Vector Resources to Exhibit at GSA Training and Expo

Vector Resources will be exhibiting at the GSA Training and Expo this week, May 15-17 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas.

The GSA Training and Expo will include exhibits from more than 100 companies that provide technical expertise, products and services to U.S. Government organizations and will include two featured events focusing on:

• Native Nations Gathering
• B2G Roundtables for Small Business and Government Buyers

The address to Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center is 200 East Market Street, San Antonio, TX 78205 and the schedule of events is located at http://expo.gsa.gov/schedule.cfm.

We hope to see you all there!

Datacenter Consolidation: Should I or Shouldn’t I?

Utilizing virtualization to consolidate servers and storage arrays is becoming an especially hot topic among mid-sized and larger organizations.  As IT teams update older, legacy systems, virtualization gives them the flexibility to more efficiently utilize existing assets as well as reduce the number of total devices in operation.

Virtualization shifts dispersed, often single purpose application servers to a centralized resource of computing power that typically requires a smaller number of total devices.  The widespread availability of fiber networks and cloud infrastructure has accelerated this trend.  But, just because consolidation is a viable architectural alternative, does that mean IT managers should take the plunge?

Well, as a politician once said, where you stand depends on where you sit.

Typically, datacenters become fragmented for one of the following reasons:  a company has completed one or more acquisitions and left the acquired organization’s datacenter in place, an organization has grown significantly and simply created a new datacenter every time it opened a new facility, or an IT realizes their datacenter is running out of space and/or electricity and decides to open another one.

 As with any major IT initiative, to maximize ROI on the project, IT teams should have a clearly defined set of goals.  The most frequently cited goals and their rationales are below:

• Greening the Datacenter – Consolidating multiple datacenters can translate to a smaller overall carbon footprint, less energy consumed and less heat produced that requires air conditioning.
• Minimizing TCO – Bringing multiple datacenters into one or a few locations enables IT teams to better manage server and storage costs; e.g., a smaller number of larger storage devices are less expensive than multiple smaller devices.
• Ensuring Up-to-Date Computing Platforms – IT teams are better able to manage migration from old to newer technologies in a consolidated environment.
• Enhancing Security – Reducing the number of datacenters cuts down on the number of entry points for malware.  It also enables IT teams to more easily ensure all datacenters have the most robust security procedures.
• Improving Service to Employees – IT teams can better manage the user experience and respond more quickly to error messages and other issues in a consolidated environment.

 To help ensure the success of the project, below are 10 tips IT teams should think about when planning a datacenter consolidation project:

•  Determine Required Resources – Outline the capacity needed to support the move, the time and skills required and inventory the current software and systems in place to determine which assets will and will not function correctly in a consolidated environment.
•  Create Specific Project Metrics – Map out goals of the project in terms of capabilities, time and resources required, and desired performance results.
• Communicate with Other Disciplines Affected – IT teams should talk to facilities managers and others involved with a consolidation to understand any possible opportunities and constraints.  For example, facilities teams are often responsible for power consumption, the IT team must be clear on power needs for a consolidated datacenter. 
• Minimize Changes Once the Project Starts – Unless there are technical or other “deal breakers” do not make changes to the project plan once it is started.  It’s too easy to miss the impact of changes on performance, security or another important metric.  
• Add Experience Where Needed – Ensure there are people on your consolidation team with previous datacenter consolidation experience. 
• Identify Best Practices from Similar Projects – Invest the time necessary to study datacenter consolidation projects at organizations in a similar situation to your in terms of locations, network architecture, how teams work and the types and sizes of files shared. 
• Test and Test Again – As you complete elements of the consolidation, test and test again.  To the degree possible, test elements of the network under heavy operating conditions and look for any failures in performance. 
• Use Datacenter Consolidation as anOpportunityto “Clean House” – As IT teams plan and implement the consolidation project, there’s an opportunity to address other IT issues as well.  Among these are activities such as removing legacy hardware from the network, either delete or move inactive data off of life applications, and determine what data must be stored on the network and what can be stored in the cloud.

 As IT teams consider data center consolidation projects, it can often be valuable to turn to a third party for an outside assessment and recommendations.  When reviewing these outside resources, IT teams should make certain they have datacenter consolidation experience in organizations such as theirs, as well as carefully check references.

Datacenter consolidations can provide many benefits, but IT leaders must be careful to define clear goals, continuously seek out and implement best practices and create a definitive, measureable timeline.

Vector Resources to Present and Exhibit at 23rd Annual ITPX/NCUG Conference & Trade Show

Vector Resources will present on the topic, “The Next Great IT Product Is Now Available” next Tuesday, April 24, 1:40 – 2:30 p.m. as part of the 23^rd Annual ITPX/NCUG Conference & Trade Show in Las Vegas. The session will be held in the Savoy Room. Vector will also exhibit at the show, which runs April 23-26, in booth #103. Industry experts and technology professionals will also be on hand to demonstrate and showcase their latest technology products, solutions, services and strategies for success.  Attendees will include decision makers, end users and others from all levels of government, universities, healthcare and banking.

In our session, we will be discussing and exploring topics such as:

• How we tie together varying products from high tech flooring that aids in overall cost reduction
• Finding the solutions to working in historic buildings
• Lighting products that cost less, but provide great LEED return

 The conference will be held at the Flamingo Resort Hotel, 3555 Las Vegas Blvd., South, Las Vegas, NV.

 We hope to see you there!

Vector Resources to Participate in the 14th Annual Southern Arizona Procurement Fair

Vector Resources’ Phoenix team will participate in the 14^th Annual Southern Arizona Procurement Fair, sponsored by the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Pima County Procurement Department and the City of Tucson Housing & Community Development, this Friday, April 20, 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.   

More than 175 representatives from federal, state and local procurement agencies, and businesses who are eager to meet systems integrators and other products and solutions companies will be at this event.

The event is free and the conference will be held at the Kino Sports Complex, 2500 East Ajo Way, Tucson, AZ 85713.

We hope to see you there!

Vector’s New Harrisburg Office Hosts Table at PA Innovator’s Showcase

Last Friday, Vector hosted a table at the 20^th annual PA Innovator’s Showcase, held at Harrisburg’s Whitaker Center for the Arts and Sciences.  Approximately 400 people attended the event. 

TechQuest Pennsylvania represents the state’s technology industry, building coalitions that advance strategies designed to increase technology innovation in the state. 

Vector featured several of today’s most important networking technologies, designed to enable users to work more effectively while protecting critical information assets.  Attending the event demonstrated Vector’s commitment to the Pennsylvania technology community.

Following the tabletop event, TechQuest held it’s Annual Awards Gala, which feted this year’s award winners in categories such as Innovation in Broadcasting Technology.

Vector Resources – San Diego Tech Expo Showcases Newest and Coolest

If you missed the Vector Resources – San Diego Tech Expo, you missed exhibits showcasing some of the newest and most advanced networking and unified communication technologies available.  By my count, about 100 people attended over the course of the afternoon, and then enjoyed hors d’oeuvres and refreshments afterwards as we conducted tours through our new building. The turnout and success of the event underscores the growth of Vector’s San Diego office, which now includes more than 75 employees. 

March has been a strong month for our San Diego team overall; just last week the City of San Diego Central Library awarded Vector a project to design and deploy GPON architecture inside their building, which should save the library thousands of dollars in energy costs, annually. March also marks the first full-month we’ve been in business in Harrisburg, PA, another important milestone for our Company. 

San Diego Office Hosts Open House to Highlight Hot Products

Our San Diego team is putting on an open house this Thursday, March 8, to showcase some of the newest networking solutions available.  Representatives from many manufacturers will also be on hand to discuss how these solutions can improve productivity, reduce costs and enhance your organization’s IT return on investment. We are also providing tours of our new, expanded facility.

We have organized these demos as a series of workshops.  When you first arrive, we will give you a passport and demo teams at each workshop will stamp your passport after you visit.  Those with completed passports will be entered into an end-of-program raffle to receive gifts and prizes. 

The demos will take place from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m., and a cocktail reception with hors d’oeuvres will run from 4:00 – 6:00. 

The event is free, but registration is mandatory:  Please visit: http://bit.ly/zLaUKN

The first 100 to register are automatically entered to win an iPad.

 

Our open house is sponsored by these leading manufacturers:

 Anixter

Aruba

Ascom

Avaya

Bassett

Comstor/Cisco

Hewlett Packard

Intransa

LifeSize

Microsoft Lync

OnSSI

Sony

TE Connectivity

Tellabs

TrippLite

 

 The address is Vector Resources –San Diego

 9808 Waples Street

 San Diego,CA 92121

 

We hope to see you there!

GPON: A New Opportunity to Improve Productivity, Reduce Costs and Go Green

For building owners, architects and networking consultants involved in either erecting new buildings or completing significant upgrades, creating an optical LAN with gigabit passive optical network (GPON) architecture is an important technology that addresses three critical issues:  enhancing productivity, reducing CapEx and OpEx costs and meeting new and sometimes stringent environmental standards. While GPON may not be appropriate for every project, it should be considered as a viable approach to achieve these objectives.

What Is GPON Architecture?

GPON is a medium where fiber is “passively” split to connect multiple end users. GPON equipment does not require electrical power, substantially reducing heat and saving energy.

The telecommunications industry has deployed GPON for years, it is a stable, proven, effective technology.  Today, innovative system architects are turning to GPON for campus and in-building environments.

GPON architecture is different than the Active Ethernet widely in use today.  In an Active Ethernet architecture, fiber travels between a series of routers and switches that are powered.  It also has a distance limitation of approximately 300 feet.  These characteristics drive up costs, increase the number of points of failure, and the amount of space and power required.

GPON Advantages for In-building Projects

Only recently have network architects considered building optical LANs with GPON for that “last 100 feet;” i.e., the distance from the node or premises to the end user.  The advantages of adopting GPON for that final connection to the end user are many:

• Enables Short- and Long-Term Cost Savings – Multiple studies have shown that utilizing GPON in an optimal network can result in up to 70 percent lower CapEx, up to 80 percent lower power consumption and as much as 90 percent less space utilization.  Ten-year total cost of ownership (TCO) analyses have shown lower OpEx costs than Active Ethernet. 
• Contributes to a Comprehensive “Green” Strategy – Lower power consumption translates to lower carbon emissions and a lower carbon footprint.  GPON can help all buildings reduce power consumption.  In particular, it can helpU.S.government buildings meet the executive order mandate to reduce energy consumption by 30 percent by 2015.  It also can impact a company’s LEED certification levels. 
• Future–proofs the LAN Infrastructure – GPON ultra-fast broadband connections are delivered over a fiber infrastructure, instead of Active Ethernet using copper media. This fiber in-building cabling has longer life, smaller, lighter, stronger, better bend radius, higher bandwidth capacity, longer reach, less susceptible to interference, faster connector solutions, longer life and less expensive when compared to traditional copper media. .  It also provides gigabit-speed bandwidth to the desktop, meeting nearly any end user’s need to download or stream video and/or other very large files.
• Facilitates Building High-performance Converged Networks – Combining voice, data and video networks into one architecture results in CapEx and OpEx savings.  IT teams can easily migrate between Analog POTS and VoIP for voice capabilities.  GPON can easily accommodate a wide range of RF video, IP video and videoconferencing options.   GPON can support existing wireless access points (WAP) and allows more flexible WAP placement.  IT teams can also easily integrate building automation security and building sensor systems.As building owners, architects and networking consultants continue to search for solutions that enable to both offer better services to their clients and save money, optical networks incorporation GPON architecture provide an outstanding alternative.  It can help these professionals successfully navigate the “rocks” of improving productivity, reducing costs and contributing to a “greener” infrastructure. 

Putting the Energy Consumption of Worldwide Data Centers into Perspective – Part 2

In last week’s post I laid out the case that there are enormous productivity and financial upsides to greening today’s datacenters.  Today, I’d like to suggest specific strategies to get there. 

1. Virtualization – The process of running multiple programs on one or two computers, or having five or six people work on one computer simultaneously. These steps can significantly reduce an energy footprint.  Benefits of a virtualization strategy can include:

• IT becomes more efficient. Beyond just hardware savings from consolidation, virtualization optimizes infrastructure costs and increases operational efficiency. Plus, firms are able to reclaim capacity (space, power, and cooling) in their data centers, postponing costly expansion plans.
• Time-to-market is faster. Virtualization speeds server and application deployment, makes configurations more consistent, and simplifies the staging of applications across test and development.
• IT services are more predictable. There will always be failures and downtime, but virtualization makes recovery from these incidents faster, easier, and lower cost.

2. More efficient switching – With circuit switching, the route for communications from one point to another is decided before the communication is started. The communication remains on the same route from beginning to end of the process, even if that route is not the most efficient route.

With packet switching, a communication is divided up into packets and each packet is allowed to find its way to the destination by the most efficient route possible. Packets are sent and then the recipient device re-assembles the packets to form the original transmission. Because each packet can use the best route possible, the transmission of data via packet switching allows for optimum efficiency versus circuit switching. Our experience is that packet switching is more efficient and robust, increasing worker productivity, enhancing data security, and enjoying greater energy savings.

3. Mobility and Collaboration – Already a $57 billion market, the mobility and collaboration market is expected to grow at a four-year compound annual growth rate of 13.8 percent, according to industry analysts. Gartner predicts that 34 percent ($1.2 trillion) of the total data center spend will be associated with mobility and 67 percent of all workers will be mobile by the end of 2012 (Gartner, 2010).

Contributing to this unprecedented market growth are the dramatically changing dynamics of the enterprise workplace. With people working away from their desks more than 67 percent of the time, businesses in every industry are seeking data center solutions that allow them to be more productive and profitable in this mobile environment while addressing new challenges in data center security, storage and manageability.

The more we can replace physical travel with networked virtual experiences, the more we can reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. “Move electrons and photons, not atoms.” Strategies include:

• Networked connectivity to enable more people to work from home and reduce commute consumption and waste
• Networked connectivity to enable remote access to education services
• High-performance videoconferencing solutions to reduce the need for business travel
• Networked distribution models to reduce trips to video stores and shipping of digital content
• Networked sensor and control systems to improve traffic flow and management and reduce waste
• Networked transportation information kiosks to make public transportation options more appealing (e.g. by showing real
• bus and train arrival times)
• Better implementation of computing and software technologies to efficiently manage vehicle operation and provide efficiency feedback to vehicle operators

Perhaps we’re looking at all this the wrong way. Anything in the business world that is more efficient and saves money is almost always green. So, we’re really talking about streamlining and optimizing an organization, maintaining a hard ROI approach to everything, with the positive environmental aspects of doing so coming along for the ride.

That argument makes for a better selling point. “Green” can be equated as much with greenbacks as the natural environment – it’s just a change in perspective.

Putting the Energy Consumption of Worldwide Data Centers into Perspective – Part 1

Fact: In 2010, the cost for powering and cooling the worldwide server base was about $43 billion, with cooling accounting for 30% or $12.9 billion of that figure. To put the energy consumption of worldwide data centers into perspective, the global energy requirements for data centers equaled 1.5x the energy requirement to power New York City.

Fact: Data centers are responsible for about 2% of global carbon emissions and use 80 million    megawatt-hours of energy annually. If the current growth rate were to continue, without improving energy efficiency, data centers will produce 359 megatons of CO2 by 2020, equivalent to the CO2 produced by 48% of the cars estimated to be on American roads at that time.

Fact: From 1998 to 2007 server performance increased 75x while the performance per watt has increased 16x. This implies that, for every watt consumed, the consumer is getting 16x the throughput that they got in 1998. Roughly speaking, the performance/watt of a server doubles every 2 years. This steadily increasing performance requires increasingly greater power capacity. The trend toward virtualization, the growth of applications like video streaming, and the massive expansion of social media have all contributed to a massive demand for higher-performing machines.

Fact: Traditionally, every watt of power devoted to computer processing in data centers required a half watt of power for cooling and lighting. This ratio has now flipped: Every watt consumed by computing resources now requires two watts of power for cooling and lighting. The result is that, even though global spending on servers has increased on an almost linear basis over the past 15 years, we have seen a dramatic increase of 400% in spending on power and cooling over the same period.

Ultimately, the evolution of IT network technologies and management systems, changing ideas of how to provide for reliability and redundancy in networks, and the need to be environmentally responsible will challenge existing paradigms of what a “DataCenter” is. Electrical utility companies are already planning for a future that includes far more distributed power generation, with a variety of renewable, nonpolluting power sources located close to the loads they serve. Prefab Data Centers on wheels are available today, as are mobile, liquid-cooled enclosures that can go most anywhere there is space, a power source, and a robust network connection. In the future, for many enterprises, the “DataCenter” may be more of a concept than a place.

Greening your Data Center and building an environmentally sustainable future for IT will require imagination, new skills, new thinking – a whole new perspective. It’s a challenge but, it can be done. Your thoughts?