Author: Bob Martens

Categories
Technology

Good Convergence

The original title for this post was going to be Good Consolidation … but I changed it right before I put the first words down because this entire concept really spans more than just consolidation but also combining anything together. Convergence might be a better term, so I’m running with it.

I carry a small device in my pocket which is the convergence of no less than three different devices into a single device smaller than anything else I carried around. My iPhone is my camera, media player, and cellular phone. It does more than that, but I was carrying around those three devices pretty consistently and now I’m down to one.

In all three ares, the function is enhanced in some way by the device being all-in-one. It is a better camera because I can use the cellular network to send pictures to anyone immediately. It is a better phone because I can store pictures of the people in the contacts list. It is a better media player because I can stream media over the cellular network along with search for new media.

I believe the iPhone is an example of Good Convergence.

In IT we have other areas for good convergence. I’m looking at a DNS server convergence right now by moving three separate DNS systems onto a single server by using Views in Bind 9. This will make it a ton easier because I’ll be able to update one server and all of the different VLANs and subnets we have will get the new addresses. By eliminating extra systems I eliminate maintenance and resource overhead.

Good Convergence.

However, Bad Convergence is damaging. It is trying to fit two things together which have no purpose being so. It is trying to fit too many services onto a single box because then you have fewer boxes to manage …

… but now you have more services to manage on one box and what if they don’t always get along. What if one service needs an update to an underlying library which will break the other services … maybe.

Bringing things together can be a good thing, but you need to make sure that they are meant to be together in the first place. When you do that, you’ve got something special in the works.

Categories
Business Life Technology

Saying Goodbye

Everyone seems to want to say goodbye to IT, but I have some things I would like to say “goodbye” to in the technology world.

  • Optical drives. They take up an insane amount of space for something that I use maybe once a year … if that much anymore. Disk space is limited. They are noisy. They have moving parts. Just get rid of the things once and for all.
  • I might be alone in this, but I would love to do away with hinges on technology items. Laptops. Convertible tablets. Game Boy Advanced SPs. Just get rid of the things. Almost no company can make a good one (some ThinkPads get really close) and they are the weakest point of almost any device. I would love it if we could just do away with hinges. This is a major reason I would love to go iPad + desktops only in the future.
  • Can we finally do away with printers? I know some people still swear by them, and I am fully aware we are not going to get rid of them, but they are really annoying and a major cause of headaches. Their drivers are flaky, at best. They are loud. They are noisy. They have MANY moving parts. They break … all of the time. Can we finally do away with these things!?
  • The phrase “I’m not very good with computers” should be retired. I understand that you might not be comfortable with everything involved with computers and modern technology, but pulling out this excuse everything time something doesn’t go exactly the way you expected it is more annoying than endearing. There are plenty of times things go wrong for me … that’s part of the business. Just ask for your help and we’ll get through it together.
  • All current, standard USB cables. The whole lot of them are terrible. Having the Lightning connector on my iPad mini and iPhone 5 has seriously spoiled me … when it comes to good cables. Reversible. Solid-feeling. All USB cables are a sham. There is hope since the future of USB looks to be reversible but … we have yet to see what that will look like. Even the Thunderbolt port and cables are light years ahead of USB. Shameful, really.
  • Websites trying to sell something without clearly listing a price. Usually they are something like “Request a Quote” or “Call for Pricing” instead of clearly listing a pricing. It doesn’t necessarily need to be the final pricing … but I want to know what I am getting into so that I don’t have to waste my time. The likelihood of me leaving your site if you don’t list pricing increases almost ten-fold.
  • Websites trying to sell a software product without good, and representative, screen shots. Every operating system comes with some way to take screen shots. DO. IT. I understand that design is not only what it looks like, but I want to know what it looks like. If your product pages are huge blocks of marketing text … I’m going elsewhere. Immediately.

This is not a complete list, but you get the idea.

Categories
Business

The Start of a Relationship

As a vendor, let me give you a recommendation.

When meeting with the IT staff who are vital to getting your product to work correctly, here are the things you should not do:

  • Belittle the current solution. You never know who is listening and how your comment is going to be taken.
  • Don’t patronize. That IT staff member might know more about what you are trying to talk about than you do.
  • Watch your tone of voice. Talking down to someone because they don’t have “X-year of experience with this product” is not going to engender trust.
  • Cut the gimmicks. IT staff do not care about having their picture in your product or that little gift you are handing out. Actually, it probably raises flags in our heads about what you are NOT telling us.
  • Always have an answer for the following: what are the weaknesses/problems with your product/solution. Not having an answer will also raise flags.

That’s just a start.

The start of any relationship with any vendor is of vital importance because it sets the ground rules for how things are going to go and the mood and tone for the relationship going forward. Don’t mess it up.

Categories
Technology

Head in the Cloud

There is an infuriating post over at Wired’s Innovation Insights titled MDM is Dead, Long Live the (Enterprise) Cloud.

Let’s start with the obvious. The author, Israel Lifshitz, is the founder and CEO of Nubo.

Who is Nubo you might ask?

Nubo is, from their site: REMOTE Enterprise Workspace for all mobile devices. It says that right on their homepage.

Nubo

Well, almost all mobile devices. iOS and Android.

They’re a Cloud company (I’m going to use the capital C when referring to the hyped marketing term). The CEO of a Cloud company wrote a fluff piece about how Cloud is going to do away with managing devices and that BYOD (with the Cloud) is going to rule all things, forever.

First, I want to believe in this future. I really do. The idea that anyone can bring any device and get all of their work done without any issues is indeed something I would love to see. It would free IT up from having to manage devices so that we could work on providing new technology to people and maybe even, *gasp*, training them as well instead of fighting fires.

However, I think that we grossly underestimate what that might mean for not just IT, but for our colleagues as well.

Moving to an entirely Cloud-based future puts all of the strain on networking, for one thing. Your internet connections become the only way for you to get work done. Don’t have a ton of options or can’t easily afford redundant connections so that if one provider goes belly up for a little bit everything doesn’t grind to a screeching halt? Well, too bad. It is in the Cloud, so hold tight because it will come back.

That’s not always acceptable … so you better be ready to have an answer for that besides an SLA with a few 9s attached to it.

Here’s a quote:

If nothing is stored on our personal devices, IT has nothing to manage. The can take data out of your control. Ultimately, isn’t that the purpose of MDM and EMM?

The problem with the idea that there will never be anything to manage is that you’ve moved the management from company-owned devices to person-owned devices … which still need to be watched. Updated. Fixed. Cleaned. You get the idea. What you have done is expanded the number of types of devices that IT is now supposed to support.

Does your new Enterprise Cloud support the latest version of IE 11? No? Too bad, three people in Finance just updated their machines to IE 11 so you need to find a way to support them. Also, the person in Recruitment just called and updated to Mavericks and the Enterprise Cloud currently does not support that either.

It’s coming. Soonish. You’ll need to purchase the next service pack in order to continue to have access to that. Also, don’t think about ending your service contract anytime soon because now all of your information is stored in an Enterprise Cloud and getting it out could prove tricky.

Mobile is happening right now and IT needs to catch up, but I’m not convinced that BYOD is going to be some great liberator of the masses from their technology hatred because, shocking, most people don’t love their technology like IT does or can. People want to get work done, in the easiest way to do it, and in a consistent way that will continue to work.

BYOD brings in inconsistency, no matter how well things might work. Even Facebook acts differently and I’m pretty sure you aren’t going to find an Enterprise Cloud with the narrow focus of Facebook nor the resources available. They have a hard enough time.

Big changes are coming, but let us be certain not to throw out the good in the endless cycle or searching for the perfect. We’re going to end up very disappointed.

Categories
Technology

Siri’s Comeback

When originally released,  I did not use Siri all that much besides checking to see what would be thrown back at me when I asked a strange question … or to see if she can understand my boys better than I can.

However, something changes about two months ago and now I use Siri every day, multiple time a day, and I expect her to work every time. That’s a big change for me as I always expected Siri to get it wrong in the past.

I’m not a power user by any means, but the things Siri allows me to do quickly and easily make her an invaluable resource.

Here is how I use Siri:

  • Set timers for many different things (cooking, the laundry, keeping track of time for the boys, reminding myself to do something in the near future, etc.).
  • Create initial calendar events.
  • Create tasks in Reminder.

I also make heavy use of the dictation feature of iOS while I am holding my newest son. However, a good portion of my day is made easier by allowing me to just dictate to Siri the above things and then let the algorithms take care of the rest.