email us at amarts@artifact3.com

Name: Amin Marts. No worries if you mispronounce the first name, I’ll correct you.

What I’m interested in: Simply, finding solutions for problems, excuse me, challenges.

What I bring to the table: Big picture thinking. Ruthless execution. The ability to distill complex topics into bite-sized and easy to digest contextual stories.

Turn On’s: Smart design. Simple solutions to complex problems. Billboards that make me stop, think, and take a picture to share with you. Jargon. Most of all, flowy singletrack.

Turn Off’s: Jargon. Overly complex solutions that don’t scale. Ambiguous messages. Unintelligible handwriting. Skiers who wear Starter jackets.

My Favorite Tools: iPad, Keynote, Mindmeister, DropBox, old skool whiteboards, OmniFocus, Glenn Beck.

Things I (admit) I read: HBR, Economist, anything Seth Godin writes, WSJ, on occasion the International Herald, when feeling snarky The New Yorker.

January’s Wish: To lose the twang I’ve developed from watching too much CMT during Christmas.

Best way to contact me: Through my twitter or email. I’m easy to find.

Posts Tagged ‘cloud’

03.30.2011

Client Virtualization…….Everybody Is Doing It

Client virtualization is all the buzz for small and large enterprises alike. Regardless of the vertical, it manages to sneak into most of my conversations with prospects. Typically the immediate questions are:

  • What exactly is it?
  • What can it do for me?
  • How do I sell the benefits to my boss?
  • Should I apply a centralized or distributed approach?
  • Should I host my desktops in the cloud?

There are a number of considerations to think through when determining the right approach but let’s focus on the last two questions:

  • Should I apply a centralized or distributed approach?
  • Should I host my desktops in the cloud?

Fundamentally, the workload, endpoint type and location of the end-user help to determine whether to adopt a centralized or distributed approach. The distributed model is the way to go if:

  • Users are mobile
  • Storage and computing resources are silo’d
  • Virtualization hasn’t been adopted in the datacenter
  • Network bandwidth is limited

As it pertains to moving desktops to the cloud, that can mean a number of things. It could mean you want to stream the desktop to an endpoint device, in which case the backend server is processing the workload. It could also mean you want to store the (desktop) image in the cloud, push it to the endpoint as needed, and have the endpoint process the workload. Either case is technically viable. The caveat for the first being this approach is exceptionally expensive, complex and it doesn’t address the needs of mobile users very well. The second of the two is substantially less complex, infinitely more flexible and it caters to disparate users quite well.

Regardless of your choice, the applications endusers require must be considered as well. Can your must have or line-of-business (LOB) applications be accessed via a browser? Are they client server based? Can they be streamed? Should they be streamed? Are they supported by the vendor if they are virtualized? There are no right or wrong answers. Moreover conducting this exercise aids in the evaluation of dueling approaches and solutions.

As you can tell, there’s lots to think about. No worries if your head is spinning, I’ll fix that shortly. In the upcoming days and weeks I’ll talk through more of the tech and the process for deciding which is right for you. Till then, follow me on twitter for the buzz on client virtualization and the cloud overall. Cheers.

 

Posted by on 03.30.2011 at 6:20pm   Tags: ,
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03.26.2011

Backup Your iPad….or not

In a recent meeting I was asked,

“How do you backup data created on your iPad?”

It’s a great question that isn’t asked often enough. Much like Web 2.0 collaboration apps, adoption of tablets, namely the iPad has been driven by the enduser first and the business second. Lately, conversations surrounding how to protect data on the iPad have centered on application security more so than insuring the recoverability of data created on the device. The reasons for this stem from the device’s architecture, which dictates that (most) applications have their own silo’d file space. This presents a road block for any backup agent since it would need access to this protected file space to backup a file or subset of files. Following suit, the most efficient means for extracting the target data would be over a private wireless network or over the Internet. Not impossible however the native backup functionality of iTunes backs up the base OS and your customized settings. Second, most applications designed for the iPad have native sync capabilities.

Enterprises should evaluate off-the-shelf applications for their ability to customize the sync location. Two evaluator’s questions should be:

  • Where is the default sync location?
  • Is the location configureable?

More times than not the sync location is either the cloud or the desktop where the full client resides. My needs are hardly enterprise class but I’ve settled on using Dropbox to make available and synchronize documents between my desktop (which I protect with Mozy) and my iPad. I also use Evernote for note taking and it syncs to the cloud, which give me access to my notes via the iPad app, the desktop client or through a browser. Regardless of location or device I’m able to access my documents and notes. All I need is an Internet connection.

Posted by on 03.26.2011 at 4:54pm   Tags: , , , ,
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01.31.2011

Cloud Computing – Private, Public, Hybrid….Who Cares

The Cloud is finally in reach of the masses. It is no longer something only the largest enterprises can afford to use. The challenges to adoption for most organizations aren’t technical. Rather they are challenges in understanding what is it? How to define it and how to determine which delivery model is the right one for a particular use case?

First things first, generally, what is the cloud? The cloud is a service model that enables an organization to obtain compute resources ad hoc. These resources range in complexity and workload type. They can be storage resources, development platforms, applications (CRM, Salesforce, Google Docs), or computing horsepower generally. Commonly, the delivery model for any of these resources is the Internet which makes them endlessly accessible and incredibly flexible. Generally, they are billed as utilities. In other words, you pay for what you use.

Popularly the cloud is segmented into 3 service levels: Public, Private and Hybrid. The categorization of public and private cloud models is largely an excerise in semantics pulled off by the marketing teams of service providers. Public is largely communicated as resources which are available to the general public and smaller enterprises for free or at a nominal cost. Whereas Private cloud resources are sold at a premium and are targeted at medium to larger enterprises. Lastly, the Hybrid model focuses on workload location. In this case the working set of data remains local while the archival portion of the data resides in the cloud or offsite.

It’s best not to think in terms of Public or Private. Rather think of the cloud categories in terms of the workload type, complexity of the workload and where it resides. When thought of in this manner the cloud can be broken into the following more descriptive categorizations :

  • Productivity
  • Development and Delivery of Applications
  • Customizable Computing Resources

Productivity encompasses workloads such as email, work processing and collaboration. Products commonly located here are, CRM solutions like SalesForce as well as Google Docs, Zimbra, Jive Software and Hosted Exchange. The users of these workloads are task and knowledge workers. Think sales teams, some marketing folks, clerks, etc.

Development and Delivery of Applications, encompasses workloads such as Red Hat’s JBOSS Middleware Suite. Think SaaS (software as a service) and PaaS (platform as a service). The users of workloads that reside here are developers. Moreover these are the folks that develop software that run in the cloud or locally on a “physical” server. Regardless, the target group is development staff.

The enabler of the Productivity and Development & Delivery of Application tiers is the Customizable Computing Resources category. It enables the ad hoc allocation of backend compute resources such as virtual networking, storage and virtual machines.

Posted by on 01.31.2011 at 7:28am   Tags: , , , , , ,
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