Showing posts with label business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business. Show all posts
Thursday, 20 August 2015
Friday, 2 August 2013
Six ways to use virtualization in your small business
Virtualization. The word evokes complex, pricey technologies beyond the grasp of all but the biggest enterprises. But virtualization offers many benefits for small businesses, including cost savings and IT efficiency. And options such as Oracle’s VirtualBox and VMware Workstation have put the technology within reach of small business budgets.
Here are some suggestions for how you can leverage the power of virtualization in your small business.
It happens often enough: The developer of a niche software that you’re using goes out of business, or the software is no longer supported. The original installation files are nowhere to be found, and you aren’t sure of the configuration settings anyway.
Rather than spending money to replace a perfectly working app, or keeping your fingers crossed hoping the machine running it will last a couple more years, why not just virtualize the entire PC? That’s easy enough using software such as the free VMware vCenter Converter. This allows you to continue using the unsupported software on any desktop or laptop with sufficient RAM and a decent processor, albeit in a virtualized environment.
VMware vCenter Converter lets you easily virtualize an entire PC.
Obviously, running unsupported software is never desirable from a security perspective. Be sure to only run virtual machines (VMs) containing such apps behind a firewall.
Using the same method outlined above, you can make a “snapshot” of a server into a VM as a system backup. A VM backup can help your business quickly get up to speed after a catastrophic hardware failure. While a VM copy is no substitution for daily data backups (you will need the data backups to restore your server), having a recent image handy can keep business downtime to a minimum and buy you time to acquire and configure new physical hardware.
Are you looking to setup a Wiki for internal use or testing out a Jabber IM deployment within the company intranet? In such scenarios, virtualization makes it easy for businesses to setup an environment without cluttering up existing machines or having to purchase new hardware. If the initial deployment or trial is successful, the VM can be easily moved onto a dedicated virtual server machine or quickly expanded simply by tweaking VM parameters such as RAM and CPU allocation.
Mobile devices have allowed business users to work from virtually anywhere, but there are times when an employee will need to access a PC-only app from the road or use a desktop browser for websites that won’t load properly on a mobile one. Fortunately, Remote Desktop Protocol-clients for iOS, Android, and Windows RT enable users to connect to their office workstations in these situations.
Rather having employees connect directly to their desktops, set up a VM to serve as the RDP host, making sure to configure only the services that they need. Keeping work machines segregated this way adds an extra layer of security.
The prevalence of cyber attacks targeting Web browsers puts your business data at increased risk. An easy, inexpensive way to combat it is to limit Web browsing activities to a virtual environment that has no access to sensitive files. Should a hacker break through the Web browser, a quick restart will conveniently erase any malware or modified system files (assuming the VM was started in read-only mode).
Apps can also be packaged and distributed within a VM image. This is a great method for transporting your favorite apps on a flash drive between home and work, and is also a way to ensure that your software demo will not fail due to missing drivers and code libraries. Finally, this tactic can also be used to run multiple instances of an application such as Yahoo Messenger and Skype, with different instances mapped to different accounts.
Here are some suggestions for how you can leverage the power of virtualization in your small business.
It happens often enough: The developer of a niche software that you’re using goes out of business, or the software is no longer supported. The original installation files are nowhere to be found, and you aren’t sure of the configuration settings anyway.
Rather than spending money to replace a perfectly working app, or keeping your fingers crossed hoping the machine running it will last a couple more years, why not just virtualize the entire PC? That’s easy enough using software such as the free VMware vCenter Converter. This allows you to continue using the unsupported software on any desktop or laptop with sufficient RAM and a decent processor, albeit in a virtualized environment.
VMware vCenter Converter lets you easily virtualize an entire PC.
Obviously, running unsupported software is never desirable from a security perspective. Be sure to only run virtual machines (VMs) containing such apps behind a firewall.
Using the same method outlined above, you can make a “snapshot” of a server into a VM as a system backup. A VM backup can help your business quickly get up to speed after a catastrophic hardware failure. While a VM copy is no substitution for daily data backups (you will need the data backups to restore your server), having a recent image handy can keep business downtime to a minimum and buy you time to acquire and configure new physical hardware.
Are you looking to setup a Wiki for internal use or testing out a Jabber IM deployment within the company intranet? In such scenarios, virtualization makes it easy for businesses to setup an environment without cluttering up existing machines or having to purchase new hardware. If the initial deployment or trial is successful, the VM can be easily moved onto a dedicated virtual server machine or quickly expanded simply by tweaking VM parameters such as RAM and CPU allocation.
Mobile devices have allowed business users to work from virtually anywhere, but there are times when an employee will need to access a PC-only app from the road or use a desktop browser for websites that won’t load properly on a mobile one. Fortunately, Remote Desktop Protocol-clients for iOS, Android, and Windows RT enable users to connect to their office workstations in these situations.
Rather having employees connect directly to their desktops, set up a VM to serve as the RDP host, making sure to configure only the services that they need. Keeping work machines segregated this way adds an extra layer of security.
The prevalence of cyber attacks targeting Web browsers puts your business data at increased risk. An easy, inexpensive way to combat it is to limit Web browsing activities to a virtual environment that has no access to sensitive files. Should a hacker break through the Web browser, a quick restart will conveniently erase any malware or modified system files (assuming the VM was started in read-only mode).
Apps can also be packaged and distributed within a VM image. This is a great method for transporting your favorite apps on a flash drive between home and work, and is also a way to ensure that your software demo will not fail due to missing drivers and code libraries. Finally, this tactic can also be used to run multiple instances of an application such as Yahoo Messenger and Skype, with different instances mapped to different accounts.
Facebook embedded posts good for business
Facebook announced a new program this week that lets websites post public Facebook posts to their sites. And that could be a boon for businesses, says industry analysts.
“This could be very attractive to Facebook’s business users,” said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group. “With this, they might be able to capture positive customer comments and append them to their webpages or other marketing material. Since the post retains the Facebook formatting, I think it conveys a greater sense that the statement is genuine and unsolicited.”
On Wednesday, Facebook announced that it was launching the embedded posts program.
The embedded post will show any pictures or video attached to it, as well as the number of likes, shares, and comments that the post has, according to the social network. Only public posts from Facebook Pages and profiles can be embedded.
“Embedding posts will let people using your website see the same rich information that is shown on Facebook.com, and they will enable people to follow or like content authors or Pages directly from the embed,” the company noted in a blog post.
At this point, the program is only available to what Facebook calls a “handful” of news publishers. A broader rollout is being planned.
This embedded program will help Facebook reach beyond its own site and get even more eyeballs on Facebook content, noted Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy.
But this isn’t just good for Facebook. It’s also good for enterprises that want to show off what users are saying about them on the world’s biggest social network.
“This could improve the Web experience for these sites by enabling real-time content and interactions with their customers,” said Moorhead. “This increases stickiness [on their websites] and increases the chances users won’t bail out.”
Any business, like Ford Motor Company or JetBlue Airways or even a small mom-and-pop shop, eventually will be able to sift through Facebook to find complimentary posts from consumers, and then use the posts on their websites and in their online sales and marketing materials.
As usual though, this could be a double-edge sword.
Olds noted that while one company could be embedding positive posts about itself, its competitor could be embedding negative posts about it on its own site.
However, Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK Research, said there are far more upsides to this for businesses.
“If I’m JetBlue and I had a user rave about a JetBlue flight, I could grab the post and put it on my site,” he said. “It gives the same look and feel of Facebook. It’s familiar to people.” “It’s like having a bunch of mini Facebooks all over the place,” Kerravala said.
“This could be very attractive to Facebook’s business users,” said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group. “With this, they might be able to capture positive customer comments and append them to their webpages or other marketing material. Since the post retains the Facebook formatting, I think it conveys a greater sense that the statement is genuine and unsolicited.”
On Wednesday, Facebook announced that it was launching the embedded posts program.
The embedded post will show any pictures or video attached to it, as well as the number of likes, shares, and comments that the post has, according to the social network. Only public posts from Facebook Pages and profiles can be embedded.
“Embedding posts will let people using your website see the same rich information that is shown on Facebook.com, and they will enable people to follow or like content authors or Pages directly from the embed,” the company noted in a blog post.
At this point, the program is only available to what Facebook calls a “handful” of news publishers. A broader rollout is being planned.
This embedded program will help Facebook reach beyond its own site and get even more eyeballs on Facebook content, noted Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy.
But this isn’t just good for Facebook. It’s also good for enterprises that want to show off what users are saying about them on the world’s biggest social network.
“This could improve the Web experience for these sites by enabling real-time content and interactions with their customers,” said Moorhead. “This increases stickiness [on their websites] and increases the chances users won’t bail out.”
Any business, like Ford Motor Company or JetBlue Airways or even a small mom-and-pop shop, eventually will be able to sift through Facebook to find complimentary posts from consumers, and then use the posts on their websites and in their online sales and marketing materials.
As usual though, this could be a double-edge sword.
Olds noted that while one company could be embedding positive posts about itself, its competitor could be embedding negative posts about it on its own site.
However, Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK Research, said there are far more upsides to this for businesses.
“If I’m JetBlue and I had a user rave about a JetBlue flight, I could grab the post and put it on my site,” he said. “It gives the same look and feel of Facebook. It’s familiar to people.” “It’s like having a bunch of mini Facebooks all over the place,” Kerravala said.
Friday, 19 July 2013
Novell serves up business printing for BYOD era
Seeking a foothold with businesses that run Microsoft software, Novell has
introduced an application to streamline the process of connecting employees to
workspace printers, even if they are using non-Microsoft computers and mobile
devices, such as iPhones.
“We’re giving the administrator a very easy way to do browser-based administration of the print environment,” said Kai Reichert, a Novell product manager for collaboration. For the end user, the iPrint software provides a web interface for easily setting up a new device relationship with a printer.
IPrint has been available as part of Novell’s Open Enterprise Server (OES) for some time, though now it can be run as a stand-alone software package. This version of iPrint is packaged in a VMware-based virtual machine, so it can be run as a virtual appliance.
IPrint provides a way for users to set up connections between their Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac, or Linux computers with their workplace’s network printers, without the need for contacting an administrator.
“The user would just go on the browser and see the floor plan, and click on the printer next to his [workspace] and from there iPrint would take care of everything else,” Reichert said.
Through iPrint, Apple iOS and Android mobile devices can also print documents, which is a new feature that Microsoft’s own enterprise software can’t offer.
Even BlackBerry and Windows Phone users can print their documents as well, by emailing attachments of what they need to print to the iPrint server.
Novell has had a long history of offering software for managing enterprise printers, dating from its widely used NetWare network operating system of the 1990s, which, among other duties, acted as a print server.
NetWare successor OES, based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, includes the iPrint capability, but this is the first time Novell has split iPrint off into its own offering, Reichert said. Purchased by Attachmate in 2011, Novell has recently embarked on a mission to regain prominence in the market for enterprise software.
To prevent unwanted guests from using the organization’s printers, iPrint can also work with any LDAP (the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) setup, such as Microsoft’s Active Directory, in order to permit or deny employees access to specific printers, based on their roles defined by the administrator.
“We’re just synchronizing the user information, but we’re not synchronizing the passwords. So the administrator can assign the rights, but the actual authentication is always done against whatever back end the customer has,” Reichert said.
IPrint has some competition in the enterprise printing space. Hewlett-Packard offers similar capabilities though its own ePrint, which can also provide printing services to mobile devices.
Novell’s iPrint could be more appealing to enterprises, because unlike many other mobile printing offerings, it does not need to communicate with outside cloud services to complete a print job. Organizations that worry about the security of their documents may be wary of routing print jobs outside the enterprise firewall, Reichert said.
With Apple iOS devices, iPrint uses the Apple AirPrint wireless printing feature. The printers themselves don’t need to be AirPrint compatible. IPrint connects with the Apple devices through AirPrint, and then relays the print jobs to the non-AirPrint printers.
The software package currently will run only on a VMware virtualized environment, though the next version of iPrint will also be packaged in virtual machines able to run on Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix Xen hypervisors as well.
IPrint Enterprise edition starts at US$900 for a 50-seat annual subscription license, covering both mobile and desktop use. Pricing options are also available for mobile-only clients—for offices that already have printing management for desktop computers—that start at $350 for an annual subscription of 50 users.
“We’re giving the administrator a very easy way to do browser-based administration of the print environment,” said Kai Reichert, a Novell product manager for collaboration. For the end user, the iPrint software provides a web interface for easily setting up a new device relationship with a printer.
IPrint has been available as part of Novell’s Open Enterprise Server (OES) for some time, though now it can be run as a stand-alone software package. This version of iPrint is packaged in a VMware-based virtual machine, so it can be run as a virtual appliance.
IPrint provides a way for users to set up connections between their Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac, or Linux computers with their workplace’s network printers, without the need for contacting an administrator.
“The user would just go on the browser and see the floor plan, and click on the printer next to his [workspace] and from there iPrint would take care of everything else,” Reichert said.
Through iPrint, Apple iOS and Android mobile devices can also print documents, which is a new feature that Microsoft’s own enterprise software can’t offer.
Even BlackBerry and Windows Phone users can print their documents as well, by emailing attachments of what they need to print to the iPrint server.
Novell has had a long history of offering software for managing enterprise printers, dating from its widely used NetWare network operating system of the 1990s, which, among other duties, acted as a print server.
NetWare successor OES, based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, includes the iPrint capability, but this is the first time Novell has split iPrint off into its own offering, Reichert said. Purchased by Attachmate in 2011, Novell has recently embarked on a mission to regain prominence in the market for enterprise software.
To prevent unwanted guests from using the organization’s printers, iPrint can also work with any LDAP (the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) setup, such as Microsoft’s Active Directory, in order to permit or deny employees access to specific printers, based on their roles defined by the administrator.
“We’re just synchronizing the user information, but we’re not synchronizing the passwords. So the administrator can assign the rights, but the actual authentication is always done against whatever back end the customer has,” Reichert said.
IPrint has some competition in the enterprise printing space. Hewlett-Packard offers similar capabilities though its own ePrint, which can also provide printing services to mobile devices.
Novell’s iPrint could be more appealing to enterprises, because unlike many other mobile printing offerings, it does not need to communicate with outside cloud services to complete a print job. Organizations that worry about the security of their documents may be wary of routing print jobs outside the enterprise firewall, Reichert said.
With Apple iOS devices, iPrint uses the Apple AirPrint wireless printing feature. The printers themselves don’t need to be AirPrint compatible. IPrint connects with the Apple devices through AirPrint, and then relays the print jobs to the non-AirPrint printers.
The software package currently will run only on a VMware virtualized environment, though the next version of iPrint will also be packaged in virtual machines able to run on Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix Xen hypervisors as well.
IPrint Enterprise edition starts at US$900 for a 50-seat annual subscription license, covering both mobile and desktop use. Pricing options are also available for mobile-only clients—for offices that already have printing management for desktop computers—that start at $350 for an annual subscription of 50 users.
With the arrival of its first mobile app, IFTTT is ready for small business
Keeping up with the growing list of social networks, essential apps, and
incoming data streams that have become part of modern online life is difficult
for even a Web dabbler. Getting them talking to one another is even tougher,
which is where tools like “If This Then That,” or simply “IFTTT,” have become
invaluable.
This hacker’s dream of a Web service was developed to help ease the translation of data from one network to another, and now IFTTT has released its first mobile app, for the iPhone platform. The mobile app enhances the utility of IFTTT for all of its users, but its release is also a good time to take a hard look at whether IFTTT can now be put to use in the business world.
IFTTT is so valuable because certain networks, like Facebook, are famously closed off, so doing something that should be simple—like saving your photos to your hard drive or republishing videos on YouTube—can be extremely tedious and time-consuming.
Some of the site’s most popular recipes are mostly personal in structure. (If my Facebook profile picture changes, change my Twitter profile picture to match. If I take a photo on my iPhone, send me a copy of it via email.)
IFTTT remedies this by revolving around a simple design conceit. Using an abbreviated scripting language, users develop “recipes,” each of which takes a single data input and does one single action to or with it. For example: If I like a photo on Instagram, then save that photo to my Dropbox folder. That’s it. It sounds simple, and it is, but it saves you the hassle of doing it for yourself. You don’t even have to write these recipes from scratch. Tens of thousands are available for download from the site’s database. (You can get the Instagram to Dropbox recipe here.)
But an increasing number of recipes have a serious business bent. Want to
back up your mobile device contacts to a Google Docs spreadsheet? Auto-send starred Gmail to Evernote? Link a Blogger account to a Facebook Business Page? There’s, to borrow a phrase, a recipe for that.
And of course, you can always script your own recipes to do more. Savvy businesses might use IFTTT to send a text message to the customer support team if the company receives a mention on Twitter. Or IFTTT can be used to simplify the hassles of keeping various networks up to date. Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr, and more can all be synced up—one at a time, of course.
The iOS version of the IFTTT app doesn’t really do anything the Web version of the system doesn’t do already, but it does make recipe creation and management a more flexible, do-it-anywhere activity. One of the curious things about digging into IFTTT is that you never know where the idea for a killer recipe will strike. But as more and more of both our social and business lives becomes mobile, that serendipity is less and less likely to occur when you’re sitting at your desk.
This hacker’s dream of a Web service was developed to help ease the translation of data from one network to another, and now IFTTT has released its first mobile app, for the iPhone platform. The mobile app enhances the utility of IFTTT for all of its users, but its release is also a good time to take a hard look at whether IFTTT can now be put to use in the business world.
IFTTT is so valuable because certain networks, like Facebook, are famously closed off, so doing something that should be simple—like saving your photos to your hard drive or republishing videos on YouTube—can be extremely tedious and time-consuming.
Some of the site’s most popular recipes are mostly personal in structure. (If my Facebook profile picture changes, change my Twitter profile picture to match. If I take a photo on my iPhone, send me a copy of it via email.)
IFTTT remedies this by revolving around a simple design conceit. Using an abbreviated scripting language, users develop “recipes,” each of which takes a single data input and does one single action to or with it. For example: If I like a photo on Instagram, then save that photo to my Dropbox folder. That’s it. It sounds simple, and it is, but it saves you the hassle of doing it for yourself. You don’t even have to write these recipes from scratch. Tens of thousands are available for download from the site’s database. (You can get the Instagram to Dropbox recipe here.)
But an increasing number of recipes have a serious business bent. Want to
back up your mobile device contacts to a Google Docs spreadsheet? Auto-send starred Gmail to Evernote? Link a Blogger account to a Facebook Business Page? There’s, to borrow a phrase, a recipe for that.
And of course, you can always script your own recipes to do more. Savvy businesses might use IFTTT to send a text message to the customer support team if the company receives a mention on Twitter. Or IFTTT can be used to simplify the hassles of keeping various networks up to date. Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr, and more can all be synced up—one at a time, of course.
The iOS version of the IFTTT app doesn’t really do anything the Web version of the system doesn’t do already, but it does make recipe creation and management a more flexible, do-it-anywhere activity. One of the curious things about digging into IFTTT is that you never know where the idea for a killer recipe will strike. But as more and more of both our social and business lives becomes mobile, that serendipity is less and less likely to occur when you’re sitting at your desk.
Thursday, 18 July 2013
Xbox One: Built for… Business?
Good news, small business owners! Microsoft has a new platform that’s
tailor-made for your needs. No, it’s not an affordable version of Office or
unlimited cloud-based storage. It’s the new Xbox One.
The company does not at all seem to be joking when it says the upcoming, $499 video game console is “entirely justifiable” as a business expense, and in a blog post it goes on to offer some arguably semi-compelling reasons why you might want to plop one of these in the conference room at your pint-sized company.
Let’s look at each one in turn.
This is the big one. Skype is increasingly being built in to all manner of consumer devices (including Blu-ray players and TVs), so it makes sense that the Kinect-equipped Xbox would be ready for video chats out of the box. This actually could be useful to small businesses, especially in an environment where you have multiple locations that need to communicate with one another. Two offices with conference rooms connected via Xbox Skype sessions could have a meeting as a unified team. At the very least it would be better than the dreaded conference call. Skype is also an increasingly viable way to ditch landline phone service and make cheap international calls, and while it isn’t feasible to put an Xbox on every desk, if you don’t want to deal with Skype installations for everyone, having a single, central point where Skype is available might make sense.
The new Xbox One includes integrated SkyDrive support, which Microsoft pitches as a place you can store presentations, to be shown to clients via an Office Web Apps version of PowerPoint—though you’ll need to access them via the included web browser. If you don’t have a projector or don’t want to (or can’t) connect a laptop to your television, this makes some sense, though it seems like most businesses have long since figured out how to do on-site presentations in a more seamless, simple fashion than dealing with a video game console.
I’d wager most business owners haven’t a clue what Wi-Fi Direct is, and I doubt many will undertake the example use case Microsoft posits: “Send your presentation to the TV, use Smartglass to navigate through the PowerPoint presentation, use your tablet to control Internet Explorer.” Sounds like an entirely convoluted thing vs. using a wireless mouse to control a presentation on your laptop.
Having a web browser is always handy, sure. As noted above, you’ll need to access Office Web Apps through the browser, so getting to your files is not going to be super convenient. If Microsoft makes Web Apps more easily accessible through the Xbox One, this might be a more compelling argument. As it stands now, I use the web browsers available on my various TV-connected devices about as much as I use my microwave to check the weather.
Microsoft hedges its bet by saying it is “entirely possible” that apps a small business may find valuable may come to exist “down the road.” There’s no explanation about what those apps might be, and that’s a bummer. I can certainly think of a bunch—online access to HR training videos that require viewer participation via Kinect, customizable splash screens or screen savers that can be used to welcome visitors to your offices, corporate yoga apps—but Microsoft isn’t ready to go that far. I guess in the end you can always get people together for a friendly game of Halo on Friday afternoon, am I right, fellas?
The company does not at all seem to be joking when it says the upcoming, $499 video game console is “entirely justifiable” as a business expense, and in a blog post it goes on to offer some arguably semi-compelling reasons why you might want to plop one of these in the conference room at your pint-sized company.
Let’s look at each one in turn.
This is the big one. Skype is increasingly being built in to all manner of consumer devices (including Blu-ray players and TVs), so it makes sense that the Kinect-equipped Xbox would be ready for video chats out of the box. This actually could be useful to small businesses, especially in an environment where you have multiple locations that need to communicate with one another. Two offices with conference rooms connected via Xbox Skype sessions could have a meeting as a unified team. At the very least it would be better than the dreaded conference call. Skype is also an increasingly viable way to ditch landline phone service and make cheap international calls, and while it isn’t feasible to put an Xbox on every desk, if you don’t want to deal with Skype installations for everyone, having a single, central point where Skype is available might make sense.
The new Xbox One includes integrated SkyDrive support, which Microsoft pitches as a place you can store presentations, to be shown to clients via an Office Web Apps version of PowerPoint—though you’ll need to access them via the included web browser. If you don’t have a projector or don’t want to (or can’t) connect a laptop to your television, this makes some sense, though it seems like most businesses have long since figured out how to do on-site presentations in a more seamless, simple fashion than dealing with a video game console.
I’d wager most business owners haven’t a clue what Wi-Fi Direct is, and I doubt many will undertake the example use case Microsoft posits: “Send your presentation to the TV, use Smartglass to navigate through the PowerPoint presentation, use your tablet to control Internet Explorer.” Sounds like an entirely convoluted thing vs. using a wireless mouse to control a presentation on your laptop.
Having a web browser is always handy, sure. As noted above, you’ll need to access Office Web Apps through the browser, so getting to your files is not going to be super convenient. If Microsoft makes Web Apps more easily accessible through the Xbox One, this might be a more compelling argument. As it stands now, I use the web browsers available on my various TV-connected devices about as much as I use my microwave to check the weather.
Microsoft hedges its bet by saying it is “entirely possible” that apps a small business may find valuable may come to exist “down the road.” There’s no explanation about what those apps might be, and that’s a bummer. I can certainly think of a bunch—online access to HR training videos that require viewer participation via Kinect, customizable splash screens or screen savers that can be used to welcome visitors to your offices, corporate yoga apps—but Microsoft isn’t ready to go that far. I guess in the end you can always get people together for a friendly game of Halo on Friday afternoon, am I right, fellas?
OneNote MX update makes app more business friendly
Microsoft pushed out an update for OneNote MX—the OneNote app for Windows
8—which makes the app more useful for business users. The new OneNote MX can
connect to OneNote notebooks on Office 365.
OneNote MX is a great tool, but it has had limited functionality for business users. The issue is that OneNote MX connects by default to the SkyDrive associated with the Microsoft account used to log in to Windows 8. That’s fine for personal use, but businesses prefer that data be created and stored where it can be centrally managed and shared, rather than being spread across multiple personal SkyDrive accounts.
The update for OneNote MX enables users to connect to OneNote notebooks stored in an Office 365 SkyDrive account.
OneNote has become a crown jewel of the Microsoft Office suite, and it has led the way in blazing cross-platform trails for Office. Long before Microsoft finally made Office Mobile for iPhone, OneNote was available as a standalone app for both iOS and Android.
The radial menu is an innovative tool that makes OneNote
uniquely suited for a touchscreen.
When Microsoft launched Windows 8, with its split-personality interface, OneNote was the first of the Microsoft Office tools developed by Microsoft as a Windows 8 app. Microsoft Office, and the traditional OneNote application run in the desktop mode in Windows 8 Pro, and Microsoft created Office RT apps that run in desktop mode on Windows RT devices. OneNote MX, however, runs natively in the Windows 8 Metro interface.
OneNote MX is uniquely suited for touchscreen interaction. The radial menu developed by Microsoft makes it simple to navigate options, work with information, and change formatting for OneNote notebook entries. Microsoft has made all of the Microsoft Office tools more “touch-friendly” than previous versions, but they pale in comparison to OneNote MX.
Aside from enabling OneNote MX to connect with Office 365 accounts, the update also makes it easier to get the virtual keyboard out of the way. When you’re not actually using the virtual keyboard, you don’t want it taking up half of the display. You can simply tap any empty space to make the virtual keyboard disappear, and tap again to bring it back.
The radial menu still works just as smoothly with a mouse or touchpad, but the traditional OneNote is not as simple to navigate or use with a touchscreen display. As Microsoft continues down the Windows 8 path, I expect we’ll see the rest of the Microsoft Office applications converted to Windows 8 Metro-esque versions like OneNote MX. It just makes sense.
OneNote MX is a great tool, but it has had limited functionality for business users. The issue is that OneNote MX connects by default to the SkyDrive associated with the Microsoft account used to log in to Windows 8. That’s fine for personal use, but businesses prefer that data be created and stored where it can be centrally managed and shared, rather than being spread across multiple personal SkyDrive accounts.
The update for OneNote MX enables users to connect to OneNote notebooks stored in an Office 365 SkyDrive account.
OneNote has become a crown jewel of the Microsoft Office suite, and it has led the way in blazing cross-platform trails for Office. Long before Microsoft finally made Office Mobile for iPhone, OneNote was available as a standalone app for both iOS and Android.
When Microsoft launched Windows 8, with its split-personality interface, OneNote was the first of the Microsoft Office tools developed by Microsoft as a Windows 8 app. Microsoft Office, and the traditional OneNote application run in the desktop mode in Windows 8 Pro, and Microsoft created Office RT apps that run in desktop mode on Windows RT devices. OneNote MX, however, runs natively in the Windows 8 Metro interface.
OneNote MX is uniquely suited for touchscreen interaction. The radial menu developed by Microsoft makes it simple to navigate options, work with information, and change formatting for OneNote notebook entries. Microsoft has made all of the Microsoft Office tools more “touch-friendly” than previous versions, but they pale in comparison to OneNote MX.
Aside from enabling OneNote MX to connect with Office 365 accounts, the update also makes it easier to get the virtual keyboard out of the way. When you’re not actually using the virtual keyboard, you don’t want it taking up half of the display. You can simply tap any empty space to make the virtual keyboard disappear, and tap again to bring it back.
The radial menu still works just as smoothly with a mouse or touchpad, but the traditional OneNote is not as simple to navigate or use with a touchscreen display. As Microsoft continues down the Windows 8 path, I expect we’ll see the rest of the Microsoft Office applications converted to Windows 8 Metro-esque versions like OneNote MX. It just makes sense.
Monday, 15 July 2013
Infosys grows cloud business as US investigation looms
Services firm Infosys has reported a 13.6% increase in revenue to $2bn for
the second quarter of 2013, ended 30 June.
Net profit for the quarter increased by 3.7% to $397m.
In its latest financial statement, the company said it had won more than 15 engagements across cloud services and big data projects. It was also invited to join the global Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) as a contributing member to help define and strengthen worldwide industry standards to support enterprise cloud and big data requirements.
In March 2013, Infosys opened a service delivery centre in Munich for BMW to provide maintenance and operations services for the car maker's web infrastructure, content management, SAP, business intelligence systems and internal IT system.
Faced with slowing growth in the business outsourcing market, technology services supplier Infosys has begun an ambitious strategy to transform itself into a global provider of consultancy and IT services.
Download this six-page special report from Computer Weekly for details on Infosys, its strategy, products and services and financial performance.
Infosys reported revenue of $160m in financial services, $110m in the manufacturing sector, and $100m in energy, utilities, communication and services (ECS). Its retail, consumer packaged goods, logistics and life sciences group reported revenue of $120m.
The company is currently being investigated in the US for visa fraud, the outcome of which could materially affect its business.
In the financial statement, Infosys noted: “In the event that the US government undertakes any actions which limit the B-1 business visa program or other visa program that the company utilises, imposes sanctions, fines or penalties on the company or its employees, or undertakes any other actions against the company arising from the investigations or discussions that are currently ongoing, this could materially and adversely affect the company’s business and results of operations.”
Net profit for the quarter increased by 3.7% to $397m.
In its latest financial statement, the company said it had won more than 15 engagements across cloud services and big data projects. It was also invited to join the global Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) as a contributing member to help define and strengthen worldwide industry standards to support enterprise cloud and big data requirements.
In March 2013, Infosys opened a service delivery centre in Munich for BMW to provide maintenance and operations services for the car maker's web infrastructure, content management, SAP, business intelligence systems and internal IT system.
Faced with slowing growth in the business outsourcing market, technology services supplier Infosys has begun an ambitious strategy to transform itself into a global provider of consultancy and IT services.
Download this six-page special report from Computer Weekly for details on Infosys, its strategy, products and services and financial performance.
Infosys reported revenue of $160m in financial services, $110m in the manufacturing sector, and $100m in energy, utilities, communication and services (ECS). Its retail, consumer packaged goods, logistics and life sciences group reported revenue of $120m.
The company is currently being investigated in the US for visa fraud, the outcome of which could materially affect its business.
In the financial statement, Infosys noted: “In the event that the US government undertakes any actions which limit the B-1 business visa program or other visa program that the company utilises, imposes sanctions, fines or penalties on the company or its employees, or undertakes any other actions against the company arising from the investigations or discussions that are currently ongoing, this could materially and adversely affect the company’s business and results of operations.”
Chinese hackers hurt business, Congressional committee told
As senior officials from China and the United States wrap up a series of
talks in Washington about an array of economic issues, across town members of
Congress probed the extent of Chinese efforts to steal intellectual property
from tech companies and other U.S. businesses.
"From defense contractors to manufacturing, no American company has been immune from the scourge of Chinese intellectual property theft," says Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pennsylvania), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight subcommittee.
Among the witnesses on hand was Slade Gorton, a former senator from Washington who serves on the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, a group that has been studying the economic impact of the problem, with a particular focus on China.
Gorton cited the commission's estimate that cyber espionage and other forms of IP theft from foreign countries account for annual losses of $300 billion for U.S. companies. The group attributes between 50 percent and 80 percent of those losses to China.
The commission produced a series of short-, medium- and long-term solutions, ranging from the restructuring of U.S. government authorities that deal with intellectual property to encouraging reforms within China to strengthen laws against IP theft and their enforcement. That multifaceted approach comes from a recognition that the war against hackers will not be won simply by playing defense.
"It is clear that we need better defensive measures to deal with cyber theft and other forms of intellectual property theft, but I am convinced that that will never solve the problem on its own," Gorton says.
Last week's hearing comes amid ongoing, if halting, efforts in Congress to craft legislation to shore up the nation's defenses against cyber attacks, a policy debate that has focused on the appropriate mechanisms for businesses and government authorities to share information about threats and the extent to which the federal government should be involved in regulating the cybersecurity operations of the private sector.
"We cannot take these problems lightly," says Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois). "They cost our economy billions of dollars and place our national security at risk, and as the number of Internet-connected devices and the use of cloud computing increases the number of entry points for malicious actors to exploit will also rise. With more information and more sensitive information now stored on the Web we must sharpen our focus on cybersecurity."
Issues of cybersecurity were expected to arise at this week's U.S.-China trade talks, though the matter is complicated by the string of revelations about U.S. surveillance programs by former government contractor Edward Snowden. Descriptions of the sweeping data collection involved in the National Security Agency's PRISM program could reinforce the contention of Chinese officials that they have been on the receiving end of cyber intrusions.
Witnesses at the recent hearing contended that the Chinese perspective often does not draw a distinction between the espionage that countries—even allies—routinely conduct on one another and hacking into businesses to steal trade secrets.
James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he directs the Technology and Public Policy Program, recalled a meeting with Chinese officials when a senior colonel in the People's Liberation Army told him: "'Look, in the U.S. military espionage is heroic, and economic espionage is a crime, but in China the line is not so clear.' So one of the things we can do is make the line a little clearer to them."
Much of the problem can be traced to a weak legal structure in China, Russia, and other countries that are identified with intellectual property theft, Lewis explains.
"They have no tradition of protecting intellectual property," he says. "One of the differences between the U.S. and countries like China and Russia is that we have laws and we enforce them. They either don't have laws and they certainly don't enforce them."
Apart from the legal factors, Lewis' diagnosis of China's stance on intellectual property notes a fear among party leaders that rapid economic growth is crucial to their ability to hold onto power, and the concern that businesses in the state-controlled economy are unable to innovate to achieve that growth.
Lewis says that the defenses of U.S. companies vary widely by sector—he gives high marks to the banking industry while he says many utilities are soft targets—but sums up the security posture of the private sector as "feeble," and has advocated for strong legislation to prod businesses to "harden their networks."
"From defense contractors to manufacturing, no American company has been immune from the scourge of Chinese intellectual property theft," says Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pennsylvania), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight subcommittee.
Among the witnesses on hand was Slade Gorton, a former senator from Washington who serves on the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, a group that has been studying the economic impact of the problem, with a particular focus on China.
Gorton cited the commission's estimate that cyber espionage and other forms of IP theft from foreign countries account for annual losses of $300 billion for U.S. companies. The group attributes between 50 percent and 80 percent of those losses to China.
The commission produced a series of short-, medium- and long-term solutions, ranging from the restructuring of U.S. government authorities that deal with intellectual property to encouraging reforms within China to strengthen laws against IP theft and their enforcement. That multifaceted approach comes from a recognition that the war against hackers will not be won simply by playing defense.
"It is clear that we need better defensive measures to deal with cyber theft and other forms of intellectual property theft, but I am convinced that that will never solve the problem on its own," Gorton says.
Last week's hearing comes amid ongoing, if halting, efforts in Congress to craft legislation to shore up the nation's defenses against cyber attacks, a policy debate that has focused on the appropriate mechanisms for businesses and government authorities to share information about threats and the extent to which the federal government should be involved in regulating the cybersecurity operations of the private sector.
"We cannot take these problems lightly," says Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois). "They cost our economy billions of dollars and place our national security at risk, and as the number of Internet-connected devices and the use of cloud computing increases the number of entry points for malicious actors to exploit will also rise. With more information and more sensitive information now stored on the Web we must sharpen our focus on cybersecurity."
Issues of cybersecurity were expected to arise at this week's U.S.-China trade talks, though the matter is complicated by the string of revelations about U.S. surveillance programs by former government contractor Edward Snowden. Descriptions of the sweeping data collection involved in the National Security Agency's PRISM program could reinforce the contention of Chinese officials that they have been on the receiving end of cyber intrusions.
Witnesses at the recent hearing contended that the Chinese perspective often does not draw a distinction between the espionage that countries—even allies—routinely conduct on one another and hacking into businesses to steal trade secrets.
James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he directs the Technology and Public Policy Program, recalled a meeting with Chinese officials when a senior colonel in the People's Liberation Army told him: "'Look, in the U.S. military espionage is heroic, and economic espionage is a crime, but in China the line is not so clear.' So one of the things we can do is make the line a little clearer to them."
Much of the problem can be traced to a weak legal structure in China, Russia, and other countries that are identified with intellectual property theft, Lewis explains.
"They have no tradition of protecting intellectual property," he says. "One of the differences between the U.S. and countries like China and Russia is that we have laws and we enforce them. They either don't have laws and they certainly don't enforce them."
Apart from the legal factors, Lewis' diagnosis of China's stance on intellectual property notes a fear among party leaders that rapid economic growth is crucial to their ability to hold onto power, and the concern that businesses in the state-controlled economy are unable to innovate to achieve that growth.
Lewis says that the defenses of U.S. companies vary widely by sector—he gives high marks to the banking industry while he says many utilities are soft targets—but sums up the security posture of the private sector as "feeble," and has advocated for strong legislation to prod businesses to "harden their networks."
'Start' button devs say Windows 8.1 doesn't put them out of business
When Microsoft added support for the revamped Start page into Windows 8.1,
that eliminated the need for dedicated third-party Start menus, right? Wrong,
say developers like Stardock, Classic Shell, and others.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the third-party devs say there's still a need for their products, even though Windows 8.1 will be more friendly to those used to the traditional, or legacy, Start menu found in Windows 7. Many have released updates for the Windows 8.1 preview, but none that spoke to PCWorld said that they've thrown in the towel.
If nothing else, fans of Iobit's Start Menu 8, Classic Shell, and Stardock's Start8 can rest assured that their favorite plugins aren't going away. (Pokki, an "apparating system" that was designed to facilitate the interaction of mobile-style apps with the Windows OS, also offers a "classic" Start menu.)
Stardock"Classic" Start menus provide an alternative to the
Windows 8.1 Start button.
These products fill a need: to ease the transition to Windows 8 and its unfamiliar Start page. In many ways, Windows 8 is just Windows 7 with a tablet interface layered on top of it, but—sorry!—no Start button. Users upset by the jarringly different Start page had no refuge from it other than third-party alternatives.
(Microsoft released a preview of Windows 8.1 last month at its Build 2013 conference. PCWorld has a guide to installing the preview, a peek at its hidden features, and a tour of its new and updated apps.)
"The start button shortcut to the start screen that Microsoft is providing with Windows 8.1 does not replace the start menu in the eyes of our growing customer base," Robert McElroy, the marketing and sales manager at Stardock Corp., said in an email. "Customers looking for the functionality of the classic start menu to help them navigate Windows 8 in a way that has been familiar to them for years will still find Start8 from Stardock enables that capability seamlessly."
Microsoft, for its part, has said that Windows 8.1 represents a "heck of a lot of movement, a heck of a lot of innovation, and a heck of a lot of responsiveness, all coming to market in a very very rapid timeframe," in the words of Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer during the company's Build 2013 conference in June.
Some of the functionality that the third-party applications added for Windows 8 users, however, now overlaps with some of what Microsoft has added for the upcoming Windows 8.1. Start8, Classic Shell, and StartMenu8 all boot directly to the desktop, meaning that piece of the puzzle, at least, is duplicated by Microsoft. But all three also offer the traditional Start menu, with Classic Shell offering either a "classic" menu, or one in the style of either Windows XP or Windows 7. (Classic Shell's version 3.6.8, released in June and compatible with Windows 8.1, was asked to remove its version of the Windows flag, which it calls the "Metro button", at the behest of Microsoft.) For its part, Start8 also offers an option to shut down from the desktop, which is now in Windows 8.1 as well.
StardockStardock's Start8 offers shutdown options from the
desktop.
Nevertheless, the developer of Classic Shell said that his product was as viable as ever. "Nobody killed anything," he said, via an exchange though his Facebook page. "The only feature they added that Classic Shell (and others like it) has, is the immediate boot to Desktop."
The question now is whether or not Microsoft's Windows 8.1 update, and the functionality it added, provides yet more opportunities for developers like Classic Shell to add features. They'll have some time; Microsoft has said that it will hand over Windows 8.1 to OEMs at the end of August, with a consumer update at some point thereafter. PCWorld asked the developers what their plans are, but the Start developers aren't talking.
"Too early to tell. It is still a preview, not even a beta," the Classic Shell developer said. "Even without it I have my hands full at the moment."
Perhaps not surprisingly, the third-party devs say there's still a need for their products, even though Windows 8.1 will be more friendly to those used to the traditional, or legacy, Start menu found in Windows 7. Many have released updates for the Windows 8.1 preview, but none that spoke to PCWorld said that they've thrown in the towel.
If nothing else, fans of Iobit's Start Menu 8, Classic Shell, and Stardock's Start8 can rest assured that their favorite plugins aren't going away. (Pokki, an "apparating system" that was designed to facilitate the interaction of mobile-style apps with the Windows OS, also offers a "classic" Start menu.)
These products fill a need: to ease the transition to Windows 8 and its unfamiliar Start page. In many ways, Windows 8 is just Windows 7 with a tablet interface layered on top of it, but—sorry!—no Start button. Users upset by the jarringly different Start page had no refuge from it other than third-party alternatives.
(Microsoft released a preview of Windows 8.1 last month at its Build 2013 conference. PCWorld has a guide to installing the preview, a peek at its hidden features, and a tour of its new and updated apps.)
"The start button shortcut to the start screen that Microsoft is providing with Windows 8.1 does not replace the start menu in the eyes of our growing customer base," Robert McElroy, the marketing and sales manager at Stardock Corp., said in an email. "Customers looking for the functionality of the classic start menu to help them navigate Windows 8 in a way that has been familiar to them for years will still find Start8 from Stardock enables that capability seamlessly."
Microsoft, for its part, has said that Windows 8.1 represents a "heck of a lot of movement, a heck of a lot of innovation, and a heck of a lot of responsiveness, all coming to market in a very very rapid timeframe," in the words of Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer during the company's Build 2013 conference in June.
Some of the functionality that the third-party applications added for Windows 8 users, however, now overlaps with some of what Microsoft has added for the upcoming Windows 8.1. Start8, Classic Shell, and StartMenu8 all boot directly to the desktop, meaning that piece of the puzzle, at least, is duplicated by Microsoft. But all three also offer the traditional Start menu, with Classic Shell offering either a "classic" menu, or one in the style of either Windows XP or Windows 7. (Classic Shell's version 3.6.8, released in June and compatible with Windows 8.1, was asked to remove its version of the Windows flag, which it calls the "Metro button", at the behest of Microsoft.) For its part, Start8 also offers an option to shut down from the desktop, which is now in Windows 8.1 as well.
Nevertheless, the developer of Classic Shell said that his product was as viable as ever. "Nobody killed anything," he said, via an exchange though his Facebook page. "The only feature they added that Classic Shell (and others like it) has, is the immediate boot to Desktop."
The question now is whether or not Microsoft's Windows 8.1 update, and the functionality it added, provides yet more opportunities for developers like Classic Shell to add features. They'll have some time; Microsoft has said that it will hand over Windows 8.1 to OEMs at the end of August, with a consumer update at some point thereafter. PCWorld asked the developers what their plans are, but the Start developers aren't talking.
"Too early to tell. It is still a preview, not even a beta," the Classic Shell developer said. "Even without it I have my hands full at the moment."
Sunday, 14 July 2013
Ashridge Business School revamps network with HP
HP has deployed networking infrastructure at the Ashridge Business School to
boost connectivity for the institution’s students.
The independent school provides short courses and postgraduate education for executives, teaching business skills and practical lessons on how to improve management. They run their own conference centre and have a number of repeat clients who come in to use the facilities.
But, with up to 8,000 visitors each year expecting to work on their abilities
in the corporate world, they needed infrastructure which would keep up with
their demands.
“We used to have Enterasys networking equipment mostly due to legacy and just kept upgrading with the product line,” said Matt Woodland, IT operations manager at Ashridge Business School. “But we got to a position where we needed a forklift upgrade as the network wasn’t up to speed.”
Being based in a grade-one listed building in acres of rural grounds, Wi-Fi was also very challenging.
“We have difficulty with cabling and have to keep our equipment in cupboards and loft spaces,” he added.
“Stately homes are not exactly designed for cooling.”
As a result, there were a lot of issues with downtime and the school even got to a stage where they were having to rip and replace sections of the network every three months.
Now, they have done a deal with HP to roll out the supplier’s FlexCampus network, giving wired and wireless options to student and staff and encouraging both to bring their own devices into the school.
“All of our clients were pushing for this solution,” said Woodland. “They come with all sorts of devices, from the larger laptops with one big antenna to tablets, phablets and all manner of modern devices.
"Being quite isolated, we needed to provide them with better connectivity.
“Our own staff are also using their equipment on our network and we are looking to move to a model of rather than issue corporate laptops, bring your own device. We needed a network that gave us that flexibility.”
The virtualised local area network installed by HP has two 10500 series switches at its centre, providing 10GB connections, with the option of 40GB or 100GB over Ethernet in the future. Once the network has travelled through the virtualised switch, it then continues out to 32 HP 5120 power over Ethernet (PoE) switches to provide 1GB connections over wires.
There is also a wireless local area network (WLAN) running on dual HP MSM760 access controllers, which in turn connect to 195 HP MSM460 access points, giving Wi-Fi to staff, students and visitors to the school.
Woodland said the planning process was “a really easy journey” with a lot of thanks put at the door of HP’s partner NETconnection Systems.
“All the kit was put together in labs off-site and tested there, which took about one month,” he said. “Then we did a piecemeal roll-out of the edges and a big bang on the core.”
“We had enough cabling and fibre in place to run the networks parallel, meaning our users didn’t experience any downtime. When we went live, pushing over onto our last switch, it was a good day!”
This process again took about one month and, since it went live in December 2012, the school has had no downtime at all.
Woodland and his team now manage the network with HP Intelligent Management Centre (IMC) software with additional HP IMC User Access Management (UAM) and Endpoint Admission Defence (EAD) modules to ensure a safe and secure network for its users.
“Network downtime and speed is no longer the concern of our users,” added Woodland. “It is no longer a water cooler conversation, which says it all.”
Sean Brown, head of public sector at HP Networking, concluded: “Multimedia communications and ubiquitous mobile devices are taxing legacy network architectures and stifling the ability to innovate and compete.”
“HP Networking has enabled Ashridge Business School to securely deploy and centrally orchestrate a mobile-optimised environment that scales from the datacentre to the network edge.”
The independent school provides short courses and postgraduate education for executives, teaching business skills and practical lessons on how to improve management. They run their own conference centre and have a number of repeat clients who come in to use the facilities.
“We used to have Enterasys networking equipment mostly due to legacy and just kept upgrading with the product line,” said Matt Woodland, IT operations manager at Ashridge Business School. “But we got to a position where we needed a forklift upgrade as the network wasn’t up to speed.”
Being based in a grade-one listed building in acres of rural grounds, Wi-Fi was also very challenging.
“We have difficulty with cabling and have to keep our equipment in cupboards and loft spaces,” he added.
“Stately homes are not exactly designed for cooling.”
As a result, there were a lot of issues with downtime and the school even got to a stage where they were having to rip and replace sections of the network every three months.
Now, they have done a deal with HP to roll out the supplier’s FlexCampus network, giving wired and wireless options to student and staff and encouraging both to bring their own devices into the school.
“All of our clients were pushing for this solution,” said Woodland. “They come with all sorts of devices, from the larger laptops with one big antenna to tablets, phablets and all manner of modern devices.
"Being quite isolated, we needed to provide them with better connectivity.
“Our own staff are also using their equipment on our network and we are looking to move to a model of rather than issue corporate laptops, bring your own device. We needed a network that gave us that flexibility.”
The virtualised local area network installed by HP has two 10500 series switches at its centre, providing 10GB connections, with the option of 40GB or 100GB over Ethernet in the future. Once the network has travelled through the virtualised switch, it then continues out to 32 HP 5120 power over Ethernet (PoE) switches to provide 1GB connections over wires.
There is also a wireless local area network (WLAN) running on dual HP MSM760 access controllers, which in turn connect to 195 HP MSM460 access points, giving Wi-Fi to staff, students and visitors to the school.
Woodland said the planning process was “a really easy journey” with a lot of thanks put at the door of HP’s partner NETconnection Systems.
“All the kit was put together in labs off-site and tested there, which took about one month,” he said. “Then we did a piecemeal roll-out of the edges and a big bang on the core.”
Network downtime and speed... is no longer a water cooler conversation
Matt Woodland, IT operations manager, Ashridge Business School
“We had enough cabling and fibre in place to run the networks parallel, meaning our users didn’t experience any downtime. When we went live, pushing over onto our last switch, it was a good day!”
This process again took about one month and, since it went live in December 2012, the school has had no downtime at all.
Woodland and his team now manage the network with HP Intelligent Management Centre (IMC) software with additional HP IMC User Access Management (UAM) and Endpoint Admission Defence (EAD) modules to ensure a safe and secure network for its users.
“Network downtime and speed is no longer the concern of our users,” added Woodland. “It is no longer a water cooler conversation, which says it all.”
Sean Brown, head of public sector at HP Networking, concluded: “Multimedia communications and ubiquitous mobile devices are taxing legacy network architectures and stifling the ability to innovate and compete.”
“HP Networking has enabled Ashridge Business School to securely deploy and centrally orchestrate a mobile-optimised environment that scales from the datacentre to the network edge.”
O2 extends 4G backhaul with Virgin Media Business
Virgin Media Business has signed a deal with O2 to provide extra capacity to
the mobile operator's network in preparation for its roll-out of 4G
services.
O2 is due to enter the 4G race later in 2013 but it needs to grow its backhaul for greater speed.
O2 will link its basestations to Virgin Media Business’s superfast fibre
network through high-speed Ethernet, which promises 1Gbps connections between
the cell sites and the mobile network.
The deal has been signed for 10 years between Virgin and O2’s parent company Telefonica, although the figures of how much it is costing the operator have not been revealed.
"Over the past five years we’ve seen huge growth in demand for mobile data as the number of consumers using smartphones and tablets has increased,” said Adrian Di Meo, chief technology officer at Telefonica UK.
“With our 4G network launching this summer, data growth will only continue to rise and this new fibre agreement with Virgin Media Business will give us the rock solid foundation we need and help us deliver a great network experience for our customers.”
Virgin claimed it has now secured contracts with all the UK’s mobile networks to help with their backhaul needs.
“By working closely in partnership with mobile operators we’ve been able to develop and deploy innovative and unique technologies that enable Sync–E as standard,” said George Wareing, director of mobile and broadcast at Virgin Media Business.
“This approach means we’re able to arm their networks with the extra capacity needed to make sure that customers don’t experience slow speeds because of data bottlenecks, and that they’re prepared for the future of 4G services and beyond.”
“It’s a sign that the backhaul market is moving extremely quickly and, thanks to the speed and resilience of our fibre network, we’ve been able to make the most of that opportunity.”
EE is currently the only operator to provide 4G services in the UK, although its rivals are all set for launch in 2013.
However, a report released yesterday by YouGov showed 33% of consumers "can't see the point" of 4G, while 31% have no idea of the benefits it offers.
O2 is due to enter the 4G race later in 2013 but it needs to grow its backhaul for greater speed.
The deal has been signed for 10 years between Virgin and O2’s parent company Telefonica, although the figures of how much it is costing the operator have not been revealed.
"Over the past five years we’ve seen huge growth in demand for mobile data as the number of consumers using smartphones and tablets has increased,” said Adrian Di Meo, chief technology officer at Telefonica UK.
“With our 4G network launching this summer, data growth will only continue to rise and this new fibre agreement with Virgin Media Business will give us the rock solid foundation we need and help us deliver a great network experience for our customers.”
Virgin claimed it has now secured contracts with all the UK’s mobile networks to help with their backhaul needs.
“By working closely in partnership with mobile operators we’ve been able to develop and deploy innovative and unique technologies that enable Sync–E as standard,” said George Wareing, director of mobile and broadcast at Virgin Media Business.
“This approach means we’re able to arm their networks with the extra capacity needed to make sure that customers don’t experience slow speeds because of data bottlenecks, and that they’re prepared for the future of 4G services and beyond.”
“It’s a sign that the backhaul market is moving extremely quickly and, thanks to the speed and resilience of our fibre network, we’ve been able to make the most of that opportunity.”
EE is currently the only operator to provide 4G services in the UK, although its rivals are all set for launch in 2013.
However, a report released yesterday by YouGov showed 33% of consumers "can't see the point" of 4G, while 31% have no idea of the benefits it offers.
Friday, 12 July 2013
Corner Office: So Who Says a New Business Has to Be Small?
A. I did. My parents were entrepreneurs. They ran a small ad
agency in upstate New York.
Q. What were your high school years like?
A. I never did particularly well in school, but I did get really into things. I used to build robots, and dove right into computers to the point where my schoolwork suffered. Then I really became inspired by people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. In high school, I started my first company, called M Cubed Software. We named it that because it was me and two other guys named Mike.
Q. So did you bypass college?
A. My dad died from cancer when I was 18, and my mom was in a really tough spot. So I wanted to try to help at home. I had started doing some technology consulting. Then a friend of the family got me an interview at I.B.M. They hired me basically as an intern, and they told me not to plan on being there beyond the internship. They also said they don’t hire anyone who doesn’t have a degree.
But I was determined to make sure that I became so valuable that they couldn’t let me go. And that was what happened, and they eventually hired me full time. I.B.M. was my college education, effectively. They were very good at teaching you management.
Q. And the next big step?
A. I left I.B.M. in 1989, when I was 22, to start a company called Paper Software.
Q. What did you learn from that?
A. The first lesson was that I’d bought all these business books because I hadn’t gone to school. And I really got into the theoretical aspects of starting a company. Then what I finally realized after about six months is that I just needed to do it. I just needed to actually build something. And that was a good lesson — do something, build something and everything will happen from there.
I was able to recruit three really awesome I.B.M. engineers. I had to pay them a lot of money to join. One day, two of them said, “Hey, can you come outside and go for a walk with us?” They told me they were going to quit and start a company that was basically going to do what we were doing. I had two other guys working for me who were up-and-coming engineers, and I was paying them a fraction of what I was paying these guys. I came back to the office and I pulled my small team together and said: “O.K., I have good news and bad news. The bad news is, we just lost half of our engineers, but the good news is we kept the best half.”
And that was a great moment, when I learned how you rally people around hardship, and give them the opportunity to step up. You can actually get better output from people when you give them more than what they normally would be expected to handle.
Q. You eventually sold Paper Software to Netscape and moved to the West Coast to join Netscape. Lessons from that experience?
A. One of the biggest mistakes I made at Netscape was to focus too much on competition. Microsoft was trying to kill us. And that caused us to think about what we were going to do about Microsoft. What we really should have been thinking was: How do we focus on what our users want? Why did they love our product? How do we make it more of something that they love? So my advice is, every time you have a thought about the competition, replace that with a thought about your customer and you’ll do far better as a business.
Q. Other lessons for would-be entrepreneurs that you’ve learned over the years?
A. I think a lot of entrepreneurs go into building a start-up thinking they should focus on a niche, and do the simplest thing that can be done. But there is a problem with that approach. In fact, it may be even harder to build that kind of niche company than it is to build a giant company that might someday be able to change the world. It’s going to take the same amount of life force. You’re going to get up in the morning, work 12 to 15 hours every day. You’ll make huge, hard decisions, hire and fire people and build teams. It literally takes the same amount of energy.
So what I think is counterintuitive is that if you focus on the big idea, the biggest thing you can possibly do, that’s actually somewhat easier, because you can attract more investment that way. You can attract more talent that way. It’s more fun, and you have way more room to maneuver.
Q. How do you hire? What qualities are you looking for? What questions do you ask?
A. I ask people what’s driving them, and what’s motivating them. I’m looking for answers along the lines of: “I want to be a part of a great team. I want to learn from really great people. I love the people I’ve met here, and I’d love to just be part of this.” I also look for people who are into doing something really meaningful and great. So I’m looking to see if their answers are centered around those two pillars. I’m trying to build a culture that’s focused primarily on the camaraderie of the team, because we’re going on a really big, important and giant journey together.
I don’t hire anyone who doesn’t genuinely share that motivation, no matter how good they are on paper. Because you have to have a durable team so that when you do hit hard patches, people are just as motivated to continue to drive forward. The team sticks together. That’s what is really required in building a company. You’re going to hit those hard spots, and you’re actually defined by how you come out of those at the end.
Q. What other questions do you ask?
A. I’ll ask them about the hardest situation they’ve ever been in, and how they navigated through it. I’ll ask: What’s your greatest triumph? What’s the thing that you’re most proud of that you’ve done in your career? And then: What are some of the core lessons you’ve learned? You can have a 90-minute conversation just with those questions.
Q. What were your high school years like?
A. I never did particularly well in school, but I did get really into things. I used to build robots, and dove right into computers to the point where my schoolwork suffered. Then I really became inspired by people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. In high school, I started my first company, called M Cubed Software. We named it that because it was me and two other guys named Mike.
Q. So did you bypass college?
A. My dad died from cancer when I was 18, and my mom was in a really tough spot. So I wanted to try to help at home. I had started doing some technology consulting. Then a friend of the family got me an interview at I.B.M. They hired me basically as an intern, and they told me not to plan on being there beyond the internship. They also said they don’t hire anyone who doesn’t have a degree.
But I was determined to make sure that I became so valuable that they couldn’t let me go. And that was what happened, and they eventually hired me full time. I.B.M. was my college education, effectively. They were very good at teaching you management.
Q. And the next big step?
A. I left I.B.M. in 1989, when I was 22, to start a company called Paper Software.
Q. What did you learn from that?
A. The first lesson was that I’d bought all these business books because I hadn’t gone to school. And I really got into the theoretical aspects of starting a company. Then what I finally realized after about six months is that I just needed to do it. I just needed to actually build something. And that was a good lesson — do something, build something and everything will happen from there.
I was able to recruit three really awesome I.B.M. engineers. I had to pay them a lot of money to join. One day, two of them said, “Hey, can you come outside and go for a walk with us?” They told me they were going to quit and start a company that was basically going to do what we were doing. I had two other guys working for me who were up-and-coming engineers, and I was paying them a fraction of what I was paying these guys. I came back to the office and I pulled my small team together and said: “O.K., I have good news and bad news. The bad news is, we just lost half of our engineers, but the good news is we kept the best half.”
And that was a great moment, when I learned how you rally people around hardship, and give them the opportunity to step up. You can actually get better output from people when you give them more than what they normally would be expected to handle.
Q. You eventually sold Paper Software to Netscape and moved to the West Coast to join Netscape. Lessons from that experience?
A. One of the biggest mistakes I made at Netscape was to focus too much on competition. Microsoft was trying to kill us. And that caused us to think about what we were going to do about Microsoft. What we really should have been thinking was: How do we focus on what our users want? Why did they love our product? How do we make it more of something that they love? So my advice is, every time you have a thought about the competition, replace that with a thought about your customer and you’ll do far better as a business.
Q. Other lessons for would-be entrepreneurs that you’ve learned over the years?
A. I think a lot of entrepreneurs go into building a start-up thinking they should focus on a niche, and do the simplest thing that can be done. But there is a problem with that approach. In fact, it may be even harder to build that kind of niche company than it is to build a giant company that might someday be able to change the world. It’s going to take the same amount of life force. You’re going to get up in the morning, work 12 to 15 hours every day. You’ll make huge, hard decisions, hire and fire people and build teams. It literally takes the same amount of energy.
So what I think is counterintuitive is that if you focus on the big idea, the biggest thing you can possibly do, that’s actually somewhat easier, because you can attract more investment that way. You can attract more talent that way. It’s more fun, and you have way more room to maneuver.
Q. How do you hire? What qualities are you looking for? What questions do you ask?
A. I ask people what’s driving them, and what’s motivating them. I’m looking for answers along the lines of: “I want to be a part of a great team. I want to learn from really great people. I love the people I’ve met here, and I’d love to just be part of this.” I also look for people who are into doing something really meaningful and great. So I’m looking to see if their answers are centered around those two pillars. I’m trying to build a culture that’s focused primarily on the camaraderie of the team, because we’re going on a really big, important and giant journey together.
I don’t hire anyone who doesn’t genuinely share that motivation, no matter how good they are on paper. Because you have to have a durable team so that when you do hit hard patches, people are just as motivated to continue to drive forward. The team sticks together. That’s what is really required in building a company. You’re going to hit those hard spots, and you’re actually defined by how you come out of those at the end.
Q. What other questions do you ask?
A. I’ll ask them about the hardest situation they’ve ever been in, and how they navigated through it. I’ll ask: What’s your greatest triumph? What’s the thing that you’re most proud of that you’ve done in your career? And then: What are some of the core lessons you’ve learned? You can have a 90-minute conversation just with those questions.
Thursday, 11 July 2013
Dropbox update eases worries over offline access to business data
As every hapless teenager stranded in a dank cabin in the psychopath-ridden
woods can tell you, your cell phone is useless if you don't have a signal. For
business users, the stakes are just as high: Travel to a farflung corner of the
world to meet with clients and "zero bars" is a distinct possibility. And God
help you if you have to take a plane ride anywhere and aren't lucky enough to
get on the handful of jets with onboard Wi-Fi.
While being unable to make calls, send emails, or check the news is certainly an inconvenience, the problem is compounded if you rely on cloud services to actually get work done. Storing data online and running apps that rely on a live Internet connection mean you can abruptly turn into an unproductive layabout when wireless service isn't available.
Hybrid cloud services have started to address the issue, and Dropbox has been leading the charge. Files stored via Dropbox are automatically stored both in the cloud and on your local machine. Changes made to one file are copied in the background when a connection is available, and synced up with all devices running the Dropbox software. Google Drive, SugarSync, and many other cloud storage services work about the same way.
That's a start, but it only addresses the very beginning of the problem. A growing number of services are designed to work exclusively over the Web, and if you're not connected, they simply don't run at all. (Think Facebook.) Well then, why not enable these apps and services to work in offline, hybrid mode, the way Dropbox works? Evernote does it. So does Gmail; it doesn't include all its features from top to bottom, but what it offers is good enough for most users.
Offline support is uncommon because coding this kind of software isn't easy. There are myriad issues to consider: What happens if you change a file in two places before re-syncing? How do you manage the unavoidable data file differences between, say, an iPhone and a Windows 8 PC? And good luck when you bring multiple users into the mix. Imagine five offline users working on a single document simultaneously, then trying to sync en masse. Nightmare. Who wants to try to code all of this stuff themselves?
Well, with the new API releases the company put out this week as part of its DBX developers conference, Dropbox has told the developers of the world that they don't have to. Without getting too far into the weeds, the new APIs mean that third-party developers can now use Dropbox to store program data instead of having to stash it on the user's hard drive or build their own cloud service to store it. That means you'll be able to work on a spreadsheet, draw a picture, or play a game on one device… then pick right back up where you left off on another, whether you're online or off.
With 100,000 apps already supporting Dropbox in some fashion, this isn't a pipe dream. Universal access to data from any device and robust offline support have the potential not just to revolutionize the way we work but to become expected, almost required components of any piece of software we use. As Dropbox CEO Drew Houston told TechCrunch, "Every app is going to be designed this way in the future and we wanted to get started on that now.” I can't wait.
While being unable to make calls, send emails, or check the news is certainly an inconvenience, the problem is compounded if you rely on cloud services to actually get work done. Storing data online and running apps that rely on a live Internet connection mean you can abruptly turn into an unproductive layabout when wireless service isn't available.
Hybrid cloud services have started to address the issue, and Dropbox has been leading the charge. Files stored via Dropbox are automatically stored both in the cloud and on your local machine. Changes made to one file are copied in the background when a connection is available, and synced up with all devices running the Dropbox software. Google Drive, SugarSync, and many other cloud storage services work about the same way.
That's a start, but it only addresses the very beginning of the problem. A growing number of services are designed to work exclusively over the Web, and if you're not connected, they simply don't run at all. (Think Facebook.) Well then, why not enable these apps and services to work in offline, hybrid mode, the way Dropbox works? Evernote does it. So does Gmail; it doesn't include all its features from top to bottom, but what it offers is good enough for most users.
Offline support is uncommon because coding this kind of software isn't easy. There are myriad issues to consider: What happens if you change a file in two places before re-syncing? How do you manage the unavoidable data file differences between, say, an iPhone and a Windows 8 PC? And good luck when you bring multiple users into the mix. Imagine five offline users working on a single document simultaneously, then trying to sync en masse. Nightmare. Who wants to try to code all of this stuff themselves?
Well, with the new API releases the company put out this week as part of its DBX developers conference, Dropbox has told the developers of the world that they don't have to. Without getting too far into the weeds, the new APIs mean that third-party developers can now use Dropbox to store program data instead of having to stash it on the user's hard drive or build their own cloud service to store it. That means you'll be able to work on a spreadsheet, draw a picture, or play a game on one device… then pick right back up where you left off on another, whether you're online or off.
With 100,000 apps already supporting Dropbox in some fashion, this isn't a pipe dream. Universal access to data from any device and robust offline support have the potential not just to revolutionize the way we work but to become expected, almost required components of any piece of software we use. As Dropbox CEO Drew Houston told TechCrunch, "Every app is going to be designed this way in the future and we wanted to get started on that now.” I can't wait.
Wednesday, 3 July 2013
HP ElitePad 900 review: A rugged Win 8 tablet for business road warriors
The HP ElitePad 900 is a tough son of a tablet. Designed for business or
outdoor use, it is built to survive being dropped, dinged, dusted, and handled
roughly enough to make an iPad cry. HP has tested it to the military MIL-STD810G
standard for dust, vibration, temperatures high and low, humidity, altitude, and
drop-proofing for heights of up to 30 inches.
Most uber-durable devices end up looking like the back end of a tank, but the ElitePad 900 is quite attractive. Just 9.2mm thick and weighing less than 1.4 pounds, with a CNC-milled aluminum back (CNC refers to computer numerical control in manufacturing), a front that's covered in Gorilla Glass 2, and rounded corners, this tablet is small and sleek enough not to look out of place in the office.
Most uber-durable devices end up looking like the back end of a tank, but the ElitePad 900 is quite attractive. Just 9.2mm thick and weighing less than 1.4 pounds, with a CNC-milled aluminum back (CNC refers to computer numerical control in manufacturing), a front that's covered in Gorilla Glass 2, and rounded corners, this tablet is small and sleek enough not to look out of place in the office.
Friday, 28 June 2013
The business traveler tax threat
Whenever you do, you're entering into another universe that may require you to pay tax on the income you earn while you're there.
But many business travelers and their employers aren't abiding by the rules, whether they realize it or not.
And it's easy to understand why.
Fifty states mean 50 different sets of rules.
In some states, you may be obligated to file a tax return even if you just spent a few hours there all year. Other states set minimum thresholds, based on the days you're there or how much you make during your trip.
And nine states don't impose any income tax at all. So no fear they'll hassle you.
Meanwhile, the rules for when your employer must start withholding tax from your paycheck on behalf of the state you travel to are also all over the map.
Indeed, in some states withholding rules don't square with the filing rules for the business traveler.
Quiz: Which state has the highest income tax rate?
New York, for instance, requires that anyone who comes for business must file a nonresident return for income earned from day one. But those travelers' employers are only required to start withholding New York tax if they work in the state for at least 14 days.
Who follows the rules? Several sources told CNNMoney that there is "rampant noncompliance."
Still, the rules are "not universally ignored," said Verenda Smith, deputy director of the Federation of Tax Administrators.
Those most likely to comply are professional athletes, entertainers and big-firm lawyers and accountants.
Take Jamie Yesnowitz, a principal at tax advisory firm Grant Thornton. He gives speeches around the country about state and local taxation. In 2011, he found himself filing 11 state tax returns.
"My wife looked at me like I had two heads," Yesnowitz said.
Related: Perils of moving to no-tax states
But other types of road warriors can find themselves in a similar situation if their employer is audited or simply withholds taxes where required -- a process that, by the way, can be very costly for the company.
Vincent Cervone, a CPA in Brooklyn, said one client -- a salesman for a large company -- had to file 10 different state tax returns in addition to his home state return.
If you do end up owing tax to another state, you're allowed to take a credit for that money on your own state's return. But that still might not make you whole because of differences between state tax systems. Not to mention the extra you have to pay your tax preparer.
Companies, payroll associations and tax professionals have been calling for greater uniformity among states when it comes to business travel.
Without it, "it's a compliance nightmare," said Cara Griffith, editor-in-chief of state tax publications for Tax Analysts.
There's a bill in Congress called the Mobile Workforce Simplification Act, which would exempt most business travelers from income tax in any state not their own unless they work there at least 30 days a year. And employers wouldn't have to withhold taxes before that threshold is met.
The bill has been revised several times, primarily to accommodate New York's concerns, said Maureen Riehl, a spokesperson for the Council on State Taxation, a trade association for companies that do business across states.
But the accommodations so far still haven't brought New York on board, she said.
Related: Smart business travel tips
New York is among the most aggressive states in terms of tax collection and stands to lose the most revenue if the Mobile Workforce bill became law, multiple sources noted.
The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance did not comment for this story.
Figures on how often people get in trouble are hard to come by. States that have gone after companies, to date, have likely focused on travel by high-paid executives, Griffith said.
But going forward, states may get more active, particularly after the hit their coffers took during the recession.
"This is one area they weren't heavily auditing in the past," Griffith said. "So there's potential for revenue."
Follow me on Twitter @sajilpl
Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx Reteam for 'Mean Business'
Leonardo DiCaprio is reteaming with Jamie Foxx for a Warner Bros. crime film titled Mean Business on North Ganson Street, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
The film is based on S. Craig Zahler's forthcoming crime novel. Zahler will write the script. The project has no director, but the two actors are attached.
The book tells of two detectives who team up to stop a series of attacks on a police department. It begins with a disgraced detective (DiCaprio) who is sent to a Missouri town where crime is spiking. He is partnered with a detective who has his own set of violent issues (Foxx) just in time to see police officers becoming targeted for murder. The two decide to dish out their own brand of justice.
DiCaprio will produce with his Appian Way partner Jennifer Davisson Killoran.
Both actors appeared in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, which opened Christmas Day 2012.
DiCaprio next appears onscreen in Martin Scorsese's Wolf of Wall Street, which hits theaters Nov. 15. Jamie Foxx's latest film, White House Down, teams the actor with Channing Tatum in an action thriller about an attack on the presidential mansion.
Twitter: @sajilpl
Monday, 24 June 2013
Controversial T-shirt destroys business
The company behind an offensive t-shirt controversy earlier this year has shut down and let go its remaining employees.
Fierce public backlash brought down Solid Gold Bomb, which made headlines in March for offering shirts that said "Keep Calm and Rape a Lot." The company closed its doors last week and let go its remaining three employees.
Company founder Michael Fowler is now swimming in debt and he says he's still getting death threats, including one caller who hounded him for months insisting on meeting him in person.
"It's my fault, and I paid dearly," Fowler said. "My life's work. Twenty years I've been building this up."
Related: The story behind the 'Carry On and Rape Her' shirts
The downfall is the result of an Internet uproar that occurred in March, when someone browsing Amazon's marketplace discovered shirts with messages of misogyny and murder. The shirts were parodies of the old British slogan "Keep Calm and Carry On."
Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) immediately pulled down all of Fowler's products, choking off his company's main avenue for sales.
At the time, Fowler issued an apology and explained that the shirts never really existed. The images of offensive shirts were the result of a computer program that automatically generated random phrases and images.
Fowler had used the program to expand his company catalog from 1,000 designs to more than 10 million, casual shirts with pithy one-liners like, "I mustache you a question." The vast number of shirts for sale rocketed him to the top of Amazon searches. By printing on demand, he reduced the risk of unsold inventory.
The apology fell short. Fowler was flooded with spiteful emails. Orders plummeted from 400 a day to 100. It didn't get much better when Amazon finally let him back online three weeks later, Fowler said, because it erased his online history, hurting his search rankings.
Fowler, an American who lives with his wife and three children in Melbourne, Australia, stopped paying himself a salary. He was forced to fire half of his employees -- an art director, print master and customer service representative. He injected $35,000 of his own money into the company.
"I certainly didn't give up. I didn't throw in the towel. I tried," Fowler said.
The company was so financially weak that when it ran into shipping problems this month, the entire operation collapsed. Fowler notified his operations manager and two employees by phone, thanking them for sticking around. He said he couldn't afford the $4,000 plane ticket to see them and deliver the news in person.
Related: Best places to launch
Cristy McCullough, his operations manager in Massachusetts, is helping sell off what's left of the company: computers, shipping equipment, phone systems and shirt printing machines. The idea is to split the proceeds between those who remained. So far they've raised a few thousand dollars. Fowler expects to owe $125,000 to his shipping partner and clothing supplier.
"I'll be paying this for a long time," he said.
But he isn't done running a small business. Fowler has already set up another dye house, and he's vowed to start printing T-shirts again -- this time with a friend in Melbourne.
"I've got to do something. I've got three kids and my wife isn't employed," he said. "Hey, I'm an entrepreneur. I'm already on the hustle trying to build it again."
Inside the Big Business of Celebrity Tequilas
In the heady early days at MTV, the drink of choice was tequila, according to network co-founder Bob Pittman. At company celebrations, tradition dictated that employees congregate and drink a shot, flinging the glasses against whatever wall was convenient. This bit of controlled mayhem was a galvanizing force, even if, as Pittman says, "we had to stitch up a few bloodied feet in the process."
Rumbling behind the scenes at rock 'n' roll shows, tequila has inspired more than its share of monster jams and postgig revelry. But during the past half-decade, its allure has attracted public figures into brand partnerships and ownership.
This ever-expanding group includes rockers Carlos Santana (Casa Noble) and Motley Crue's Vince Neil (Tres Rios), country star Toby Keith (Wild Shot) and Justin Timberlake (901 Silver). This year, George Clooney and nightlife entrepreneur Rande Gerber (with real estate developer Mike Meldman) debuted Casamigos, named for Clooney's and Gerber's adjacent properties in Cabo San Lucas. In 2009, Pittman launched Casa Dragones, which at $275 a bottle ranks as the category's priciest. Travel to the Mexican state of Jalisco, and it's not uncommon to run into celebrity entourages at distilleries. Everyone from Shaquille O'Neal to Sean Combs is rumored to have interest in investing in a tequila brand.
PHOTOS: From George Clooney to Justin Timberlake: Celebrities With Tequila Labels
Whether it's the mysteries of the blue agave source plant, the exoticism, the inebriation or some combination, celebrity interest in tequila is at a high. So are profits: In the U.S., the biggest market, it's a multibillion-dollar business. Since the most recent recession, sales have grown 5 percent annually -- particularly among ultrapremium tequilas, the classification of many of these new brands. "Not only is it a fun drink, but the depletions (i.e. product turnover) are crazy," says former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar, credited with first hitching horses to this bandwagon during the '90s when he founded Cabo Wabo tequila. His competitors look with awe at his success: Campari Group purchased a controlling interest in 2007 and bought Hagar out three years later in deals said to total $100 million.
Business arrangements -- some of which are shepherded by top Hollywood agencies, such as CAA with the Casamigos trio -- run the gamut from full or significant ownership (Casamigos, Keith, Timberlake) to endorsements. In the latter case, a celebrity can be given a fee for services, a percentage of royalties or equity points. (Agents who specialize in these deals say they've seen ownership stakes ranging from 3 percent to nearly 50 percent and that celebrity endorser/owners rarely put in any of their own money.) The spirits category also has high margins: A bottle of tequila can cost $5 to $10 to produce; most of the brands discussed here retail for $40 to $50. Vodka has the potential for much greater profits though -- grain is much cheaper than agave -- and the vodka market is bigger. (It claimed 34 percent of sales in 2012 compared with tequila's 6 percent, according to Impact Spirits Databank.) Vodka has produced both major winners -- Combs' Ciroc endorsement deal with Diageo nets him eight-figure yearly payouts -- and losers, like the failed Trump Vodka.
The cost burden for spirits comes in marketing. Says Ken Austin, founder of Tequila Avion (a brand that gained broad recognition when it figured into a story arc during seasons seven and eight of HBO's Entourage): "Juice is just a fraction of the cost. The liquor business is a very expensive business; it costs millions of dollars to get in since you're competing with multinational brands." Stars, he adds, have a built-in advantage with the name recognition they bring. The potential downside is tarnishing a celebrity's reputation as a spokesperson, even if they don't personally lose money.
STORY: Bruce Willis Fights for Partial Payment for Vodka Endorsement
The upscale tequila trend began during the '80s. Before that, it was an acquired taste, a spirit known better for its fiery kick and honky-tonk cred than sophistication. In 1989, Paul Mitchell's John Paul DeJoria co-founded Patron (now the U.S.'s No. 2 seller behind Jose Cuervo), whose multiple distillations, smooth taste, luxe packaging and price tag vaulted tequila to a rarefied level. "Before them, the high-end market really didn't exist," says Brian Dow, head of branded lifestyle at the APA Agency. The goal quickly became: Start the next Patron.
That's clearly the target of Chris Brown, a Phoenix real estate developer who founded Bonita Platinum in 2010. It's sold in a crystal bottle set in a satin-lined black box. "We wanted to produce a luxury item that American consumers could embrace," says Brown. "No sombreros, no scorpions."
Early on, Brown sent a bottle to rap star Xzibit, whom he'd seen in a music video extolling the virtues of -- what else? -- Patron Silver. "A few days later," says Brown, "I got a tweet from Xzibit saying, 'This beats Patron hands-down, for real.' " Soon after, Xzibit became an active partner in Bonita Platinum. "If we didn't have the support of Xzibit, all I'd get is a slap in the face," says Brown. "Instead, I'm going to distribution meetings." Owning one's own clubs helps, too: Hagar featured Cabo Wabo in his nightclubs of the same name, and Gerber will sell Casamigos at his clubs and lounges.
Celebrities take various levels of involvement in developing their tequilas. There are more than 140 tequila distilleries in Jalisco, and collectively they produce nearly 1,500 brands. (Of all major spirits groups, tequila is the only one that has a denomination of origin -- it must be made in Jalisco.) This means, among other things, that a single distillery might be responsible for several brands that inevitably will compete in the U.S. market. It's possible simply to travel to a distillery and choose a blend -- or not to go to Mexico at all and do so. "They just sent me the bottles," Keith once said of the genesis of his brand. The Casamigos founders, on the other hand, trumpet that they sampled 800 blends before deciding on their spirit. (Tequila is broken down into categories depending on how long it is aged: Blanco rests a short period before bottling; reposado is aged from two months up to one year, usually in oak; and anejo sits one to three years.)
VIDEO: David Letterman Drinks Tequila, Bill Hader Dances on 'Late Show'
As tequila goes more upscale, its flavor profile continues to veer toward a highly refined spirit that goes through multiple distillations. "Everything we've done with the brand is geared toward making this a sipping tequila, like scotch," says Pittman of his remarkably silky Casa Dragones. Adds Kevin Ruder, Timberlake's partner in 901 Silver, "We didn't want to see people making that 'face' when they drink it." Ruder toured more than a dozen distilleries, settling on Tequilera Newton e Hijos because it could execute a style smooth enough to appeal to the pop star.
Some purists, however, bemoan this trend as relatively toothless, the bottlings sweeter and more innocuous than the real thing, which one spirits expert describes somewhat dismissively as "vodka with tequila flavoring."
Then again, for many, that hardly matters, as the celebrity upscale tequila juggernaut churns on. In July, when Timberlake launches a summer tour, 901 will be cross-promoted; consumers will have a chance to win tour tickets (where legal) through the 901 website. Timberlake also has promoted the brand to his 21 million Twitter followers. "We should all believe in something," he tweeted in the fall. "I believe it's time for another shot of tequila. … happy @901Silver day everybody!"
Rumbling behind the scenes at rock 'n' roll shows, tequila has inspired more than its share of monster jams and postgig revelry. But during the past half-decade, its allure has attracted public figures into brand partnerships and ownership.
This ever-expanding group includes rockers Carlos Santana (Casa Noble) and Motley Crue's Vince Neil (Tres Rios), country star Toby Keith (Wild Shot) and Justin Timberlake (901 Silver). This year, George Clooney and nightlife entrepreneur Rande Gerber (with real estate developer Mike Meldman) debuted Casamigos, named for Clooney's and Gerber's adjacent properties in Cabo San Lucas. In 2009, Pittman launched Casa Dragones, which at $275 a bottle ranks as the category's priciest. Travel to the Mexican state of Jalisco, and it's not uncommon to run into celebrity entourages at distilleries. Everyone from Shaquille O'Neal to Sean Combs is rumored to have interest in investing in a tequila brand.
PHOTOS: From George Clooney to Justin Timberlake: Celebrities With Tequila Labels
Whether it's the mysteries of the blue agave source plant, the exoticism, the inebriation or some combination, celebrity interest in tequila is at a high. So are profits: In the U.S., the biggest market, it's a multibillion-dollar business. Since the most recent recession, sales have grown 5 percent annually -- particularly among ultrapremium tequilas, the classification of many of these new brands. "Not only is it a fun drink, but the depletions (i.e. product turnover) are crazy," says former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar, credited with first hitching horses to this bandwagon during the '90s when he founded Cabo Wabo tequila. His competitors look with awe at his success: Campari Group purchased a controlling interest in 2007 and bought Hagar out three years later in deals said to total $100 million.
Business arrangements -- some of which are shepherded by top Hollywood agencies, such as CAA with the Casamigos trio -- run the gamut from full or significant ownership (Casamigos, Keith, Timberlake) to endorsements. In the latter case, a celebrity can be given a fee for services, a percentage of royalties or equity points. (Agents who specialize in these deals say they've seen ownership stakes ranging from 3 percent to nearly 50 percent and that celebrity endorser/owners rarely put in any of their own money.) The spirits category also has high margins: A bottle of tequila can cost $5 to $10 to produce; most of the brands discussed here retail for $40 to $50. Vodka has the potential for much greater profits though -- grain is much cheaper than agave -- and the vodka market is bigger. (It claimed 34 percent of sales in 2012 compared with tequila's 6 percent, according to Impact Spirits Databank.) Vodka has produced both major winners -- Combs' Ciroc endorsement deal with Diageo nets him eight-figure yearly payouts -- and losers, like the failed Trump Vodka.
The cost burden for spirits comes in marketing. Says Ken Austin, founder of Tequila Avion (a brand that gained broad recognition when it figured into a story arc during seasons seven and eight of HBO's Entourage): "Juice is just a fraction of the cost. The liquor business is a very expensive business; it costs millions of dollars to get in since you're competing with multinational brands." Stars, he adds, have a built-in advantage with the name recognition they bring. The potential downside is tarnishing a celebrity's reputation as a spokesperson, even if they don't personally lose money.
STORY: Bruce Willis Fights for Partial Payment for Vodka Endorsement
The upscale tequila trend began during the '80s. Before that, it was an acquired taste, a spirit known better for its fiery kick and honky-tonk cred than sophistication. In 1989, Paul Mitchell's John Paul DeJoria co-founded Patron (now the U.S.'s No. 2 seller behind Jose Cuervo), whose multiple distillations, smooth taste, luxe packaging and price tag vaulted tequila to a rarefied level. "Before them, the high-end market really didn't exist," says Brian Dow, head of branded lifestyle at the APA Agency. The goal quickly became: Start the next Patron.
That's clearly the target of Chris Brown, a Phoenix real estate developer who founded Bonita Platinum in 2010. It's sold in a crystal bottle set in a satin-lined black box. "We wanted to produce a luxury item that American consumers could embrace," says Brown. "No sombreros, no scorpions."
Early on, Brown sent a bottle to rap star Xzibit, whom he'd seen in a music video extolling the virtues of -- what else? -- Patron Silver. "A few days later," says Brown, "I got a tweet from Xzibit saying, 'This beats Patron hands-down, for real.' " Soon after, Xzibit became an active partner in Bonita Platinum. "If we didn't have the support of Xzibit, all I'd get is a slap in the face," says Brown. "Instead, I'm going to distribution meetings." Owning one's own clubs helps, too: Hagar featured Cabo Wabo in his nightclubs of the same name, and Gerber will sell Casamigos at his clubs and lounges.
Celebrities take various levels of involvement in developing their tequilas. There are more than 140 tequila distilleries in Jalisco, and collectively they produce nearly 1,500 brands. (Of all major spirits groups, tequila is the only one that has a denomination of origin -- it must be made in Jalisco.) This means, among other things, that a single distillery might be responsible for several brands that inevitably will compete in the U.S. market. It's possible simply to travel to a distillery and choose a blend -- or not to go to Mexico at all and do so. "They just sent me the bottles," Keith once said of the genesis of his brand. The Casamigos founders, on the other hand, trumpet that they sampled 800 blends before deciding on their spirit. (Tequila is broken down into categories depending on how long it is aged: Blanco rests a short period before bottling; reposado is aged from two months up to one year, usually in oak; and anejo sits one to three years.)
VIDEO: David Letterman Drinks Tequila, Bill Hader Dances on 'Late Show'
As tequila goes more upscale, its flavor profile continues to veer toward a highly refined spirit that goes through multiple distillations. "Everything we've done with the brand is geared toward making this a sipping tequila, like scotch," says Pittman of his remarkably silky Casa Dragones. Adds Kevin Ruder, Timberlake's partner in 901 Silver, "We didn't want to see people making that 'face' when they drink it." Ruder toured more than a dozen distilleries, settling on Tequilera Newton e Hijos because it could execute a style smooth enough to appeal to the pop star.
Some purists, however, bemoan this trend as relatively toothless, the bottlings sweeter and more innocuous than the real thing, which one spirits expert describes somewhat dismissively as "vodka with tequila flavoring."
Then again, for many, that hardly matters, as the celebrity upscale tequila juggernaut churns on. In July, when Timberlake launches a summer tour, 901 will be cross-promoted; consumers will have a chance to win tour tickets (where legal) through the 901 website. Timberlake also has promoted the brand to his 21 million Twitter followers. "We should all believe in something," he tweeted in the fall. "I believe it's time for another shot of tequila. … happy @901Silver day everybody!"
iOS 7 proves once again that change is the way Apple does business
Apple’s introduction of iOS 7 has sparked quite the discussion about software design—and somehow it has also magically conferred degrees in design to a whole host of laypeople. You don’t have to be a design expert, or even play one on the Internet, to disagree with some of the choices Apple has made. But whether or not you agree, one thing is certain: iOS 7 is coming this fall. And if you’re invested in Apple’s ecosystem, you can either get on this wagon or let it pass you by. I think the smart money is on hitching a ride.
This isn’t the first time Apple has turned things upside down for both users and third parties. Let’s take a look back through the archives at some of the changes Apple has made to its platforms over the past 20 years.
Wikipedia
When Apple started shipping PowerPC machines in 1994, it included a 680x0 emulator in the Mac OS so that all code for old Macs would continue to run on the new hardware. Even the operating system initially ran in emulation. But the speed advantage of PowerPC quickly became the hook that caused developers to update their applications for the new processor. Well, quickly for the time, anyway. Things were different back then. For starters, developers used steam-powered compilers that had to be stoked for days. You tell that to people these days, and they won’t believe you. (Possibly because it’s not true.)
While mostly just a cosmetic change, the introduction of colorful iMacs was huge for third-party peripheral makers. If you’re a longtime Mac user, as I am, you probably have a basement, attic, or, at the very least, a drawer somewhere that’s full of candy-colored mice and USB hubs. Nobody wanted to use a beige external hard drive with a lime iBook, and third-party peripheral makers rode that idea all the way to the bank.
Apple bought NeXT in 1996 for its NeXTStep operating system, but more than four years would pass before it shipped its own next-generation OS—and several more iterations would come before the OS would be truly usable. Again, Apple didn’t cut off the past completely. The company included two means of backward-compatibility, Classic and Carbon. The Classic environment ran a full version of OS 9 in a virtual environment—similar to the virtual machines we might run in Parallels or VMWare today—to support older applications. Carbon, on the other hand, consisted of a set of libraries that Apple supported on both OS 9 and OS X; applications coded with it could run on both operating systems.
WikipediaOS X's Aqua interface was quite a departure from the classic Mac OS, and required adjustment from users and developers alike.
But applications that used Cocoa, the language that Apple pushed with the introduction of OS X, were the way of the future. Applications coded to those native NeXTStep APIs ran faster, better, and prettier—and boy, they smelled terrific. Companies that dragged their feet in updating applications would lose users while longtime NeXTStep development shops such as The Omni Group would soon experience a boom.
The interface change from the Classic Mac look to Aqua is probably the closest analogy to the recent design changes with iOS 7. At the time, OS X commentator John Siracusa said of Aqua:
Polarizing is a word you hear a lot these days.
Much as with the 68000-to-PowerPC migration, in this situation Apple used an emulator, Rosetta, so that legacy applications could run on the new Intel-based hardware. For the most part, Cocoa applications could just be recompiled. At the time the most nervous of the various nellies claimed that developers would simply give up developing for the Mac and would tell people to boot into Windows on their Macs to run their applications. Game over, man! But, again, the opportunity was to make apps that would run faster—not just faster than applications running in Rosetta, but faster than the equivalent versions running on PowerPC.
iOS’s second coming took the form of the iPod touch’s bigger, badder brother: the iPad. Developers had long wanted Apple to provide an upgrade-pricing option for the App Store—and they continue to want that today. But at least some of them have been able to take advantage of hardware changes to entice a few more dollars out of their customers. When Apple shipped the iPad, developers had the option of making universal versions of their apps, but a host of new “HD” versions of games, as well as other dedicated iPad-only apps, appeared. The iPad versions required new graphics and new layouts, but the functionality didn’t have to change much at all.
Sometimes, though, a change doesn’t directly lead to an opportunity to charge customers again. When Apple added Retina displays to the iPhone and iPad, most developers didn’t charge for upgrading their graphics to Retina quality. The same held true with the iPhone 5’s larger screen size. However, if your app lacked such upgrades, it would likely lose out to apps that had them. If you wanted users of new iPhones to buy them and if you wanted to keep making money off your iOS app, you updated.
The moral of this story should be obvious, since I’ve now beaten you over the head with it six times. Change is hard, but it’s a mistake to consider platform transitions such as these a slap in the face to developers. This kind of thinking has always been wrong. Transitions are hardly done to spite third parties. Yes, when change arrives, as it inevitably does, developers have to put in some extra work—but that work will be rewarded.
Some of Apple’s past changes were purely technological, while others were cosmetic. The reason iOS 7 is so contentious is that it represents a technological, functional, thematic, and visual change. But change is change, and change is opportunity. As Tapbots developer Paul Haddad said:
Without any snark, that really sums it up. Do you want to continue to be in on this platform, or do you want to do something else? iOS 7 isn’t complete yet, and we can hope that some of the eyesores will get refined (straight into a shallow grave). So, yes, let’s nitpick about icon design, and the apps that still have textures, and whatever else seems off. But Apple has set the overall direction. All that’s left for developers to do is to decide what business they want to be in.
This isn’t the first time Apple has turned things upside down for both users and third parties. Let’s take a look back through the archives at some of the changes Apple has made to its platforms over the past 20 years.
WikipediaWhen Apple started shipping PowerPC machines in 1994, it included a 680x0 emulator in the Mac OS so that all code for old Macs would continue to run on the new hardware. Even the operating system initially ran in emulation. But the speed advantage of PowerPC quickly became the hook that caused developers to update their applications for the new processor. Well, quickly for the time, anyway. Things were different back then. For starters, developers used steam-powered compilers that had to be stoked for days. You tell that to people these days, and they won’t believe you. (Possibly because it’s not true.)
While mostly just a cosmetic change, the introduction of colorful iMacs was huge for third-party peripheral makers. If you’re a longtime Mac user, as I am, you probably have a basement, attic, or, at the very least, a drawer somewhere that’s full of candy-colored mice and USB hubs. Nobody wanted to use a beige external hard drive with a lime iBook, and third-party peripheral makers rode that idea all the way to the bank.
Apple bought NeXT in 1996 for its NeXTStep operating system, but more than four years would pass before it shipped its own next-generation OS—and several more iterations would come before the OS would be truly usable. Again, Apple didn’t cut off the past completely. The company included two means of backward-compatibility, Classic and Carbon. The Classic environment ran a full version of OS 9 in a virtual environment—similar to the virtual machines we might run in Parallels or VMWare today—to support older applications. Carbon, on the other hand, consisted of a set of libraries that Apple supported on both OS 9 and OS X; applications coded with it could run on both operating systems.
WikipediaOS X's Aqua interface was quite a departure from the classic Mac OS, and required adjustment from users and developers alike.But applications that used Cocoa, the language that Apple pushed with the introduction of OS X, were the way of the future. Applications coded to those native NeXTStep APIs ran faster, better, and prettier—and boy, they smelled terrific. Companies that dragged their feet in updating applications would lose users while longtime NeXTStep development shops such as The Omni Group would soon experience a boom.
The interface change from the Classic Mac look to Aqua is probably the closest analogy to the recent design changes with iOS 7. At the time, OS X commentator John Siracusa said of Aqua:
Of course, Aqua is also compelling in that it may compel some people to gag. Like the iMac, Aqua is likely to polarize consumers and competitors alike.
Polarizing is a word you hear a lot these days.
Much as with the 68000-to-PowerPC migration, in this situation Apple used an emulator, Rosetta, so that legacy applications could run on the new Intel-based hardware. For the most part, Cocoa applications could just be recompiled. At the time the most nervous of the various nellies claimed that developers would simply give up developing for the Mac and would tell people to boot into Windows on their Macs to run their applications. Game over, man! But, again, the opportunity was to make apps that would run faster—not just faster than applications running in Rosetta, but faster than the equivalent versions running on PowerPC.
iOS’s second coming took the form of the iPod touch’s bigger, badder brother: the iPad. Developers had long wanted Apple to provide an upgrade-pricing option for the App Store—and they continue to want that today. But at least some of them have been able to take advantage of hardware changes to entice a few more dollars out of their customers. When Apple shipped the iPad, developers had the option of making universal versions of their apps, but a host of new “HD” versions of games, as well as other dedicated iPad-only apps, appeared. The iPad versions required new graphics and new layouts, but the functionality didn’t have to change much at all.
Sometimes, though, a change doesn’t directly lead to an opportunity to charge customers again. When Apple added Retina displays to the iPhone and iPad, most developers didn’t charge for upgrading their graphics to Retina quality. The same held true with the iPhone 5’s larger screen size. However, if your app lacked such upgrades, it would likely lose out to apps that had them. If you wanted users of new iPhones to buy them and if you wanted to keep making money off your iOS app, you updated.
The moral of this story should be obvious, since I’ve now beaten you over the head with it six times. Change is hard, but it’s a mistake to consider platform transitions such as these a slap in the face to developers. This kind of thinking has always been wrong. Transitions are hardly done to spite third parties. Yes, when change arrives, as it inevitably does, developers have to put in some extra work—but that work will be rewarded.
Some of Apple’s past changes were purely technological, while others were cosmetic. The reason iOS 7 is so contentious is that it represents a technological, functional, thematic, and visual change. But change is change, and change is opportunity. As Tapbots developer Paul Haddad said:
If you are an iOS developer and don’t think iOS 7 is the biggest opportunity in years, you need to find a new job.
Without any snark, that really sums it up. Do you want to continue to be in on this platform, or do you want to do something else? iOS 7 isn’t complete yet, and we can hope that some of the eyesores will get refined (straight into a shallow grave). So, yes, let’s nitpick about icon design, and the apps that still have textures, and whatever else seems off. But Apple has set the overall direction. All that’s left for developers to do is to decide what business they want to be in.
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