to ask questions, provide feedback and share experiences
• Opportunities to meet directly with HPE Business Unit Executives, Lab Engineers, and HPE Ambassadors at the annual Worldwide Partner Ambassador Summit

Congratulations Jeff!

A New Compute Experience: An Exploration of HPE’s Gen10 Servers

By Rod Knowles

Is your business finding it difficult to adapt to industry and marketplace shifts, analyzing the customer experience and/or innovating products and services rapidly?  If so, then you’re probably not thinking about, or have a plan in place for your digital transformation.  In today’s economy, digital transformation is the key to a businesses success and remaining ahead of the competition.  Through 4 key transformation areas:  Protecting the digital enterprise, Empowering the data-driven organization, Enabling workplace productivity and Transforming to a hybrid infrastructure, companies can increase profits, agility, flexibility, employee productivity and the customer experience while reducing costs and risk.  For businesses to thrive and easily adapt to their digital transformation, they need a computing environment that will deliver a Hybrid IT infrastructure providing agility, security and economic control.  HPE’s new Gen10 server line accomplishes just that.  Automation, optimized performance of workloads, secure compute lifecycle and flexible capacity are just a few of the benefits your company can gain from switching to an HPE Gen10 server.  In the next few sections, I will break down the benefits on the Gen10 line as its related to agility, security, and economic control.

Obtaining a more agile infrastructure

Manual IT operation processes can be slow and error-prone.  With the new iLO5, being introduced in all Gen10 servers, you will be able to accelerate maintenance tasks, at scale, with automated scheduling and rollback.  iLO5’s RESTful API helps automate and operate server components in all Gen10 servers from staging and updating the server BIOS, iLO, Secure Boot and TPM.  With iLO5’s intelligent provisioning, IT departments can perform initial setup tasks 22% faster than with previous versions of IP on Gen9 servers. Gen10's new Intelligent Systems Tuning can harness the power of the next generation of Intel Xeon processors and balance workloads which allows you to run more workloads on more cores, up to 28 on Intel's New Xeon Platinum processors, resulting in reduced licensing costs and more power/cooling efficiency. Couple that with HPEs new NVDIMMs to utilize the fastest persistent memory available, while realizing the real-world benefits of memory backup power, OS & Application support, reduction of database licensing costs and the fastest tier of storage on HPE Servers.

Increasing security awareness and control

Gen10 security, a better way to stay one step ahead of increasingly sophisticated attacks and protect your business utilizing the world’s most secure industry standard servers. Let’s talk about that for one quick moment, “The World’s Most Secure Industry Standard Servers”.  As recently announced at HPE Discover 2017, HPE engaged InfusionPoints to conduct an independent assessment of the security of the Gen10 Server’s hardware and platform firmware against three of HPE’s competitors. The test consisted of attacks against physical interfaces, platform firmware, and network interfaces.  The results showed that HPE Gen10 servers are a significant step ahead of their competitors and that HPE’s introduction of silicon root of trust will set new standards in providing auditable control of the integrity of platform firmware.

The new Gen10 family of servers provides a host of security features:  firmware protection, run time attack detection, behavioral risk mitigation, data protection, compliance planning and End of Life disposal.  HPE’s new firmware protection is backed by HPE’s own silicon fingerprint unique to each and every server.  With HPE’s silicon root of trust, Gen10 servers WILL NOT boot unless the firmware matches the fingerprint and is protected through the entire supply chain: manufacturing, distribution, shipping, configuration, and installation. It’s locked and HPE is the only vendor who can do this.  When the server boots, millions of lines of firmware code run and verify before the operating system even boots.  Additionally, the firmware is checked every 24 hours verifying validity and credibility of UEFI, CPLD, iLO, IE and ME and reports any malware or compromised code.  Firmware can also be checked and validated on drives, NICs and other HPE server options containing firmware. When a detection of compromised firmware is discovered, the ability to send alerts and quickly recover to a good known state can be set to occur automatically or you can choose to take the compromised server offline.  The ability to recover other server settings can also be recovered as well as the future ability to recover operating systems. 

HPE’s Gen10 servers also offer advanced machine learning that identifies any malicious behavior.  Think of it like this:  The system endlessly trains itself and learns behavioral patterns.  It then analyses and identifies changes in these patterns that may relate to suspicious activity and informs you if there is a threat.  This advanced machine learning technology utilizing Niara’s behavioral analytics protects your organization from inside attacks.  Gen10 servers are protected from inception to their demise. When your server(s) are being disposed of, its embedded data cannot be reconstructed or accessed any longer, forever, utilizing enhanced data protection and encryption.

Managing Your Time and Money Productively

In addition to the Gen10’s server line agility and security features, Economic Control helps you control costs with over-provisioning, out-of-control public cloud costs and the pressures of transforming without the appropriate budget.  Utilizing HPE Flexible Capacity will help align your costs with monthly usage and requires no upfront payments.  Pay only for what you use and scale in minutes, not months.  If you're currently a legacy Gen9 server owner, there are several options for transitioning to a Gen10 server by utilizing one of HPE’s investment models for transforming from legacy IT to a hybrid IT model.

For more information on HPE Storage and Networking, please contact Convergent Technologies Group at 888-353-5307 or via our contact us page

 Rod Knowles is a solution architect with Convergent Technologies Group.

Customer Engagement Center opens access to HPE Products, Experience

By Brandon Samuel

As an account manager, one of my roles is to make sure that I’m providing the absolute best solutions to my clients that my manufacturer partners can offer. The process of a sale can be as quick as 15 minutes – or a year or more, depending on the project at hand.

When it comes to longer-lasting projects, we often spend much time perfecting the configuration and doing rigorous testing to make sure that whatever solution is purchased will work in the client’s existing environment. This testing can require demo units to be allocated, shipped, installed, configured and tested, all of which can take several months to complete, depending on the scale of the solution.

No one can blame a client for wanting to put this level of effort into making a decision. In fact, we encourage it, even if clients might walk in thinking they already have the answers. To be a valued long-term partner, we believe in investing the resources to make sure that the solutions and products that our clients ultimately purchase will differentiate that business not just today but position them to continue building for the next five years.

Let’s face it, when it comes to IT nobody really gives it much thought unless you work on the IT team. Or worse, when the network is down and you can’t do your daily tasks. CIOs and IT directors must make sure that their staff is comfortable with a solution, both from an implementation and management standpoint. The best way to ensure that confidence is by testing their data on the solution being presented. The price and the pressure are far too great of a risk for the solution to not be fully vetted.

What if there was an easier, less time consuming, but equally thorough way? What if we could tell you that the entire process could take less than half of the normal time? Well, we can – and here’s how!

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Customer Engagement Center: New York City, New York

Located in the heart of Chelsea is the HPE Customer Engagement Center. Aside from the HPE logo on the window, you probably wouldn’t give the building a second look, but once you get inside you are in technology heaven! HPE designed this space to show the latest and greatest technologies that HPE has to offer. The goal is to show the future of both one of our primary partners and the companies we serve. 

The center was designed to allow CIOs, directors and managers to not only see the latest and emerging technologies but also to discuss their bottom line. Discussions cover how each piece of hardware and software is designed to meet a specific need, while keeping ease of configuration, deployment and management at the forefront of the conversation. High-level discussions about total cost and return on investment are always hot topics, as well as conversations about making IT teams from every organization more streamlined and focused on innovation, instead of being reactive and becoming stagnant. 

CTG is excited to be taking guests to the HPE Customer Engagement Center on Jan. 26. Our attendees will get to see products in a production environment, receive a hands-on demonstration and experience a tour of cutting-edge HPE technology. 

Brandon Samuel is CTG's sales manager.

3. Docker Delivers Innovation to Container Strategy

By Rod Knowles

So, what exactly is Docker? Docker is an engine that enables any application to be encapsulated as a lightweight, portable, self-contained entity or, as they’re more infamously known as, containers – an approach we discussed in the previous post. It also allows for the standardization of packaging applications and all of their dependencies for rapid development and deployment.

Employing Docker enables DevOps and IT organizations to provide continuous integration and deployment. This gives developers the power to not only build code but, to test their code in any environment type and as often as possible to catch bugs early in the development life cycle. With Docker, development teams can perform 13 times more software releases than what they now are achieving and cut the time needed to determine and resolve issues.

Earlier this year, I attended HPE’s Discover, an annual customer conference in Las Vegas, NV. Though most of my trip is eluding me at this time, I do remember two things: feeling like I was the star of a bad crossover movie between Groundhog Day and The Hangover and the announcement of the strategic alliance between HPE and Docker. 

Yes, it was like a marriage made in heaven, more memorable and electrifying than Cory and Topenga, Chandler and Monica, or Howard and Bernadette. I mean really, the number one leader in worldwide server shipments, HPE, teaming up with the leader in containerization, Docker. 

Through a joint worldwide enterprise agreement covering sales, engineering, go-to-market, support, services and knowledge sharing, HPE and Docker are collaborating to help customers transform and revolutionize their data centers to benefit from a more agile development environment. At the core is HPE’s Docker-ready server program, which ensures that HPE servers are bundled with Docker engine and support. This will enable customers to build distributed applications that are portable across any infrastructure. 

By combining the strength of the leading cloud infrastructure provider and the leader in containerization, HPE and Docker will deliver infrastructure solutions and an application portfolio, fully supported by HPE. By 2018, more than 50 percent of new workloads will be deployed into containers in at least one stage of the application life cycle. The joint HPE and Docker alliance will deliver unique and value-added solutions and services including but not limited to: Docker-ready HPE servers, Docker-ready Converged and Composable HPE systems, enterprise-grade consulting services and 24x7 Docker support. 

With up to 90 percent of IT budgets being consumed by app testing, configuration and distribution, businesses need a better way to support hundreds of daily builds using a continuous deployment/integrated DevOps model. The partnership between HPE and Docker provides just that.

I know by now, most of you must be wondering how do I get started with this container thingy so I can stay ahead of my competitors and bring ideas to fruition at the speed of light. The answer is ingenuous. Get in touch with an HPE Platinum Partner. 

Not just any partner, but one who values your business, employees, customers and your success just as much as you do. Convergent Technologies Group is one of a few exclusive HPE Platinum Partners that can help you and your IT organization transform to a hybrid infrastructure. 

Together with HPE, CTG has the resources and expertise to get you started today on changing the way you turn ideas into world-class applications and services for your customers. Whether you’re looking for an enterprise-class infrastructure, ready-to-run containerized applications or assistance in designing and implementing your DevOps strategy, we’re your one-stop call.

Rod Knowles is a solution architect with Convergent Technologies Group.

2. Ease Pressures on Your DevOps Environment

By Rod Knowles

DevOps is the transformational effort to create harmony and productivity between development and IT operations teams, a topic we started to explore in our last post. 

The adaption in creating DevOps does not come without its own challenges. The lack of agility/portability and a plethora of operational inefficiencies usually leads to oppressed productivity, a loss of the competitive edge and, more importantly, unhappy developers. Nobody – and I mean nobody – wants unhappy developers. (It’s almost as bad as taking away their beer and Xbox controller.)

Server virtualization is the ability to run multiple operating system images – at the same time, on the same hardware. Server virtualization utilizes a software layer called the hypervisor. It is this hypervisor that emulates the underlying hardware, which includes (but is not limited to) the CPU, memory, network and I/O. While the performance of this virtual operating system usually isn’t equal to the performance of running on true hardware (though I have seen some applications and systems perform better when virtualized), this does allow for greater flexibility, control and reduced operating costs. 

You’ll find two types of hypervisors in use today:

•  Type 1 hypervisors run on the host system hardware.They control the hardware resources and manage the guest operating system. Those include VMWare ESXi, Citrix XenServer and Micrsoft Hyper-V.
• Type 2 hypervisors run within a formal operating system, usually LINUX, Windows or MacOS. This type of hypervisor runs as a distinct second layer while the operating system runs as a third layer just above the hardware. Some of those VMWare Fusion, Virtual Box and Parallels.

Containerization is the ability to encapsulate an application in a container within its own operating system. Containers are more streamlined and lightweight than VMs so you may be able to run six to eight times as many containers as VMs on the exact same hardware – which can help you reduce capital and operational costs. 

Containers include the application and all its dependencies - but they share the OS kernel with other containers. They run as an isolated process in user space on the host operating system. Virtual machines include the application and all of its dependencies, as well as an entire guest operating system ­­­– which could be hundreds of GBs in size. 

You’ll find several distinct advantages to using both containers and/or virtual machines. Containers are maintained at the application level, use less storage, memory and compute, have a considerable faster boot time, run on any infrastructure (cloud, physical and virtual) and require fewer OS instances to maintain so you’ll find lower OPEX and CAPEX costs. Virtualization allows for a single physical server to run and behave like many virtual servers and encompasses everything that is on a physical machine, allowing it to be flexible. It’s mature and established, resulting in a vast knowledge base of use cases, solutions and support, can run a wider range of operating systems and results in lower infrastructure costs. 

Using containers comes with disadvantages as well. Container technologies are advancing extremely fast. At times, it’s hard to know which technology you should us and you might end up purchasing from a less-established vendor. In addition, there are some perceived security concerns with running applications in containers - specifically around kernel exploits, DoS attacks from other containers, container breakouts and poisoned images downloaded from the internet. Virtual machines are not free from having their own set of drawbacks as well. They are much slower to share, require more OS licenses to purchase, are hard at times to size appropriately and require more OS patching and time to maintain. 

Containerization is moving forward fast. More applications are becoming containerized, which creates thousands of container images to validate, scan for vulnerabilities and deploy.Orchestration mechanisms like Docker Swarm, which allows for a pool of Docker hosts to be turned into a virtual Docker host, are becoming more available as well. Cloud-native development platforms like Docker Datacenter and HPE Helion Cloud Native Application Platform are becoming increasingly popular. They allow for developers and IT operations to collaborate more efficiently bringing security, policy, and controls to the application life cycle without sacrificing agility or portability.

Next time, we'll dig a little deeper into one of the hottest container resources in the market today.

Rod Knowles is a solution architect with Convergent Technologies Group.

1. Look Around: The Idea Economy Is Here

By Rod Knowles

Several weeks ago, as I was engulfed in watching yet another exhausting and ludicrous presidential debate, I was wondering why I wasn’t watching re-runs of “Beverly Hills 90210.”

My kids, on the other hand, were clueless. They were involved in a lengthy, unfathomable and meaningless conversation. If you have kids, then you already know they weren’t actually talking to each other – they were communicating through their mobile devices. They successfully had a 90-minute conversation without any dialogue, whatsoever. The only people talking in the room were Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, which sounded to me more like Mrs. Donovan – Charlie Brown’s teacher.

It was then that it became apparent that my kids might never actually talk to each other, as long as brilliant minds continue creating mobile interaction applications. SnapChat, Twitter, TeleGram and Wickr are just a few that they use. My children relentlessly add and remove applications faster than anything I have ever witnessed. They also don’t seem to have any patience in dealing with applications that are slow, buggy and/or just don’t work. Whether it be their iPhones, tablets, laptops, whatever, it really doesn’t matter, they are consistently looking for the latest, cool app they can use and share with their circle of friends.

It’s here, the Idea Economy. 

Some experts would say that change is coming; I believe it’s already here. Businesses must evolve and adapt, or they will perish similar to 8-track tapes and the bubble gum that used to come in my Topps baseball card pack. 

Some businesses are already adapting. They have realized that its not enough to just take an idea and turn it into a product or service: They must be faster than their competition to be successful. 

Others still face development and IT operational challenges. The inability to develop, secure, deploy, monitor and maintain a quality application is becoming more difficult as consumers want things faster. Time is the biggest enemy companies face today. 

Moving faster and staying ahead of the competition necessitates several changes to traditional IT organizations:

• Instituting practices that emphasize collaboration and communication between developers and other IT professionals while automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes (DevOps).
•  Efficiently scaling and managing resources while ensuring industry-leading availability and redundancy through the use of server virtualization technology.
• Increasing the frequency of software releases through continuous integration and continuous deployment while reducing operational and capital expenditures by containerizing your applications.

Today, almost all businesses are software companies. Applications, including mobile, are becoming more critical for almost any business to succeed and stay ahead of its competitors. If your application fails, so does your business. 

But what does that mean in your day-to-day world? Stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog.

Rod Knowles is a solutions architect at Convergent Technologies Group.

Test the Best: HPE’s Hyper Converged Solutions

By Jeff Garell

Have you ever run up against a resource constraint and the only way out was hugely expensive, required extensive design and engineering and then a migration just to be able to expand your resource pool?

Well, you’re not alone. I’ve been a victim of lock in or vendor’s short-sighted design many times in the past 33 years.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Hyper Converged solutions are engineered to simply “tack on” storage and compute that folds into the infrastructure like its been there all along. I know, it sounds like magic, but it’s not: it’s foresight and thoughtful engineering that makes HPE’s Hyper Converged solutions the best in the industry.

If you aren’t already in a hyperconverged market, you better start looking ahead. According to the well-respected industry analyst Gartner, this market segment will grow nearly 80 percent to reach almost $2 billion this year. This is big-time business, growing at an expected pace to reach nearly $5 billion – almost a quarter of the integrated systems niche – in just three more years.

And that’s why you need to come spend a couple of days here at Convergent Technologies Group. We’re going to give you an inside-out tour of what HPE’s Hyper Converged platforms have to offer during our Technical Summit on Sept. 21-22. We’re also giving you direct access to Joe Vidal, whose unofficial title is the HPE converged evangelist. More formally, he directs the company’s Americas Hybrid IT Channel Architecture Team. Not only will you learn about what’s on the market, you’ll get a glimpse of what’s coming next.

And yes, you have a host of different options to explore, but we aren’t the only ones who give the highest marks to HPE’s Hyper Converged systems – and you’re right to compare and contrast, especially when you’re making that kind of investment. The folks at BizTech magazine call HPE’s platform “a breeze” to deploy, while Gartner routinely rates these solutions in the upper right of its Magic Quadrant.

Actually, we encourage you to explore other options because we know that that will make you only more confident that HPE is the route to go. You’ll see that HPE delivers the optimal performance at the greatest value.

In addition to all of this Hyper Convergey-ness (yes, I’m copyrighting that, see me after the summit for licensing deals), we’ll dive into why Aruba is the leader in wireless and how they made the Super Bowl even more super. Plus, if you haven’t seen it before and even if you have, we’ll be covering storage with the HPE 3PAR and a deep dive into why it was a game changer when it was first introduced and why it still leads the pack.

But don’t just take our word for all this. The Technical Summit is your chance to come see it all for yourself – and take some of this cutting-edge technology out for a spin.

Jeff Garell is a co-founder of Convergent Technologies Group.

Executive Retreat at The Greenbrier to Focus on Continuity, Transformation

By Elizabeth Foster

“Continuity” and the willingness to “step and think outside of the box” are words that describe The Greenbrier, Convergent Technologies Group and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

In June, The Greenbrier – a historical legacy as one of America’s best resorts – and its community was tested as it faced massive flooding, the result of unprecedented levels of torrential rain. The national news showed images of homes, cars and other debris swept away in seemingly unstopping waves of water and mud. While the devastation destroyed much of the community, it didn’t stop the heart and resiliency of the community, which was buoyed by the reaction and support of The Greenbrier.

Even though this majestic, historical property was assessing severe damage across its property, the resort’s leaders opened its heart and its rooms to those who had lost everything. Two months later, many are still in the early stages of rebuilding their homes – and their lives.

Recognizing its role as a beacon in the community and a major employer in the region, The Greenbrier worked diligently to re-open its doors. In two months, Convergent Technologies Group will return again to The Greenbrier to host its annual Executive Retreat, partnering with HPE to discuss that latest in technology today – including resiliency when the unexpected might occur.

The background for the Oct. 21-23 is fitting. HPE is known for plowing through challenges, and today is recognized as a juggernaut for innovation and tried-and-tested technology. As a Platinum Partner, CTG shares those same values, refusing to settle for the status quo and pushing for next-generation solutions. At the same time, both companies have a history of empowering their people to be nimble, to be intuitive, to strive for excellence on a daily basis and to never settle for less than perfection.

For the Executive Retreat, technology leaders from Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia and North Carolina will be coming together with HPE’s Chief Business Strategist & Innovation Officer (aka Chief Creatologist) Joe Batista and CTG executives for open and frank discussions about today’s challenges. From digital transformation and the Internet of Things, from mobility issues to the need for hyper converged systems to handle virtual and storage environments, HPE and CTG together bring a new way of thinking and doing business. Collaboration is key but not the main factor for spurring on changes in technology. Executives are forced to do more with less with shrinking budgets and manpower, while still delivering business processes and continuity.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Batista’s keynote address will explore “The Pivoting Industry: What’s Your Next Move?”

Our CTG co-founders, John Monahan and Jeff Garell, have a united vision and focus for supporting their clients. They believe that executives who attend The Greenbrier Executive Retreat this year will expand their knowledge by learning key business best practices and how to maximize hyper converged environments to lower cost and down time – not to mention finite details on how to shrink and lower the cost of data footprint in the data center. And that’s just a few highlights.

We’ll be sharing more in the coming weeks about this Executive Retreat, which will featured rich discussions about technology and innovative thinking against the backdrop of historical elegance at The Greenbrier. Have you talked with us about saving a seat for you at this once-in-your-business-lifetime experience?

Elizabeth Foster is an inside sales representative at Convergent Technologies Group.