Resolve Outlook Performance Issues with ShoreTel Communicator 13.x

Posted by Rich Weber on May 24, 2013 — Leave a Comment

Symptoms

  • Some users may see Outlook performance impacted after upgrading to the Communicator for Windows (CMWin) version 13 or higher.
  • Users could see momentary “freezes” or pauses, high CPU utilization, or ‘jerky’ text entry or mouse pointer movement, especially when creating a new Calendar event.
  • It may be seen more often for users who have large numbers of folders in their Outlook tree, or who open additional mailboxes for other users in Outlook.

Cause

  • Performance issues can be caused by an underpowered computer, so users should first make sure that the PC meets the minimum requirements listed in the ShoreTel Planning and Installation guide.
  • For computers that meet those requirements and are still seeing performance problems, these symptoms can be the result of the ShoreTel Communicator Outlook Integration add-ins trying to process large amounts of Outlook data.
  • For example, the Contact Upload add-in on startup normally scans through all the available mail folders a user has access to, in order to identify all contacts that are eligible for import to CMWin. If there are many folders, then it could take a lot of CPU time to process all the entries.
  • Performance issues can be cause by an underpowered computer, so users should first make sure that the PC meets the minimum requirements listed in the ShoreTel Planning and Installation guide.
  • For computers that meet those requirements and are still seeing performance problems, these symptoms can be the result of the ShoreTel Communicator Outlook Integration add-ins trying to process large amounts of Outlook data.
    For example, the Contact Upload add-in on startup normally scans through all the available mail folders a user has access to, in order to identify all contacts that are eligible for import to CMWin. If there are many folders, then it could take a lot of CPU time to process all the entries.
  • Calendar Call Handling Mode (CHM) add-in by default copies calendar events for the next 14 days to the ShoreTel server in order to schedule CHM changes for those future events.
    Each time a new appointment is created, an existing appt. is changed, all 14 days of events are sent. Normally this only takes a second or two, but if a user has many Calendar appointments, or is sharing calendars of other users in their Outlook, it can cause a delay on the PC.
  • Calendar Call Handling Mode (CHM) add-in by default copies calendar events for the next 14 days to the ShoreTel server in order to schedule CHM changes for those future events. Each time a new appointment is created, an existing appt. is changed, all 14 days of events are sent.
    Normally this only takes a second or two, but if a user has many Calendar appointments, or is sharing calendars of other users in their Outlook, it can cause a delay on the PC.

Resolution

By Default and by design, the ContactImport Add-in will now ONLY import contacts from the default Outlook Contacts folder, and you will have to add the registry key and set to 0 if you want to be able to select multiple contact folders that are not sub-folders of the default (you still wantt see any public folders)

Location: “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Shoreline Teleworks\ShoreWare Client”

DWORD value: DoNotWalkOLFolders

Zero or One: 0 = False, 1 = True

Comm Solutions is a ShoreTel Direct Partner, to learn more visit: http://www.commsolutions.com/index.php/partner/shoretel

Posted in Articles, Partner, Tech Tip, Unified Communications

The Caveats of Citrix StoreFront

Posted by Lee Gitzes on May 24, 2013 — Leave a Comment

Citrix Storefront is the new front end for Citrix technologies. It is a promising technology that is slated to fully replace the Web Interface as of 2015. While many XenApp and XenDesktop users currently have a choice weather or not to deploy StoreFront, users that want to take advantage of email provisioning, and Cloud Gateway functionality do not. For users enabling advanced functionality, StoreFront is the only option as of today. As we have begun deploying it outside of the lab and in the wild, we have found some caveats that are good to be aware of up front. Below is a list of items that will hopefully help your StoreFront deployment go as planned.

Factor number 1: SSL is a must

While StoreFront may be deployed using HTTP (port 80), only basic XenApp and XenDesktop delivery over receiver will work without an SSL certificate. Email provisioning and Cloud Gateway services will require secured SSL communication. It is best to start with a secure connection end-to-end out of the gate.

Factor Number 2: You only get one change to get the host name right

The first prompt during the installation process asks you to enter the load balancer host name.

Hostname Citrix StoreFront

This host name must match the SSL certificate name and resolve as a trusted name. Furthermore, this cannot be the same host name or certificate as the Access Gateway. This even applies if you have a wild card certificate installed – the name cannot be the same. According to various resources at Citrix, there is no way around this with the DNS tricks that we all do could do in Web Interface.  This means that you must have an internal and external VIP on your access gateway. You also must have two separate internal and external A records and addresses for access. There is the possibility that an internal CNAME record pointing the user from the external name to the internal name may work. We have not tested that as of the time that this article was written. After testing is complete I will update this content with findings.

As the title states, you only get one chance to get the hostname right. When you are configuring the StoreFront, if you incorrectly name the hostname with the external name, or with a name that you do not wish to use, there is no way to edit that configuration later. Your only option is to uninstall the StoreFront and start over.

Consideration number 3: SQL database deployment is manual and only supported on SQL 2008 and higher

StoreFront requires an SQL server in a production deployment and SQL 2008 is the oldest version of SQL that is supported. Unlike other Citrix products, SQL 2005 is not supported. Additionally, the software does not deploy the database for you. Unlike other Citrix software, the database must be manually created by running a script against your SQL server. Simply creating an ODBC connection and letting the installer do its thing does not happen. To configure the database follow the link below.

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/dws-storefront-10/dws-deploy-multi-database.html

Consideration Number 4: Plan on sending everything through the Access Gateway

Although the StoreFront is smarter than Web Interface and it can identify weather a client is accessing it internally or externally, it is more rigid from an access method standpoint. The other limitation is that the receiver client (particularly the one for mobile) is still not very smart. Due to the reasons stated above, and the fact that the mobile receiver cannot switch between access gateway mode and services site mode, the most seamless user experience is accomplished by proxying all connections through the gateway. This ensures that the same URL is accessed by users all the time with the same result, but of course there are ups and downs to this approach. The biggest consideration is that it could mean the difference between a NetScaler VPX and MPX. While a proxied connection is relatively low overhead, it does not mean that there is no overhead and if the NetScaler was only sized to support external users that comprise of 10% of the total user population, it will become a big bottleneck quickly. On the upside, by sending all traffic though the ICA proxy you gain a greater amount of visibility to what is going on all the way down to the endpoint. Most importantly everything will just work without asking users to change their behavior or without trying to manipulate DNS and traffic flow if all traffic is sent through the Gateway.

Consideration number 5: The StoreFront is smart because it leverages the SNIP from the NetScaler to figure out how you log in.

Authentication type is determined by the SNIP/MIP. NetScaler uses a Subnet IP (SNIP) or Mapped IP (MIP) address to mask the actual IP address of virtual servers communicating with Network resources.  During the gateway configuration process you are prompted to enter the Access Gateway URL. You are also prompted to enter the MIP that the Access Gateway uses.

Gateway Settings

 

This is used for the StoreFront to understand how authentication will occur. If traffic is coming from the MIP, then it is going to authenticate at the gateway. If it is coming from a different address, the user will need to authenticate at the server. This works great unless the NetScaler is a one armed configuration, or if the internal StoreFront VIP is on the same subnet as the Access Gateway VIP. If either or those scenarios are the case then they will use the same subnet IP. The result will be that authentication will be broken for users attempting to directly access the server. Citrix has a published workaround that states to put 1.1.1.1 for the Subnet IP Address. Although the workaround seems to fix the issue, it is just a workaround and I worry that issues will creep up over time with that configuration.

The better workaround (in my opinion) leverages NetScaler functionality. NetScaler virtual servers have the capability of having Net profiles configured. In essence means you can dictate what SNIP is used for a specific VIP connection. In a configuration where the Storefront VIP and Access Gateway VIP are on the same subnet, Net profiles can be used to differentiate between access from the gateway and direct access from the VIP. This will require two SNIPs to be configured. An internal and external VIP for the StoreFront will also be required.

Create Virtual Server Load Balancing

 

After you have created the Net Profiles to differentiate the SNIP of the internal web VIP from the Access Gateway VIP the StoreFront should properly identify the traffic and use the correct authentication method.

In conclusion, the Citrix StoreFront is without question a step forward from the Web Interface from a standpoint of capabilities and functionality. It is also the key component to enabling many of the new features and products that integrate with Receiver. There is still some work to be done to ensure that Web Interface has the polish of other Citrix products, but hopefully the above will prove useful in getting your StoreFront initiative off the ground. I have no doubt that many of these issues and limitations will be resolved in future release, but until then, at least we all know how to work with them.

Comm Solutions is a Citrix Systems Gold Partner, to learn more visit: http://www.commsolutions.com/citrix

Posted in Articles, Partner, Tech Tip, Virtualization

Blue Coat To Acquire Solera Networks For Threat Intelligence, Analytics

Posted by Maggie Marsden on May 23, 2013 — Leave a Comment
By Robert Westervelt
May 22, 2013    9:35 AM ET

Blue Coat Systems unveiled plans to acquire network forensics and monitoring appliance maker Solera Networks. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the acquisition is expected to close in June.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based security appliance maker said it plans to add Solera to its portfolio. Solera sells a DeepSee network monitoring platform, which has been popular with computer forensics teams who praise the performance of its core processing engine. It acts as a network recorder, providing security analytics and forensic capabilities to trace a breach to the source.

“Solera is a DVR for the network that records traffic and enables customers to easily search and access that information,” Greg Clark, CEO of Blue Coat, said in a statement. “By utilizing analytics to determine the root cause of the security breach, Solera can proactively provide real-time threat protection.”

Blue Coat, once a publicly traded company, was acquired last year by private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $1.3 billion and has been reshaping its product strategy around large enterprise deployments.

Blue Coat sells proxy appliances designed to protect endpoints by acting as the central point to control employee Internet use. The company sells an appliance for large enterprises that provides URL filtering, controls scripts and monitors digital certificates and antimalware via third-party antivirus engines. The company also has a cloud-based secure Web gateway service it calls WebPulse that tracks malware networks and provides antimalware protection from attacks, mainly financially motivated cybercrime, emanating from those networks. The company provides application traffic control and WAN optimization as well.

Blue Coat said enterprises could combine DeepSee software and appliances for rapid response and recovery from an attack or security breach. The company plans to combine attack and incident data collected from Solera customers with its WebPulse service to provide faster and more complete protection. The company claims the combined service includes data from 15,000 companies, including 86 percent of the Fortune 500.

Combined with security analytics, Solera’s software could help organizations mitigate zero-day threats and attacks that use more sophisticated malware, said Steve Shillingford, CEO of Solera. The company has been transforming its appliance into a real-time network monitoring platform that businesses can use to contain attacks before they become a serious problem. Both companies use an open architecture, designed to integrate with third-party products including HP (NYSE:HPQ)-ArcSight, Sourcefire, Splunk and FireEye.

Blue Coat’s focus has been on combining security with operational efficiency and throughput, said Wendy Nather, research director of the enterprise security practice at 451 Research. Under Thoma Bravo the company has been building out network functionality, Nather said.

For example, Thoma Bravo acquired Crossbeam Systems in November. Crossbeam is seen as a high-end network security appliance for data center deployments. It combines unified threat management capabilities, firewalling, and intrusion prevention and detection systems from a variety of vendors. One month later, Thoma Bravo integrated Crossbeam into Blue Coat’s portfolio.

“Blue Coat was previously only about enterprise protection and now this is part of its much broader network play,” Nather said. “If you want to get into deep inspection and network forensics, you need something like Solera.”

The acquisition makes sense for Blue Coat, which is getting pressure from a number of security firms that provide integrated perimeter protection, including next-generation firewall makers, said Mike Rothman, analyst and president of research consultancy Securosis. The acquisition is more confusing from Solera’s standpoint, Rothman said.

Solera’s deep packet analysis engine was highly praised, making it an acquisition target from a larger firm, such as McAfee, IBM (NYSE:IBM) or HP, Rothman said. Some security experts thought McAfee, an Intel subsidiary, would make a move to buy Solera. Intel’s financial arm had invested in Solera last year.

“I think it underserves the strategic need for what being able to analyze packets means from a security management standpoint,” Rothman said.

Blue Coat also unveiled a five-pronged approach for security that includes policy enforcement, mobile security, application security, performance and data breach resolution. The company unveiled an Application Classification Service and Application Controller to monitor and identify potentially malicious applications. Blue Coat said the service provides dynamic application classification and comprehensive application profiles.

Read Full Article

Comm Solutions is a Blue Coat Partner, to learn more visit: http://www.commsolutions.com/index.php/partner/blue-coat
To learn more about what Comm Solutions can do for your organization, contact us: http://www.commsolutions.com/index.php/contact-us
Posted in Articles, Partner

Aruba Networks Introduces 802.11ac Solution for the Next-Generation Workplace

Posted by Maggie Marsden on May 21, 2013 — Leave a Comment

New, Patented ClientMatch Technology Solves “Sticky Client” Issue, Ensures Optimal Performance and Reliability for Devices and Applications

SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 21, 2013 – Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARUN), a leading provider of next-generation network access solutions for the mobile enterprise, today announced its flagship 802.11ac solution, the first in the industry to deliver gigabit Wi-Fi combined with the device density and application intelligence required by today’s Wi-Fi networks. The newly introduced Aruba 220 Series Access Points (APs), combined with Aruba’s new ClientMatch technology, address the critical needs of enterprises creating a next-generation workplace.

Enterprise IT departments are challenged by the overwhelming number of devices connecting to their networks, as well as increasing device density, both of which can lead to inadequate Wi-Fi capacity. In addition, these IT administrators face the issue of “sticky” clients or devices that don’t automatically connect to and stay connected to the best access point, resulting in slower speeds and inconsistent and unreliable connections. Furthermore, business critical applications like real-time Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) are often encrypted and can’t be identified by Wi-Fi networks, making it almost impossible to provide visibility or higher quality of service. While the 802.11ac standard was designed to deliver greater speed and capacity than offered by 802.11n networks, without a way to optimize how devices and clients connect to the Wi-Fi network, an 802.11ac-based network could perform no differently than an 802.11n network.

Aruba’s 802.11ac solution solves these density, performance and reliability issues. With the Aruba ClientMatch technology, “sticky” clients are always connected to the best possible access point as they roam within the Aruba wireless LAN (WLAN), ensuring predictable performance for all mobile devices. In competitive testing, an Aruba WLAN with ClientMatch delivered up to 94% better device performance than a Cisco WLAN. In addition, by combining the Aruba 220 Series APs, unique ClientMatch technology and Aruba’s unparalleled application visibility for real-time UCC applications like Microsoft Lync, enterprises can now rightsize their networks by eliminating unused desk phones and any free access network ports on each desk. The result is a next-generation workplace that meets end user needs and can reduce IT costs by as much as 76%.

“Imprecise roaming, sub-optimal load balancing, and related Wi-Fi performance challenges have been perpetual thorns in the side of IT and network operations managers for years,” said Craig Mathias, Principal, Farpoint Group. “Aruba’s new ClientMatch technology is designed to address a key obstacle here – ‘sticky clients’ – and to aid in realizing 802.11ac’s potential. Enabling client devices to always connect to the most available, highest-performing AP helps ensure that enterprises can benefit from the enhanced throughput and capacity that 802.11ac offers.”

Aruba 220 Series Access Points Purpose-Built to Enable Smooth Migration to 802.11ac
The Aruba 220 Series APs are purpose-built for 802.11ac, resulting in time and cost savings for enterprises. Unlike modular 802.11ac APs, the Aruba 220 Series access points draw much less power, and also feature a power-efficient mode, so that enterprises can operate the APs at lower speeds with available 802.3af PoE power. Power-efficient mode gives enterprises the option to delay replacing their existing switch infrastructure and avoid the expensive labor costs associated with closet upgrades during WLAN design and deployment. With speeds of up to 1.75 Gbps (and up to 1.9 Gbps for devices with Broadcom’s TurboQAM™ technology), the 220 Series can support a higher density of devices, solving the capacity issues confronting enterprise IT. The 220 Series uniquely supports link aggregation on two gigabit Ethernet ports to realize maximum speeds on both the 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands and deliver true gigabit speeds. In addition, the 220 Series APs are smaller than other 802.11ac access points, making them faster and easier to install, and they utilize two radios, rather than three, making them less expensive.

Patented ClientMatch Technology Resolves “Sticky Client” Issue
Aruba’s unique, patented ClientMatch technology resolves the issue of “sticky clients” on 802.11ac and 802.11n Wi-Fi networks, wherein mobile devices have difficulty connecting to the best possible access point. “Sticky client” problems occur due to a mobile device’s poor roaming algorithms, lack of proper RF interference monitoring, and competition with other slower devices that monopolize an entire channel. ClientMatch dynamically optimizes Wi-Fi client performance by putting the Wi-Fi infrastructure in control of client connection and roaming decisions. The infrastructure utilizes the 802.11 standard to ensure that each device is always connected to the closest and least busy AP, even when users roam and RF conditions change. ClientMatch works by gathering real-time performance metrics from mobile devices and monitoring RF conditions for each AP. This data is then used to intelligently steer devices to the best possible AP, ensuring that every device benefits from the promise of 802.11ac’s increased speed and capacity.

Arista Networks, a leader in software defined cloud networking solutions based in Santa Clara, CA., will use Aruba’s new 802.11ac solution to enable its next-generation workplace environment. Working with Exafort, a leading cloud and mobility solutions integrator, Arista is outfitting its new five-story building with 75 Aruba 220 Series access points as well as the new ClientMatch technology. The new infrastructure will deliver all-wireless access to approximately 1,000 employees by the fall of 2013 and is expected to deliver substantial cost savings to the organization. “For Arista employees the wireless network is becoming the primary access network for both data and voice, and performance and reliability of our wireless infrastructure is critical,” said Ed Chapman, Vice President, Business Development and Alliances, Arista Networks. “Our employees are developing industry-leading software defined cloud networking solutions and it’s important that they work in an industry-leading wireless environment. Aruba’s new 802.11ac solution and ClientMatch software deliver the wireless capacity and speed our employees demand, quickly and cost effectively.”

Unprecedented Visibility into Voice, Video and UC Applications like Microsoft Lync Ensures Improved Application Performance
Aruba’s WLAN solution incorporates unique capabilities for managing real-time UCC applications such as Microsoft Lync. Since these applications are often encrypted, Wi-Fi networks cannot distinguish, and therefore prioritize, latency-sensitive media streams such as voice, video and desktop sharing over less sensitive data and file sharing streams. To speed the identification and remediation of communication issues, Aruba WLANs extract call quality data from Microsoft’s new Lync Diagnostics API and combine it with network status data. Monitored data includes MOS scores, QoS markings, wireless client connection health at the time of the call, jitter, delay, packet loss, caller/callee identity mapping to MAC and IP address, call status, voice or video call type, and client sessions active at time of call. The result is priority handling, end-to-end call visibility, faster root-cause fault identification, and a better overall user experience.

“UCC managers need end-to-end visibility into call performance so any issues that impact quality can be rapidly isolated to root cause,” said Jamie Stark, Microsoft’s Lync Product Marketing Manager. “Working with real-time, session-level metrics generated by Microsoft’s recently announced Lync Diagnostics API, as well as network data pulled directly from its Wi-Fi infrastructure, Aruba helps pinpoint the source of communication issues that impact Lync performance. The solution provides visibility into over-the-wire and over-the-air Lync performance, and is intended to help IT staff better identify, isolate, and ultimately, remediate UCC issues regardless of source.”

Pricing and Availability
The Aruba 220 Series APs, which can be used with Aruba’s complete portfolio of mobility controllers, will be available in June 2013. A controller-less Aruba Instant version will be available in Q3 2013. 220 Series AP prices start at U.S. list $1,295. ClientMatch and Microsoft Lync Visibility are also available in June as part of the new ArubaOS 6.3 software. ClientMatch is available as a free software upgrade to existing Aruba customers with support contracts. Lync Visibility is integrated into the Policy Enforcement Firewall (PEF) Module, a software add-on to ArubaOS, and is also available at no charge to customers who have already purchased PEF and have support contracts. To learn more about 802.11ac, the new Aruba 220 Series and Aruba ClientMatch please visitwww.arubanetworks.com/11ac.

Read Full Article

Comm Solutions is an Aruba Networks Platinum Partner, to learn more visit: http://www.commsolutions.com/index.php/partner/aruba-networks

Posted in Partner, Press Release, Wireless

Palo Alto Networks Achieves Rigorous Common Criteria EAL4+ Certification

Posted by Danielle Fontana on May 17, 2013 — Leave a Comment

Palo Alto Networks firewalls have achieved Common Criteria certification at Evaluation Assurance Level 4+ (EAL4+), the highest level of globally recognized certification for the firewall category.

This achievement marks the completion of a rigorous third-party evaluation and testing process.  It proves that Palo Alto Networks firewalls are third-party validated security platforms for the most critical infrastructures, ranging from national governments to enterprise and financial institution networks.

“Because of heightened cyber security concerns, many organizations are looking for innovative and proven network security solutions that give them better control over network traffic,” said Lee Klarich, senior vice president of Product Management at Palo Alto Networks, Inc.  “This certification adds to the existing validations that underscore Palo Alto Networks firewalls are an exceptional platform to meet today’s pressing network security needs.”

This achievement expands Palo Alto Networks growing list of technical credentials, which include recognition by ICSA Labs (Network firewall certification), Telcordia (NEBS) and NIST (FIPS 140-2), among others.

Posted in Articles, Firewall, Partner

Bloomington School District Replaces Cisco with Aruba WLAN

Posted by Danielle Fontana on May 17, 2013 — Leave a Comment

Like so many public school districts, the Bloomington, Illinois, School District 87 is tasked with providing its diverse student population with a 21st Century education while simultaneously meeting state and federal mandates in a difficult fiscal climate.

To meet those demands, Bloomington developed an innovative strategy: pursue a device-agnostic, one-to-one computing initiative by leveraging BYOD as a means to preserve resources and enable the district to supply its students with mobile devices.

The problem was, the district’s legacy Cisco wireless LAN provided inadequate coverage to meet changing demands, was overly complex and required excessive IT resources to manage. Not surprisingly, Bloomington decided it needed a new end-to-end solution. Aruba was there to help.

After evaluating vendors, the district selected an Aruba Networks solution for its range of capabilities, flexibility, intelligence and security features.

Read their story here.

Posted in Articles, Wireless

RSA Security Analytics Launch Demo

Posted by Danielle Fontana on May 16, 2013 — Leave a Comment

See how the new RSA Security Analytics helps security analysts detect and investigate threats often missed by other security tools and cut attacker free time from weeks to hours.

Posted in Partner, Videos

Nimble Storage SmartStack for VDI Built on Cisco UCS with Citrix XenDesktop Delivers Leading User Density for High-Performance Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

Posted by Kevin Fitzpatrick on May 16, 2013 — Leave a Comment

Validated Nimble Storage Reference Architecture Leverages Cisco UCS and Citrix XenDesktop to Deliver Low-Risk Deployments and Aggressive ROI with Storage for 1,500 User Desktops in 3U of Rack Space

San Jose, Calif. – May 2, 2013 – Nimble Storage, the leading provider of flash-optimized hybrid storage solutions, announced Nimble Storage SmartStack for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) leveraging Citrix XenDesktop® running on Cisco Unified Computing System™ (Cisco UCS®). This proven comprehensive solution combines the best-of-breed technologies from Nimble Storage, Cisco and Citrix, allowing a simplified deployment of scalable high-performance VDI. The Nimble Storage reference architecture, which consists of a compact 3U Nimble Storage CS440G-X4, the Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Server platform, Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 and VMware vSphere® 5.0 update 1, was fully tested by Nimble Storage using the Login VSI tool to support 1,500 virtual user desktops. This validated reference architecture helps customers to lower their risk in deploying VDI and improve ROI of desktop virtualization. The validated solution can be scaled from hundreds to thousands of persistent and non-persistent desktops as needed for VDI growth.

Highlights

  • The comprehensive VDI reference architecture is fully optimized and validated by Nimble Storage using the Login VSI tool to simulate real user workloads, including boot and login storms, updates and patching.
  • The Nimble Storage CS440G-X4 delivers the storage density to support 1,500 virtual desktop users in just 3U of rack space.
  • A modular building-block approach allows for independent and non-disruptive scaling to accommodate just-in-time growth as needs grow.
  • The Cisco UCS Blade Server platform and Nimble Storage CS-Series deliver adaptive performance to complement the rich functionality in XenDesktop that delivers a user experience equivalent to physical desktops.

Architecture

Storage

  • One Nimble Storage CS440G-X4 array

Server Infrastructure

  • Two Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Server Chassis
  • 10 Cisco UCS B230 M2 and two Cisco UCS B200 M3 for hosting virtual desktops
  • Two Cisco UCS B200 M2 for hosting VDI and Windows infrastructure
  • Two Cisco UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects with redundant 10GbE connectivity

Desktop Virtualization

  • Citrix XenDesktop 5.6

Hypervisor and User Environment

  • VMware vSphere 5.0 update 1
  • Microsoft Windows® 7 (32-bit)

Quotes

Darrell Parker, Director of Information Systems, Oaks Christian School
“Oaks Christian School was looking to deploy VDI to extend school resources off campus, move toward a BYOD model for students on campus, and serve our out-of-state online school students. After evaluating different options, we found the combination of Cisco, Citrix, and Nimble to best meet our needs around cost, efficiency, and scalability. We have already seen the benefits of desktop virtualization around faster logon times, remote access to network resources, simplified administration of software maintenance, and enhanced security using read-only student desktops.”

Kevin Fitzpatrick, Storage and Data Protection Practice Leader, Comm Solutions
“Pre-validated reference architectures are a great way for us to accelerate our customers’ deployments while minimizing risks. The Nimble Storage SmartStack for VDI with Cisco and Citrix is ideal because it provides our customers and us with a pre-defined template of an end-to-end solution using the best- in- class server, storage and software for VDI — delivering efficiency and scalability that our customers need.”

Kevin Strohmeyer, Director of Product Marketing, Desktops and Apps, Citrix
“Storage is an important factor when deploying virtual desktops to ensure consistent, excellent performance while not over-allocating to the point of disrupting the economic benefits of virtualization. The Nimble reference architecture for XenDesktop and Cisco UCS can help our mutual customers realize the many benefits of desktop virtualization, providing the ability to meet performance expectations at scale while containing infrastructure costs.”

Radhika Krishnan, Director of Product, Solution and Alliances Marketing, Nimble Storage
“The potential benefits of VDI are undeniable, but uncertainty remains around initial provisioning times, variable performance and guaranteed ROI. The pre-tested, validated solution with Nimble Storage Cisco UCS and Citrix delivers a proven recipe for success that lowers risk and accelerates VDI deployments for midsized and enterprise-level deployments to further improve ROI.”

Resources

About Nimble Storage

Nimble Storage believes enterprises should not have to compromise on performance, capacity, ease of use, or price. Nimble has developed the first hybrid storage architecture engineered from the ground up to seamlessly integrate flash and high-capacity drives. Our customers enjoy as much as 10x faster application performance, enhanced backup and disaster recovery, and stress-free operations—all while lowering their TCO. Nimble Storage solutions are available through a global network of world-class channel partners. For more information, visit www.nimblestorage.com and follow us on Twitter: @nimblestorage.

©Nimble Storage and CASL are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nimble Storage. Other trade names or words used in this document are the properties of their respective owners.

Posted in Articles, Partner, Press Release, Storage

Aberdeen’s Customer Survey Shows ShoreTel UC with Lowest TCO

Posted by Danielle Fontana on May 15, 2013 — Leave a Comment

When real users of unified communications solutions are surveyed, ShoreTel leads the field for lowest total cost of ownership (TCO), according to a report from the independent research and analysis firm Aberdeen Group.

The firm surveyed 485 users of IPT (IP telephony) as well as legacy TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) from May to November 2012. The study covered the categories of initial capital costs, recurring costs, training cost, and planned versus unplanned downtime. Vendors in the survey were Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft, Mitel and ShoreTel.

Although organizations of every size were surveyed, the majority, 74 percent, were categorized in the small-to-midsize enterprise (SME) sector.

The results were clear:

ShoreTel costs per initial IP extension were $944, compared to $1,485 for all others.

tco1

ShoreTel also registered the lowest annual recurring costs, at $113 compared to $211, or 46 percent less than the industry average.

tco2

The survey reflected real-world results based on customers’ experiences, not laboratory tests as offered by others.

Aberdeen put the results in perspective in its conclusion, saying, “…ShoreTel’s users are clearly benefitting from a lower total cost of ownership and reduced system complexity.

“From more efficient use of network resources and requiring less staff for implementation, operation and maintenance – to lower hardware upgrade and software assurance costs – ShoreTel IPT is proving itself to be a good fit for the needs of the SME sector,” Aberdeen concluded.

The report, called “IP Telephony TCO for the SME: Think Beyond Equipment Cost,”can be accessed here.

By: Jack McCarthy, Content Manager - ShoreTel

Posted in Articles, Unified Communications

ShoreTel IP Phones and Docking Stations

Posted by Danielle Fontana on May 14, 2013 — Leave a Comment

ShoreTel offers IP phones (also known as VoIP phones) and docking stations for smart phones and tablets, to suit every type of business user: from executives, to operators, to remote workers, to call center supervisors. An integral – and ergonomic – part of ShoreTel’s VoIP telephony solution, ShoreTel phones come preconfigured, reducing dramatically the time required to deploy your VoIP business telephone system. And because ShoreTel phones interoperate with ShoreTel Communicator, it is easy to extend the reach and features of ShoreTel’s business VoIP solution well beyond the walls of the office. Add in ShoreTel Mobility combined with ShoreTel Dock and you have a powerful solution for the mobile generation.

Contact us to discuss if this solution is a fit for your environment Click Here

http://www.commsolutions.com/index.php/partner/shoretel

Posted in Articles, Partner, Unified Communications
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