A Recap of HPE Discover 2017

Charles Fowler

This past week I attended Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) Discover 2017 in Las Vegas, NV. Discover is HPE’s annual customer and partner conference where HPE showcases new products and services. The conference lasts 3 days and is broken up into focus areas and general sessions. This was my first year attending as a partner rather than a HPE employee. The experience was not much different other than I hosted 4 clients vs the average 12 clients while employed at HPE which made it a bit more relaxing and fewer logistics for sure.

The general session concentrates on HPE’s direction and how they are solving the current needs of a digital world. This year’s general session focused primarily on Hybrid IT, Generation 10 Servers, and Project New Stack. Meg Whitman, HPE’s CEO, is focusing her efforts on 3 key areas: Digital Transformation, Hybrid IT, and the Intelligent Edge. These are all areas where Whitman sees the potential for tremendous growth in a world where everything computes. HPE’s recent acquisition of SimpliVity and Nimble were also mentioned in her keynote but, were not primary topics of conversation. There was a hint that those two technologies may be instrumental in HPE’s composable infrastructure solutions of the future. Whitman stated that HPE has seen a 30% revenue gain in all-flash storage last quarter and they are expecting that number to grow with the acquisition of Nimble. Whitman said while cloud computing is certainly a fit for some companies, HPE can deliver those same services in a hybrid cloud at a fraction of the cost. HPE believes more and more people are moving away from the cloud due to lack of control, security, performance, or cost. Whitman was not recommending that customers pull the plug but rather invest in a hybrid model that has all the benefits of the public cloud without some of the pitfalls. Additional cost savings may be realized using HPE’s Flex Capacity consumption model, which was also discussed in multiple keynotes and breakout sessions during the week. 

The Intelligent Edge was another focus area for Whitman, claiming a 30% increase in Aruba revenue over the last consecutive 7 quarters. As a partner, and former HPE employee, I can attest to that growth as I have seen a huge amount of Cisco customers moving over to Aruba, both on the wired and wireless networks. Aruba has jump charged HPE’s network business with no signs of it slowing down. While Aruba has mostly been present on the network edge, they will be releasing a new core switch that will be available for purchase soon. Whitman’s point about the intelligent edge was that everything will one day be internet connected, placing more importance on the edge that supports those devices. The internet of everything (IOT) is well underway.

Whitman next introduced Clark Golestani, Global CIO and President of Emerging Business at the pharmaceutical behemoth Merck. Golestani was very complimentary of the products and services provided by HPE. He went on to say that he was doing business with HPE based on the quality of their products, capabilities to support his company, ability to respond, and security. Golestani emphasized Merck’s pathway to hybrid cloud stating that Merck could not risk their business or the welfare of their clients on a cloud only model, supporting the hybrid direction Whitman announced during her keynote. 

Next, Whitman introduced Antonio Neri (Exec VP and GM of HPE’s Enterprise Group). Neri focused on the complexity of Hybrid IT. He mentioned HPE’s commitment to simplify hybrid IT by helping customers define the right hybrid mix using Pointnext software, power the right mix utilizing the HPE ecosystem, and optimize the right mix with consumption models. The point being, companies will now have a mix of traditional IT, private cloud, and public cloud. The challenge will be managing all 3 of those efficiently.

Neri introduced Alain Andreoli, SVP and GM of the HPE Data Center Infrastructure Group. Andreoli spoke about the new Generation 10 Proliant servers, touting the inherent security features built in to the silicon of each new Gen10 server. Neri touted HPE as being the first to incorporate this into their servers. He also spoke about active protection and recovery, a technology that constantly monitors the server for malicious behavior through machine learning. Neri mentioned Niara, a recently acquired security company, as being behind some of these security improvements. There was also mention of an end-of-life security feature that would make it impossible to recover data from retired servers.

All in all, it was a great event. It was a good mix of education and entertainment. Getting ahead of what is coming can never be a bad thing. It would have taken me weeks to learn everything I was able to cover in just few days at HPE Discover. The shear amount of equipment and resources they dedicate to this event is amazing. While I find the breakout sessions useful, it is the technology expo and the keynotes I enjoy the most. My purpose for attending is to learn about existing and future technologies, and a general understanding of how these are being applied to make a positive difference in our everyday lives. If you have not attended HPE Discover, I recommend you consider attending in the future. As the Director of Sales at Convergent Technologies Group, it would be my pleasure to host you at the 2018 Discover.

Cheers

CTG and HP Secure Printing

WannaCry Ransomware

By Jeff Joyner 

The WannaCry ransomware (aka WannaCrypt) is a ransomware computer worm infecting 200,000+ computers worldwide. It targets MS Windows systems (desktop and server) exploiting an SMB protocol vulnerability resulting in files getting encrypted until the victim pays a ransom in BitCoin currency ($300-$600) to the attacker. Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 operating systems are not affected by this attack.

A patch was released by Microsoft for each of the affected, currently supported operating systems back in March. Patching systems with Windows Updates is an easy way to prevent devices from being infected. 

For information on older systems (Windows XP, Server 2003), Microsoft has published additional guidance at this link: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/msrc/2017/05/12/customer-guidance-for-wannacrypt-attacks/

Additionally, MalwareBytes and Webroot have stated that they actively block WannaCry attacks.

Call CTG sales or your account manager to learn how we can secure your network from threats like this.

Jeff Joyner is a Senior Network Engineer at Convergent Technologies Group.

Ingram Micro Cloud Summit

By Jeff Garell

 

I had the good fortune to attend the Ingram Micro Cloud Summit last week in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona. This conference offers the opportunity to talk to representatives from a large cross section of cloud service providers. Some of the names are quite well known such as Amazon, Microsoft, Dropbox, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others you may not have like Odin, Intermedia, and NCR (among many others).

I should clear up that this conference is exclusively focused on companies like CTG that help customers make informed decisions about technology. I mention this simply to explain that many of the sessions were about attempting to convince us to sign on with them to sell their stuff and how to market/price/deliver these services.  Candidly, it can be a bit of a meat grinder at times but the alternative is to attempt to reach out and coordinate with each of these organizations individually with the possibility of missing some of the lesser known names that may be a great fit.  And there’s no way to do all of that in 2 days without a conference like this one.

So after being educated, solicited, and sold to for two days here are just some of the highlights and takeaways:

The Thursday morning keynote by Marc Randolph, one of the founders of Netflix, was thoroughly entertaining, informative, and entrepreneurial.  He spoke about the process that he and his cofounder went through before finally settling on this twice discarded idea of sending movies through the mail. Interestingly, the idea originated in the days of VHS tapes and was undoable in terms of mailing & storage costs for that format. The DVD technology shift enabled them to re-visit the idea a second time, but they had another thing they were pursuing, so they shelved it again.   Eventually they came back around to this DVD through the mail thing and got started.  Marc discussed the trial and error processes, the successful and unsuccessful campaigns, learning to iterate their promotions and changes more quickly, and how they were at one point perched on the edge of closing up the shop.   He told the story of their meeting with Blockbuster and for the low price of $50 million they could be purchased.  Blockbuster said no (obviously) and on the plane ride back from that meeting Marc and his partners decided to take down Blockbuster, who then was the largest player in the movie rental business, bar none.  And they eventually did.  All in all the message was to continue to generate ideas, spend a little time determining the feasibility, quickly chuck the ones that don’t make the cut (you don’t have that kind of time to waste, do you?), and move forward with the promising one(s).  That ideas come from everywhere and usually from a “pain” that you experience – as in, “wouldn’t it be nice if someone could find a way to fix [insert a daily annoyance you experience]?” Why not be that “someone”?

A meeting with Dropbox was interesting and enlightening. I’ve been a Dropbox user since getting a beta invite a lifetime ago but honestly didn’t look into, or understand, what kind of business/enterprise offering they had, or even why.  I walked into the meeting a bit skeptical about what I would possibly learn…and said as much, politely of course.  It turns out, there is a “there” there and it falls under the “Shadow IT” umbrella.   For those that don’t know what that means, it’s when your employees go outside of the internal IT services being offered and sign up for things like Dropbox in order to perform their job.  For example, Dropbox makes it really easy to share documents with anyone in a secure manner.  So imagine a marketing department needing to share image files with an outside ad agency or print shop that can’t be emailed because of their size.  Poof!  Dropbox account.  The problem with that approach is multifold. First is that there’s no way for the business to know exactly what data is being shared outside the organization and to whom.  The enterprise edition gives IT the control and reporting to know these details.  Second, is that the Dropbox terms and conditions state that the data in an account belongs to the account holder.  Imagine you have to let someone go and learn that they have been using this unmanaged & unapproved service that is now full of your proprietary information.  Dropbox considers it the account holder’s, not yours.  Finally, there are integrations and add-ons to do things like Rights Management and Data Loss Protection.

On a similar note, I attended the Microsoft Secure Productive Enterprise pre-conference session to learn about new advances in Office 365 and how it continues to improve security in a cloud connected world.  The session focused on what you get with the addition of the Enterprise Mobility & Security option – and there’s a lot. Microsoft covered quite a bit in the two hour session and it could have gone much longer once Q&A started.  In a nutshell, this additional service gives you the ability to manage and control mobile devices, advanced eDiscovery, and create policies around encryption, rights management, and Data Loss Protection to name just a few things. These kinds of features are important for everyone but exceptionally important for those industries where data loss is an expensive proposition (I’m looking at you, healthcare, legal, financial, and utilities).

There was so much more in that whirlwind two day conference and I’m still going through my notes and will be grabbing presentations as soon as they’re made available – so there will possibly be a part two to this post. The only item on my wish list for this conference, and keep in mind I’m a grizzled old nerd, is that there were technical deep dive or hands on options. It’s one thing to tell a room full of sales guys that your product does x or y that are thinking “show me the money!”, it’s another when you have folks like me (and there were many) that are thinking “show me the console!”. I’m hoping there will be a technical track added in the future.  The good news is I got to meet all of the right people to setup trials and demos to get my hands on those consoles – which also will undoubtedly spawn more blog posts. (You have been warned.)

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

HPE OneView 3.0 Can Help You!

Join CTG at our Veeam® Backup for Microsoft Office 365 Webinar!

By Caylor Feeley

E-mail is a crucial part of business operations. According to The Radicati Group, a person receives an average number of 92 e-mails per day, with an average of 16 spam correspondences included. The prevalence of smartphones creates continuous communication. People can check their e-mail at anytime and anywhere because of increased mobility. For example, 67.2% of people check their e-mail on mobile devices. Microsoft Office 365 is a great example of an infrastructure that includes e-mail and other imperative platforms. Microsoft Office 365 is extremely popular with over 400 million active users. The immense utilization of electronic mail increases the threat of losing important data.

Veeam® offers a solution that allows IT departments to breathe easier involving Microsoft Office 365 data. Even with the support that Microsoft Office 365 provides, it is still essential that organizations have a local backup for e-mail data. Veeam® provides that solution. Veeam® Backup for Microsoft Office 365 performs maximum application uptime and VM-level recoveries. It also increases IT effectiveness and aids Availability for the Always-On Enterprise™. This software decreases the risk of compromising a platform that is depended on by your organization.  Veeam® Backup for Microsoft Office 365 helps organizations avoid being in a debilitating situation.

Convergent Technologies Group wants you to have a thorough understanding of this solution and how to can be a benefit. We have teamed up with Veeam and Hewlett Packard Enterprise to host a webinar on New Veeam® Backup for Microsoft Office 365. Join us on April 11 at 10 AM for a jam-packed 30-minute webinar!

By attending this webinar, you will learn how to:

• Fully backup Office 365 e-mail data
• Promptly recover individual mailbox items
• Perform eDiscovery of e-mail archives
• Look into Veeam® Backup for Microsoft Office

As a thank you for your attendance, Veeam and CTG will be awarding a $50 VISA gift card to each registered attendee. Interested in learning how Veeam® Backup for Microsoft 365 can protect your organization’s data? Click here to register for our webinar!

Caylor Feeley is a Junior Marketing Specialist at Convergent Technologies Group.

CTG's 2017 Spring Executive Retreat and Conference

By Brandon Samuel

Life is all about relationships. From family and friends to work and beyond, those relationships help shape who you are as an individual. Often, those relationships determine your successes and failures and how you react in either case. Getting started on the right foot in any relationship is just as important as making sure that you don’t burn a bridge if it should come to an end. In the professional world, connections are the cornerstone of any business. Clients want to do business with companies that they get along with and trust and businesses want to work with clients that share the goal of a symbiotic and loyal relationship.

Our sales motto at CTG is “Relationships first, sales to follow.” This mantra shines through at our flagship bi-annual IT executive retreat that we host with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) at The Greenbrier resort in West Virginia. This weekend long retreat is aimed at introducing prospective new clients to the CTG management team and laying the foundation for long-lasting relationships. IT Executives and their guests have the opportunity to spend the weekend at one of the finest resorts in the country and to spend their free time taking in all of the amenities that the property offers. There is something at The Greenbrier for everyone, whether you enjoy horseback riding, sporting clays or want to take a tour through the famous Bunker. At The Greenbrier the food is incredible, the property is immaculate and the service cannot be beat.

Perhaps the most important thing about the weekend is that it is not focused on making a sale. In fact, you will not hear a sales pitch all weekend (unless you want one)! The entire event is an opportunity to get to know your CTG team as individuals and to hear a high-level, industry focused discussion about HPE’s role in the IT landscape. Our guest speaker, Joe Batista, does a phenomenal job of creating an interactive panel style discussion about IT vectors and the changing landscape of the industry. The discussion also includes how HPE and its partners are focused on continuous pivoting to make sure that we are staying ahead of the curve. We encourage the attendees to speak about their experiences in an effort to start a multi-industry conversation about the different impacts that IT has on their markets. The conversation is always hands-on and exciting for everyone in the room. While we are meeting, the guests are enjoying the spa at The Greenbrier. It’s a win-win!

Our focus on building relationships with our clients is what sets us apart in an industry filled with resellers hoping to gain their share. CTG is not just a company that will be there when you have a project. We pride ourselves on getting to know your team, your environment and your goals as an organization. We will be there for the smallest issues or the biggest project and we place the same amount of importance on each. I am proud to say that some of our most cherished client partnerships began at The Greenbrier. If you are interested in more information about the event, please contact events@ctgva.com. We would be happy to discuss the details with you. We hope to meet you there!

Brandon Samuel is Convergent Technologies Group’s Sales Manager.