NOVEMBER 2013
www.itincanadaonline.ca
MICHAEL ANGUS
A cashless world: speed bumps and progress on the journey PAGE 8
MIKE SHARUN
Canada falling behind in security and data protection, says EMC survey PAGE 9
CRITICAL INSIGHT FOR CHANNEL MANAGEMENT
SOFTWARE-DEFINED
NETWORKING
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CONTENTS
13.05
FEATURED THIS ISSUE SOFTWARE-DEFINED NETWORKING 101 Juniper Networks’ Rami Rahim tells us why SDN is here to stay.
INDUSTRY ISSUES Financial sector, take note: customers are increasingly paying with plastic instead of paper.
10 8
4 EDITOR’S NOTE
It’s time to say goodbye to Windows XP. But are we ready?
6 CHANNEL NEWS
CloudSigma partners with Zadara Storage, Avira’s channel program attracts new partners, HP releases a new version of Data Protector, and Ingram Micro enters a distribution agreement with Nutanix.
12 SUPPLIER POV INDUSTRY ISSUES A new report by EMC has found that Canadian companies are at the back of the pack when it comes to deployment of security infrastructure.
9
How can resellers help their retail clients prepare for the holiday rush?
13 TECHNOLOGY CONTEXT
Companies are finding new and innovative ways to make meetings more productive.
18 DISTRACTIONS
PRODUCT REVIEW A tablet first: WRLWND editor Chris Rogers reviews the Toshiba Z10t.
November 2013
16
This month’s roundup of weird and wonderful news from the world of tech.
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EDITOR’S NOTE WE JUST CAN’T SAY GOODBYE
INSIGHTS FOR TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONALS EDITORIAL ACTING EDITORS: AMY ALLEN AND DANIELA FISHER
amy.allen@itincanadaonline.ca daniela.fisher@itincanadaonline.ca
SENIOR STAFF WRITER: RACHEL LEVY SARFIN
editorial@itincanadaonline.ca
I
STAFF WRITERS: AMY ALLEN
t’s the end of an era. For many years, Windows XP, with its bright blue toolbar and rolling fields background image, has graced our desktops and earned a place in our hearts. But Microsoft announced earlier this year that it would be discontinuing the operating system, so it’s officially time to start saying goodbye to XP. Effective April 8, 2014, Microsoft will no longer support Windows XP, which means that users will have to migrate to a more recent Windows OS or switch to an entirely new system. Yet a recent report suggests that users are having a hard time saying goodbye. A CDW-sponsored survey conducted by Spiceworks has found that even though the end date for XP support is five short months away, the majority of respondents are still running Windows XP. While this might be more of a budget issue than over-fondness for the operating system, the fact remains that Windows XP is still very much around. The study was conducted last month, surveying 1,300 IT professionals from a variety of industries and from around the world. It found that 76 per cent of respondents are still running XP on some of their devices. What’s more, 36 per cent will continue to run it on at least one of their devices after the cut-off date. The report also found that respondents favoured a migration to Windows 7 as opposed to more current operating systems. Almost half of respondents – 49 per cent – said that they planned to upgrade to Windows 7, whereas only seven per cent planned to upgrade to Windows 8 or 8.1. A number of respondents planned to get rid of XP devices altogether – 48 per cent of respondents said they would purchase new Windows 7-based computers; 12 per cent said they would purchase Windows 8 or 8.1 machines. Respondents cited lack of budget, time, and resources as reasons for not yet migrating to Windows 7, 8, or 8.1, but 68 per cent of them have already begun the upgrade process and 59 per cent have started purchasing entirely new machines. The majority of respondents were confident that their migration plans would be successful. Ultimately, the end of Windows XP represents a very lucrative opportunity for all IT service providers, both large and small. The move will affect an estimated 560 million computers, in countless organizations around the world. For service providers, that could mean a lot of business in the coming months as more companies make the switch. Until then, users still have a few months left before they potentially shut down their Windows XP for the last time.
November 2013
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CHANNEL NEWS Embotics enters channel partner agreement with Right! Systems
CloudSigma bolsters cloud storage with Zadara
CloudSigma, a provider of cloud Infrastructure as a Service, announced today a partnership with Zadara Storage. The new partnership bolsters CloudSigma’s cloud storage offerings by making Zadara’s private storage solution available to CloudSigma customers. The new offering was designed to help businesses meet their high-volume storage requirements. Zadara Storage provides private cloud storage for enterprises. Its Virtual Private Storage Array will be offered with CloudSigma’s existing high performance, all-SSD compute offering. The combined offering will be available through the Equinix Data Centre. The offering will also be available to Equinix’s customers via direct connect through the Ashburn data Centre campus, one of the largest Internet exchange points in the world. Through the partnership, CloudSigma’s customers get access to Zadara’s services, including its private block and file services for network storage, at hourly rates. In collaboration with CloudSigma and Equinix, Zadara has also added flexibly deployed hardware to Equinix’s data center colocation facilities, with high-speed network connections into CloudSigma. This ensures that even with large data volumes, businesses will be provided with superior storage performance in the cloud. “We have always been committed to providing superior storage performance in the cloud, and our partnership with Zadara is another step toward that goal,” said Robert Jenkins, CEO, CloudSigma. “Zadara’s large-volume, sharable, elastic, by-the hour, enterprise storage solution helps us satisfy an even more diverse set of storage needs for our customers; and, together, we are helping advance the public cloud market by enabling enterprise grade tiered storage strategies in the cloud.” For Zadara, the partnership is a step toward making Zadara a ubiquitous cloud storage platform: “CloudSigma’s reputation for quality, innovation and customer service is unmatched in the industry and we are proud to be teaming up with them on this advanced public cloud storage partnership,” said Nelson Nahum, CEO, Zadara Storage. “Our combined offering demonstrates our ability to serve and meet the needs of a wide variety of cloud customers and we expect this will be a significant step toward making Zadara a ubiquitous platform for cloud storage.” Zadara’s VPSA service is available immediately for CloudSigma’s Zurich cloud customers with the additional U.S. locations coming on stream soon.
Embotics, a provider of cloud management software, announced recently that it has signed a channel partner agreement with Right! Systems Inc., a member of the M7 Group of companies. The agreement is part of Embotics’ global channel strategy for vCommander, its flagship virtualization and cloud management platform. With the partnership, Embotics is continuing to expand its cloud management software platform in enterprise and mid markets. vCommander lets users consume data from a variety of platforms. The platform-neutral cloud management platform (CMP) will allow Right! Systems’ clients to provide IT as a service (ITaaS) from a single console. It will also allow companies to constantly monitor resources, to improve the automation, deployment and configuration of IT services across private, public and hybrid clouds. “As the newest addition to our already comprehensive portfolio, Embotics will now be an integral component of our company’s offerings,” said Sean Padget, executive vice president of Sales and Marketing at Right! Systems Inc. “Embotics vCommander Cloud Management Platform is positioned to further empower Right! Systems’ clients to leverage a comprehensive set of multi-hypervisor virtualization and cloud management capabilities. The channel partner agreement with Right! Systems Inc. expands Embotics’ presence throughout the northwestern U.S. and as far north as Alaska.
Lance Jacobs
Avira channel program draws new partners
Good news for security expert Avira. The security software company announced yesterday that its new North America Channel Program is signing up reseller partners at a rate of more than one new reseller every day. “The momentum is encouraging. It shows us that the reseller channel has been looking for a security software partner like Avira, which is known for its trustworthy technology and partner-friendly terms,” said Lance Jacobs, North America’s general manager for Avira. “Avira already dominates many European countries as the top antivirus and security brand, and now we’re coming on strong in North America.” Avira has over 100 million customers worldwide. Its channel program offers two levels: Smart Partner and Uber Partner. Both provide Avira’s reseller partners with the ability to offer their customers top security and antivirus solutions. With the channel program, Avira says its partners have immediate access to products, tools and attractive margins, as well as technical support for both resellers and their end users. Avira launched the channel program on October 15, 2013. Among other features, the program has a fixed cost on Avira’s most popular antivirus software, letting channel partners offer the security for less than $1 per month. November 2013
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The Canadian Channel Standard
CHANNEL NEWS HP unveils Data Protector 8.1
Last week, HP announced HP Data Protector 8.1, a backup and recovery software solution that is adaptive and self-aware. The solution is capable of leveraging real-time analytics to monitor, adapt, and optimize an organization’s storage infrastructure, resources, and data policies. “[This] release marks the end of backup as we know it,” said David Jones, GM, Data Protection, HP Autonomy. “HP Data Protector delivers the industry’s first selfaware, self-healing and self-managing solution that will transform how forwardthinking organizations power and protect the modern data center.” Data Protector 8.1 has four components, which form the basis of HP’s vision for a new class of intelligent backup solutions. These include prioritization of data and applications, prediction using operational analytics, recommendations to managers to reduce potential conflicts and follow SLA requirements, and automation of backup and recovery based on operational analytics. Integration with SAP HANA provides backup and recovery to SAP HANA’s databases, recreates logs, and performs database recovery to the most recent recoverable state. The solution’s disaster recovery enhancements include wizard pages to streamline and automate the disaster recovery process and new object selection methods. A priority-based scheduler also allows businesses to back up mission-critical data according to specific business needs. The solution can also integrate with HP StoreOnce and HP 3PAR StoreServ; improved HP StoreOnce compression delivers better efficiency, encryption, and instant recovery support. Data Protector 8.1 has integration capabilities with Microsoft Active Director and VMware vCenter 5.5 for Single Item Recovery, as well as certification with VMware vSphere 5.5 and vCloud Director 5.5. The product’s new platform certifications include application agent support for Microsoft SharePoint 2013 and IBM DB2 10.5, disk agent support for Debian 7.0 and AIX 64 bit, and media agent support for AIX 64 bit and Solaris 11.1. HP Data Protector 8.1 will be available by January 2014.
Ingram Micro to distribute Nutanix’s converged infrastructure solutions Nutanix, a provider of solutions for data centre infrastructure, announced yesterday that it has entered into a distribution agreement with Ingram Micro. Through the agreement, Ingram Micro will distribute the Nutanix Virtual Computing Platform to its resellers in the U.S. and Canada. With the new deal, Nutanix is capitalizing on the increased demand for converged solutions in Canada. Its virtual computing platform consolidates compute and storage into a single appliance. Businesses that use the platform no longer need traditional storage arrays. “We are seeing increasing market demand for converged solutions across Canada,” said David Mason, VP, Sales, Ingram Micro Canada. “This new alliance with Nutanix expands our data centre portfolio and builds on our success in bringing to market best-in-class, advanced technologies, solutions and services.” Nutanix is building the next generation of data centres. It provides businesses with a highly scalable solution for running any virtual workload. The platform eliminates the need for centralized data storage. In addition, Nutanix’s Pay-As-You-Grow model was designed to give companies the flexibility to add nodes individually, so that they can start small and scale accordingly as their business grows. Anton Granic, senior director, Nutanix Canada, commented: “Nutanix is seeing explosive growth not only in Canada, but all over the world. Teaming with Ingram Micro will help us capitalize on the growing demand for next-generation datacenter solutions and allow Nutanix to deliver our industry-leading convergence solutions to customers across Canada, as well as the U.S.” The company recently launched its Nutanix Partner Network, an end-toend partner program. With this distribution agreement, Nutanix expands its sales across the U.S. and Canada.
November 2013
| 7 | The Canadian Channel Standard
INDUSTRY ISSUES
A cashless world: speed bumps and progress on the journey BY RACHEL LEVY SARFIN
Just a few years ago, you would not have thought twice about going to the store, taking your wallet out of your pocket or purse and pulling out cash to make a purchase. In a few decades, though, that might be an exceptional occurrence. The world is moving towards a cashless economy. Consumers and businesses will someday transfer payments electronically. The shift towards a cash-free world has already begun. MasterCard Advisors, the professional services arm of MasterCard, recently released a report entitled “The Cashless Journey” that examines how 33 countries are making the transition to elecronic payments. Researchers measured the percentage of the value of all consumer payments, including utility, government, medical, loan, peer-to-peer payments for goods or services as well as merchant payments at retail point of sale that are currently carried out by means other than cash. They referred to that percentage as “share.” They also assessed the shift in cash share of consumer payments’ value between 2006 and 2011, the year of the most recent available data. The researchers termed this shift as “trajectory.” Their third point of examination was the future potential for conversion of cash payments to the electronic kind, which they dubbed “readiness.” Michael Angus, group head, payment strategy and emerging payments, MasterCard, noted that the report revealed some unexpected findings. “Two countries outperformed basic readiness indicators,” he commented. China and Kenya were the two countries that showed a surprising level of readiness to go cashless. In China’s case, the government provided what Angus called “strong” leadership in encouraging the transition to cashless payments. Another factor is a high level of migration from rural to urban areas. Urban areas offer a greater access to electricity and banking, two very important components of readiness in a cashless society. Angus remarked that the second country, Kenya, is well on its way to going cashless thanks to product innovation. Kenya boasts one of the most developed mobile payment systems in the world: M-Pesa. M-Pesa comes from a combination of the word “mobile” and “pesa,” the Swahili word for money. “A huge percentage of Kenyans use M-Pesa,” Angus said. He attributed its success to the mobile companies that launched
November 2013
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the service and the Kenyan government, which is in favour of innovation in this sphere. Angus added that the government aided Kenya’s mobile carriers by creating regulations that protected consumers while giving businesses the freedom they needed to be profitable. While China and Kenya exceeded expectations for cashless economic readiMichael Angus, group head, ness, Angus acknowledged payment strategy and emerging that there were a few counpayments, MasterCard tries included in the report that had not made as much progress as researchers expected. Japan, Germany, Taiwan and Spain operate at a level of 70 per cent cashless payments. However, Angus explained that they are so advanced that the level should be higher than 70 per cent. He suggested a possible explanation is that these countries do not have enough payment options that accommodate consumer preferences and habits. If services operated in those countries that did indeed take consumer tastes into account, the rate of cashless payments would rise. Angus believes that this report offers important lessons to the financial services sector, governments and regulators and the payment industry. For countries that have not begun their cashless journey, the report highlights the high cost of using cash. The financial services and payment industries will find MasterCard’s study of interest because the cashless economy will have huge ramifications in this space. Moreover, financial services providers and the payment industry have the opportunity to shape this journey. Ultimately, the world will go cashless. Angus predicted it could take decades more to achieve that goal. However, government leadership and innovative products could accelerate the journey for many countries.
The Canadian Channel Standard
INDUSTRY ISSUES Canada falling behind in
security and data protection
BY RACHEL LEVY SARFIN
How trustworthy is your IT infrastructure? Do you feel certain that it could withstand a security breach, data loss or unplanned downtime? The results of a recent survey commissioned by EMC shows that perhaps Canadian companies should not place much confidence in their IT infrastructure. The survey ranked Canada as ninth out of 16 countries in deploying advanced security and data protection. Independent research firm Vanson Bourne carried out the survey, entitled “The Global IT Trust Curve.” The company interviewed 3,200 IT professionals in 16 countries in 10 industry sectors. China ranked first in deploying advanced security measures and data protection. IT decision makers in that country implement technology that ensures continuous availability, integrated backup and recovery as well as tight security. The U.S. came in second place, and South Africa and Brazil occupied the third and fourth places. Japan earned the lowest marks. The True North came in somewhere in the middle of the pack. Fifty-three percent of Canadian executives said that their companies had at least one problem with their IT infrastructure in the past year. Fifty-eight percent of senior executives in Canada expressed confidence in their data protection and availability. Their lack of confidence is understandable: data loss and unplanned downtime bears a high cost. The survey estimated that the financial impact of insecurity is over $200,000USD. Michael Sharun, managing director, EMC Canada, shared his insights as to why Canada’s results were not as high as expected. “There are a couple of reasons for Canada’s ranking,” he said. “The first is Canadian businesses have a lot of legacy IT infrastructure, in the form of older hardware and software, they need to integrate Mike Sharun, managing with newer equipment, director, EMC Canada software and processes. November 2013
This makes their IT infrastructures less agile than they could be.” Companies in BRICS countries are newer, and are not burdened by older IT infrastructure. They can invest in agile technology that gives them a competitive edge. Another reason for Canada’s marks is IT decision makers’ mindset. “The second reason for Canada’s ranking is Canadian businesses tend to see IT as a cost centre rather than a revenue driver,” Sharun noted. However, their view might work in their favour. “This inward focus might help explain why Canadian businesses report fewer events than companies in other countries that place more importance on external consequences, such as revenue and customer loyalty,” he remarked. What will it take for Canada to rise to the top five? “Canadian companies need to see IT as a competitive advantage, and structure themselves accordingly,” Sharun advised. “For example, in many cases IT is nested under finance or HR, with an IT professional overseeing the department. To better articulate the business value of IT, companies need to make it a C-level position, led by an executive who understands the business consequences of IT decisions.” Canadian companies’ IT infrastructure must also reach a higher level of maturity. “It’s impossible to deliver critical IT requirements such as advanced security, continuous availability or integrated backup and recovery if foundational trust maturity is lacking,” Sharun commented. “Without a predictable environment, an understanding of where assets are, or an ability to pick up on nuances and detect behavioural anomalies, organizations will be unable to adequately prevent and defend themselves from disruptive IT incidents today and in the future,” he added. Sharun also addressed the issue of unplanned downtime. “As more mission-critical applications are now deployed on virtualized environments, new approaches are needed to eliminate expansive and debilitating downtime. Fighting today’s sophisticated cyber-attacks and intrusions calls for a move beyond perimeter protection to intelligence-driven security analytics with monitoring and response capabilities to defend against more advanced threats to the business,” he said. “Integrated backup and recovery needs to be more effective than ever before to prevent data loss, improve protection and speed time to recovery.”
| 9 | The Canadian Channel Standard
SUPPLIER POV
Softwaredefined networking
101
Software-defined networking: more than just a trend
Rahim sees SDN as the most important trend in the networking space today. “There’s a hype cycle,” he acknowledged, “which is what we’re going through right now.” Rahim believes that SDN can overcome its status as a trend, though. “People are untethering its importance from the hype. We’re at a stage where it’s clearer what SDN can do for the enterprise and service providers,” he said. The Juniper Networks EVP commented that SDN has great potential because of its broad applicability. “The cost of running complex networks is so high that network operators are looking to reduce that cost and introduce agility into networks,” Rahim remarked. SDN can help them achieve that goal because the enterprise and service providers no longer need to invest in expensive network switches. Software-based controllers are less expensive and more responsive. “SDN makes it easier to introduce new services onto the network,” Rahim added. The customers of service providers can also deploy services much faster, speeding time to market. “They can more easily monetize their business,” he noted. While it offers enormous potential to the enterprise and service providers, Rahim sees SDN as having an even greater significance. “Networks are viewed as plumbing,” he observed. SDN will change that perception. “SDN provides insight into networks,” Rahim said. Networks will no longer be seen as a set of pipes that are secondary to the information flowing through them. “It makes networks more relevant to the introduction of services,” he remarked. Rahim expressed optimism that SDN is moving beyond the trend phase into a permanent fixture of the networking landscape. “There’s some real momentum in the industry to move SDN out of the hype cycle and into reality,” he commented. He predicted that no one will have a monopoly over SDN. “This is ultimately going to be an ecosystem of technology that’s offered by very different providers,” Rahim concluded.
BY RACHEL LEVY SARFIN
T
rends come and go, but sometimes, certain developments hold staying power and can exert a significant and long-lasting influence. Software-defined networking (SDN) looks to be one of those developments. Rami Rahim, EVP, platform systems division, Juniper Networks, discussed why SDN is here to stay and what benefits it can bring
to the enterprise in an exclusive interview with IT in Canada. SDN refers to an approach to networking in which software, rather than hardware, is in control. A software application known as a “controller” manages the network’s operations. In a conventional network, a switch’s proprietary firmware would tell the switch where to send a given packet. Packets going to the same destination travel along the same path, and the switch treats these packets in exactly the same manner. SDN lets a network administrator govern the flow of traffic through a centralized console. Through the console, the network administrator can change any network switch’s rules as needed.
Rami Rahim, EVP, platform systems division, Juniper Networks November 2013
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“The cost of running complex networks is so high that network operators are looking to reduce that cost and introduce agility into networks.” The Canadian Channel Standard
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SUPPLIER POV
Avnet talks
HOLIDAY TIPS FOR RESELLERS BY AMY ALLEN
T
he holidays are coming in fast, resellers assist their retail partners in optimizwhich means that online retailers ing their websites for use on any device, be it will soon be accommodating a smartphone, tablet, or desktop PC, in order higher volume of traffic as shopto keep up with the demand. pers flock to the Web for Black Friday deals. And though some might be wary of buying Avnet recently released a list of tips for resellon their smartphones at a time when, seemers to help them cope with the influx and ingly, more and more mobile vulnerabilities manage their retail partners’ unique business are coming to light, Vottima says this is not challenges. an issue where Avnet resellers are concerned. “In a crunch season, starting with Black “Making sure that there are no breaches Friday and extending all the way through and that people aren’t trying to hack in is the holidays, small little glitches can get part of the service offering that the reseller to be major problems for a retailer,” noted base at Avnet has the ability to provide,” said Tony Vottima, SVP and GM, Avnet Services Vottima. Group, Avnet. “If people are experiencing Finally, Avnet suggests that resellers talk Tony Vottima, SVP and GM, these problems, it takes about 30 seconds for Avnet Services Group about customer support strategies with them to go to the next vendor, who is not havtheir retail partners, to ensure that customer ing the problem.” support teams are familiar with how to navigate e-commerce To avoid situations that can result in a loss of business, websites. This can be accomplished through refresher trainAvnet recommends that resellers work with their retail clients ing courses and a review of things that have changed on the to establish what is normal activity for their websites, so that website since the last holiday season. retailers can more easily discern when something has gone They should also ensure that IT teams have the appropriate wrong during the holiday rush. tools to manage heavy traffic on retailer websites, and that they Additionally, preventative remediation of small problems are able to monitor user experiences to quickly identify and prior to major holiday sale weekends can improve site perforresolve issues as they arise. mance during times of heavy traffic. “If there’s an error, or something goes wrong, the typiAn increasing number of people now prefer to shop from cal temporary employee that’s brought in for the holidays the convenience of their mobile devices, yet many retaildoesn’t necessarily understand how to address the probers have not built mobile-friendly versions of their websites. lem,” said Vottima. “We actually have the ability to train Websites that are not optimized for mobile devices can be their temporary employees for the things that they should cumbersome and slow when loaded on an iPhone browser. understand about doing business in an e-commerce world. This is another failing that can drive potential customers to We can also provide people on-site to solve the problem competitors’ shops; to counter it, Avnet recommends that immediately.” November 2013
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The Canadian Channel Standard
TECHNOLOGY CONTEXT
NO MORE MEETINGS!
Online meeting environments are evolving to become more productive across consumer, business, and education. And in many cases the business tools are taking cues from their consumer-focused counterparts. This article originally appeared on WRLWND.com and is reprinted with permission. BY CHRISTOPHER ROGERS
It’s hard to find someone who likes meetings. It’s cliché, but true: meetings have become pain points simply because most are too long, too stale, and just plain boring. With mobility as hot as ever and every business talking about how to get employees working anytime, anywhere, there has perhaps never been a greater need to break the dusty old norm of the meeting. Below are a few examples of tools that are resisting the traditional and making people more productive while changing the way we meet online.
“Just Skype me.”
Perhaps no other segment has seen more improvements in the quality and pervasiveness of online meeting environments than the consumer space. Tools like Microsoft’s Skype and Apple’s FaceTime have made connecting over video chat as easy as making a phone call. You know you’re on to something when your product becomes a verb, and that’s just what’s happened with Skyping and FaceTiming. Ease of use has been one story driving the growth of consumer video chat, but the other half is the proliferation of devices with quality, built-in webcams. It’s difficult to find a tablet, smartphone, or computer today that doesn’t have some kind of webcam built in, lowering the barrier for the average person to using these tools. The consumer space isn’t just limited to one-on-one chats either. Tools like Google Hangouts are consumer focused and offer video conferencing for one-on-one or group chats. Regardless of the service you’re choosing, “free” video chatting has never been this good. Apps like FaceTime integrate with existing contacts and automatically let the
Consumer-focused tools like FaceTime have dramatically reduced the learning curve for video chat.
user know if the person they’re trying to chat with also has FaceTime. Similarly, users of Microsoft and Google products can tell when their contacts are online and available to talk. Removing the learning curve to video chat has been a definite asset to its escalating popularity. Video calling is becoming so popular that certain carriers are even enabling users to connect over cellular data networks. Using video calling over data is still costly unless you’re on an unlimited plan, but the possibility of anywhere video calling is still enticing and it’s a glimpse into where the technology is headed. The other benefit to strong consumer adoption of video chat is an increased level of use for these tools in business settings. As we know, body language and facial expressions contribute so much to the overall feel of a conversation that it can make or break a conversation. That’s why so many businesses are investing in video technologies to give their services a human touch. Amazon, for example, has incorporated one-touch video chat technology into its customer support system for the Kindle Fire HDX tablet, while other companies are investigating web-based video support systems that incorporate open source technologies like WebRTC (real-time communications).
“This looks like WoW.”
Even US President Barack Obama has used video chats. Here he hosts a hangout on Google+.
November 2013
Consumerization of business is not a new trend, at least not in the hardware space. Enterprises and SMBs have seen consumer devices like iPads lurking in boardrooms for years. But beyond the use of social media, a lot of consumer software tools are still taboo in business. AvayaLive Engage is a tool that’s reversing that trend. | 13 | The Canadian Channel Standard
TECHNOLOGY CONTEXT
Users navigate virtual business-focused meeting rooms using their avatars
Video conferencing can even be integrated within these virtual environments.
Built using the Unreal 2.5 engine, a graphics and physics platform that is typically used by developers to build video games, AvayaLive Engage takes more of its cues from MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online games), such as World of Warcraft and Second Life, than it does from traditional video conferencing tools. In those games, users roam vast, open worlds using digital avatars they create. These avatars are digital representations of themselves, but rarely do they resemble the actual person in control. Users in AvayaLive Engage create the same kind of avatars (although users are encouraged to create their virtual twin) and use them to navigate virtual meeting rooms and interact with other employees and users in business settings. Because of the interactive nature of the AvayaLive Engage tool, it’s used by Canadian carrier TELUS to get new hires introduced to the company. Dan Pontefract, head of learning and collaboration at TELUS, said it provides a level of connectedness not otherwise possible. A lot of video conferencing solutions have been pitched as a way to improve efficiency while employees are on the road, but Pontefract said TELUS uses the Live Engage tool more to drive leadership. One example is by hosting “fireside chats” in the program for high performance employees. “It’s become an important part of the culture at TELUS,” he said. With a company with as many employees as TELUS, it can be difficult to connect with coworkers, and Pontefract Live Engage is a way of getting interaction that might not otherwise be possible. Avatars in Live Engage can make a number of gestures, like waving, raising a hand, and pointing, to increase the realism.
“I’ve got to go log into class.”
Some companies are supplementing real world meetings with virtual spaces, but at least one Canadian university is teaching students exclusively online. The University of Fredericton (UFred), an online university in New Brunswick, is using Cisco’s WebEx video conferencing tool, used mainly by businesses around the world, to bring students and educators together. The University of Fredericton specializes in full online MBA programs and also offers professional degrees and certificates. With no physical classrooms and with students from all across the country, professors hold their lectures, office hours, and study groups virtually, using WebEx as their platform. November 2013
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Many of the students that attend UFred come from a business background and are already familiar with the WebEx environment. For those that are new to the platform, the tool not only serves as a way to enable their online learning – it becomes a skill they can apply later in their career. Professors at UFred use WebEx in similar ways as it would be used in business settings. They load slide decks into the system and enable chat settings so students can ask questions. Some professors even choose to ask questions and poll students using the built-in functions. Recording the classroom sessions is vital to the UFred program. The university uses the built-in recording features in WebEx to capture everything that is being taught so that it can be posted for viewing later. There are attendance policies in place to ensure students are present, but for business students who are also professionals with daytime jobs and occasional travel commitments, recording is an essential tool for online education. The idea of fully accredited, degree granting institutions being totally online certainly breaks down accessibility barriers for people without the means or funds to travel to university, or for those that simply don’t have the extra time. But unlike the other tools mentioned in this article, video conferencing is not the norm here. Peter Mersereau, operations manager at the University of Fredericton, said the next hurdle for online education is video. In an interview, Mersereau said the use of video is being tested in certain cases, but the school wants to ensure that adding a stream will not take away from the material being taught. Beyond the educational reasons for keeping the conferencing to voice and slides, video can also be difficult to deliver over long distances, especially consistent, quality video. There will also need to be new procedures put in place to ensure standards are met when enabling video in these cases. Even if video isn’t the main focus of these virtual environments, it has not hurt their popularity. The school hosted over 1,000 live classes during the 2012-2013 academic year. Christopher Rogers is Editor of WRLWND.com, a website dedicated to celebrating innovation in technology. To read more reviews and other feature articles visit http://wrlwnd.com.
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TEST BED
Toshiba Z10t
A tablet first
A few identity problems lurk beneath the surface of this tablet/Ultrabook crossover.
This article originally appeared on WRLWND.com and is reprinted with permission. BY CHRISTOPHER ROGERS
The Toshiba Z10t is billed as a business device, and taken that way, a lot of its shortcomings are forgivable. It’s a bit heavy, it’s lacking in power, it has a cheap plastic stylus and it has a seriously middling keyboard/dock. But looking at it in the frame of a business user, you might excuse the above as rugged, affordable, easily replaceable, and compatible. When taken in comparison to other business tablet devices, the Z10t will hold its own, but it does fall a bit short if viewed strictly as an Ultrabook. The Z10t is really a tablet-first device. I can’t stress that enough. It is billed as a convertible tablet because of the keyboard/dock accessory but like most convertible tablets, the accessory feels like more of an afterthought and a way to cram in all the legacy ports a business user needs. The device handles differently in both tablet and Ultrabook mode, so lets look at them separately.
Tablet first
Undocking the Z10t from the keyboard lets the device truly shine. For an 11-inch device, the Z10t feels big with its 1920x1080 display. The device can go landscape or portrait
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and switches easily back and forth. There is a rotation lock button to keep the device from switching inadvertently. The viewing angles are great, as they should be on any tablet, but it was especially noticeable using the Z10t outside and on the go. The only problem with the Z10t as a tablet, and this is true of most tablets at this resolution, is the device is awkwardly long. It just feels like after decades of writing on 8.5x11-inch paper and most modern tablets using the 4:3 aspect ratio popularized by the iPad, holding a 16:9 device, a longer rectangle, is just something that takes a while to get used to. Dimensions aside, the Z10t is well enough designed for a business device. But let’s be clear, this is a business tablet. The massive fan slots, textured pewter-coloured shell and full size USB 3.0 ports scream utilitarian design. This is a function-first machine, to be sure, but Toshiba has nailed the function, at least in tablet form. Undocked, the tablet alone has a full size USB 3.0, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a volume rocker, rotation lock button, power button, a Micro HDMI port and a multi-card SD card reader. And because this is a Windows 8 machine, the display side also sports a Windows home screen button. The tablet also houses front and rear facing webcams for video conferencing or quick still shots with the rear camera. The casing also holds a built-in stylus for writing on the Z10t. It’s not the most comfortable stylus ever, ever - it’s plastic and small - but I can’t complain about it being inaccurate. In fact, the Z10t is surprisingly good at handwriting recognition. The display and stylus combination is actually pleasant to work with and with a little practice the handwriting recognition features become an effective way for taking notes.
With the keyboard
If the Z10t is an effective tool with the stylus in tablet mode, the keyboard dock is another matter. Let’s start with the functionality. The tablet clips to the dock using a large reinforced
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TEST BED
fastener. Looking at the clip, it should hold the tablet firmly but it can still rock around easily. It’s not going to fall out off but I feel like this should be a snug fit. The other problem with the fastening system is that it holds the display at nearly 90 degrees. It’s not quite that severe but it’s an awkward viewing angle for any device and there’s no way to adjust. The problem is the design of the dock, which tries to keep the keyboard as slim as possible (which it does) by adding a large brick section to the dock that houses a few ports, like a full-size VGA, full-size HDMI, full-size Ethernet, a single USB 2.0, and an AC power input. Navigation options (beyond the touch screen) include a pointing nub with two physical buttons below the spacebar and a separate touchpad, which does not have any physical buttons. I tended to use the track point when the Z10t was docked but both navigation options are simply inferior to using the touch screen to navigate. The touchpad lacks physical buttons but does have some sort of mock spaces. But it’s not functional. I found it inaccurate and too small and I ended up just turning it off. The touchpad isn’t all bad – it does take some Windows 8 gestures like two finger scrolling well, but when it comes to navigating on the Z10t, the best option is to stick to the touch screen. In this regard, the Z10t is similar to the Surface tablets and their type and touch covers. And then there is the keyboard. This is the biggest problem with the Z10t. The keyboard layout is small, with tiny buttons and a cramped layout. The button presses feel shallow and while there is definitely some improvement over a software or touch keyboard, I’d say the improvement was minimal. Unfortunately, I found the keyboard dock to be wildly inaccurate and it didn’t improve the experience of the device in a way that made it worth docking the device instead of simply hooking up a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse combination.
Functionality
Whether you’re going to use the Z10t in tablet mode or November 2013
with the keyboard dock, you’re going to find a device quite capable of running most office software but not a lot else. It’s running a Core i5-3439Y Ivy Bridge CPU at 1.5GHz (Turbo Boost to 2.1GHz). It’s not a bad CPU but it’s using Intel’s 3rd generation Core architecture instead of its updated 4th generation Haswell chip that has been lauded for its use in mobile computers, especially in its ability to deliver similar clock speeds as the previous generation while greatly improving battery life. As it stands, the Z10t carries a non-replaceable, rechargeable six-cell battery that Toshiba says gives approximately 5.3 hours of computing. During my time with the unit, I’d say that was about accurate, although you need to really monitor your usage and keep multitasking down to a minimum. In average use cases the Z10t will probably net about 3.5 to four hours of battery time before it needs to be recharged. Memory and storage are average for a tablet device. The Z10t comes standard with 4GB or RAM and a 128GB solid-state drive that can be upgraded to a 256GB drive.
Final thoughts
Taken as a pure tablet device, the Z10t is a solid entry for enterprises looking to get some highly mobile devices into the hands of users while maintaining a Windows environment. The tablet unit incorporates good input/output functionality with a great screen, but the keyboard dock doesn’t add much to the equation unless you’re desperate for a VGA or Ethernet port. I’d expect Toshiba to continue to improve on the foundation set by the Z10t. Windows tablets are still relatively new and some manufacturers are just getting used to the form factor. I feel like Toshiba might have been trying to accomplish too much with the keyboard dock on the Z10t. If the dock could have made the Z10t only slightly more usable and accurate, it would have been an easy recommendation. As it stands, the Z10t could find its niche, but a few drawbacks keep it from fulfilling its true potential.
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Lost luggage? No problem!
Is the airline industry about to see a radical change in baggage processes? Quite possibly. Businessweek reported on an innovation by Vanguard ID Systems which may soon make paper baggage tags obsolete. Vanguard makes radio-frequency identification (RFID) baggage tags, which are also embedded with near-field communications (NFC) and E Ink’s electronic paper display technology. Travellers can then code their tags with their destinations using a mobile phone application, which the tags then transmit to baggage handlers at the airport. If used, the technology will eliminate the billions of tags airlines print each year, and – hopefully – make baggage queues shorter and more efficient. It will also give travellers more control over their baggage – they will receive a text if their baggage arrives late, at which point they can direct airline staff where to send it. A number of airlines, including British Airways and Qantas, have conducted trial runs with RFID tags. British Airways is hoping to roll the tags out fully in 2014; will Canada be next?
A veritable feast of data
Wired magazine has found yet another use for data mining. Reporters at the magazine conducted a three-month-long study wherein they trawled the depths of Food Network’s website in an effort to show that data collection can, in fact, be used for something fun. The result was a collection of 26 infographics, which delivered facts about everything ranging from the site’s most reviled recipes to which celebrity chef cooked the most chicken. Some of the conclusions they drew from the exercise were obvious: people on the east coast are more likely to enjoy recipes involving lobster, while Texans love chili. It also asked the most important question of all: Does bacon make almost every food taste better? The answer was a resounding “yes.” November 2013
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A matter of convenience?
USA Today reported that Loews, a hotel chain in the United States, will now be giving potential guests the option to book a room via Twitter. Travellers can tweet to Loews’ to express interest in booking a room, at which point a customer service representative will direct the customer to a secure chat to complete the transaction. This new Twitter option may be more convenient than picking up the phone, but critics might ask how it could possibly be preferable to booking through the chain’s main website. According to Loews, it is making this option available to cater to the diverse preferences of its clientele – especially 20- and 30-somethings who prefer booking online to booking over the phone. Will other hotel chains follow suit? Only time will tell.
Smartphone stalking coming to a store near you
These days, companies are starting to jump on the indoor positioning bandwagon. What is indoor positioning, you may ask? It’s a technology that lets retailers track customers as they walk through the store, sending them reminders, recommendations, and coupons for any products they happen to wander past. Tracking techniques include intercepting Wi-Fi signals from smartphones and the use of videocameras and sound waves. Technology Review reported that a number of retailers, including Nordstrom and American Apparel, have already experimented with indoor positioning. But Nordstrom experienced some trouble with their experiment: customers saw a sign at the door informing them that indoor positioning was being used on the premises, and, disgruntled, they complained to management about invasion of privacy. The company has since ended the test, and though other retailers are reluctant to acknowledge their use of the technology, companies that provide these services say that business is booming.
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