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Customers can build multi-cloud networks with a consistent policy model. With ACI Anywhere, customers have the flexibility to move applications seamlessly without compromising high availability and creating a single fault domain environment.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What Cisco ACI offers</span>\r\n<ul><li>Automate IT workflows and help organizations shorten app deployment from weeks to minutes.</li><li>Open and programmable. Build programmable SDN fabrics leveraging open APIs and over 65 Cisco ACI global partner ecosystems.</li><li>Security and analytics. Secure applications through whitelist model, policy enforcement, and micro-segmentation.</li><li>Workload mobility at scale. Deploy and migrate applications seamlessly across geographies with consistent policy.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Cisco ACI building blocks</span>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Cisco Nexus 9000 Series</span>\r\nHigh-performance, low-latency, and power-efficient switches operate in Cisco NX-OS software mode or in Cisco ACI mode.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC)</span>\r\nProvides single-click access to all Cisco ACI fabric information, enabling network automation, programmability, and centralized management.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Cisco ACI Virtual Edge (AVE)</span>\r\nCisco ACI Virtual Edge is designed to support Cisco ACI architecture. It provides support for ACI application policy model as well as switching capabilities with high performance and throughput.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Cisco App Center</span>\r\nCollaborate with developers, then publish and monetize innovative apps using Cisco APIC.","shortDescription":"Cisco ACI, the industry leading software defined networking (SDN) solution enables application agility and data center automation. ","type":"Software","isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":11,"sellingCount":3,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI)","keywords":"","description":"Cisco ACI, the industry leading software defined networking (SDN) solution enables application agility and data center automation. Customers can build multi-cloud networks with a consistent policy model. 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SDN solution is meant to address the fact that the static architecture of traditional networks is decentralized and complex while current networks require more flexibility and easy troubleshooting. \r\nSDN technology attempts to centralize network intelligence in one network component by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane</span>) from the routing process (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">control plane</span>). The control plane consists of one or more controllers which are considered as the brain of SDN network where the whole intelligence is incorporated. Originally, software defined technology focused solely on separation of the network control plane from the data plane. While the control plane makes decisions about how packets should flow through the network, the data plane actually moves packets from place to place. \r\nIn a classic SDN scenario, a packet arrives at a network switch, and rules built into the switch's proprietary firmware tell the switch where to forward the packet. These packet-handling rules are sent to the switch from the centralized controller. The switch - also known as a <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane device</span> - queries the controller for guidance as needed, and it provides the controller with information about traffic it handles. The switch sends every packet going to the same destination along the same path and treats all the packets the exact same way.\r\nSoftware defined networking solutions use an operation mode that is sometimes called adaptive or dynamic, in which a switch issues a route request to a controller for a packet that does not have a specific route. This process is separate from adaptive routing, which issues route requests through routers and algorithms based on the network topology, not through a controller.\r\nThe <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">virtualization</span> aspect of SDN comes into play through a virtual overlay, which is a logically separate network on top of the physical network. Users can implement end-to-end overlays to abstract the underlying network and segment network traffic. This microsegmentation is especially useful for service providers and operators with multi-tenant cloud environments and cloud services, as they can provision a separate virtual network with specific policies for each tenant.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of Software Defined Networking</h1>\r\nWith SDN software, an <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">administrator can change any network switch's rules when necessary</span> - prioritizing, deprioritizing or even blocking specific types of packets with a granular level of control and security. This is especially helpful in a cloud computing multi-tenant architecture, because it enables the administrator to manage traffic loads in a flexible and more efficient manner. Essentially, this enables the administrator to use less expensive commodity switches and have more control over network traffic flow than ever before.\r\nOther benefits of SDN are <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">network management</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">end-to-end visibility.</span>A network administrator need only deal with one centralized controller to distribute policies to the connected switches, instead of configuring multiple individual devices. This capability is also a security advantage because the controller can monitor traffic and deploy security policies. If the controller deems traffic suspicious, for example, it can reroute or drop the packets.\r\nSoftware defined networking software also <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">virtualizes hardware</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">services </span>that were previously carried out by dedicated hardware, resulting in the touted benefits of a reduced hardware footprint and lower operational costs.\r\nAdditionally, SDN contributed to the emergence of <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN)</span> technology. SD-WAN employs the virtual overlay aspect of SDN technology, abstracting an organization's connectivity links throughout its WAN and creating a virtual network that can use whichever connection the controller deems fit to send traffic.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Are there any SDN security benefits?</h1>\r\nAs security issues become more complex at the edge of the network, it’s no wonder that network and security professionals are looking for new ways to approach network protection. Nowadays, it seems like SDN is going to be the answer. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Centralized Network Control </span></li></ul>\r\nIn a traditional network, devices (router/switches) make their own decisions locally about where and how best to send traffic.&nbsp; In terms of network security, SDN can be used to route data packets through a single firewall and make IDS and IPS data capture more efficient.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Simplify Configuration</span></li></ul>\r\nThe SDN makes it easier to automate configuration and improves the traceability of those configurations. The introduction of SDN network management allows dynamic programming and restructuring of network settings, which reduces the risk of DDoS attacks. It is also worth adding that SDN has automatic quarantine capabilities. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Creation of High-level Network Policies</span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Rather than physically configuring security solutions, SDN facilitates the central management of security policies to make network operator roles more efficient and flexible. Moreover, SDN helps to move away from current management approaches such as SNMP/CLI and build more effective policy management. </span>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Easy to use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)</span></span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Cloud APIs are interfaces presented by software and play a vital role in SDN controllers and applications. Easy to use APIs help to manage network resources, improve the efficiency of IT resources, and aid integration with IT tools. Additionally, a number of good cloud security practices have been introduced recently. </span>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_SDN_Software_Defined_Network.png"},{"id":4,"title":"Data center","alias":"data-center","description":" A data center (or datacenter) is a facility composed of networked computers and storage that businesses or other organizations use to organize, process, store and disseminate large amounts of data. A business typically relies heavily upon the applications, services and data contained within a data center, making it a focal point and critical asset for everyday operations.\r\nData centers are not a single thing, but rather, a conglomeration of elements. At a minimum, data centers serve as the principal repositories for all manner of IT equipment, including servers, storage subsystems, networking switches, routers and firewalls, as well as the cabling and physical racks used to organize and interconnect the IT equipment. A data center must also contain an adequate infrastructure, such as power distribution and supplemental power subsystems, including electrical switching; uninterruptable power supplies; backup generators and so on; ventilation and data center cooling systems, such as computer room air conditioners; and adequate provisioning for network carrier (telco) connectivity. All of this demands a physical facility with physical security and sufficient physical space to house the entire collection of infrastructure and equipment.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the requirements for modern data centers?</span>\r\nModernization and data center transformation enhances performance and energy efficiency.\r\nInformation security is also a concern, and for this reason a data center has to offer a secure environment which minimizes the chances of a security breach. A data center must therefore keep high standards for assuring the integrity and functionality of its hosted computer environment.\r\nIndustry research company International Data Corporation (IDC) puts the average age of a data center at nine years old. Gartner, another research company, says data centers older than seven years are obsolete. The growth in data (163 zettabytes by 2025) is one factor driving the need for data centers to modernize.\r\nFocus on modernization is not new: Concern about obsolete equipment was decried in 2007, and in 2011 Uptime Institute was concerned about the age of the equipment therein. By 2018 concern had shifted once again, this time to the age of the staff: &quot;data center staff are aging faster than the equipment.&quot;\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Meeting standards for data centers</span></span>\r\nThe Telecommunications Industry Association's Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers specifies the minimum requirements for telecommunications infrastructure of data centers and computer rooms including single tenant enterprise data centers and multi-tenant Internet hosting data centers. The topology proposed in this document is intended to be applicable to any size data center.\r\nTelcordia GR-3160, NEBS Requirements for Telecommunications Data Center Equipment and Spaces, provides guidelines for data center spaces within telecommunications networks, and environmental requirements for the equipment intended for installation in those spaces. These criteria were developed jointly by Telcordia and industry representatives. They may be applied to data center spaces housing data processing or Information Technology (IT) equipment. The equipment may be used to:\r\n<ul><li>Operate and manage a carrier's telecommunication network</li><li>Provide data center based applications directly to the carrier's customers</li><li>Provide hosted applications for a third party to provide services to their customers</li><li>Provide a combination of these and similar data center applications</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Data center transformation</span></span>\r\nData center transformation takes a step-by-step approach through integrated projects carried out over time. This differs from a traditional method of data center upgrades that takes a serial and siloed approach. The typical projects within a data center transformation initiative include standardization/consolidation, virtualization, automation and security.\r\n<ul><li>Standardization/consolidation: Reducing the number of data centers and avoiding server sprawl (both physical and virtual) often includes replacing aging data center equipment, and is aided by standardization.</li><li>Virtualization: Lowers capital and operational expenses, reduce energy consumption. Virtualized desktops can be hosted in data centers and rented out on a subscription basis. Investment bank Lazard Capital Markets estimated in 2008 that 48 percent of enterprise operations will be virtualized by 2012. Gartner views virtualization as a catalyst for modernization.</li><li>Automating: Automating tasks such as provisioning, configuration, patching, release management and compliance is needed, not just when facing fewer skilled IT workers.</li><li>Securing: Protection of virtual systems is integrated with existing security of physical infrastructures.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Machine room</span></span>\r\nThe term &quot;Machine Room&quot; is at times used to refer to the large room within a Data Center where the actual Central Processing Unit is located; this may be separate from where high-speed printers are located. Air conditioning is most important in the machine room.\r\nAside from air-conditioning, there must be monitoring equipment, one type of which is to detect water prior to flood-level situations. One company, for several decades, has had share-of-mind: Water Alert. The company, as of 2018, has 2 competing manufacturers (Invetex, Hydro-Temp) and 3 competing distributors (Longden,Northeast Flooring, Slayton). ","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Data_center.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[{"id":4611,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/presidio_logo.png","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"Presidio Data Center Solution Sets","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"0.00","implementationsCount":0,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":0,"alias":"presidio-data-center-solution-sets","companyTitle":"Presidio Inc.","companyTypes":["supplier","vendor"],"companyId":7004,"companyAlias":"presidio-inc","description":"Presidio data center solution sets provide a highly efficient, cost-effective alternative to the traditional data center infrastructure design and implementation process. Solution sets are available for traditional or hyperconverged environments, and integrate the latest technologies from Presidio’s industry-leading partners in customizable offerings that can be implemented quickly, with minimal risk and predictable costs. \r\nAs a leading North American IT solutions provider, Presidio offers digital infrastructure, cloud, and security solutions that help customers capture the value of digitally transforming their businesses and operations. \r\nPresidio delivers this technology expertise through a full life cycle of professional, managed, and ongoing support services, including strategy, consulting, design, and implementation.Presidio has deep experience in all the technologies included in Presidio Data Center Solution Sets, and can easily customize and configure the solutions on-site or stage them at a Presidio facility. \r\nOnly the latest complementary technologies—including Intel® Xeon® Processor Scalable family and Intel® SSDs—are integrated in each solution set to reduce risk for our customers and accelerate time to value.\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Innovative&nbsp;&nbsp; financing options</span></p>\r\nIn addition to installing and con guring the solution sets, Presidio offers utility and consumption models with innovative&nbsp; financing options for both infrastructure refreshes and green eld deployments.\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">BUNDLING THE&nbsp; BEST TECHNOLOGIES</span></p>\r\nPresidio Data Center Solution Sets integrate proven technologies from industry-leading partners with which Presidio has attained deep and broad training, certi cation, and expertise.\r\n<ul><li>Cisco Gold Partner</li><li>Intel Platinum Partner</li><li>Nutanix Elite Reseller Partner</li><li>APC Elite Data Center Partner</li><li>Dell EMC Titanium Partner</li><li>VMware Premier Partner</li></ul>\r\nPresidio provides&nbsp; flexible&nbsp; financing for capital and operating expenses, so businesses can have one predictable monthly bill and avoid the complexity of entering into separate&nbsp; financing agreements with each technology provider.&nbsp; The&nbsp; financing options include Capacity on Demand, where additional capacity&nbsp; can be staged and readied for use to support rapid growth.\r\n<p class=\"align-center\">POWERED BY INTEL</p>\r\nPresidio Data Center Solution Sets feature the Intel® Xeon® Processor Scalable family, the new foundation for secure, agile, multi-cloud data centers. The new processors, which represent the biggest data center platform advancement this decade from Intel, are architected for exceptional workload-optimized performance and hardware-enhanced security.To ensure the best data center storage possible, the solution sets integrate the latest Intel® SSDs, such as the Intel® Optane™ SSD DC P4800X series—the world’s most responsive data center SSD, with innovative Intel® Optane™ technology.\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Innovative solutions configured to meet business demands</span></p>\r\nPresidio Data Center Solution Sets are available for both traditional and hyperconverged environments. Company leverages experience across our 1,600 engineers to identify complementary product offerings and con gure them to bring additional value to the customer. Each solution set is highly con gurable to meet speci c business requirements and deliver the optimal combination of performance, price, and reliability.<br /><br />","shortDescription":"PRESIDIO DATA CENTER SOLUTION SETS FEATURE PROVEN TECHNOLOGIES AND INNOVATIVE FINANCING OPPORTUNITIES FROM AN EXPERT PROVIDER.\r\n","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":11,"sellingCount":4,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"Presidio Data Center Solution Sets","keywords":"","description":"Presidio data center solution sets provide a highly efficient, cost-effective alternative to the traditional data center infrastructure design and implementation process. Solution sets are available for traditional or hyperconverged environments, and integrate","og:title":"Presidio Data Center Solution Sets","og:description":"Presidio data center solution sets provide a highly efficient, cost-effective alternative to the traditional data center infrastructure design and implementation process. Solution sets are available for traditional or hyperconverged environments, and integrate","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/presidio_logo.png"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":4612,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":4,"title":"Data center","alias":"data-center","description":" A data center (or datacenter) is a facility composed of networked computers and storage that businesses or other organizations use to organize, process, store and disseminate large amounts of data. A business typically relies heavily upon the applications, services and data contained within a data center, making it a focal point and critical asset for everyday operations.\r\nData centers are not a single thing, but rather, a conglomeration of elements. At a minimum, data centers serve as the principal repositories for all manner of IT equipment, including servers, storage subsystems, networking switches, routers and firewalls, as well as the cabling and physical racks used to organize and interconnect the IT equipment. A data center must also contain an adequate infrastructure, such as power distribution and supplemental power subsystems, including electrical switching; uninterruptable power supplies; backup generators and so on; ventilation and data center cooling systems, such as computer room air conditioners; and adequate provisioning for network carrier (telco) connectivity. All of this demands a physical facility with physical security and sufficient physical space to house the entire collection of infrastructure and equipment.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the requirements for modern data centers?</span>\r\nModernization and data center transformation enhances performance and energy efficiency.\r\nInformation security is also a concern, and for this reason a data center has to offer a secure environment which minimizes the chances of a security breach. A data center must therefore keep high standards for assuring the integrity and functionality of its hosted computer environment.\r\nIndustry research company International Data Corporation (IDC) puts the average age of a data center at nine years old. Gartner, another research company, says data centers older than seven years are obsolete. The growth in data (163 zettabytes by 2025) is one factor driving the need for data centers to modernize.\r\nFocus on modernization is not new: Concern about obsolete equipment was decried in 2007, and in 2011 Uptime Institute was concerned about the age of the equipment therein. By 2018 concern had shifted once again, this time to the age of the staff: &quot;data center staff are aging faster than the equipment.&quot;\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Meeting standards for data centers</span></span>\r\nThe Telecommunications Industry Association's Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers specifies the minimum requirements for telecommunications infrastructure of data centers and computer rooms including single tenant enterprise data centers and multi-tenant Internet hosting data centers. The topology proposed in this document is intended to be applicable to any size data center.\r\nTelcordia GR-3160, NEBS Requirements for Telecommunications Data Center Equipment and Spaces, provides guidelines for data center spaces within telecommunications networks, and environmental requirements for the equipment intended for installation in those spaces. These criteria were developed jointly by Telcordia and industry representatives. They may be applied to data center spaces housing data processing or Information Technology (IT) equipment. The equipment may be used to:\r\n<ul><li>Operate and manage a carrier's telecommunication network</li><li>Provide data center based applications directly to the carrier's customers</li><li>Provide hosted applications for a third party to provide services to their customers</li><li>Provide a combination of these and similar data center applications</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Data center transformation</span></span>\r\nData center transformation takes a step-by-step approach through integrated projects carried out over time. This differs from a traditional method of data center upgrades that takes a serial and siloed approach. The typical projects within a data center transformation initiative include standardization/consolidation, virtualization, automation and security.\r\n<ul><li>Standardization/consolidation: Reducing the number of data centers and avoiding server sprawl (both physical and virtual) often includes replacing aging data center equipment, and is aided by standardization.</li><li>Virtualization: Lowers capital and operational expenses, reduce energy consumption. Virtualized desktops can be hosted in data centers and rented out on a subscription basis. Investment bank Lazard Capital Markets estimated in 2008 that 48 percent of enterprise operations will be virtualized by 2012. Gartner views virtualization as a catalyst for modernization.</li><li>Automating: Automating tasks such as provisioning, configuration, patching, release management and compliance is needed, not just when facing fewer skilled IT workers.</li><li>Securing: Protection of virtual systems is integrated with existing security of physical infrastructures.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Machine room</span></span>\r\nThe term &quot;Machine Room&quot; is at times used to refer to the large room within a Data Center where the actual Central Processing Unit is located; this may be separate from where high-speed printers are located. Air conditioning is most important in the machine room.\r\nAside from air-conditioning, there must be monitoring equipment, one type of which is to detect water prior to flood-level situations. One company, for several decades, has had share-of-mind: Water Alert. The company, as of 2018, has 2 competing manufacturers (Invetex, Hydro-Temp) and 3 competing distributors (Longden,Northeast Flooring, Slayton). ","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Data_center.png"},{"id":24,"title":"DLP - Data Leak Prevention","alias":"dlp-data-leak-prevention","description":"Data leak prevention (DLP) is a suite of technologies aimed at stemming the loss of sensitive information that occurs in enterprises across the globe. By focusing on the location, classification and monitoring of information at rest, in use and in motion, this solution can go far in helping an enterprise get a handle on what information it has, and in stopping the numerous leaks of information that occur each day. DLP is not a plug-and-play solution. The successful implementation of this technology requires significant preparation and diligent ongoing maintenance. Enterprises seeking to integrate and implement DLP should be prepared for a significant effort that, if done correctly, can greatly reduce risk to the organization. Those implementing the solution must take a strategic approach that addresses risks, impacts and mitigation steps, along with appropriate governance and assurance measures.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">How to protect the company from internal threats associated with leakage of confidential information?</span>\r\nIn order to protect against any threat, you must first realize its presence. Unfortunately, not always the management of companies is able to do this if it comes to information security threats. The key to successfully protecting against information leaks and other threats lies in the skillful use of both organizational and technical means of monitoring personnel actions.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">How should the personnel management system in the company be organized to minimize the risks of leakage of confidential information?</span>\r\nA company must have a special employee responsible for information security, and a large department must have a department directly reporting to the head of the company.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Which industry representatives are most likely to encounter confidential information leaks?</span>\r\nMore than others, representatives of such industries as industry, energy, and retail trade suffer from leaks. Other industries traditionally exposed to leakage risks — banking, insurance, IT — are usually better at protecting themselves from information risks, and for this reason they are less likely to fall into similar situations.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What should be adequate measures to protect against leakage of information for an average company?</span>\r\nFor each organization, the question of protection measures should be worked out depending on the specifics of its work, but developing information security policies, instructing employees, delineating access to confidential data and implementing a DLP system are necessary conditions for successful leak protection for any organization. Among all the technical means to prevent information leaks, the DLP system is the most effective today, although its choice must be taken very carefully to get the desired result. So, it should control all possible channels of data leakage, support automatic detection of confidential information in outgoing traffic, maintain control of work laptops that temporarily find themselves outside the corporate network...\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Is it possible to give protection against information leaks to outsourcing?</span>\r\nFor a small company, this may make sense because it reduces costs. However, it is necessary to carefully select the service provider, preferably before receiving recommendations from its current customers.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What data channels need to be monitored to prevent leakage of confidential information?</span>\r\nAll channels used by employees of the organization - e-mail, Skype, HTTP World Wide Web protocol ... It is also necessary to monitor the information recorded on external storage media and sent to print, plus periodically check the workstation or laptop of the user for files that are there saying should not.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What to do when the leak has already happened?</span>\r\nFirst of all, you need to notify those who might suffer - silence will cost your reputation much more. Secondly, you need to find the source and prevent further leakage. Next, you need to assess where the information could go, and try to somehow agree that it does not spread further. In general, of course, it is easier to prevent the leakage of confidential information than to disentangle its consequences.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Data_Leak_Prevention.png"},{"id":34,"title":"ITSM - IT Service Management","alias":"itsm-it-service-management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">IT service management (ITSM)</span> is the process of designing, delivering, managing, and improving the IT services an organization provides to its end users. ITSM is focused on aligning IT processes and services with business objectives to help an organization grow.\r\nITSM positions IT services as the key means of delivering and obtaining value, where an internal or external IT service provider works with business customers, at the same time taking responsibility for the associated costs and risks. ITSM works across the whole lifecycle of a service, from the original strategy, through design, transition and into live operation.\r\nTo ensure sustainable quality of IT services, ITSM establishes a set of practices, or processes, constituting a service management system. There are industrial, national and international standards for IT service management solutions, setting up requirements and good practices for the management system. \r\nITSM system is based on a set of principles, such as focusing on value and continual improvement. It is not just a set of processes – it is a cultural mindset to ensure that the desired outcome for the business is achieved. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library)</span> is a framework of best practices and recommendations for managing an organization's IT operations and services. IT service management processes, when built based on the ITIL framework, pave the way for better IT service operations management and improved business. To summarize, ITIL is a set of guidelines for effective IT service management best practices. ITIL has evolved beyond the delivery of services to providing end-to-end value delivery. The focus is now on the co-creation of value through service relationships. \r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM processes typically include five stages, all based on the ITIL framework:</span></p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM strategy.</span> This stage forms the foundation or the framework of an organization's ITSM process building. It involves defining the services that the organization will offer, strategically planning processes, and recognizing and developing the required assets to keep processes moving. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service design.</span> This stage's main aim is planning and designing the IT services the organization offers to meet business demands. It involves creating and designing new services as well as assessing current services and making relevant improvements.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service transition.</span> Once the designs for IT services and their processes have been finalized, it's important to build them and test them out to ensure that processes flow. IT teams need to ensure that the designs don't disrupt services in any way, especially when existing IT service processes are upgraded or redesigned. This calls for change management, evaluation, and risk management. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service operation. </span>This phase involves implementing the tried and tested new or modified designs in a live environment. While in this stage, the processes have already been tested and the issues fixed, but new processes are bound to have hiccups—especially when customers start using the services. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Continual service improvement (CSI).</span> Implementing IT processes successfully shouldn't be the final stage in any organization. There's always room for improvement and new development based on issues that pop up, customer needs and demands, and user feedback.\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of efficient ITSM processes</h1>\r\nIrrespective of the size of business, every organization is involved in IT service management in some way. ITSM ensures that incidents, service requests, problems, changes, and IT assets—in addition to other aspects of IT services—are managed in a streamlined way.\r\nIT teams in your organization can employ various workflows and best practices in ITSM, as outlined in ITIL. Effective IT service management can have positive effects on an IT organization's overall function.\r\nHere are the 10 key benefits of ITSM:\r\n<ul><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lower costs for IT operations</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Higher returns on IT investments</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Minimal service outages</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ability to establish well-defined, repeatable, and manageable IT processes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Efficient analysis of IT problems to reduce repeat incidents</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Improved efficiency of IT help desk teams</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well-defined roles and responsibilities</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Clear expectations on service levels and service availability</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Risk-free implementation of IT changes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Better transparency into IT processes and services</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">How to choose an ITSM tool?</h1>\r\nWith a competent IT service management goal in mind, it's important to invest in a service desk solution that caters to your business needs. It goes without saying, with more than 150 service desk tools to choose from, selecting the right one is easier said than done. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing an ITSM products:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Identify key processes and their dependencies. </span>Based on business goals, decide which key ITSM processes need to be implemented and chart out the integrations that need to be established to achieve those goals. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Consult with ITSM experts.</span> Participate in business expos, webinars, demos, etc., and educate yourself about the various options that are available in the market. Reports from expert analysts such as Gartner and Forrester are particularly useful as they include reviews of almost every solution, ranked based on multiple criteria.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Choose a deployment option.</span> Every business has a different IT infrastructure model. Selecting an on-premises or software as a service (SaaS IT service management) tool depends on whether your business prefers to host its applications and data on its own servers or use a public or private cloud.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Plan ahead for the future.</span> Although it's important to consider the &quot;needs&quot; primarily, you shouldn't rule out the secondary or luxury capabilities. If the ITSM tool doesn't have the potential to adapt to your needs as your organization grows, it can pull you back from progressing. Draw a clear picture of where your business is headed and choose an service ITSM that is flexible and technology-driven.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Don't stop with the capabilities of the ITSM tool.</span> It might be tempting to assess an ITSM tool based on its capabilities and features but it's important to evaluate the vendor of the tool. A good IT support team, and a vendor that is endorsed for their customer-vendor relationship can take your IT services far. Check Gartner's magic quadrant and other analyst reports, along with product and support reviews to ensure that the said tool provides good customer support.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_ITSM.png"},{"id":293,"title":"System Software","alias":"system-software","description":" System software is a type of computer program that is designed to run a computer’s hardware and application programs. If we think of the computer system as a layered model, the system software is the interface between the hardware and user applications. The operating system (OS) is the best-known example of system software. The OS manages all the other programs on a computer.\r\nOther examples of system software include:\r\n<ul><li>The BIOS (basic input/output system) gets the computer system started after you turn it on and manages the data flow between the operating system and attached devices such as the hard disk, video adapter, keyboard, mouse and printer.</li><li>The boot program loads the operating system into the computer's main memory or random access memory (RAM).</li><li>An assembler takes basic computer instructions and converts them into a pattern of bits that the computer's processor can use to perform its basic operations.</li><li>A device driver controls a particular type of device that is attached to your computers, such as a keyboard or a mouse. The driver program converts the more general input/output instructions of the operating system to messages that the device type can understand.</li></ul>\r\nAdditionally, system software can also include system utilities, such as the disk defragmenter and System Restore, and development tools, such as compilers and debuggers.\r\nSystem software and application programs are the two main types of computer software. Unlike system software, an application program (often just called an application or app) performs a particular function for the user. Examples include browsers, email clients, word processors, and spreadsheets.","materialsDescription":" \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What is system software?</span>\r\nSystem software is software designed to provide a platform for other software. Examples of system software include operating systems like macOS, GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows, computational science software, game engines, industrial automation, and software as a service applications.\r\nIn contrast to system software, software that allows users to do user-oriented tasks such as create text documents, play games, listen to music, or browse the web are collectively referred to as application software.\r\nIn the early days of computing most application software was custom-written by computer users to fit their specific hardware and requirements. In contrast, system software was usually supplied by the manufacturer of the computer hardware and was intended to be used by most or all users of that system.\r\nThe line where the distinction should be drawn is not always clear. Many operating systems bundle[jargon] application software. Such software is not considered system software when it can be uninstalled usually without affecting the functioning of other software. Exceptions could be e.g. web browsers such as Internet Explorer where Microsoft argued in court that it was system software that could not be uninstalled. Later examples are Chrome OS and Firefox OS where the browser functions as the only user interface and the only way to run programs (and other web browsers can not be installed in their place), then they can well be argued to be (part of) the operating system and hence system software.\r\nAnother borderline example is cloud-based software. This software provides services to a software client (usually a web browser or a JavaScript application running in the web browser), not to the user directly, and is therefore systems software. It is also developed using system programming methodologies and systems programming languages. Yet from the perspective of functionality there is little difference between a word processing application and word processing web application.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Operating systems or system control program</span>\r\nThe operating system (prominent examples being Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, and z/OS), allows the parts of a computer to work together by performing tasks like transferring data between memory and disks or rendering output onto a display device. It provides a platform (hardware abstraction layer) to run high-level system software and application software.\r\nA kernel is the core part of the operating system that defines an API for applications programs (including some system software) and an interface to device drivers.\r\nDevice drivers, including also computer BIOS and device firmware, provide basic functionality to operate and control the hardware connected to or built into the computer.\r\nA user interface &quot;allows users to interact with a computer.&quot; Either a command-line interface (CLI) or, since the 1980s a graphical user interface (GUI). Since this is the part of the operating system the user directly interacts with, it may be considered an application and therefore not system software.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Utility software or system support programs</span>\r\nFor historical reasons, some organizations use the term systems programmer to describe a job function which is more accurately termed systems administrator. Software tools these employees use are then called system software. This so-called Utility software helps to analyze, configure, optimize and maintain the computer, such as virus protection. In some publications, the term system software also includes software development tools (like a compiler, linker or debugger).","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_System_and_Network_Management_Software.png"},{"id":836,"title":"DRP - Digital Risk Protection","alias":"drp-digital-risk-protection","description":"Digital risks exist on social media and web channels, outside most organization's line of visibility. Organizations struggle to monitor these external, unregulated channels for risks targeting their business, their employees or their customers.\r\nCategories of risk include cyber (insider threat, phishing, malware, data loss), revenue (customer scams, piracy, counterfeit goods) brand (impersonations, slander) and physical (physical threats, natural disasters).\r\nDue to the explosive growth of digital risks, organizations need a flexible, automated approach that can monitor digital channels for organization-specific risks, trigger alerts and remediate malicious posts, profiles, content or apps.\r\nDigital risk protection (DRP) is the process of protecting social media and digital channels from security threats and business risks such as social engineering, external fraud, data loss, insider threat and reputation-based attacks. DRP reduces risks that emerge from digital transformation, protecting against the unwanted exposure of a company’s data, brand, and attack surface and providing actionable insight on threats from the open, deep, and dark web.<br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is a digital risk?</span>\r\nDigital risks can take many forms. Most fundamentally, what makes a risk digital? Digital risk is any risk that plays out in one form or another online, outside of an organization’s IT infrastructure and beyond the security perimeter. This can be a cyber risk, like a phishing link or ransomware via LinkedIn, but can also include traditional risks with a digital component, such as credit card money flipping scams on Instagram.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the features of Digital Risk Protection?</span>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The features are:</span></span>\r\n<ul><li>Protecting yourself from digital risk by building a watchtower, not a wall. A new Forrester report identifies two objectives for any digital risk protection effort: identifying risks and resolving them.</li><li>Digital risk comes in many forms, like unauthorized data disclosure, threat coordination from cybercriminals, risks inherent in the technology you use and in your third-party associates and even from your own employees.</li><li>The best solutions should automate the collection of data and draw from many sources; should have the capabilities to map, monitor, and mitigate digital risk and should be flexible enough to be applied in multiple use cases — factors that many threat intelligence solutions excel in.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What elements constitute a digital risk?</span>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Unauthorized Data Disclosure</span></span>\r\nThis includes the theft or leakage of any kind of sensitive data, like the personal financial information of a retail organization’s customers or the source code for a technology company’s proprietary products.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Threat Coordination Activity</span></span>\r\nMarketplaces and criminal forums on the dark web or even just on the open web are potent sources of risk. Here, a vulnerability identified by one group or individual who can’t act on it can reach the hands of someone who can. This includes the distribution of exploits in both targeted and untargeted campaigns.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Supply Chain Issues</span></span>\r\nBusiness partners, third-party suppliers, and other vendors who interact directly with your organization but are not necessarily following the same security practices can open the door to increased risk.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Employee Risk</span></span>\r\nEven the most secure and unbreakable lock can still easily be opened if you just have the right key. Through social engineering efforts, identity or access management and manipulation, or malicious insider attacks coming from disgruntled employees, even the most robust cybersecurity program can be quickly subverted.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Technology Risks</span></span>\r\nThis broad category includes all of the risks you must consider across the different technologies your organization might rely on to get your work done, keep it running smoothly, and tell people about it.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Physical Infrastructure:</span> Countless industrial processes are now partly or completely automated, relying on SCADA, DCS, or PLC systems to run smoothly — and opening them up to cyber- attacks (like the STUXNET attack that derailed an entire country’s nuclear program).</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">IT Infrastructure:</span> Maybe the most commonsensical source of digital risk, this includes all of the potential vulnerabilities in your software and hardware. The proliferation of the internet of things devices poses a growing and sometimes underappreciated risk here.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Public-Facing Presence:</span> All of the points where you interact with your customers and other public entities, whether through social media, email campaigns, or other marketing strategies, represent potential sources of risk.</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Digital_Risk_Protection.png"},{"id":840,"title":"ICS/SCADA Cyber Security","alias":"icsscada-cyber-security","description":"SCADA security is the practice of protecting supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) networks, a common framework of control systems used in industrial operations. These networks are responsible for providing automated control and remote human management of essential commodities and services such as water, natural gas, electricity and transportation to millions of people. They can also be used to improve the efficiencies and quality in other less essential (but some would say very important!) real-world processes such as snowmaking for ski resorts and beer brewing. SCADA is one of the most common types of industrial control systems (ICS).\r\nThese networks, just like any other network, are under threat from cyber-attacks that could bring down any part of the nation's critical infrastructure quickly and with dire consequences if the right security is not in place. Capital expenditure is another key concern; SCADA systems can cost an organization from tens of thousands to millions of dollars. For these reasons, it is essential that organizations implement robust SCADA security measures to protect their infrastructure and the millions of people that would be affected by the disruption caused by an external attack or internal error.\r\nSCADA security has evolved dramatically in recent years. Before computers, the only way to monitor a SCADA network was to deploy several people to each station to report back on the state of each system. In busier stations, technicians were stationed permanently to manually operate the network and communicate over telephone wires.\r\nIt wasn't until the introduction of the local area network (LAN) and improvements in system miniaturization that we started to see advances in SCADA development such as the distributed SCADA network. Next came networked systems that were able to communicate over a wide area network (WAN) and connect many more components together.\r\nFrom local companies to federal governments, every business or organization that works with SCADA systems are vulnerable to SCADA security threats. These threats can have wide-reaching effects on both the economy and the community. Specific threats to SCADA networks include the following:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Hackers.</span> Individuals or groups with malicious intent could bring a SCADA network to its knees. By gaining access to key SCADA components, hackers could unleash chaos on an organization that can range from a disruption in services to cyber warfare.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Malware.</span> Malware, including viruses, spyware and ransomware can pose a risk to SCADA systems. While malware may not be able to specifically target the network itself, it can still pose a threat to the key infrastructure that helps to manage the SCADA network. This includes mobile SCADA applications that are used to monitor and manage SCADA systems.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Terrorists.</span> Where hackers are usually motivated by sordid gain, terrorists are driven by the desire to cause as much mayhem and damage as possible.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Employees.</span> Insider threats can be just as damaging as external threats. From human error to a disgruntled employee or contractor, it is essential that SCADA security addresses these risks.\r\nManaging today's SCADA networks can be a challenge without the right security precautions in place. Many networks are still without the necessary detection and monitoring systems and this leaves them vulnerable to attack. Because SCADA network attacks exploit both cyber and physical vulnerabilities, it is critical to align cybersecurity measures accordingly.","materialsDescription":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is the difference between ICS/SCADA cybersecurity and information security?</span>\r\nAutomated process control systems (SCADA) have a lot of differences from “traditional” corporate information systems: from the destination, specific data transfer protocols and equipment used and ending with the environment in which they operate. In corporate networks and systems, as a rule, the main protected resource is information that is processed, transmitted and stored in automated systems, and the main goal is to ensure its confidentiality. In ICS, the protected resource, first of all, is the technological process itself, and the main goal is to ensure its continuity (accessibility of all nodes) and integrity (including information transmitted between the nodes of the ICS). Moreover, the field of potential risks and threats to ICS, in comparison with corporate systems, expands with risks of potential damage to life and health of personnel and the public, damage to the environment and infrastructure. That is why it is incorrect to talk about “information security” in relation to ICS/SCADA. In English sources, the term “cybersecurity” is used for this, a direct translation of which (cybersecurity) is increasingly found in our market in relation to the protection of process control systems.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Is it really necessary?</span>\r\nIt is necessary. There are a number of myths about process control systems, for example: “process control systems are completely isolated from the outside world”, “process control systems are too specific for someone to crack”, “process control systems are reliably protected by the developer”, or even “No one will ever try us, hacking us is not interesting. ” All this is no longer true. Many modern distributed process control systems have one or another connection with the corporate network, even if the system owners are unaware of this. Communication with the outside world greatly simplifies the task of the attacker, but does not remain the only possible option. Automated process control software and data transfer protocols are, as a rule, very, very insecure against cyber threats. This is evidenced by numerous articles and reports of experts involved in the study of the protection of industrial control systems and penetration tests. The PHDays III section on hacking automated process control systems impressed even ardent skeptics. Well, and, of course, the argument “they have NOT attacked us, therefore they will not” - can hardly be considered seriously. Everyone has heard about Stuxnet, which dispelled almost all the myths about the safety of ICS at once.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Who needs this?</span>\r\nWith the phrase ICS/SCADA, most imagine huge plants, automated CNC machines or something similar. However, the application of process control systems is not limited to these objects - in the modern age of automation, process control systems are used everywhere: from large production facilities, the oil and gas industry, transport management to smart home systems. And, by the way, with the protection of the latter, as a rule, everything can be much worse, because the developer silently and imperceptibly shifts responsibility to the shoulders of the user.\r\nOf course, some of the objects with automated process control systems are more interesting for attackers, others less. But, given the ever-growing number of vulnerabilities discovered and published in the ICS, the spread of &quot;exclusive&quot; (written for specific protocols and ICS software) malware, considering your system safe &quot;by default&quot; is unreasonable.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Are ICS and SCADA the same thing?</span>\r\nNo. SCADA systems (supervisory control and data acquisition, supervisory control and data collection) are part of the control system. Usually, a SCADA system means centralized control and management systems with the participation of a person as a whole system or a complex of industrial control systems. SCADA is the central link between people (human-machine interfaces) and PLC levels (programmable logic controller) or RTU (remote terminal unit).\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is ICS/SCADA cybersecurity?</span>\r\nIn fact, ICS cybersecurity is a process similar to “information security” in a number of properties, but very different in details. And the devil, as you know, lies in them. ICS/SCADA also has similar information security-related processes: asset inventory, risk analysis and assessment, threat analysis, security management, change management, incident response, continuity, etc. But these processes themselves are different.<br />The cyber security of ICSs has the same basic target qualities - confidentiality, integrity and accessibility, but the significance and point of application for them are completely different. It should be remembered that in ICS/SCADA we, first of all, protect the technological process. Beyond this - from the risks of damage to human health and life and the environment.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_SCADA_Cyber_Security.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]},{"id":3437,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/allied_telesis_logo.png","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"Allied Telesis Secure Enterprise SDN (SES)","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"0.00","implementationsCount":0,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":0,"alias":"allied-telesis-secure-enterprise-sdn-ses","companyTitle":"Allied Telesis","companyTypes":["vendor"],"companyId":5170,"companyAlias":"allied-telesis","description":"Allied Telesis Secure Enterprise Software Defined Networking (SES) is a state-of-the-art network management and security solution. It provides what enterprises consistently tell us they need: reduced network management costs, increased security and an improved end-user experience.\r\nSES is an award-winning innovative SDN solution that works with security applications to instantly respond to alerts and block the movement of threats anywhere within your wired or wireless network.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Automatic security threat isolation and remediation</span>\r\nMost organizations utilize an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) or Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) to defend their network from attacks. However, an IPS can introduce latency and bottlenecks, and most IDS can only warn if a threat has been found; they cannot act to block the offending traffic. By the time the operator reacts to the warning, it may be too late.\r\nSES uses best-of-breed IDS applications to identify threats, then responds immediately to isolate the affected part of the network. It is then capable of automatically quarantining the suspect device and applying remediation so that it can re-join the network with a minimum of network disruption and without manual intervention. Responses are configurable and comprehensive logging provides a clear audit trail of the actions taken. This is a truly innovative feature that helps organizations avoid lost time and unnecessary disruption to services.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Block threats at source</span>\r\nMost IPS solutions are only capable of blocking suspicious traffic as it passes through the IPS device. Since this tends to be near the gateway to the Internet, only external threats can be detected and blocked (this is the traditional “secure border” model). However, SES can isolate traffic anywhere in the network, so it can prevent threats not only on the border, but threats inside the network too through USB drives, BYOD, etc. This makes SES an innovative security solution that can monitor traffic entering and traversing the local network without introducing latency or bottlenecks.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Wired and wireless SDN</span>\r\nSES is the first commercial SDN solution for wireless networks that offers programmability and control inside the network where it is most vulnerable. Allied Telesis wireless access points are OpenFlow capable and can be controlled by the SES controller to provide a dynamic wireless network that offers end-users a better experience. New policies and security updates can be easily implemented from the centralized controller to all access points in seconds, to dramatically cut the time required for network and security management, with a corresponding reduction in operating costs.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Open and flexible SDN solution</span>\r\nSES interoperates with networks containing compatible OpenFlow switches, and a range of physical and virtual firewall products. There is no need for a forklift upgrade of the network to take advantage of the benefits of SES – it can interoperate with a wide range of existing equipment.\r\nSES also integrates with Allied Telesis Autonomous Management Framework™ (AMF), which is a powerful network management and automation tool that also delivers cost and time savings. When used with AMF, SES no longer relies on the OpenFlow protocol to communicate with the network devices. Instead it can use AMF to deliver instructions to conventional network devices. Therefore, this provides all the benefits of an SDN solution without the need for OpenFlow. This lowers the risk and cost for enterprises to adopt SDN solutions since their existing network can remain unchanged.\r\nWith SES, Allied Telesis will deliver real value by constantly monitoring for threats and instantly protecting the network. While other SDN solutions provide esoteric solutions for obscure networking problems, SES will deliver true business value every day.","shortDescription":"Secure Enterprise SDN (SES) is a state of the art network threat detection tool, protecting networks from IoT-based threats with automatic threat detection and isolation.","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":0,"sellingCount":0,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"Allied Telesis Secure Enterprise SDN (SES)","keywords":"","description":"Allied Telesis Secure Enterprise Software Defined Networking (SES) is a state-of-the-art network management and security solution. It provides what enterprises consistently tell us they need: reduced network management costs, increased security and an improved","og:title":"Allied Telesis Secure Enterprise SDN (SES)","og:description":"Allied Telesis Secure Enterprise Software Defined Networking (SES) is a state-of-the-art network management and security solution. It provides what enterprises consistently tell us they need: reduced network management costs, increased security and an improved","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/allied_telesis_logo.png"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":3437,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":5,"title":"Security Software","alias":"security-software","description":" Computer security software or cybersecurity software is any computer program designed to enhance information security. Security software is a broad term that encompasses a suite of different types of software that deliver data and computer and network security in various forms. \r\nSecurity software can protect a computer from viruses, malware, unauthorized users and other security exploits originating from the Internet. Different types of security software include anti-virus software, firewall software, network security software, Internet security software, malware/spamware removal and protection software, cryptographic software, and more.\r\nIn end-user computing environments, anti-spam and anti-virus security software is the most common type of software used, whereas enterprise users add a firewall and intrusion detection system on top of it. \r\nSecurity soft may be focused on preventing attacks from reaching their target, on limiting the damage attacks can cause if they reach their target and on tracking the damage that has been caused so that it can be repaired. As the nature of malicious code evolves, security software also evolves.<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"></span>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Firewall. </span>Firewall security software prevents unauthorized users from accessing a computer or network without restricting those who are authorized. Firewalls can be implemented with hardware or software. Some computer operating systems include software firewalls in the operating system itself. For example, Microsoft Windows has a built-in firewall. Routers and servers can include firewalls. There are also dedicated hardware firewalls that have no other function other than protecting a network from unauthorized access.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Antivirus.</span> Antivirus solutions work to prevent malicious code from attacking a computer by recognizing the attack before it begins. But it is also designed to stop an attack in progress that could not be prevented, and to repair damage done by the attack once the attack abates. Antivirus software is useful because it addresses security issues in cases where attacks have made it past a firewall. New computer viruses appear daily, so antivirus and security software must be continuously updated to remain effective.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Antispyware.</span> While antivirus software is designed to prevent malicious software from attacking, the goal of antispyware software is to prevent unauthorized software from stealing information that is on a computer or being processed through the computer. Since spyware does not need to attempt to damage data files or the operating system, it does not trigger antivirus software into action. However, antispyware software can recognize the particular actions spyware is taking by monitoring the communications between a computer and external message recipients. When communications occur that the user has not authorized, antispyware can notify the user and block further communications.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Home Computers.</span> Home computers and some small businesses usually implement&nbsp; security software at the desktop level - meaning on the PC itself. This category of computer security and protection, sometimes referred to as end-point security, remains resident, or continuously operating, on the desktop. Because the software is running, it uses system resources, and can slow the computer's performance. However, because it operates in real time, it can react rapidly to attacks and seek to shut them down when they occur.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Network Security.</span> When several computers are all on the same network, it's more cost-effective to implement security at the network level. Antivirus software can be installed on a server and then loaded automatically to each desktop. However firewalls are usually installed on a server or purchased as an independent device that is inserted into the network where the Internet connection comes in. All of the computers inside the network communicate unimpeded, but any data going in or out of the network over the Internet is filtered trough the firewall.<br /><br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"> <span style=\"font-weight: normal; \">What is IT security software?</span></h1>\r\nIT security software provides protection to businesses’ computer or network. It serves as a defense against unauthorized access and intrusion in such a system. It comes in various types, with many businesses and individuals already using some of them in one form or another.\r\nWith the emergence of more advanced technology, cybercriminals have also found more ways to get into the system of many organizations. Since more and more businesses are now relying their crucial operations on software products, the importance of security system software assurance must be taken seriously – now more than ever. Having reliable protection such as a security software programs is crucial to safeguard your computing environments and data. \r\n<p class=\"align-left\">It is not just the government or big corporations that become victims of cyber threats. In fact, small and medium-sized businesses have increasingly become targets of cybercrime over the past years. </p>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal; \">What are the features of IT security software?</span></h1>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Automatic updates. </span>This ensures you don’t miss any update and your system is the most up-to-date version to respond to the constantly emerging new cyber threats.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Real-time scanning.</span> Dynamic scanning features make it easier to detect and infiltrate malicious entities promptly. Without this feature, you’ll risk not being able to prevent damage to your system before it happens.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Auto-clean.</span> A feature that rids itself of viruses even without the user manually removing it from its quarantine zone upon detection. Unless you want the option to review the malware, there is no reason to keep the malicious software on your computer which makes this feature essential.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Multiple app protection.</span> This feature ensures all your apps and services are protected, whether they’re in email, instant messenger, and internet browsers, among others.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Application level security.</span> This enables you to control access to the application on a per-user role or per-user basis to guarantee only the right individuals can enter the appropriate applications.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Role-based menu.</span> This displays menu options showing different users according to their roles for easier assigning of access and control.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Row-level (multi-tenant) security.</span> This gives you control over data access at a row-level for a single application. This means you can allow multiple users to access the same application but you can control the data they are authorized to view.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Single sign-on.</span> A session or user authentication process that allows users to access multiple related applications as long as they are authorized in a single session by only logging in their name and password in a single place.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">User privilege parameters.</span> These are customizable features and security as per individual user or role that can be accessed in their profile throughout every application.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Application activity auditing.</span> Vital for IT departments to quickly view when a user logged in and off and which application they accessed. Developers can log end-user activity using their sign-on/signoff activities.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><br /><br /><br /><br /></p>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Security_Software.png"},{"id":204,"title":"Managed Detection and Response","alias":"managed-detection-and-response","description":" MDR, which stands for Managed Detection &amp; Response, is an all-encompassing threat detection system, which arose from the need for small/medium-sized organizations who lack resources to be able to monitor their network systems in-house. It provides a cost-effective alternative to SIEM (Security Information and Event Management).\r\nEveryday, the capabilities of attackers get more sophisticated and the volume of alerts becomes overwhelming and unmanageable. In-house teams might struggle to analyze and log data, which makes it harder than ever to determine if these threats are harmful. MDR can put a stop to attacks before they even happen. MDR technology monitors your systems and detects any unusual behavior, whilst our expert team responds to the threats detected within your business.\r\nMDR offers real-time threat intelligence, and is able to analyse behaviour which can be missed by traditional endpoint security technology. MDR also provides rapid identification of known threats, which in turn minimises overall attacks. Having remote incident investigation will minimise damage to your business, and will allow you to get back to work in no time. It’s important to note that using MDR services will allow third party access to your company's data. You need to consider working with a provider who understands and respects your data policy.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is Managed Detection and Response?</span>\r\nManaged Detection and Response (MDR) is a managed cybersecurity service that provides intrusion detection of malware and malicious activity in your network, and assists in rapid incident response to eliminate those threats with succinct remediation actions. MDR typically combines a technology solution with outsourced security analysts that extend your technologies and team.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Isn’t that What MSSPs or Managed SIEMs Do?</span>\r\nNo. Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) monitor network security controls and may send alerts when anomalies are identified. MSSPs typically do not investigate the anomalies to eliminate false positives, nor do they respond to real threats. This means that abnormalities in network usage are forwarded to your IT personnel who must then dig through the data to determine if there is a real threat and what to do about it.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Doesn’t My Firewall Protect My Network?</span>\r\nFirewalls and other preventive forms of cybersecurity are very important and effective at preventing basic cyberattacks. However, over the past decade, it has become clear that preventive cybersecurity technologies are not enough to secure an organization’s network. Further, they are yet another source of alerts, log messages, and events that contribute to the “alert fatigue” being universally suffered today. Recent major hacks such as the Marriot Hack of 2018, the Anthem Hack of 2015, and the Target Hack of 2013 demonstrate how easily cybercriminals can breach networks at enterprise organizations to steal millions of credit card numbers, medical records, and other forms of PII/PHI.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Endpoint_Detection_and_Response.png"},{"id":499,"title":"SDN Software-Defined Network","alias":"sdn-software-defined-network","description":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Software-defined networking (SDN)</span> technology is an approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance and monitoring, making it more like cloud computing than traditional network management.\r\nSDN encompasses several types of technologies, including functional separation, network virtualization and automation through programmability. SDN solution is meant to address the fact that the static architecture of traditional networks is decentralized and complex while current networks require more flexibility and easy troubleshooting. \r\nSDN technology attempts to centralize network intelligence in one network component by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane</span>) from the routing process (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">control plane</span>). The control plane consists of one or more controllers which are considered as the brain of SDN network where the whole intelligence is incorporated. Originally, software defined technology focused solely on separation of the network control plane from the data plane. While the control plane makes decisions about how packets should flow through the network, the data plane actually moves packets from place to place. \r\nIn a classic SDN scenario, a packet arrives at a network switch, and rules built into the switch's proprietary firmware tell the switch where to forward the packet. These packet-handling rules are sent to the switch from the centralized controller. The switch - also known as a <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane device</span> - queries the controller for guidance as needed, and it provides the controller with information about traffic it handles. The switch sends every packet going to the same destination along the same path and treats all the packets the exact same way.\r\nSoftware defined networking solutions use an operation mode that is sometimes called adaptive or dynamic, in which a switch issues a route request to a controller for a packet that does not have a specific route. This process is separate from adaptive routing, which issues route requests through routers and algorithms based on the network topology, not through a controller.\r\nThe <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">virtualization</span> aspect of SDN comes into play through a virtual overlay, which is a logically separate network on top of the physical network. Users can implement end-to-end overlays to abstract the underlying network and segment network traffic. This microsegmentation is especially useful for service providers and operators with multi-tenant cloud environments and cloud services, as they can provision a separate virtual network with specific policies for each tenant.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of Software Defined Networking</h1>\r\nWith SDN software, an <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">administrator can change any network switch's rules when necessary</span> - prioritizing, deprioritizing or even blocking specific types of packets with a granular level of control and security. This is especially helpful in a cloud computing multi-tenant architecture, because it enables the administrator to manage traffic loads in a flexible and more efficient manner. Essentially, this enables the administrator to use less expensive commodity switches and have more control over network traffic flow than ever before.\r\nOther benefits of SDN are <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">network management</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">end-to-end visibility.</span>A network administrator need only deal with one centralized controller to distribute policies to the connected switches, instead of configuring multiple individual devices. This capability is also a security advantage because the controller can monitor traffic and deploy security policies. If the controller deems traffic suspicious, for example, it can reroute or drop the packets.\r\nSoftware defined networking software also <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">virtualizes hardware</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">services </span>that were previously carried out by dedicated hardware, resulting in the touted benefits of a reduced hardware footprint and lower operational costs.\r\nAdditionally, SDN contributed to the emergence of <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN)</span> technology. SD-WAN employs the virtual overlay aspect of SDN technology, abstracting an organization's connectivity links throughout its WAN and creating a virtual network that can use whichever connection the controller deems fit to send traffic.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Are there any SDN security benefits?</h1>\r\nAs security issues become more complex at the edge of the network, it’s no wonder that network and security professionals are looking for new ways to approach network protection. Nowadays, it seems like SDN is going to be the answer. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Centralized Network Control </span></li></ul>\r\nIn a traditional network, devices (router/switches) make their own decisions locally about where and how best to send traffic.&nbsp; In terms of network security, SDN can be used to route data packets through a single firewall and make IDS and IPS data capture more efficient.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Simplify Configuration</span></li></ul>\r\nThe SDN makes it easier to automate configuration and improves the traceability of those configurations. The introduction of SDN network management allows dynamic programming and restructuring of network settings, which reduces the risk of DDoS attacks. It is also worth adding that SDN has automatic quarantine capabilities. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Creation of High-level Network Policies</span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Rather than physically configuring security solutions, SDN facilitates the central management of security policies to make network operator roles more efficient and flexible. Moreover, SDN helps to move away from current management approaches such as SNMP/CLI and build more effective policy management. </span>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Easy to use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)</span></span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Cloud APIs are interfaces presented by software and play a vital role in SDN controllers and applications. Easy to use APIs help to manage network resources, improve the efficiency of IT resources, and aid integration with IT tools. Additionally, a number of good cloud security practices have been introduced recently. </span>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_SDN_Software_Defined_Network.png"},{"id":834,"title":"IoT - Internet of Things Security","alias":"iot-internet-of-things-security","description":" IoT security is the technology area concerned with safeguarding connected devices and networks in the internet of things (IoT).\r\nIoT involves adding internet connectivity to a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals and/or people. Each &quot;thing&quot; is provided a unique identifier and the ability to automatically transfer data over a network. Allowing devices to connect to the internet opens them up to a number of serious vulnerabilities if they are not properly protected.\r\nIoT security has become the subject of scrutiny after a number of high-profile incidents where a common IoT device was used to infiltrate and attack the larger network. Implementing security measures is critical to ensuring the safety of networks with IoT devices connected to them.\r\nIoT security hacks can happen in any industry, from smart home to a manufacturing plant to a connected car. The severity of impact depends greatly on the individual system, the data collected and/or the information it contains.\r\nAn attack disabling the brakes of a connected car, for example, or on a connected health device, such as an insulin pump hacked to administer too much medication to a patient, can be life-threatening. Likewise, an attack on a refrigeration system housing medicine that is monitored by an IoT system can ruin the viability of a medicine if temperatures fluctuate. Similarly, an attack on critical infrastructure -- an oil well, energy grid or water supply -- can be disastrous.\r\nSo, a robust IoT security portfolio must allow protecting devices from all types of vulnerabilities while deploying the security level that best matches application needs. Cryptography technologies are used to combat communication attacks. Security services are offered for protecting against lifecycle attacks. Isolation measures can be implemented to fend off software attacks. And, finally, IoT security should include tamper mitigation and side-channel attack mitigation technologies for fighting physical attacks of the chip.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the key requirements of IoT Security?</span>\r\nThe key requirements for any IoT security solution are:\r\n<ul><li>Device and data security, including authentication of devices and confidentiality and integrity of data</li><li>Implementing and running security operations at IoT scale</li><li>Meeting compliance requirements and requests</li><li>Meeting performance requirements as per the use case</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What do connected devices require to participate in the IoT Securely?</span>\r\nTo securely participate in the IoT, each connected device needs a unique identification – even before it has an IP address. This digital credential establishes the root of trust for the device’s entire lifecycle, from initial design to deployment to retirement.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Why is device authentication necessary for the IoT?</span>\r\nStrong IoT device authentication is required to ensure connected devices on the IoT can be trusted to be what they purport to be. Consequently, each IoT device needs a unique identity that can be authenticated when the device attempts to connect to a gateway or central server. With this unique ID in place, IT system administrators can track each device throughout its lifecycle, communicate securely with it, and prevent it from executing harmful processes. If a device exhibits unexpected behavior, administrators can simply revoke its privileges.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Why is secure manufacturing necessary for IoT devices?</span>\r\nIoT devices produced through unsecured manufacturing processes provide criminals opportunities to change production runs to introduce unauthorized code or produce additional units that are subsequently sold on the black market.\r\nOne way to secure manufacturing processes is to use hardware security modules (HSMs) and supporting security software to inject cryptographic keys and digital certificates and to control the number of units built and the code incorporated into each.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Why is code signing necessary for IoT devices?</span>\r\nTo protect businesses, brands, partners, and users from software that has been infected by malware, software developers have adopted code signing. In the IoT, code signing in the software release process ensures the integrity of IoT device software and firmware updates and defends against the risks associated with code tampering or code that deviates from organizational policies.\r\nIn public key cryptography, code signing is a specific use of certificate-based digital signatures that enables an organization to verify the identity of the software publisher and certify the software has not been changed since it was published.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is IoT PKI?</span>\r\nToday there are more things (devices) online than there are people on the planet! Devices are the number one users of the Internet and need digital identities for secure operation. As enterprises seek to transform their business models to stay competitive, rapid adoption of IoT technologies is creating increasing demand for Public Key Infrastructures (PKIs) to provide digital certificates for the growing number of devices and the software and firmware they run.\r\nSafe IoT deployments require not only trusting the devices to be authentic and to be who they say they are, but also trusting that the data they collect is real and not altered. If one cannot trust the IoT devices and the data, there is no point in collecting, running analytics, and executing decisions based on the information collected.\r\nSecure adoption of IoT requires:\r\n<ul><li>Enabling mutual authentication between connected devices and applications</li><li>Maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of the data collected by devices</li><li>Ensuring the legitimacy and integrity of the software downloaded to devices</li><li>Preserving the privacy of sensitive data in light of stricter security regulations</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/iot.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]},{"id":4770,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Dell_PowerEdge_MX7000_Modular_Chassis.jpg","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"Dell PowerEdge MX7000 Modular Chassis","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"0.00","implementationsCount":1,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":15,"alias":"dell-poweredge-mx7000-modular-chassis","companyTitle":"DELL","companyTypes":["vendor"],"companyId":169,"companyAlias":"dell","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Liberate IT resources to achieve optimal utilization, productivity and efficiency</span>\r\nAs dynamic and innovative as your business, PowerEdge MX kinetic infrastructure bridges traditional and software-defined data centers with unequal flexibility and agility. At the foundation, PowerEdge MX7000 chassis hosts disaggregated blocks of server and storage to create consumable resources on-demand. Shared power, cooling, networking, I/O and in-chassis management provides outstanding efficiencies.\r\n<ul><li>7U modular enclosure with eight slots holds 2S single or four 4S double-width compute sleds and 12Gbs single-width storage sleds</li><li>25Gb Ethernet, 12Gb SAS and 32Gb Fibre Channel I/O options</li><li>Three I/O networking fabrics, two general purpose and one storage specific, each with redundant modules</li><li>Multi-chassis networking up to 10 chassis</li><li>Single management point for compute, storage and networking</li><li>High-speed technology connections, now and into the future, with no midplane upgrade</li><li>At least three server processor microarchitecture generation support assurance</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Dynamically scale and respond with kinetic infrastructure</span>\r\nDesigned with Dell EMC’s kinetic infrastructure, PowerEdge MX creates shared pools of disaggregated compute and storage resources, connected by scalable fabric, from which workloads can draw resources needed to run most quickly and efficiently. Then when no longer needed the resources are returned into the pool. By essentially creating hardware on the fly the capacity can be managed at a data center level instead of a per server level.\r\n<ul><li>Full-featured, no compromise compute sleds with Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors</li><li>Generous, scalable on-board SAS, SATA, and NVMe storage drives, plus substantial, granular SAS direct-attached storage using optional storage sleds</li><li>Scalable fabric architecture with a grow-as-you-need fabric expansion capability for up to 10 chassis in fabric.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Increase effectiveness and accelerate operations with unified automation</span>\r\nEmbedded Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise – Modular Edition delivers the key abilities of OpenMange Enterprise systems management within the PowerEdge MX chassis. A unified simple interface manages compute, storage and fabric, reducing costs and the learning curve and consolidates multiple tools. Redundant management modules ensure highest availability.\r\n<ul><li>Automatic expansion from one to multiple chassis; scale management to thousands of PowerEdge MX and rack servers with OpenManage Enterprise</li><li>Flexible, at-the-box management front control panel options include Quick Sync 2 (wireless), touchscreen LCD and traditional crash cart</li><li>Comprehensive RESTful API helps automate multiple tasks and integrates to third-party tools</li><li>Seamlessly integrates with integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 9 (iDRAC9) and Lifecycle Controller (LC)</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Protect infrastructure and investment with responsive design</span>\r\nReduce the risk of infrastructure investment and help make new innovations more easily available with PowerEdge MX7000 future-forward architecture. Designed to maximize longevity and minimize disruptive technology changes support across both generational and architectural transitions is provided.\r\n<ul><li>Multi-generational assurance with support for at least three server processor microarchitecture generations</li><li>Nearly zero throughput limitations, providing high-speed technology connections, and well into the future, with no midplane upgrade</li><li>Industry-leading thermal architecture and mechanical design and control algorithms support dense configurations and future compatibility</li></ul>","shortDescription":"Dynamically assign, move and scale shared pools of compute, storage and fabric, with greater flexibility and efficiency, and deliver optimal value.","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":11,"sellingCount":1,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"Dell PowerEdge MX7000 Modular Chassis","keywords":"","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Liberate IT resources to achieve optimal utilization, productivity and efficiency</span>\r\nAs dynamic and innovative as your business, PowerEdge MX kinetic infrastructure bridges traditional and software-defined data centers wi","og:title":"Dell PowerEdge MX7000 Modular Chassis","og:description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Liberate IT resources to achieve optimal utilization, productivity and efficiency</span>\r\nAs dynamic and innovative as your business, PowerEdge MX kinetic infrastructure bridges traditional and software-defined data centers wi","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Dell_PowerEdge_MX7000_Modular_Chassis.jpg"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":4771,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":4,"title":"Data center","alias":"data-center","description":" A data center (or datacenter) is a facility composed of networked computers and storage that businesses or other organizations use to organize, process, store and disseminate large amounts of data. A business typically relies heavily upon the applications, services and data contained within a data center, making it a focal point and critical asset for everyday operations.\r\nData centers are not a single thing, but rather, a conglomeration of elements. At a minimum, data centers serve as the principal repositories for all manner of IT equipment, including servers, storage subsystems, networking switches, routers and firewalls, as well as the cabling and physical racks used to organize and interconnect the IT equipment. A data center must also contain an adequate infrastructure, such as power distribution and supplemental power subsystems, including electrical switching; uninterruptable power supplies; backup generators and so on; ventilation and data center cooling systems, such as computer room air conditioners; and adequate provisioning for network carrier (telco) connectivity. All of this demands a physical facility with physical security and sufficient physical space to house the entire collection of infrastructure and equipment.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the requirements for modern data centers?</span>\r\nModernization and data center transformation enhances performance and energy efficiency.\r\nInformation security is also a concern, and for this reason a data center has to offer a secure environment which minimizes the chances of a security breach. A data center must therefore keep high standards for assuring the integrity and functionality of its hosted computer environment.\r\nIndustry research company International Data Corporation (IDC) puts the average age of a data center at nine years old. Gartner, another research company, says data centers older than seven years are obsolete. The growth in data (163 zettabytes by 2025) is one factor driving the need for data centers to modernize.\r\nFocus on modernization is not new: Concern about obsolete equipment was decried in 2007, and in 2011 Uptime Institute was concerned about the age of the equipment therein. By 2018 concern had shifted once again, this time to the age of the staff: &quot;data center staff are aging faster than the equipment.&quot;\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Meeting standards for data centers</span></span>\r\nThe Telecommunications Industry Association's Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers specifies the minimum requirements for telecommunications infrastructure of data centers and computer rooms including single tenant enterprise data centers and multi-tenant Internet hosting data centers. The topology proposed in this document is intended to be applicable to any size data center.\r\nTelcordia GR-3160, NEBS Requirements for Telecommunications Data Center Equipment and Spaces, provides guidelines for data center spaces within telecommunications networks, and environmental requirements for the equipment intended for installation in those spaces. These criteria were developed jointly by Telcordia and industry representatives. They may be applied to data center spaces housing data processing or Information Technology (IT) equipment. The equipment may be used to:\r\n<ul><li>Operate and manage a carrier's telecommunication network</li><li>Provide data center based applications directly to the carrier's customers</li><li>Provide hosted applications for a third party to provide services to their customers</li><li>Provide a combination of these and similar data center applications</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Data center transformation</span></span>\r\nData center transformation takes a step-by-step approach through integrated projects carried out over time. This differs from a traditional method of data center upgrades that takes a serial and siloed approach. The typical projects within a data center transformation initiative include standardization/consolidation, virtualization, automation and security.\r\n<ul><li>Standardization/consolidation: Reducing the number of data centers and avoiding server sprawl (both physical and virtual) often includes replacing aging data center equipment, and is aided by standardization.</li><li>Virtualization: Lowers capital and operational expenses, reduce energy consumption. Virtualized desktops can be hosted in data centers and rented out on a subscription basis. Investment bank Lazard Capital Markets estimated in 2008 that 48 percent of enterprise operations will be virtualized by 2012. Gartner views virtualization as a catalyst for modernization.</li><li>Automating: Automating tasks such as provisioning, configuration, patching, release management and compliance is needed, not just when facing fewer skilled IT workers.</li><li>Securing: Protection of virtual systems is integrated with existing security of physical infrastructures.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Machine room</span></span>\r\nThe term &quot;Machine Room&quot; is at times used to refer to the large room within a Data Center where the actual Central Processing Unit is located; this may be separate from where high-speed printers are located. Air conditioning is most important in the machine room.\r\nAside from air-conditioning, there must be monitoring equipment, one type of which is to detect water prior to flood-level situations. One company, for several decades, has had share-of-mind: Water Alert. The company, as of 2018, has 2 competing manufacturers (Invetex, Hydro-Temp) and 3 competing distributors (Longden,Northeast Flooring, Slayton). ","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Data_center.png"},{"id":35,"title":"Server","alias":"server","description":"In computing, a server is a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called &quot;clients&quot;. This architecture is called the client–server model, and a single overall computation is distributed across multiple processes or devices. Servers can provide various functionalities, often called &quot;services&quot;, such as sharing data or resources among multiple clients, or performing computation for a client. A single server can serve multiple clients, and a single client can use multiple servers. A client process may run on the same device or may connect over a network to a server on a different device. Typical servers are database servers, file servers, mail servers, print servers, web servers, game servers, and application servers.\r\nClient–server systems are today most frequently implemented by (and often identified with) the request–response model: a client sends a request to the server, which performs some action and sends a response back to the client, typically with a result or acknowledgement. Designating a computer as &quot;server-class hardware&quot; implies that it is specialized for running servers on it. This often implies that it is more powerful and reliable than standard personal computers, but alternatively, large computing clusters may be composed of many relatively simple, replaceable server components.\r\nStrictly speaking, the term server refers to a computer program or process (running program). Through metonymy, it refers to a device used for (or a device dedicated to) running one or several server programs. On a network, such a device is called a host. In addition to server, the words serve and service (as noun and as verb) are frequently used, though servicer and servant are not. The word service (noun) may refer to either the abstract form of functionality, e.g. Web service. Alternatively, it may refer to a computer program that turns a computer into a server, e.g. Windows service. Originally used as &quot;servers serve users&quot; (and &quot;users use servers&quot;), in the sense of &quot;obey&quot;, today one often says that &quot;servers serve data&quot;, in the same sense as &quot;give&quot;. For instance, web servers &quot;serve web pages to users&quot; or &quot;service their requests&quot;.\r\nThe server is part of the client–server model; in this model, a server serves data for clients. The nature of communication between a client and server is request and response. This is in contrast with peer-to-peer model in which the relationship is on-demand reciprocation. In principle, any computerized process that can be used or called by another process (particularly remotely, particularly to share a resource) is a server, and the calling process or processes is a client. Thus any general purpose computer connected to a network can host servers. For example, if files on a device are shared by some process, that process is a file server. Similarly, web server software can run on any capable computer, and so a laptop or a personal computer can host a web server.\r\nWhile request–response is the most common client–server design, there are others, such as the publish–subscribe pattern. In the publish–subscribe pattern, clients register with a pub–sub server, subscribing to specified types of messages; this initial registration may be done by request–response. Thereafter, the pub–sub server forwards matching messages to the clients without any further requests: the server pushes messages to the client, rather than the client pulling messages from the server as in request–response.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is a server?</span>\r\nA server is a software or hardware device that accepts and responds to requests made over a network. The device that makes the request, and receives a response from the server, is called a client. On the Internet, the term &quot;server&quot; commonly refers to the computer system which receives a request for a web document and sends the requested information to the client.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are they used for?</span>\r\nServers are used to manage network resources. For example, a user may set up a server to control access to a network, send/receive an e-mail, manage print jobs, or host a website. They are also proficient at performing intense calculations. Some servers are committed to a specific task, often referred to as dedicated. However, many servers today are shared servers which can take on the responsibility of e-mail, DNS, FTP, and even multiple websites in the case of a web server.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Why are servers always on?</span>\r\nBecause they are commonly used to deliver services that are constantly required, most servers are never turned off. Consequently, when servers fail, they can cause the network users and company many problems. To alleviate these issues, servers are commonly set up to be fault-tolerant.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the examples of servers?</span>\r\nThe following list contains links to various server types:\r\n<ul><li>Application server;</li><li>Blade server;</li><li>Cloud server;</li><li>Database server;</li><li>Dedicated server;</li><li>Domain name service;</li><li>File server;</li><li>Mail server;</li><li>Print server;</li><li>Proxy server;</li><li>Standalone server;</li><li>Web server.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">How do other computers connect to a server?</span>\r\nWith a local network, the server connects to a router or switch that all other computers on the network use. Once connected to the network, other computers can access that server and its features. For example, with a web server, a user could connect to the server to view a website, search, and communicate with other users on the network.\r\nAn Internet server works the same way as a local network server, but on a much larger scale. The server is assigned an IP address by InterNIC, or by a web host.\r\nUsually, users connect to a server using its domain name, which is registered with a domain name registrar. When users connect to the domain name (such as &quot;computerhope.com&quot;), the name is automatically translated to the server's IP address by a DNS resolver.\r\nThe domain name makes it easier for users to connect to the server because the name is easier to remember than an IP address. Also, domain names enable the server operator to change the IP address of the server without disrupting the way that users access the server. The domain name can always remain the same, even if the IP address changes.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Where are servers stored?</span>\r\nIn a business or corporate environment, a server and other network equipment are often stored in a closet or glasshouse. These areas help isolate sensitive computers and equipment from people who should not have access to them.\r\nServers that are remote or not hosted on-site are located in a data center. With these types of servers, the hardware is managed by another company and configured remotely by you or your company.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Server.png"},{"id":471,"title":"Hardware","alias":"hardware","description":" Computer hardware includes the physical, tangible parts or components of a computer, such as the cabinet, central processing unit, monitor, keyboard, computer data storage, graphics card, sound card, speakers and motherboard. By contrast, software is instructions that can be stored and run by hardware. Hardware is so-termed because it is &quot;hard&quot; or rigid with respect to changes or modifications; whereas software is &quot;soft&quot; because it is easy to update or change. Intermediate between software and hardware is &quot;firmware&quot;, which is software that is strongly coupled to the particular hardware of a computer system and thus the most difficult to change but also among the most stable with respect to consistency of interface. The progression from levels of &quot;hardness&quot; to &quot;softness&quot; in computer systems parallels a progression of layers of abstraction in computing.\r\nHardware is typically directed by the software to execute any command or instruction. A combination of hardware and software forms a usable computing system, although other systems exist with only hardware components.\r\nThe template for all modern computers is the Von Neumann architecture, detailed in a 1945 paper by Hungarian mathematician John von Neumann. This describes a design architecture for an electronic digital computer with subdivisions of a processing unit consisting of an arithmetic logic unit and processor registers, a control unit containing an instruction register and program counter, a memory to store both data and instructions, external mass storage, and input and output mechanisms. The meaning of the term has evolved to mean a stored-program computer in which an instruction fetch and a data operation cannot occur at the same time because they share a common bus. This is referred to as the Von Neumann bottleneck and often limits the performance of the system.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What does Hardware (H/W) mean?</span>\r\nHardware (H/W), in the context of technology, refers to the physical elements that make up a computer or electronic system and everything else involved that is physically tangible. This includes the monitor, hard drive, memory and CPU. Hardware works hand-in-hand with firmware and software to make a computer function.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are the types of computer systems?</span>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Personal computer</span></span>\r\nThe personal computer, also known as the PC, is one of the most common types of computer due to its versatility and relatively low price. Laptops are generally very similar, although they may use lower-power or reduced size components, thus lower performance.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Case</span></span>\r\nThe computer case encloses and holds most of the components of the system. It provides mechanical support and protection for internal elements such as the motherboard, disk drives, and power supplies, and controls and directs the flow of cooling air over internal components. The case is also part of the system to control electromagnetic interference radiated by the computer, and protects internal parts from electrostatic discharge. Large tower cases provide extra internal space for multiple disk drives or other peripherals and usually stand on the floor, while desktop cases provide less expansion room. All-in-one style designs include a video display built into the same case. Portable and laptop computers require cases that provide impact protection for the unit. A current development in laptop computers is a detachable keyboard, which allows the system to be configured as a touch-screen tablet. Hobbyists may decorate the cases with colored lights, paint, or other features, in an activity called case modding.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Power supply</span></span>\r\nA power supply unit (PSU) converts alternating current (AC) electric power to low-voltage direct current (DC) power for the internal components of the computer. Laptops are capable of running from a built-in battery, normally for a period of hours. The PSU typically uses a switched-mode power supply (SMPS), with power MOSFETs (power metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors) used in the converters and regulator circuits of the SMPS.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Motherboard</span></span>\r\nThe motherboard is the main component of a computer. It is a board with integrated circuitry that connects the other parts of the computer including the CPU, the RAM, the disk drives (CD, DVD, hard disk, or any others) as well as any peripherals connected via the ports or the expansion slots. The integrated circuit (IC) chips in a computer typically contain billions of tiny metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs).\r\nComponents directly attached to or to part of the motherboard include:\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">The CPU (central processing unit)</span>, which performs most of the calculations which enable a computer to function, and is referred to as the brain of the computer which get a hold of program instruction from random-access memory (RAM), interprets and processes it and then send it backs to computer result so that the relevant components can carry out the instructions. The CPU is a microprocessor, which is fabricated on a metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit (IC) chip. It is usually cooled by a heat sink and fan, or water-cooling system. Most newer CPU include an on-die graphics processing unit (GPU). The clock speed of CPU governs how fast it executes instructions, and is measured in GHz; typical values lie between 1 GHz and 5 GHz. Many modern computers have the option to overclock the CPU which enhances performance at the expense of greater thermal output and thus a need for improved cooling.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">The chipset</span>, which includes the north bridge, mediates communication between the CPU and the other components of the system, including main memory; as well as south bridge, which is connected to the north bridge, and supports auxiliary interfaces and buses; and, finally, a Super I/O chip, connected through the south bridge, which supports the slowest and most legacy components like serial ports, hardware monitoring and fan control.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Random-access memory (RAM)</span>, which stores the code and data that are being actively accessed by the CPU. For example, when a web browser is opened on the computer it takes up memory; this is stored in the RAM until the web browser is closed. It is typically a type of dynamic RAM (DRAM), such as synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), where MOS memory chips store data on memory cells consisting of MOSFETs and MOS capacitors. RAM usually comes on dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs) in the sizes of 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB, but can be much larger.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Read-only memory (ROM)</span>, which stores the BIOS that runs when the computer is powered on or otherwise begins execution, a process known as Bootstrapping, or &quot;booting&quot; or &quot;booting up&quot;. The ROM is typically a nonvolatile BIOS memory chip, which stores data on floating-gate MOSFET memory cells.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">The BIOS (Basic Input Output System)</span> includes boot firmware and power management firmware. Newer motherboards use Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) instead of BIOS.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Buses</span> that connect the CPU to various internal components and to expand cards for graphics and sound.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">The CMOS</span> (complementary MOS) battery, which powers the CMOS memory for date and time in the BIOS chip. This battery is generally a watch battery.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">The video card</span> (also known as the graphics card), which processes computer graphics. More powerful graphics cards are better suited to handle strenuous tasks, such as playing intensive video games or running computer graphics software. A video card contains a graphics processing unit (GPU) and video memory (typically a type of SDRAM), both fabricated on MOS integrated circuit (MOS IC) chips.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Power MOSFETs</span> make up the voltage regulator module (VRM), which controls how much voltage other hardware components receive.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Expansion cards</span></span>\r\nAn expansion card in computing is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an expansion slot of a computer motherboard or backplane to add functionality to a computer system via the expansion bus. Expansion cards can be used to obtain or expand on features not offered by the motherboard.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Storage devices</span></span>\r\nA storage device is any computing hardware and digital media that is used for storing, porting and extracting data files and objects. It can hold and store information both temporarily and permanently, and can be internal or external to a computer, server or any similar computing device. Data storage is a core function and fundamental component of computers.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Fixed media</span></span>\r\nData is stored by a computer using a variety of media. Hard disk drives (HDDs) are found in virtually all older computers, due to their high capacity and low cost, but solid-state drives (SSDs) are faster and more power efficient, although currently more expensive than hard drives in terms of dollar per gigabyte, so are often found in personal computers built post-2007. SSDs use flash memory, which stores data on MOS memory chips consisting of floating-gate MOSFET memory cells. Some systems may use a disk array controller for greater performance or reliability.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Removable media</span></span>\r\nTo transfer data between computers, an external flash memory device (such as a memory card or USB flash drive) or optical disc (such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or BD-ROM) may be used. Their usefulness depends on being readable by other systems; the majority of machines have an optical disk drive (ODD), and virtually all have at least one Universal Serial Bus (USB) port.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Input and output peripherals</span></span>\r\nInput and output devices are typically housed externally to the main computer chassis. The following are either standard or very common to many computer systems.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Input</span></span>\r\nInput devices allow the user to enter information into the system, or control its operation. Most personal computers have a mouse and keyboard, but laptop systems typically use a touchpad instead of a mouse. Other input devices include webcams, microphones, joysticks, and image scanners.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Output device</span></span>\r\nOutput devices display information in a human readable form. Such devices could include printers, speakers, monitors or a Braille embosser.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Mainframe computer</span></span>\r\nA mainframe computer is a much larger computer that typically fills a room and may cost many hundreds or thousands of times as much as a personal computer. They are designed to perform large numbers of calculations for governments and large enterprises.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Departmental computing</span></span>\r\nIn the 1960s and 1970s, more and more departments started to use cheaper and dedicated systems for specific purposes like process control and laboratory automation.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Supercomputer</span></span>\r\nA supercomputer is superficially similar to a mainframe, but is instead intended for extremely demanding computational tasks. As of June 2018, the fastest supercomputer on the TOP500supercomputer list is the Summit, in the United States, with a LINPACK benchmarkscore of 122.3 PFLOPS Light, by around 29 PFLOPS.\r\nThe term supercomputer does not refer to a specific technology. Rather it indicates the fastest computations available at any given time. In mid 2011, the fastest supercomputers boasted speeds exceeding one petaflop, or 1 quadrillion (10^15 or 1,000 trillion) floating point operations per second. Supercomputers are fast but extremely costly, so they are generally used by large organizations to execute computationally demanding tasks involving large data sets. Supercomputers typically run military and scientific applications. Although costly, they are also being used for commercial applications where huge amounts of data must be analyzed. For example, large banks employ supercomputers to calculate the risks and returns of various investment strategies, and healthcare organizations use them to analyze giant databases of patient data to determine optimal treatments for various diseases and problems incurring to the country. ","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Hardware.jpg"},{"id":513,"title":"Networking","alias":"networking","description":" Networking hardware, also known as network equipment or computer networking devices, are electronic devices which are required for communication and interaction between devices on a computer network. Specifically, they mediate data transmission in a computer network. Units which are the last receiver or generate data are called hosts or data terminal equipment.\r\nNetworking devices may include gateways, routers, network bridges, modems, wireless access points, networking cables, line drivers, switches, hubs, and repeaters; and may also include hybrid network devices such as multilayer switches, protocol converters, bridge routers, proxy servers, firewalls, network address translators, multiplexers, network interface controllers, wireless network interface controllers, ISDN terminal adapters and other related hardware.\r\nThe most common kind of networking hardware today is a copper-based Ethernet adapter which is a standard inclusion on most modern computer systems. Wireless networking has become increasingly popular, especially for portable and handheld devices.\r\nOther networking hardware used in computers includes data center equipment (such as file servers, database servers and storage areas), network services (such as DNS, DHCP, email, etc.) as well as devices which assure content delivery.\r\nTaking a wider view, mobile phones, tablet computers and devices associated with the internet of things may also be considered networking hardware. As technology advances and IP-based networks are integrated into building infrastructure and household utilities, network hardware will become an ambiguous term owing to the vastly increasing number of network capable endpoints.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is network equipment?</span>\r\nNetwork equipment - devices necessary for the operation of a computer network, for example: a router, switch, hub, patch panel, etc. You can distinguish between active and passive network equipment.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is an active network equipment?</span>\r\nActive networking equipment is equipment followed by some “smart” feature. That is, a router, switch (switch), etc. are active network equipment.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is passive network equipment?</span>\r\nPassive network equipment - equipment not endowed with &quot;intellectual&quot; features. For example - cable system: cable (coaxial and twisted pair (UTP/STP)), plug / socket (RG58, RJ45, RJ11, GG45), repeater (repeater), patch panel, hub (hub), balun (balun) for coaxial cables (RG-58), etc. Also, passive equipment can include mounting cabinets and racks, telecommunication cabinets.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the main network components?</span>\r\nThe main components of the network are workstations, servers, transmission media (cables) and network equipment.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are workstations?</span>\r\nWorkstations are network computers where network users implement application tasks.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are network servers?</span>\r\nNetwork servers - hardware and software systems that perform the functions of controlling the distribution of network shared resources. A server can be any computer connected to the network on which the resources used by other devices on the local network are located. As the server hardware, fairly powerful computers are used.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Networking.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]},{"id":4772,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Dell_EMC_PowerEdge_MX_IO_Modules.jpg","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"Dell EMC PowerEdge MX I/O Modules","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"0.00","implementationsCount":1,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":59,"alias":"dell-emc-poweredge-mx-io-modules","companyTitle":"Dell EMC","companyTypes":["vendor"],"companyId":955,"companyAlias":"dell-emc","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">SmartFabric Services</span>\r\nRobust yet simple fabric automation that goes beyond the ordinary\r\n<ul><li>Plug and Play fabric deployment with simplified I/O Aggregation providing a single pane of glass view</li><li>Physical topology validation and compliance checking</li><li>Automated per-VLAN Quality of Service assignment based on traffic types</li><li>Self-healing fabric detects misconfigurations and link failure conditions and adjusts where possible</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Scalable fabric architecture</span>\r\nMulti-chassis scalable fabric architecture that can grow with your specific needs\r\n<ul><li>Fabric expansion capability using 25GbE connectivity across multiple chassis</li><li>Single networking domain across the fabric providing a single pane of glass view</li><li>SmartFabric Services provides a robust fabric-level automation framework</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The power of open choice</span>\r\nAn array of hardware platforms, operating systems and management services\r\n<ul><li>Choice of unique Open Networking modular switches</li><li>Choice of Dell EMC OS10 or select 3rd party OS’s</li><li>Choice of leveraging standards-based open automation tools</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Highest performance connectivity</span>\r\nOptimum connectivity to servers and storage platforms in the chassis for demanding workloads\r\n<ul><li>High-performance 25GbE and 32G FC connectivity within the chassis</li><li>High throughput and low latency performance throughout the chassis</li><li>Multi-rate 100GbE uplinks to data center leaf/spine fabric</li></ul>","shortDescription":"Maximize the demanding connectivity needs of today’s data center workloads while also lowering overall costs and network management complexity.","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":5,"sellingCount":18,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"Dell EMC PowerEdge MX I/O Modules","keywords":"","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">SmartFabric Services</span>\r\nRobust yet simple fabric automation that goes beyond the ordinary\r\n<ul><li>Plug and Play fabric deployment with simplified I/O Aggregation providing a single pane of glass view</li><li>Physical topo","og:title":"Dell EMC PowerEdge MX I/O Modules","og:description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">SmartFabric Services</span>\r\nRobust yet simple fabric automation that goes beyond the ordinary\r\n<ul><li>Plug and Play fabric deployment with simplified I/O Aggregation providing a single pane of glass view</li><li>Physical topo","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Dell_EMC_PowerEdge_MX_IO_Modules.jpg"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":4773,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":4,"title":"Data center","alias":"data-center","description":" A data center (or datacenter) is a facility composed of networked computers and storage that businesses or other organizations use to organize, process, store and disseminate large amounts of data. A business typically relies heavily upon the applications, services and data contained within a data center, making it a focal point and critical asset for everyday operations.\r\nData centers are not a single thing, but rather, a conglomeration of elements. At a minimum, data centers serve as the principal repositories for all manner of IT equipment, including servers, storage subsystems, networking switches, routers and firewalls, as well as the cabling and physical racks used to organize and interconnect the IT equipment. A data center must also contain an adequate infrastructure, such as power distribution and supplemental power subsystems, including electrical switching; uninterruptable power supplies; backup generators and so on; ventilation and data center cooling systems, such as computer room air conditioners; and adequate provisioning for network carrier (telco) connectivity. All of this demands a physical facility with physical security and sufficient physical space to house the entire collection of infrastructure and equipment.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the requirements for modern data centers?</span>\r\nModernization and data center transformation enhances performance and energy efficiency.\r\nInformation security is also a concern, and for this reason a data center has to offer a secure environment which minimizes the chances of a security breach. A data center must therefore keep high standards for assuring the integrity and functionality of its hosted computer environment.\r\nIndustry research company International Data Corporation (IDC) puts the average age of a data center at nine years old. Gartner, another research company, says data centers older than seven years are obsolete. The growth in data (163 zettabytes by 2025) is one factor driving the need for data centers to modernize.\r\nFocus on modernization is not new: Concern about obsolete equipment was decried in 2007, and in 2011 Uptime Institute was concerned about the age of the equipment therein. By 2018 concern had shifted once again, this time to the age of the staff: &quot;data center staff are aging faster than the equipment.&quot;\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Meeting standards for data centers</span></span>\r\nThe Telecommunications Industry Association's Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers specifies the minimum requirements for telecommunications infrastructure of data centers and computer rooms including single tenant enterprise data centers and multi-tenant Internet hosting data centers. The topology proposed in this document is intended to be applicable to any size data center.\r\nTelcordia GR-3160, NEBS Requirements for Telecommunications Data Center Equipment and Spaces, provides guidelines for data center spaces within telecommunications networks, and environmental requirements for the equipment intended for installation in those spaces. These criteria were developed jointly by Telcordia and industry representatives. They may be applied to data center spaces housing data processing or Information Technology (IT) equipment. The equipment may be used to:\r\n<ul><li>Operate and manage a carrier's telecommunication network</li><li>Provide data center based applications directly to the carrier's customers</li><li>Provide hosted applications for a third party to provide services to their customers</li><li>Provide a combination of these and similar data center applications</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Data center transformation</span></span>\r\nData center transformation takes a step-by-step approach through integrated projects carried out over time. This differs from a traditional method of data center upgrades that takes a serial and siloed approach. The typical projects within a data center transformation initiative include standardization/consolidation, virtualization, automation and security.\r\n<ul><li>Standardization/consolidation: Reducing the number of data centers and avoiding server sprawl (both physical and virtual) often includes replacing aging data center equipment, and is aided by standardization.</li><li>Virtualization: Lowers capital and operational expenses, reduce energy consumption. Virtualized desktops can be hosted in data centers and rented out on a subscription basis. Investment bank Lazard Capital Markets estimated in 2008 that 48 percent of enterprise operations will be virtualized by 2012. Gartner views virtualization as a catalyst for modernization.</li><li>Automating: Automating tasks such as provisioning, configuration, patching, release management and compliance is needed, not just when facing fewer skilled IT workers.</li><li>Securing: Protection of virtual systems is integrated with existing security of physical infrastructures.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Machine room</span></span>\r\nThe term &quot;Machine Room&quot; is at times used to refer to the large room within a Data Center where the actual Central Processing Unit is located; this may be separate from where high-speed printers are located. Air conditioning is most important in the machine room.\r\nAside from air-conditioning, there must be monitoring equipment, one type of which is to detect water prior to flood-level situations. One company, for several decades, has had share-of-mind: Water Alert. The company, as of 2018, has 2 competing manufacturers (Invetex, Hydro-Temp) and 3 competing distributors (Longden,Northeast Flooring, Slayton). ","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Data_center.png"},{"id":35,"title":"Server","alias":"server","description":"In computing, a server is a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called &quot;clients&quot;. This architecture is called the client–server model, and a single overall computation is distributed across multiple processes or devices. Servers can provide various functionalities, often called &quot;services&quot;, such as sharing data or resources among multiple clients, or performing computation for a client. A single server can serve multiple clients, and a single client can use multiple servers. A client process may run on the same device or may connect over a network to a server on a different device. Typical servers are database servers, file servers, mail servers, print servers, web servers, game servers, and application servers.\r\nClient–server systems are today most frequently implemented by (and often identified with) the request–response model: a client sends a request to the server, which performs some action and sends a response back to the client, typically with a result or acknowledgement. Designating a computer as &quot;server-class hardware&quot; implies that it is specialized for running servers on it. This often implies that it is more powerful and reliable than standard personal computers, but alternatively, large computing clusters may be composed of many relatively simple, replaceable server components.\r\nStrictly speaking, the term server refers to a computer program or process (running program). Through metonymy, it refers to a device used for (or a device dedicated to) running one or several server programs. On a network, such a device is called a host. In addition to server, the words serve and service (as noun and as verb) are frequently used, though servicer and servant are not. The word service (noun) may refer to either the abstract form of functionality, e.g. Web service. Alternatively, it may refer to a computer program that turns a computer into a server, e.g. Windows service. Originally used as &quot;servers serve users&quot; (and &quot;users use servers&quot;), in the sense of &quot;obey&quot;, today one often says that &quot;servers serve data&quot;, in the same sense as &quot;give&quot;. For instance, web servers &quot;serve web pages to users&quot; or &quot;service their requests&quot;.\r\nThe server is part of the client–server model; in this model, a server serves data for clients. The nature of communication between a client and server is request and response. This is in contrast with peer-to-peer model in which the relationship is on-demand reciprocation. In principle, any computerized process that can be used or called by another process (particularly remotely, particularly to share a resource) is a server, and the calling process or processes is a client. Thus any general purpose computer connected to a network can host servers. For example, if files on a device are shared by some process, that process is a file server. Similarly, web server software can run on any capable computer, and so a laptop or a personal computer can host a web server.\r\nWhile request–response is the most common client–server design, there are others, such as the publish–subscribe pattern. In the publish–subscribe pattern, clients register with a pub–sub server, subscribing to specified types of messages; this initial registration may be done by request–response. Thereafter, the pub–sub server forwards matching messages to the clients without any further requests: the server pushes messages to the client, rather than the client pulling messages from the server as in request–response.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is a server?</span>\r\nA server is a software or hardware device that accepts and responds to requests made over a network. The device that makes the request, and receives a response from the server, is called a client. On the Internet, the term &quot;server&quot; commonly refers to the computer system which receives a request for a web document and sends the requested information to the client.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are they used for?</span>\r\nServers are used to manage network resources. For example, a user may set up a server to control access to a network, send/receive an e-mail, manage print jobs, or host a website. They are also proficient at performing intense calculations. Some servers are committed to a specific task, often referred to as dedicated. However, many servers today are shared servers which can take on the responsibility of e-mail, DNS, FTP, and even multiple websites in the case of a web server.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Why are servers always on?</span>\r\nBecause they are commonly used to deliver services that are constantly required, most servers are never turned off. Consequently, when servers fail, they can cause the network users and company many problems. To alleviate these issues, servers are commonly set up to be fault-tolerant.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the examples of servers?</span>\r\nThe following list contains links to various server types:\r\n<ul><li>Application server;</li><li>Blade server;</li><li>Cloud server;</li><li>Database server;</li><li>Dedicated server;</li><li>Domain name service;</li><li>File server;</li><li>Mail server;</li><li>Print server;</li><li>Proxy server;</li><li>Standalone server;</li><li>Web server.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">How do other computers connect to a server?</span>\r\nWith a local network, the server connects to a router or switch that all other computers on the network use. Once connected to the network, other computers can access that server and its features. For example, with a web server, a user could connect to the server to view a website, search, and communicate with other users on the network.\r\nAn Internet server works the same way as a local network server, but on a much larger scale. The server is assigned an IP address by InterNIC, or by a web host.\r\nUsually, users connect to a server using its domain name, which is registered with a domain name registrar. When users connect to the domain name (such as &quot;computerhope.com&quot;), the name is automatically translated to the server's IP address by a DNS resolver.\r\nThe domain name makes it easier for users to connect to the server because the name is easier to remember than an IP address. Also, domain names enable the server operator to change the IP address of the server without disrupting the way that users access the server. The domain name can always remain the same, even if the IP address changes.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Where are servers stored?</span>\r\nIn a business or corporate environment, a server and other network equipment are often stored in a closet or glasshouse. These areas help isolate sensitive computers and equipment from people who should not have access to them.\r\nServers that are remote or not hosted on-site are located in a data center. With these types of servers, the hardware is managed by another company and configured remotely by you or your company.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Server.png"},{"id":471,"title":"Hardware","alias":"hardware","description":" Computer hardware includes the physical, tangible parts or components of a computer, such as the cabinet, central processing unit, monitor, keyboard, computer data storage, graphics card, sound card, speakers and motherboard. By contrast, software is instructions that can be stored and run by hardware. Hardware is so-termed because it is &quot;hard&quot; or rigid with respect to changes or modifications; whereas software is &quot;soft&quot; because it is easy to update or change. Intermediate between software and hardware is &quot;firmware&quot;, which is software that is strongly coupled to the particular hardware of a computer system and thus the most difficult to change but also among the most stable with respect to consistency of interface. The progression from levels of &quot;hardness&quot; to &quot;softness&quot; in computer systems parallels a progression of layers of abstraction in computing.\r\nHardware is typically directed by the software to execute any command or instruction. A combination of hardware and software forms a usable computing system, although other systems exist with only hardware components.\r\nThe template for all modern computers is the Von Neumann architecture, detailed in a 1945 paper by Hungarian mathematician John von Neumann. This describes a design architecture for an electronic digital computer with subdivisions of a processing unit consisting of an arithmetic logic unit and processor registers, a control unit containing an instruction register and program counter, a memory to store both data and instructions, external mass storage, and input and output mechanisms. The meaning of the term has evolved to mean a stored-program computer in which an instruction fetch and a data operation cannot occur at the same time because they share a common bus. This is referred to as the Von Neumann bottleneck and often limits the performance of the system.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What does Hardware (H/W) mean?</span>\r\nHardware (H/W), in the context of technology, refers to the physical elements that make up a computer or electronic system and everything else involved that is physically tangible. This includes the monitor, hard drive, memory and CPU. Hardware works hand-in-hand with firmware and software to make a computer function.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are the types of computer systems?</span>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Personal computer</span></span>\r\nThe personal computer, also known as the PC, is one of the most common types of computer due to its versatility and relatively low price. Laptops are generally very similar, although they may use lower-power or reduced size components, thus lower performance.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Case</span></span>\r\nThe computer case encloses and holds most of the components of the system. It provides mechanical support and protection for internal elements such as the motherboard, disk drives, and power supplies, and controls and directs the flow of cooling air over internal components. The case is also part of the system to control electromagnetic interference radiated by the computer, and protects internal parts from electrostatic discharge. Large tower cases provide extra internal space for multiple disk drives or other peripherals and usually stand on the floor, while desktop cases provide less expansion room. All-in-one style designs include a video display built into the same case. Portable and laptop computers require cases that provide impact protection for the unit. A current development in laptop computers is a detachable keyboard, which allows the system to be configured as a touch-screen tablet. Hobbyists may decorate the cases with colored lights, paint, or other features, in an activity called case modding.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Power supply</span></span>\r\nA power supply unit (PSU) converts alternating current (AC) electric power to low-voltage direct current (DC) power for the internal components of the computer. Laptops are capable of running from a built-in battery, normally for a period of hours. The PSU typically uses a switched-mode power supply (SMPS), with power MOSFETs (power metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors) used in the converters and regulator circuits of the SMPS.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Motherboard</span></span>\r\nThe motherboard is the main component of a computer. It is a board with integrated circuitry that connects the other parts of the computer including the CPU, the RAM, the disk drives (CD, DVD, hard disk, or any others) as well as any peripherals connected via the ports or the expansion slots. The integrated circuit (IC) chips in a computer typically contain billions of tiny metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs).\r\nComponents directly attached to or to part of the motherboard include:\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">The CPU (central processing unit)</span>, which performs most of the calculations which enable a computer to function, and is referred to as the brain of the computer which get a hold of program instruction from random-access memory (RAM), interprets and processes it and then send it backs to computer result so that the relevant components can carry out the instructions. The CPU is a microprocessor, which is fabricated on a metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit (IC) chip. It is usually cooled by a heat sink and fan, or water-cooling system. Most newer CPU include an on-die graphics processing unit (GPU). The clock speed of CPU governs how fast it executes instructions, and is measured in GHz; typical values lie between 1 GHz and 5 GHz. Many modern computers have the option to overclock the CPU which enhances performance at the expense of greater thermal output and thus a need for improved cooling.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">The chipset</span>, which includes the north bridge, mediates communication between the CPU and the other components of the system, including main memory; as well as south bridge, which is connected to the north bridge, and supports auxiliary interfaces and buses; and, finally, a Super I/O chip, connected through the south bridge, which supports the slowest and most legacy components like serial ports, hardware monitoring and fan control.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Random-access memory (RAM)</span>, which stores the code and data that are being actively accessed by the CPU. For example, when a web browser is opened on the computer it takes up memory; this is stored in the RAM until the web browser is closed. It is typically a type of dynamic RAM (DRAM), such as synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), where MOS memory chips store data on memory cells consisting of MOSFETs and MOS capacitors. RAM usually comes on dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs) in the sizes of 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB, but can be much larger.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Read-only memory (ROM)</span>, which stores the BIOS that runs when the computer is powered on or otherwise begins execution, a process known as Bootstrapping, or &quot;booting&quot; or &quot;booting up&quot;. The ROM is typically a nonvolatile BIOS memory chip, which stores data on floating-gate MOSFET memory cells.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">The BIOS (Basic Input Output System)</span> includes boot firmware and power management firmware. Newer motherboards use Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) instead of BIOS.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Buses</span> that connect the CPU to various internal components and to expand cards for graphics and sound.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">The CMOS</span> (complementary MOS) battery, which powers the CMOS memory for date and time in the BIOS chip. This battery is generally a watch battery.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">The video card</span> (also known as the graphics card), which processes computer graphics. More powerful graphics cards are better suited to handle strenuous tasks, such as playing intensive video games or running computer graphics software. A video card contains a graphics processing unit (GPU) and video memory (typically a type of SDRAM), both fabricated on MOS integrated circuit (MOS IC) chips.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Power MOSFETs</span> make up the voltage regulator module (VRM), which controls how much voltage other hardware components receive.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Expansion cards</span></span>\r\nAn expansion card in computing is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an expansion slot of a computer motherboard or backplane to add functionality to a computer system via the expansion bus. Expansion cards can be used to obtain or expand on features not offered by the motherboard.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Storage devices</span></span>\r\nA storage device is any computing hardware and digital media that is used for storing, porting and extracting data files and objects. It can hold and store information both temporarily and permanently, and can be internal or external to a computer, server or any similar computing device. Data storage is a core function and fundamental component of computers.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Fixed media</span></span>\r\nData is stored by a computer using a variety of media. Hard disk drives (HDDs) are found in virtually all older computers, due to their high capacity and low cost, but solid-state drives (SSDs) are faster and more power efficient, although currently more expensive than hard drives in terms of dollar per gigabyte, so are often found in personal computers built post-2007. SSDs use flash memory, which stores data on MOS memory chips consisting of floating-gate MOSFET memory cells. Some systems may use a disk array controller for greater performance or reliability.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Removable media</span></span>\r\nTo transfer data between computers, an external flash memory device (such as a memory card or USB flash drive) or optical disc (such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or BD-ROM) may be used. Their usefulness depends on being readable by other systems; the majority of machines have an optical disk drive (ODD), and virtually all have at least one Universal Serial Bus (USB) port.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Input and output peripherals</span></span>\r\nInput and output devices are typically housed externally to the main computer chassis. The following are either standard or very common to many computer systems.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Input</span></span>\r\nInput devices allow the user to enter information into the system, or control its operation. Most personal computers have a mouse and keyboard, but laptop systems typically use a touchpad instead of a mouse. Other input devices include webcams, microphones, joysticks, and image scanners.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Output device</span></span>\r\nOutput devices display information in a human readable form. Such devices could include printers, speakers, monitors or a Braille embosser.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Mainframe computer</span></span>\r\nA mainframe computer is a much larger computer that typically fills a room and may cost many hundreds or thousands of times as much as a personal computer. They are designed to perform large numbers of calculations for governments and large enterprises.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Departmental computing</span></span>\r\nIn the 1960s and 1970s, more and more departments started to use cheaper and dedicated systems for specific purposes like process control and laboratory automation.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Supercomputer</span></span>\r\nA supercomputer is superficially similar to a mainframe, but is instead intended for extremely demanding computational tasks. As of June 2018, the fastest supercomputer on the TOP500supercomputer list is the Summit, in the United States, with a LINPACK benchmarkscore of 122.3 PFLOPS Light, by around 29 PFLOPS.\r\nThe term supercomputer does not refer to a specific technology. Rather it indicates the fastest computations available at any given time. In mid 2011, the fastest supercomputers boasted speeds exceeding one petaflop, or 1 quadrillion (10^15 or 1,000 trillion) floating point operations per second. Supercomputers are fast but extremely costly, so they are generally used by large organizations to execute computationally demanding tasks involving large data sets. Supercomputers typically run military and scientific applications. Although costly, they are also being used for commercial applications where huge amounts of data must be analyzed. For example, large banks employ supercomputers to calculate the risks and returns of various investment strategies, and healthcare organizations use them to analyze giant databases of patient data to determine optimal treatments for various diseases and problems incurring to the country. ","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Hardware.jpg"},{"id":513,"title":"Networking","alias":"networking","description":" Networking hardware, also known as network equipment or computer networking devices, are electronic devices which are required for communication and interaction between devices on a computer network. Specifically, they mediate data transmission in a computer network. Units which are the last receiver or generate data are called hosts or data terminal equipment.\r\nNetworking devices may include gateways, routers, network bridges, modems, wireless access points, networking cables, line drivers, switches, hubs, and repeaters; and may also include hybrid network devices such as multilayer switches, protocol converters, bridge routers, proxy servers, firewalls, network address translators, multiplexers, network interface controllers, wireless network interface controllers, ISDN terminal adapters and other related hardware.\r\nThe most common kind of networking hardware today is a copper-based Ethernet adapter which is a standard inclusion on most modern computer systems. Wireless networking has become increasingly popular, especially for portable and handheld devices.\r\nOther networking hardware used in computers includes data center equipment (such as file servers, database servers and storage areas), network services (such as DNS, DHCP, email, etc.) as well as devices which assure content delivery.\r\nTaking a wider view, mobile phones, tablet computers and devices associated with the internet of things may also be considered networking hardware. As technology advances and IP-based networks are integrated into building infrastructure and household utilities, network hardware will become an ambiguous term owing to the vastly increasing number of network capable endpoints.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is network equipment?</span>\r\nNetwork equipment - devices necessary for the operation of a computer network, for example: a router, switch, hub, patch panel, etc. You can distinguish between active and passive network equipment.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is an active network equipment?</span>\r\nActive networking equipment is equipment followed by some “smart” feature. That is, a router, switch (switch), etc. are active network equipment.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is passive network equipment?</span>\r\nPassive network equipment - equipment not endowed with &quot;intellectual&quot; features. For example - cable system: cable (coaxial and twisted pair (UTP/STP)), plug / socket (RG58, RJ45, RJ11, GG45), repeater (repeater), patch panel, hub (hub), balun (balun) for coaxial cables (RG-58), etc. Also, passive equipment can include mounting cabinets and racks, telecommunication cabinets.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the main network components?</span>\r\nThe main components of the network are workstations, servers, transmission media (cables) and network equipment.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are workstations?</span>\r\nWorkstations are network computers where network users implement application tasks.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are network servers?</span>\r\nNetwork servers - hardware and software systems that perform the functions of controlling the distribution of network shared resources. A server can be any computer connected to the network on which the resources used by other devices on the local network are located. As the server hardware, fairly powerful computers are used.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Networking.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]},{"id":3328,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Nuage_Networks_logo.png","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"Nuage VNS","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"1.00","implementationsCount":0,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":0,"alias":"nuage-vns","companyTitle":"Nuage Networks","companyTypes":["vendor"],"companyId":5235,"companyAlias":"nuage-networks","description":"Nuage Networks Virtualized Network Services (VNS) is a fresh approach to business networking that seamlessly links your enterprise customers’ locations regardless of size or geography while reducing the requirement for custom networking.\r\nWith Nuage Networks VNS the network that underpins customer locations is unshackled to deliver services where enterprises need them when they need them. Your customers gain the flexibility and functionality they need to drive their business into the cloud era.\r\nNuage Networks VNS provides a comprehensive networking service that removes the limitations that exist with traditional Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). Solution benefits include:\r\n<ul> <li>Customer self-service management and control of the network service tailored to the individual requirements of their businesses</li> <li>Separation of the network service from the network transport, which provides you with flexibility to utilize any access network within your footprint</li> <li>Customer-driven quick and simple move, add and change requests to ensure their network service matches their dynamic business environment</li> <li>Advanced functionality that can reduce the requirement for specialist security and network devices at customers’ locations</li> <li>Enhanced customer monitoring and service visibility to reduce the costs associated with service assurance</li> </ul>","shortDescription":"Nuage Networks Virtualized Network Services (VNS) automate branch site connectivity to help service providers and enterprises reduce operational overhead and launch new services faster.","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":20,"sellingCount":6,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"Nuage VNS","keywords":"","description":"Nuage Networks Virtualized Network Services (VNS) is a fresh approach to business networking that seamlessly links your enterprise customers’ locations regardless of size or geography while reducing the requirement for custom networking.\r\nWith Nuage Networks V","og:title":"Nuage VNS","og:description":"Nuage Networks Virtualized Network Services (VNS) is a fresh approach to business networking that seamlessly links your enterprise customers’ locations regardless of size or geography while reducing the requirement for custom networking.\r\nWith Nuage Networks V","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Nuage_Networks_logo.png"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":3329,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[{"id":93,"title":"Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN)"}],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":34,"title":"ITSM - IT Service Management","alias":"itsm-it-service-management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">IT service management (ITSM)</span> is the process of designing, delivering, managing, and improving the IT services an organization provides to its end users. ITSM is focused on aligning IT processes and services with business objectives to help an organization grow.\r\nITSM positions IT services as the key means of delivering and obtaining value, where an internal or external IT service provider works with business customers, at the same time taking responsibility for the associated costs and risks. ITSM works across the whole lifecycle of a service, from the original strategy, through design, transition and into live operation.\r\nTo ensure sustainable quality of IT services, ITSM establishes a set of practices, or processes, constituting a service management system. There are industrial, national and international standards for IT service management solutions, setting up requirements and good practices for the management system. \r\nITSM system is based on a set of principles, such as focusing on value and continual improvement. It is not just a set of processes – it is a cultural mindset to ensure that the desired outcome for the business is achieved. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library)</span> is a framework of best practices and recommendations for managing an organization's IT operations and services. IT service management processes, when built based on the ITIL framework, pave the way for better IT service operations management and improved business. To summarize, ITIL is a set of guidelines for effective IT service management best practices. ITIL has evolved beyond the delivery of services to providing end-to-end value delivery. The focus is now on the co-creation of value through service relationships. \r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM processes typically include five stages, all based on the ITIL framework:</span></p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM strategy.</span> This stage forms the foundation or the framework of an organization's ITSM process building. It involves defining the services that the organization will offer, strategically planning processes, and recognizing and developing the required assets to keep processes moving. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service design.</span> This stage's main aim is planning and designing the IT services the organization offers to meet business demands. It involves creating and designing new services as well as assessing current services and making relevant improvements.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service transition.</span> Once the designs for IT services and their processes have been finalized, it's important to build them and test them out to ensure that processes flow. IT teams need to ensure that the designs don't disrupt services in any way, especially when existing IT service processes are upgraded or redesigned. This calls for change management, evaluation, and risk management. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service operation. </span>This phase involves implementing the tried and tested new or modified designs in a live environment. While in this stage, the processes have already been tested and the issues fixed, but new processes are bound to have hiccups—especially when customers start using the services. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Continual service improvement (CSI).</span> Implementing IT processes successfully shouldn't be the final stage in any organization. There's always room for improvement and new development based on issues that pop up, customer needs and demands, and user feedback.\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of efficient ITSM processes</h1>\r\nIrrespective of the size of business, every organization is involved in IT service management in some way. ITSM ensures that incidents, service requests, problems, changes, and IT assets—in addition to other aspects of IT services—are managed in a streamlined way.\r\nIT teams in your organization can employ various workflows and best practices in ITSM, as outlined in ITIL. Effective IT service management can have positive effects on an IT organization's overall function.\r\nHere are the 10 key benefits of ITSM:\r\n<ul><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lower costs for IT operations</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Higher returns on IT investments</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Minimal service outages</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ability to establish well-defined, repeatable, and manageable IT processes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Efficient analysis of IT problems to reduce repeat incidents</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Improved efficiency of IT help desk teams</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well-defined roles and responsibilities</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Clear expectations on service levels and service availability</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Risk-free implementation of IT changes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Better transparency into IT processes and services</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">How to choose an ITSM tool?</h1>\r\nWith a competent IT service management goal in mind, it's important to invest in a service desk solution that caters to your business needs. It goes without saying, with more than 150 service desk tools to choose from, selecting the right one is easier said than done. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing an ITSM products:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Identify key processes and their dependencies. </span>Based on business goals, decide which key ITSM processes need to be implemented and chart out the integrations that need to be established to achieve those goals. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Consult with ITSM experts.</span> Participate in business expos, webinars, demos, etc., and educate yourself about the various options that are available in the market. Reports from expert analysts such as Gartner and Forrester are particularly useful as they include reviews of almost every solution, ranked based on multiple criteria.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Choose a deployment option.</span> Every business has a different IT infrastructure model. Selecting an on-premises or software as a service (SaaS IT service management) tool depends on whether your business prefers to host its applications and data on its own servers or use a public or private cloud.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Plan ahead for the future.</span> Although it's important to consider the &quot;needs&quot; primarily, you shouldn't rule out the secondary or luxury capabilities. If the ITSM tool doesn't have the potential to adapt to your needs as your organization grows, it can pull you back from progressing. Draw a clear picture of where your business is headed and choose an service ITSM that is flexible and technology-driven.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Don't stop with the capabilities of the ITSM tool.</span> It might be tempting to assess an ITSM tool based on its capabilities and features but it's important to evaluate the vendor of the tool. A good IT support team, and a vendor that is endorsed for their customer-vendor relationship can take your IT services far. Check Gartner's magic quadrant and other analyst reports, along with product and support reviews to ensure that the said tool provides good customer support.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_ITSM.png"},{"id":52,"title":"SaaS - software as a service","alias":"saas-software-as-a-service","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Software as a service (SaaS)</span> is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as &quot;on-demand software&quot;, and was formerly referred to as &quot;software plus services&quot; by Microsoft.\r\n SaaS services is typically accessed by users using a thin client, e.g. via a web browser. SaaS software solutions has become a common delivery model for many business applications, including office software, messaging software, payroll processing software, DBMS software, management software, CAD software, development software, gamification, virtualization, accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM), Management Information Systems (MIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing, human resource management (HRM), talent acquisition, learning management systems, content management (CM), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and service desk management. SaaS has been incorporated into the strategy of nearly all leading enterprise software companies.\r\nSaaS applications are also known as <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Web-based software</span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">on-demand software</span> and<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> hosted software</span>.\r\nThe term &quot;Software as a Service&quot; (SaaS) is considered to be part of the nomenclature of cloud computing, along with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Desktop as a Service (DaaS),managed software as a service (MSaaS), mobile backend as a service (MBaaS), and information technology management as a service (ITMaaS).\r\nBecause SaaS is based on cloud computing it saves organizations from installing and running applications on their own systems. That eliminates or at least reduces the associated costs of hardware purchases and maintenance and of software and support. The initial setup cost for a SaaS application is also generally lower than it for equivalent enterprise software purchased via a site license.\r\nSometimes, the use of SaaS cloud software can also reduce the long-term costs of software licensing, though that depends on the pricing model for the individual SaaS offering and the enterprise’s usage patterns. In fact, it’s possible for SaaS to cost more than traditional software licenses. This is an area IT organizations should explore carefully.<br />SaaS also provides enterprises the flexibility inherent with cloud services: they can subscribe to a SaaS offering as needed rather than having to buy software licenses and install the software on a variety of computers. The savings can be substantial in the case of applications that require new hardware purchases to support the software.<br /><br /><br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Who uses SaaS?</span></h1>\r\nIndustry analyst Forrester Research notes that SaaS adoption has so far been concentrated mostly in human resource management (HRM), customer relationship management (CRM), collaboration software (e.g., email), and procurement solutions, but is poised to widen. Today it’s possible to have a data warehouse in the cloud that you can access with business intelligence software running as a service and connect to your cloud-based ERP like NetSuite or Microsoft Dynamics.The dollar savings can run into the millions. And SaaS installations are often installed and working in a fraction of the time of on-premises deployments—some can be ready in hours. \r\nSales and marketing people are likely familiar with Salesforce.com, the leading SaaS CRM software, with millions of users across more than 100,000 customers. Sales is going SaaS too, with apps available to support sales in order management, compensation, quote production and configure, price, quoting, electronic signatures, contract management and more.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Why SaaS? Benefits of software as a service</span></h1>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Lower cost of entry</span>. With SaaS solution, you pay for what you need, without having to buy hardware to host your new applications. Instead of provisioning internal resources to install the software, the vendor provides APIs and performs much of the work to get their software working for you. The time to a working solution can drop from months in the traditional model to weeks, days or hours with the SaaS model. In some businesses, IT wants nothing to do with installing and running a sales app. In the case of funding software and its implementation, this can be a make-or-break issue for the sales and marketing budget, so the lower cost really makes the difference.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Reduced time to benefit/rapid prototyping</span>. In the SaaS model, the software application is already installed and configured. Users can provision the server for the cloud and quickly have the application ready for use. This cuts the time to benefit and allows for rapid demonstrations and prototyping. With many SaaS companies offering free trials, this means a painless proof of concept and discovery phase to prove the benefit to the organization. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Pay as you go</span>. SaaS business software gives you the benefit of predictable costs both for the subscription and to some extent, the administration. Even as you scale, you can have a clear idea of what your costs will be. This allows for much more accurate budgeting, especially as compared to the costs of internal IT to manage upgrades and address issues for an owned instance.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The SaaS vendor is responsible for upgrades, uptime and security</span>. Under the SaaS model, since the software is hosted by the vendor, they take on the responsibility for maintaining the software and upgrading it, ensuring that it is reliable and meeting agreed-upon service level agreements, and keeping the application and its data secure.&nbsp; While some IT people worry about Software as a Service security outside of the enterprise walls, the likely truth is that the vendor has a much higher level of security than the enterprise itself would provide. Many will have redundant instances in very secure data centers in multiple geographies.&nbsp; Also, the data is being automatically backed up by the vendor, providing additional security and peace of mind. Because of the data center hosting, you’re getting the added benefit of at least some disaster recovery. Lastly, the vendor manages these issues as part of their core competencies—let them.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Integration and scalability.</span> Most SaaS apps are designed to support some amount of customization for the way you do business. SaaS vendors create APIs to allow connections not only to internal applications like ERPs or CRMs but also to other SaaS providers. One of the terrific aspects of integration is that orders written in the field can be automatically sent to the ERP. Now a salesperson in the field can check inventory through the catalog, write the order in front of the customer for approval, send it and receive confirmation, all in minutes. And as you scale with a SaaS vendor, there’s no need to invest in server capacity and software licenses. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Work anywhere</span>. Since the software is hosted in the cloud and accessible over the internet, users can access it via mobile devices wherever they are connected. This includes checking customer order histories prior to a sales call, as well as having access to real time data and real time order taking with the customer.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">&nbsp;</p>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/SaaS__1_.png"},{"id":499,"title":"SDN Software-Defined Network","alias":"sdn-software-defined-network","description":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Software-defined networking (SDN)</span> technology is an approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance and monitoring, making it more like cloud computing than traditional network management.\r\nSDN encompasses several types of technologies, including functional separation, network virtualization and automation through programmability. SDN solution is meant to address the fact that the static architecture of traditional networks is decentralized and complex while current networks require more flexibility and easy troubleshooting. \r\nSDN technology attempts to centralize network intelligence in one network component by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane</span>) from the routing process (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">control plane</span>). The control plane consists of one or more controllers which are considered as the brain of SDN network where the whole intelligence is incorporated. Originally, software defined technology focused solely on separation of the network control plane from the data plane. While the control plane makes decisions about how packets should flow through the network, the data plane actually moves packets from place to place. \r\nIn a classic SDN scenario, a packet arrives at a network switch, and rules built into the switch's proprietary firmware tell the switch where to forward the packet. These packet-handling rules are sent to the switch from the centralized controller. The switch - also known as a <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane device</span> - queries the controller for guidance as needed, and it provides the controller with information about traffic it handles. The switch sends every packet going to the same destination along the same path and treats all the packets the exact same way.\r\nSoftware defined networking solutions use an operation mode that is sometimes called adaptive or dynamic, in which a switch issues a route request to a controller for a packet that does not have a specific route. This process is separate from adaptive routing, which issues route requests through routers and algorithms based on the network topology, not through a controller.\r\nThe <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">virtualization</span> aspect of SDN comes into play through a virtual overlay, which is a logically separate network on top of the physical network. Users can implement end-to-end overlays to abstract the underlying network and segment network traffic. This microsegmentation is especially useful for service providers and operators with multi-tenant cloud environments and cloud services, as they can provision a separate virtual network with specific policies for each tenant.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of Software Defined Networking</h1>\r\nWith SDN software, an <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">administrator can change any network switch's rules when necessary</span> - prioritizing, deprioritizing or even blocking specific types of packets with a granular level of control and security. This is especially helpful in a cloud computing multi-tenant architecture, because it enables the administrator to manage traffic loads in a flexible and more efficient manner. Essentially, this enables the administrator to use less expensive commodity switches and have more control over network traffic flow than ever before.\r\nOther benefits of SDN are <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">network management</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">end-to-end visibility.</span>A network administrator need only deal with one centralized controller to distribute policies to the connected switches, instead of configuring multiple individual devices. This capability is also a security advantage because the controller can monitor traffic and deploy security policies. If the controller deems traffic suspicious, for example, it can reroute or drop the packets.\r\nSoftware defined networking software also <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">virtualizes hardware</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">services </span>that were previously carried out by dedicated hardware, resulting in the touted benefits of a reduced hardware footprint and lower operational costs.\r\nAdditionally, SDN contributed to the emergence of <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN)</span> technology. SD-WAN employs the virtual overlay aspect of SDN technology, abstracting an organization's connectivity links throughout its WAN and creating a virtual network that can use whichever connection the controller deems fit to send traffic.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Are there any SDN security benefits?</h1>\r\nAs security issues become more complex at the edge of the network, it’s no wonder that network and security professionals are looking for new ways to approach network protection. Nowadays, it seems like SDN is going to be the answer. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Centralized Network Control </span></li></ul>\r\nIn a traditional network, devices (router/switches) make their own decisions locally about where and how best to send traffic.&nbsp; In terms of network security, SDN can be used to route data packets through a single firewall and make IDS and IPS data capture more efficient.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Simplify Configuration</span></li></ul>\r\nThe SDN makes it easier to automate configuration and improves the traceability of those configurations. The introduction of SDN network management allows dynamic programming and restructuring of network settings, which reduces the risk of DDoS attacks. It is also worth adding that SDN has automatic quarantine capabilities. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Creation of High-level Network Policies</span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Rather than physically configuring security solutions, SDN facilitates the central management of security policies to make network operator roles more efficient and flexible. Moreover, SDN helps to move away from current management approaches such as SNMP/CLI and build more effective policy management. </span>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Easy to use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)</span></span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Cloud APIs are interfaces presented by software and play a vital role in SDN controllers and applications. Easy to use APIs help to manage network resources, improve the efficiency of IT resources, and aid integration with IT tools. Additionally, a number of good cloud security practices have been introduced recently. </span>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_SDN_Software_Defined_Network.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]},{"id":3332,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Bigleaf_logo.png","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"Bigleaf Cloud-first SD-WAN","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"1.00","implementationsCount":0,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":0,"alias":"bigleaf-cloud-first-sd-wan","companyTitle":"Bigleaf","companyTypes":["supplier","vendor"],"companyId":5236,"companyAlias":"bigleaf","description":"Our Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) technology ensures that your business-critical applications are prioritized across your Internet connections and that all traffic flows are routed over the best connection in real-time.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Site-to-Cloud Architecture</span>\r\nUnlike box-only solutions, Bigleaf leverages both an on-site router and a dedicated backbone network, controlling traffic both to and from the Cloud.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Intelligent Software</span>\r\nExperience a seamless connection with our Intelligent Load Balancing, Dynamic QoS, and Same IP Failover–with zero manual configurations or policies required.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Firewall-friendly design</span>\r\nBigleaf installs outside your LAN, so you can leave your best-of-breed security solution in place, without disabling any of its features.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Monitoring and alerts</span>\r\nWe monitor each ISP connection, end-to-end, 10 times per second for packet-loss, latency, jitter, and capacity. You'll have access to logs and graphs, plus configurable email alerts.","shortDescription":"Bigleaf is the only SD-WAN that can provide seamless performance for all of your Cloud applications over any internet connection.","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":0,"sellingCount":18,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"Bigleaf Cloud-first SD-WAN","keywords":"","description":"Our Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) technology ensures that your business-critical applications are prioritized across your Internet connections and that all traffic flows are routed over the best connection in real-time.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight:","og:title":"Bigleaf Cloud-first SD-WAN","og:description":"Our Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) technology ensures that your business-critical applications are prioritized across your Internet connections and that all traffic flows are routed over the best connection in real-time.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight:","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Bigleaf_logo.png"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":3333,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[{"id":93,"title":"Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN)"}],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":34,"title":"ITSM - IT Service Management","alias":"itsm-it-service-management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">IT service management (ITSM)</span> is the process of designing, delivering, managing, and improving the IT services an organization provides to its end users. ITSM is focused on aligning IT processes and services with business objectives to help an organization grow.\r\nITSM positions IT services as the key means of delivering and obtaining value, where an internal or external IT service provider works with business customers, at the same time taking responsibility for the associated costs and risks. ITSM works across the whole lifecycle of a service, from the original strategy, through design, transition and into live operation.\r\nTo ensure sustainable quality of IT services, ITSM establishes a set of practices, or processes, constituting a service management system. There are industrial, national and international standards for IT service management solutions, setting up requirements and good practices for the management system. \r\nITSM system is based on a set of principles, such as focusing on value and continual improvement. It is not just a set of processes – it is a cultural mindset to ensure that the desired outcome for the business is achieved. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library)</span> is a framework of best practices and recommendations for managing an organization's IT operations and services. IT service management processes, when built based on the ITIL framework, pave the way for better IT service operations management and improved business. To summarize, ITIL is a set of guidelines for effective IT service management best practices. ITIL has evolved beyond the delivery of services to providing end-to-end value delivery. The focus is now on the co-creation of value through service relationships. \r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM processes typically include five stages, all based on the ITIL framework:</span></p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM strategy.</span> This stage forms the foundation or the framework of an organization's ITSM process building. It involves defining the services that the organization will offer, strategically planning processes, and recognizing and developing the required assets to keep processes moving. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service design.</span> This stage's main aim is planning and designing the IT services the organization offers to meet business demands. It involves creating and designing new services as well as assessing current services and making relevant improvements.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service transition.</span> Once the designs for IT services and their processes have been finalized, it's important to build them and test them out to ensure that processes flow. IT teams need to ensure that the designs don't disrupt services in any way, especially when existing IT service processes are upgraded or redesigned. This calls for change management, evaluation, and risk management. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service operation. </span>This phase involves implementing the tried and tested new or modified designs in a live environment. While in this stage, the processes have already been tested and the issues fixed, but new processes are bound to have hiccups—especially when customers start using the services. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Continual service improvement (CSI).</span> Implementing IT processes successfully shouldn't be the final stage in any organization. There's always room for improvement and new development based on issues that pop up, customer needs and demands, and user feedback.\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of efficient ITSM processes</h1>\r\nIrrespective of the size of business, every organization is involved in IT service management in some way. ITSM ensures that incidents, service requests, problems, changes, and IT assets—in addition to other aspects of IT services—are managed in a streamlined way.\r\nIT teams in your organization can employ various workflows and best practices in ITSM, as outlined in ITIL. Effective IT service management can have positive effects on an IT organization's overall function.\r\nHere are the 10 key benefits of ITSM:\r\n<ul><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lower costs for IT operations</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Higher returns on IT investments</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Minimal service outages</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ability to establish well-defined, repeatable, and manageable IT processes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Efficient analysis of IT problems to reduce repeat incidents</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Improved efficiency of IT help desk teams</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well-defined roles and responsibilities</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Clear expectations on service levels and service availability</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Risk-free implementation of IT changes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Better transparency into IT processes and services</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">How to choose an ITSM tool?</h1>\r\nWith a competent IT service management goal in mind, it's important to invest in a service desk solution that caters to your business needs. It goes without saying, with more than 150 service desk tools to choose from, selecting the right one is easier said than done. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing an ITSM products:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Identify key processes and their dependencies. </span>Based on business goals, decide which key ITSM processes need to be implemented and chart out the integrations that need to be established to achieve those goals. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Consult with ITSM experts.</span> Participate in business expos, webinars, demos, etc., and educate yourself about the various options that are available in the market. Reports from expert analysts such as Gartner and Forrester are particularly useful as they include reviews of almost every solution, ranked based on multiple criteria.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Choose a deployment option.</span> Every business has a different IT infrastructure model. Selecting an on-premises or software as a service (SaaS IT service management) tool depends on whether your business prefers to host its applications and data on its own servers or use a public or private cloud.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Plan ahead for the future.</span> Although it's important to consider the &quot;needs&quot; primarily, you shouldn't rule out the secondary or luxury capabilities. If the ITSM tool doesn't have the potential to adapt to your needs as your organization grows, it can pull you back from progressing. Draw a clear picture of where your business is headed and choose an service ITSM that is flexible and technology-driven.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Don't stop with the capabilities of the ITSM tool.</span> It might be tempting to assess an ITSM tool based on its capabilities and features but it's important to evaluate the vendor of the tool. A good IT support team, and a vendor that is endorsed for their customer-vendor relationship can take your IT services far. Check Gartner's magic quadrant and other analyst reports, along with product and support reviews to ensure that the said tool provides good customer support.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_ITSM.png"},{"id":52,"title":"SaaS - software as a service","alias":"saas-software-as-a-service","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Software as a service (SaaS)</span> is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as &quot;on-demand software&quot;, and was formerly referred to as &quot;software plus services&quot; by Microsoft.\r\n SaaS services is typically accessed by users using a thin client, e.g. via a web browser. SaaS software solutions has become a common delivery model for many business applications, including office software, messaging software, payroll processing software, DBMS software, management software, CAD software, development software, gamification, virtualization, accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM), Management Information Systems (MIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing, human resource management (HRM), talent acquisition, learning management systems, content management (CM), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and service desk management. SaaS has been incorporated into the strategy of nearly all leading enterprise software companies.\r\nSaaS applications are also known as <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Web-based software</span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">on-demand software</span> and<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> hosted software</span>.\r\nThe term &quot;Software as a Service&quot; (SaaS) is considered to be part of the nomenclature of cloud computing, along with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Desktop as a Service (DaaS),managed software as a service (MSaaS), mobile backend as a service (MBaaS), and information technology management as a service (ITMaaS).\r\nBecause SaaS is based on cloud computing it saves organizations from installing and running applications on their own systems. That eliminates or at least reduces the associated costs of hardware purchases and maintenance and of software and support. The initial setup cost for a SaaS application is also generally lower than it for equivalent enterprise software purchased via a site license.\r\nSometimes, the use of SaaS cloud software can also reduce the long-term costs of software licensing, though that depends on the pricing model for the individual SaaS offering and the enterprise’s usage patterns. In fact, it’s possible for SaaS to cost more than traditional software licenses. This is an area IT organizations should explore carefully.<br />SaaS also provides enterprises the flexibility inherent with cloud services: they can subscribe to a SaaS offering as needed rather than having to buy software licenses and install the software on a variety of computers. The savings can be substantial in the case of applications that require new hardware purchases to support the software.<br /><br /><br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Who uses SaaS?</span></h1>\r\nIndustry analyst Forrester Research notes that SaaS adoption has so far been concentrated mostly in human resource management (HRM), customer relationship management (CRM), collaboration software (e.g., email), and procurement solutions, but is poised to widen. Today it’s possible to have a data warehouse in the cloud that you can access with business intelligence software running as a service and connect to your cloud-based ERP like NetSuite or Microsoft Dynamics.The dollar savings can run into the millions. And SaaS installations are often installed and working in a fraction of the time of on-premises deployments—some can be ready in hours. \r\nSales and marketing people are likely familiar with Salesforce.com, the leading SaaS CRM software, with millions of users across more than 100,000 customers. Sales is going SaaS too, with apps available to support sales in order management, compensation, quote production and configure, price, quoting, electronic signatures, contract management and more.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Why SaaS? Benefits of software as a service</span></h1>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Lower cost of entry</span>. With SaaS solution, you pay for what you need, without having to buy hardware to host your new applications. Instead of provisioning internal resources to install the software, the vendor provides APIs and performs much of the work to get their software working for you. The time to a working solution can drop from months in the traditional model to weeks, days or hours with the SaaS model. In some businesses, IT wants nothing to do with installing and running a sales app. In the case of funding software and its implementation, this can be a make-or-break issue for the sales and marketing budget, so the lower cost really makes the difference.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Reduced time to benefit/rapid prototyping</span>. In the SaaS model, the software application is already installed and configured. Users can provision the server for the cloud and quickly have the application ready for use. This cuts the time to benefit and allows for rapid demonstrations and prototyping. With many SaaS companies offering free trials, this means a painless proof of concept and discovery phase to prove the benefit to the organization. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Pay as you go</span>. SaaS business software gives you the benefit of predictable costs both for the subscription and to some extent, the administration. Even as you scale, you can have a clear idea of what your costs will be. This allows for much more accurate budgeting, especially as compared to the costs of internal IT to manage upgrades and address issues for an owned instance.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The SaaS vendor is responsible for upgrades, uptime and security</span>. Under the SaaS model, since the software is hosted by the vendor, they take on the responsibility for maintaining the software and upgrading it, ensuring that it is reliable and meeting agreed-upon service level agreements, and keeping the application and its data secure.&nbsp; While some IT people worry about Software as a Service security outside of the enterprise walls, the likely truth is that the vendor has a much higher level of security than the enterprise itself would provide. Many will have redundant instances in very secure data centers in multiple geographies.&nbsp; Also, the data is being automatically backed up by the vendor, providing additional security and peace of mind. Because of the data center hosting, you’re getting the added benefit of at least some disaster recovery. Lastly, the vendor manages these issues as part of their core competencies—let them.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Integration and scalability.</span> Most SaaS apps are designed to support some amount of customization for the way you do business. SaaS vendors create APIs to allow connections not only to internal applications like ERPs or CRMs but also to other SaaS providers. One of the terrific aspects of integration is that orders written in the field can be automatically sent to the ERP. Now a salesperson in the field can check inventory through the catalog, write the order in front of the customer for approval, send it and receive confirmation, all in minutes. And as you scale with a SaaS vendor, there’s no need to invest in server capacity and software licenses. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Work anywhere</span>. Since the software is hosted in the cloud and accessible over the internet, users can access it via mobile devices wherever they are connected. This includes checking customer order histories prior to a sales call, as well as having access to real time data and real time order taking with the customer.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">&nbsp;</p>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/SaaS__1_.png"},{"id":499,"title":"SDN Software-Defined Network","alias":"sdn-software-defined-network","description":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Software-defined networking (SDN)</span> technology is an approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance and monitoring, making it more like cloud computing than traditional network management.\r\nSDN encompasses several types of technologies, including functional separation, network virtualization and automation through programmability. SDN solution is meant to address the fact that the static architecture of traditional networks is decentralized and complex while current networks require more flexibility and easy troubleshooting. \r\nSDN technology attempts to centralize network intelligence in one network component by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane</span>) from the routing process (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">control plane</span>). The control plane consists of one or more controllers which are considered as the brain of SDN network where the whole intelligence is incorporated. Originally, software defined technology focused solely on separation of the network control plane from the data plane. While the control plane makes decisions about how packets should flow through the network, the data plane actually moves packets from place to place. \r\nIn a classic SDN scenario, a packet arrives at a network switch, and rules built into the switch's proprietary firmware tell the switch where to forward the packet. These packet-handling rules are sent to the switch from the centralized controller. The switch - also known as a <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane device</span> - queries the controller for guidance as needed, and it provides the controller with information about traffic it handles. The switch sends every packet going to the same destination along the same path and treats all the packets the exact same way.\r\nSoftware defined networking solutions use an operation mode that is sometimes called adaptive or dynamic, in which a switch issues a route request to a controller for a packet that does not have a specific route. This process is separate from adaptive routing, which issues route requests through routers and algorithms based on the network topology, not through a controller.\r\nThe <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">virtualization</span> aspect of SDN comes into play through a virtual overlay, which is a logically separate network on top of the physical network. Users can implement end-to-end overlays to abstract the underlying network and segment network traffic. This microsegmentation is especially useful for service providers and operators with multi-tenant cloud environments and cloud services, as they can provision a separate virtual network with specific policies for each tenant.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of Software Defined Networking</h1>\r\nWith SDN software, an <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">administrator can change any network switch's rules when necessary</span> - prioritizing, deprioritizing or even blocking specific types of packets with a granular level of control and security. This is especially helpful in a cloud computing multi-tenant architecture, because it enables the administrator to manage traffic loads in a flexible and more efficient manner. Essentially, this enables the administrator to use less expensive commodity switches and have more control over network traffic flow than ever before.\r\nOther benefits of SDN are <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">network management</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">end-to-end visibility.</span>A network administrator need only deal with one centralized controller to distribute policies to the connected switches, instead of configuring multiple individual devices. This capability is also a security advantage because the controller can monitor traffic and deploy security policies. If the controller deems traffic suspicious, for example, it can reroute or drop the packets.\r\nSoftware defined networking software also <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">virtualizes hardware</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">services </span>that were previously carried out by dedicated hardware, resulting in the touted benefits of a reduced hardware footprint and lower operational costs.\r\nAdditionally, SDN contributed to the emergence of <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN)</span> technology. SD-WAN employs the virtual overlay aspect of SDN technology, abstracting an organization's connectivity links throughout its WAN and creating a virtual network that can use whichever connection the controller deems fit to send traffic.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Are there any SDN security benefits?</h1>\r\nAs security issues become more complex at the edge of the network, it’s no wonder that network and security professionals are looking for new ways to approach network protection. Nowadays, it seems like SDN is going to be the answer. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Centralized Network Control </span></li></ul>\r\nIn a traditional network, devices (router/switches) make their own decisions locally about where and how best to send traffic.&nbsp; In terms of network security, SDN can be used to route data packets through a single firewall and make IDS and IPS data capture more efficient.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Simplify Configuration</span></li></ul>\r\nThe SDN makes it easier to automate configuration and improves the traceability of those configurations. The introduction of SDN network management allows dynamic programming and restructuring of network settings, which reduces the risk of DDoS attacks. It is also worth adding that SDN has automatic quarantine capabilities. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Creation of High-level Network Policies</span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Rather than physically configuring security solutions, SDN facilitates the central management of security policies to make network operator roles more efficient and flexible. Moreover, SDN helps to move away from current management approaches such as SNMP/CLI and build more effective policy management. </span>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Easy to use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)</span></span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Cloud APIs are interfaces presented by software and play a vital role in SDN controllers and applications. Easy to use APIs help to manage network resources, improve the efficiency of IT resources, and aid integration with IT tools. Additionally, a number of good cloud security practices have been introduced recently. </span>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_SDN_Software_Defined_Network.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]},{"id":3334,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Zyxel_logo.png","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"Zyxel SD-WAN","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"1.00","implementationsCount":0,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":0,"alias":"zyxel-sd-wan","companyTitle":"Zyxel","companyTypes":["vendor"],"companyId":5237,"companyAlias":"zyxel","description":"Today most of the people in the branch offices are consuming more and more WAN bandwidth as they are collaborating online applications (e.g., Skype, Webex…) and will access large rich-media files. As more Internet communication and cloud-based application adoption, it becomes a critical challenge for how to efficiently optimize the WAN bandwidth, manage Internet application usage, and secure the connection between B2B and B2C.\r\nCombining the flexibility of cloud-based technology and its high-speed deployment benefit, Zyxel SD-WAN solution helps IT administrators to simplify branch network deployment. With the variety of optimization design for internet connectivity and applications, Zyxel SD-WAN also enables ZyWALL VPN Series to support online application growth, efficiency WAN bandwidth usage and increase network agility.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Key Features:</span>\r\n<ul> <li>WAN Optimization</li> <li>Application Prioritized for Assuring Delivery</li> <li>Dynamic Route for Simplifying Configuration</li> <li>Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP)</li> <li>Dynamic Path Selection</li> <li>Mobile Application</li> </ul>","shortDescription":"Zyxel SD-WAN solution helps IT, administrators, to simplify branch network deployment.","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":14,"sellingCount":2,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"Zyxel SD-WAN","keywords":"","description":"Today most of the people in the branch offices are consuming more and more WAN bandwidth as they are collaborating online applications (e.g., Skype, Webex…) and will access large rich-media files. As more Internet communication and cloud-based application adop","og:title":"Zyxel SD-WAN","og:description":"Today most of the people in the branch offices are consuming more and more WAN bandwidth as they are collaborating online applications (e.g., Skype, Webex…) and will access large rich-media files. As more Internet communication and cloud-based application adop","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Zyxel_logo.png"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":3335,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[{"id":93,"title":"Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN)"}],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":34,"title":"ITSM - IT Service Management","alias":"itsm-it-service-management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">IT service management (ITSM)</span> is the process of designing, delivering, managing, and improving the IT services an organization provides to its end users. ITSM is focused on aligning IT processes and services with business objectives to help an organization grow.\r\nITSM positions IT services as the key means of delivering and obtaining value, where an internal or external IT service provider works with business customers, at the same time taking responsibility for the associated costs and risks. ITSM works across the whole lifecycle of a service, from the original strategy, through design, transition and into live operation.\r\nTo ensure sustainable quality of IT services, ITSM establishes a set of practices, or processes, constituting a service management system. There are industrial, national and international standards for IT service management solutions, setting up requirements and good practices for the management system. \r\nITSM system is based on a set of principles, such as focusing on value and continual improvement. It is not just a set of processes – it is a cultural mindset to ensure that the desired outcome for the business is achieved. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library)</span> is a framework of best practices and recommendations for managing an organization's IT operations and services. IT service management processes, when built based on the ITIL framework, pave the way for better IT service operations management and improved business. To summarize, ITIL is a set of guidelines for effective IT service management best practices. ITIL has evolved beyond the delivery of services to providing end-to-end value delivery. The focus is now on the co-creation of value through service relationships. \r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM processes typically include five stages, all based on the ITIL framework:</span></p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM strategy.</span> This stage forms the foundation or the framework of an organization's ITSM process building. It involves defining the services that the organization will offer, strategically planning processes, and recognizing and developing the required assets to keep processes moving. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service design.</span> This stage's main aim is planning and designing the IT services the organization offers to meet business demands. It involves creating and designing new services as well as assessing current services and making relevant improvements.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service transition.</span> Once the designs for IT services and their processes have been finalized, it's important to build them and test them out to ensure that processes flow. IT teams need to ensure that the designs don't disrupt services in any way, especially when existing IT service processes are upgraded or redesigned. This calls for change management, evaluation, and risk management. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service operation. </span>This phase involves implementing the tried and tested new or modified designs in a live environment. While in this stage, the processes have already been tested and the issues fixed, but new processes are bound to have hiccups—especially when customers start using the services. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Continual service improvement (CSI).</span> Implementing IT processes successfully shouldn't be the final stage in any organization. There's always room for improvement and new development based on issues that pop up, customer needs and demands, and user feedback.\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of efficient ITSM processes</h1>\r\nIrrespective of the size of business, every organization is involved in IT service management in some way. ITSM ensures that incidents, service requests, problems, changes, and IT assets—in addition to other aspects of IT services—are managed in a streamlined way.\r\nIT teams in your organization can employ various workflows and best practices in ITSM, as outlined in ITIL. Effective IT service management can have positive effects on an IT organization's overall function.\r\nHere are the 10 key benefits of ITSM:\r\n<ul><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lower costs for IT operations</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Higher returns on IT investments</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Minimal service outages</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ability to establish well-defined, repeatable, and manageable IT processes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Efficient analysis of IT problems to reduce repeat incidents</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Improved efficiency of IT help desk teams</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well-defined roles and responsibilities</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Clear expectations on service levels and service availability</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Risk-free implementation of IT changes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Better transparency into IT processes and services</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">How to choose an ITSM tool?</h1>\r\nWith a competent IT service management goal in mind, it's important to invest in a service desk solution that caters to your business needs. It goes without saying, with more than 150 service desk tools to choose from, selecting the right one is easier said than done. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing an ITSM products:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Identify key processes and their dependencies. </span>Based on business goals, decide which key ITSM processes need to be implemented and chart out the integrations that need to be established to achieve those goals. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Consult with ITSM experts.</span> Participate in business expos, webinars, demos, etc., and educate yourself about the various options that are available in the market. Reports from expert analysts such as Gartner and Forrester are particularly useful as they include reviews of almost every solution, ranked based on multiple criteria.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Choose a deployment option.</span> Every business has a different IT infrastructure model. Selecting an on-premises or software as a service (SaaS IT service management) tool depends on whether your business prefers to host its applications and data on its own servers or use a public or private cloud.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Plan ahead for the future.</span> Although it's important to consider the &quot;needs&quot; primarily, you shouldn't rule out the secondary or luxury capabilities. If the ITSM tool doesn't have the potential to adapt to your needs as your organization grows, it can pull you back from progressing. Draw a clear picture of where your business is headed and choose an service ITSM that is flexible and technology-driven.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Don't stop with the capabilities of the ITSM tool.</span> It might be tempting to assess an ITSM tool based on its capabilities and features but it's important to evaluate the vendor of the tool. A good IT support team, and a vendor that is endorsed for their customer-vendor relationship can take your IT services far. Check Gartner's magic quadrant and other analyst reports, along with product and support reviews to ensure that the said tool provides good customer support.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_ITSM.png"},{"id":52,"title":"SaaS - software as a service","alias":"saas-software-as-a-service","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Software as a service (SaaS)</span> is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as &quot;on-demand software&quot;, and was formerly referred to as &quot;software plus services&quot; by Microsoft.\r\n SaaS services is typically accessed by users using a thin client, e.g. via a web browser. SaaS software solutions has become a common delivery model for many business applications, including office software, messaging software, payroll processing software, DBMS software, management software, CAD software, development software, gamification, virtualization, accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM), Management Information Systems (MIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing, human resource management (HRM), talent acquisition, learning management systems, content management (CM), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and service desk management. SaaS has been incorporated into the strategy of nearly all leading enterprise software companies.\r\nSaaS applications are also known as <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Web-based software</span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">on-demand software</span> and<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> hosted software</span>.\r\nThe term &quot;Software as a Service&quot; (SaaS) is considered to be part of the nomenclature of cloud computing, along with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Desktop as a Service (DaaS),managed software as a service (MSaaS), mobile backend as a service (MBaaS), and information technology management as a service (ITMaaS).\r\nBecause SaaS is based on cloud computing it saves organizations from installing and running applications on their own systems. That eliminates or at least reduces the associated costs of hardware purchases and maintenance and of software and support. The initial setup cost for a SaaS application is also generally lower than it for equivalent enterprise software purchased via a site license.\r\nSometimes, the use of SaaS cloud software can also reduce the long-term costs of software licensing, though that depends on the pricing model for the individual SaaS offering and the enterprise’s usage patterns. In fact, it’s possible for SaaS to cost more than traditional software licenses. This is an area IT organizations should explore carefully.<br />SaaS also provides enterprises the flexibility inherent with cloud services: they can subscribe to a SaaS offering as needed rather than having to buy software licenses and install the software on a variety of computers. The savings can be substantial in the case of applications that require new hardware purchases to support the software.<br /><br /><br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Who uses SaaS?</span></h1>\r\nIndustry analyst Forrester Research notes that SaaS adoption has so far been concentrated mostly in human resource management (HRM), customer relationship management (CRM), collaboration software (e.g., email), and procurement solutions, but is poised to widen. Today it’s possible to have a data warehouse in the cloud that you can access with business intelligence software running as a service and connect to your cloud-based ERP like NetSuite or Microsoft Dynamics.The dollar savings can run into the millions. And SaaS installations are often installed and working in a fraction of the time of on-premises deployments—some can be ready in hours. \r\nSales and marketing people are likely familiar with Salesforce.com, the leading SaaS CRM software, with millions of users across more than 100,000 customers. Sales is going SaaS too, with apps available to support sales in order management, compensation, quote production and configure, price, quoting, electronic signatures, contract management and more.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Why SaaS? Benefits of software as a service</span></h1>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Lower cost of entry</span>. With SaaS solution, you pay for what you need, without having to buy hardware to host your new applications. Instead of provisioning internal resources to install the software, the vendor provides APIs and performs much of the work to get their software working for you. The time to a working solution can drop from months in the traditional model to weeks, days or hours with the SaaS model. In some businesses, IT wants nothing to do with installing and running a sales app. In the case of funding software and its implementation, this can be a make-or-break issue for the sales and marketing budget, so the lower cost really makes the difference.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Reduced time to benefit/rapid prototyping</span>. In the SaaS model, the software application is already installed and configured. Users can provision the server for the cloud and quickly have the application ready for use. This cuts the time to benefit and allows for rapid demonstrations and prototyping. With many SaaS companies offering free trials, this means a painless proof of concept and discovery phase to prove the benefit to the organization. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Pay as you go</span>. SaaS business software gives you the benefit of predictable costs both for the subscription and to some extent, the administration. Even as you scale, you can have a clear idea of what your costs will be. This allows for much more accurate budgeting, especially as compared to the costs of internal IT to manage upgrades and address issues for an owned instance.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The SaaS vendor is responsible for upgrades, uptime and security</span>. Under the SaaS model, since the software is hosted by the vendor, they take on the responsibility for maintaining the software and upgrading it, ensuring that it is reliable and meeting agreed-upon service level agreements, and keeping the application and its data secure.&nbsp; While some IT people worry about Software as a Service security outside of the enterprise walls, the likely truth is that the vendor has a much higher level of security than the enterprise itself would provide. Many will have redundant instances in very secure data centers in multiple geographies.&nbsp; Also, the data is being automatically backed up by the vendor, providing additional security and peace of mind. Because of the data center hosting, you’re getting the added benefit of at least some disaster recovery. Lastly, the vendor manages these issues as part of their core competencies—let them.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Integration and scalability.</span> Most SaaS apps are designed to support some amount of customization for the way you do business. SaaS vendors create APIs to allow connections not only to internal applications like ERPs or CRMs but also to other SaaS providers. One of the terrific aspects of integration is that orders written in the field can be automatically sent to the ERP. Now a salesperson in the field can check inventory through the catalog, write the order in front of the customer for approval, send it and receive confirmation, all in minutes. And as you scale with a SaaS vendor, there’s no need to invest in server capacity and software licenses. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Work anywhere</span>. Since the software is hosted in the cloud and accessible over the internet, users can access it via mobile devices wherever they are connected. This includes checking customer order histories prior to a sales call, as well as having access to real time data and real time order taking with the customer.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">&nbsp;</p>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/SaaS__1_.png"},{"id":197,"title":"WAN optimization","alias":"wan-optimization","description":" WAN optimization is a collection of techniques for increasing data transfer efficiencies across wide-area networks (WANs). In 2008, the WAN optimization market was estimated to be $1 billion, and was to grow to $4.4 billion by 2014 according to Gartner, a technology research firm. In 2015 Gartner estimated the WAN optimization market to be a $1.1 billion market.\r\nThe most common measures of TCP data-transfer efficiencies (i.e., optimization) are throughput, bandwidth requirements, latency, protocol optimization, and congestion, as manifested in dropped packets. In addition, the WAN itself can be classified with regards to the distance between endpoints and the amounts of data transferred. Two common business WAN topologies are Branch to Headquarters and Data Center to Data Center (DC2DC). In general, &quot;Branch&quot; WAN links are closer, use less bandwidth, support more simultaneous connections, support smaller connections and more short-lived connections, and handle a greater variety of protocols. They are used for business applications such as email, content management systems, database application, and Web delivery. In comparison, &quot;DC2DC&quot; WAN links tend to require more bandwidth, are more distant, and involve fewer connections, but those connections are bigger (100 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s flows) and of longer duration. Traffic on a &quot;DC2DC&quot; WAN may include replication, back up, data migration, virtualization, and other Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) flows.\r\nWAN optimization has been the subject of extensive academic research almost since the advent of the WAN. In the early 2000s, research in both the private and public sectors turned to improving the end-to-end throughput of TCP, and the target of the first proprietary WAN optimization solutions was the Branch WAN. In recent years, however, the rapid growth of digital data, and the concomitant needs to store and protect it, has presented a need for DC2DC WAN optimization. For example, such optimizations can be performed to increase overall network capacity utilization, meet inter-datacenter transfer deadlines, or minimize average completion times of data transfers. As another example, private inter-datacenter WANs can benefit optimizations for fast and efficient geo-replication of data and content, such as newly computed machine learning models or multimedia content.\r\nComponent techniques of Branch WAN Optimization include deduplication, wide area file services (WAFS), SMB proxy, HTTPS Proxy, media multicasting, web caching, and bandwidth management. Requirements for DC2DC WAN Optimization also center around deduplication and TCP acceleration, however these must occur in the context of multi-gigabit data transfer rates.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What Is WAN Optimization?</span>\r\nWAN optimization involves prioritizing specific parts of the network to receive more bandwidth. For example, you might want to allocate more throughput and bandwidth to the parts of the network involved in a critical data-processing task, to make sure it’s completed quickly. Many WAN improvements can be accomplished with either physical or logical changes to your network.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Why Is WAN Optimization Important?</span>\r\nBusinesses are increasingly facing pressures on their WAN setups due to increased use of cloud computing, applications, and other network-wide technologies such as web portals. The associated increase in traffic across the WAN makes WAN optimization even more important, as network slowdowns can become a major issue if you don’t proactively manage this complexity and volume.\r\nNumerous different business processes are affected by a slow network. Even simple actions, like employees accessing files, can become unacceptably slow. If the network is dragging, it might take their business-wide file manager a while to load, and then even longer to open the file. Even though it seems like a small, two-minute task, these problems quickly add up.\r\nMeanwhile, admins may have trouble effectively managing and monitoring their network — and ensuring network security — if they’re fighting against inefficient, high-latency network infrastructure. WAN optimization can potentially allow admins — and their software tools — to more effectively protect all devices and end-users.\r\nWAN optimization also supports remote and mobile workers. When someone works remotely, they’re expanding the WAN and requiring business data to travel further. Without WAN optimization, their connection could be slow. Even simple business processes such as email can become inconvenient to use. If the network is optimized correctly, all employees will be able to access network portals and business information, even if they’re connecting remotely.\r\nFurthermore, even applications not directly affected by optimization processes can benefit when bandwidth is freed up in relation to other parts of the network. All these benefits increase business efficiency and promote cost savings as a result.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/WAN_optimization1.png"},{"id":499,"title":"SDN Software-Defined Network","alias":"sdn-software-defined-network","description":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Software-defined networking (SDN)</span> technology is an approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance and monitoring, making it more like cloud computing than traditional network management.\r\nSDN encompasses several types of technologies, including functional separation, network virtualization and automation through programmability. SDN solution is meant to address the fact that the static architecture of traditional networks is decentralized and complex while current networks require more flexibility and easy troubleshooting. \r\nSDN technology attempts to centralize network intelligence in one network component by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane</span>) from the routing process (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">control plane</span>). The control plane consists of one or more controllers which are considered as the brain of SDN network where the whole intelligence is incorporated. Originally, software defined technology focused solely on separation of the network control plane from the data plane. While the control plane makes decisions about how packets should flow through the network, the data plane actually moves packets from place to place. \r\nIn a classic SDN scenario, a packet arrives at a network switch, and rules built into the switch's proprietary firmware tell the switch where to forward the packet. These packet-handling rules are sent to the switch from the centralized controller. The switch - also known as a <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane device</span> - queries the controller for guidance as needed, and it provides the controller with information about traffic it handles. The switch sends every packet going to the same destination along the same path and treats all the packets the exact same way.\r\nSoftware defined networking solutions use an operation mode that is sometimes called adaptive or dynamic, in which a switch issues a route request to a controller for a packet that does not have a specific route. This process is separate from adaptive routing, which issues route requests through routers and algorithms based on the network topology, not through a controller.\r\nThe <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">virtualization</span> aspect of SDN comes into play through a virtual overlay, which is a logically separate network on top of the physical network. Users can implement end-to-end overlays to abstract the underlying network and segment network traffic. This microsegmentation is especially useful for service providers and operators with multi-tenant cloud environments and cloud services, as they can provision a separate virtual network with specific policies for each tenant.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of Software Defined Networking</h1>\r\nWith SDN software, an <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">administrator can change any network switch's rules when necessary</span> - prioritizing, deprioritizing or even blocking specific types of packets with a granular level of control and security. This is especially helpful in a cloud computing multi-tenant architecture, because it enables the administrator to manage traffic loads in a flexible and more efficient manner. Essentially, this enables the administrator to use less expensive commodity switches and have more control over network traffic flow than ever before.\r\nOther benefits of SDN are <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">network management</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">end-to-end visibility.</span>A network administrator need only deal with one centralized controller to distribute policies to the connected switches, instead of configuring multiple individual devices. This capability is also a security advantage because the controller can monitor traffic and deploy security policies. If the controller deems traffic suspicious, for example, it can reroute or drop the packets.\r\nSoftware defined networking software also <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">virtualizes hardware</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">services </span>that were previously carried out by dedicated hardware, resulting in the touted benefits of a reduced hardware footprint and lower operational costs.\r\nAdditionally, SDN contributed to the emergence of <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN)</span> technology. SD-WAN employs the virtual overlay aspect of SDN technology, abstracting an organization's connectivity links throughout its WAN and creating a virtual network that can use whichever connection the controller deems fit to send traffic.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Are there any SDN security benefits?</h1>\r\nAs security issues become more complex at the edge of the network, it’s no wonder that network and security professionals are looking for new ways to approach network protection. Nowadays, it seems like SDN is going to be the answer. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Centralized Network Control </span></li></ul>\r\nIn a traditional network, devices (router/switches) make their own decisions locally about where and how best to send traffic.&nbsp; In terms of network security, SDN can be used to route data packets through a single firewall and make IDS and IPS data capture more efficient.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Simplify Configuration</span></li></ul>\r\nThe SDN makes it easier to automate configuration and improves the traceability of those configurations. The introduction of SDN network management allows dynamic programming and restructuring of network settings, which reduces the risk of DDoS attacks. It is also worth adding that SDN has automatic quarantine capabilities. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Creation of High-level Network Policies</span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Rather than physically configuring security solutions, SDN facilitates the central management of security policies to make network operator roles more efficient and flexible. Moreover, SDN helps to move away from current management approaches such as SNMP/CLI and build more effective policy management. </span>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Easy to use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)</span></span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Cloud APIs are interfaces presented by software and play a vital role in SDN controllers and applications. Easy to use APIs help to manage network resources, improve the efficiency of IT resources, and aid integration with IT tools. Additionally, a number of good cloud security practices have been introduced recently. </span>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_SDN_Software_Defined_Network.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]},{"id":788,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/denovo.jpg","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"Cloud Datacenter","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"1.00","implementationsCount":0,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":0,"alias":"cloud-datacenter","companyTitle":"De Novo","companyTypes":["supplier","vendor"],"companyId":237,"companyAlias":"de-novo","description":"Varied in backup policy and SLA terms, service classes allow for optimal choice for any business needs – EXPRESS (Express / Silver), ENTERPRISE (Silver / Gold / Platinum), TURBO (Turbo-Silver / Gold).\r\nWith De Novo Cloud Datacenter (Infrastructure as a Service, IaaS) you’re leveraging all the benefits of the cloud-based IT model:\r\nHigh performance. Critical for high-load applications deployment.\r\nFailure tolerance. Hardware failure tolerance is implemented at the Cloud Operating System level (a layer of virtualization and automation). All the software and redundant hardware components needed to provide failure tolerance are incorporated in the De Novo hyper-cloud architecture.\r\nElasticity and configuration fine tuning. Cloud Datacenter is configured according to your tasks and the amount of available resources can be quickly increased or decreased when necessary.\r\nZero maintenance time. Cloud Datacenter does not require a stop for routine maintenance.\r\nNo learning curve. Cloud Datacenter does not require IT staff to be experts in server hardware.\r\nAll inclusive. The cost of Cloud Datacenter already includes all of the operational expenditures (installation, use of datacenter engineering systems, electricity, network equipment ports and KVM ports, routine maintenance costs).\r\nHigh availability, timeliness and cost effectiveness. Cloud Datacenter can be used only when there is a need. Service configuration takes only a few hours. Whether resources and power need to be here now, or they have served their purpose, just buy more or don’t buy any more, that simple.","shortDescription":"Cloud Datacenter is a virtual datacenter which can be managed and fine-tuned as if it was your own infrastructure. The combination of characteristics and possible usage patterns makes Cloud Datacenter similar to a private cloud, thus it can be viewed as a virtual private cloud.","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":9,"sellingCount":15,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"Cloud Datacenter","keywords":"Cloud, Datacenter, tolerance, maintenance, Service, failure, High, cost","description":"Varied in backup policy and SLA terms, service classes allow for optimal choice for any business needs – EXPRESS (Express / Silver), ENTERPRISE (Silver / Gold / Platinum), TURBO (Turbo-Silver / Gold).\r\nWith De Novo Cloud Datacenter (Infrastructure as a Service","og:title":"Cloud Datacenter","og:description":"Varied in backup policy and SLA terms, service classes allow for optimal choice for any business needs – EXPRESS (Express / Silver), ENTERPRISE (Silver / Gold / Platinum), TURBO (Turbo-Silver / Gold).\r\nWith De Novo Cloud Datacenter (Infrastructure as a Service","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/denovo.jpg"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":789,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":2,"title":"Virtual machine and cloud system software","alias":"virtual-machine-and-cloud-system-software","description":" A virtual machine (VM) is a software-based computer that exists within another computer’s operating system, often used for the purposes of testing, backing up data, or running SaaS applications. To fully grasp how VMs work, it’s important to first understand how computer software and hardware are typically integrated by an operating system.\r\n&quot;The cloud&quot; refers to servers that are accessed over the Internet, and the software and databases that run on those servers. Cloud servers are located in data centers all over the world. By using cloud computing, users and companies don't have to manage physical servers themselves or run software applications on their own machines.\r\nThe cloud enables users to access the same files and applications from almost any device, because the computing and storage take place on servers in a data center, instead of locally on the user device. This is why a user can log into their Instagram account on a new phone after their old phone breaks and still find their old account in place, with all their photos, videos, and conversation history. It works the same way with cloud email providers like Gmail or Microsoft Office 365, and with cloud storage providers like Dropbox or Google Drive.\r\nFor businesses, switching to cloud computing removes some IT costs and overhead: for instance, they no longer need to update and maintain their own servers, as the cloud vendor they are using will do that. This especially makes an impact on small businesses that may not have been able to afford their own internal infrastructure but can outsource their infrastructure needs affordably via the cloud. The cloud can also make it easier for companies to operate internationally because employees and customers can access the same files and applications from any location.\r\nSeveral cloud providers offer virtual machines to their customers. These virtual machines typically live on powerful servers that can act as a host to multiple VMs and can be used for a variety of reasons that wouldn’t be practical with a locally-hosted VM. These include:\r\n<ul><li>Running SaaS applications - Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS for short, is a cloud-based method of providing software to users. SaaS users subscribe to an application rather than purchasing it once and installing it. These applications are generally served to the user over the Internet. Often, it is virtual machines in the cloud that are doing the computation for SaaS applications as well as delivering them to users. If the cloud provider has a geographically distributed network edge, then the application will run closer to the user, resulting in faster performance.</li><li>Backing up data - Cloud-based VM services are very popular for backing up data because the data can be accessed from anywhere. Plus, cloud VMs provide better redundancy, require less maintenance, and generally scale better than physical data centers. (For example, it’s generally fairly easy to buy an extra gigabyte of storage space from a cloud VM provider, but much more difficult to build a new local data server for that extra gigabyte of data.)</li><li>Hosting services like email and access management - Hosting these services on cloud VMs is generally faster and more cost-effective, and helps minimize maintenance and offload security concerns as well.</li></ul>","materialsDescription":"What is an operating system?\r\nTraditional computers are built out of physical hardware, including hard disk drives, processor chips, RAM, etc. In order to utilize this hardware, computers rely on a type of software known as an operating system (OS). Some common examples of OSes are Mac OSX, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Android.\r\nThe OS is what manages the computer’s hardware in ways that are useful to the user. For example, if the user wants to access the Internet, the OS directs the network interface card to make the connection. If the user wants to download a file, the OS will partition space on the hard drive for that file. The OS also runs and manages other pieces of software. For example, it can run a web browser and provide the browser with enough random access memory (RAM) to operate smoothly. Typically, operating systems exist within a physical computer at a one-to-one ratio; for each machine, there is a single OS managing its physical resources.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Can you have two or more operating systems on one computer?</span>\r\nSome users want to be able to run multiple operating systems simultaneously on one computer, either for testing or one of the other reasons listed in the section below. This can be achieved through a process called virtualization. In virtualization, a piece of software behaves as if it were an independent computer. This piece of software is called a virtual machine, also known as a ‘guest’ computer. (The computer on which the VM is running is called the ‘host’.) The guest has an OS as well as its own virtual hardware.\r\n‘Virtual hardware’ may sound like a bit of an oxymoron, but it works by mapping to real hardware on the host computer. For example, the VM’s ‘hard drive’ is really just a file on the host computer’s hard drive. When the VM wants to save a new file, it actually has to communicate with the host OS, which will write this file to the host hard drive. Because virtual hardware must perform this added step of negotiating with the host to access hardware resources, virtual machines can’t run quite as fast as their host computers.\r\nWith virtualization, one computer can run two or more operating systems. The number of VMs that can run on one host is limited only by the host’s available resources. The user can run the OS of a VM in a window like any other program, or they can run it in fullscreen so that it looks and feels like a genuine host OS.\r\n <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are virtual machines used for?</span>\r\nSome of the most popular reasons people run virtual machines include:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Testing</span> - Oftentimes software developers want to be able to test their applications in different environments. They can use virtual machines to run their applications in various OSes on one computer. This is simpler and more cost-effective than having to test on several different physical machines.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Running software designed for other OSes</span> - Although certain software applications are only available for a single platform, a VM can run software designed for a different OS. For example, a Mac user who wants to run software designed for Windows can run a Windows VM on their Mac host.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Running outdated software</span> - Some pieces of older software can’t be run in modern OSes. Users who want to run these applications can run an old OS on a virtual machine.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Virtual_machine_and_cloud_system_software.png"},{"id":4,"title":"Data center","alias":"data-center","description":" A data center (or datacenter) is a facility composed of networked computers and storage that businesses or other organizations use to organize, process, store and disseminate large amounts of data. A business typically relies heavily upon the applications, services and data contained within a data center, making it a focal point and critical asset for everyday operations.\r\nData centers are not a single thing, but rather, a conglomeration of elements. At a minimum, data centers serve as the principal repositories for all manner of IT equipment, including servers, storage subsystems, networking switches, routers and firewalls, as well as the cabling and physical racks used to organize and interconnect the IT equipment. A data center must also contain an adequate infrastructure, such as power distribution and supplemental power subsystems, including electrical switching; uninterruptable power supplies; backup generators and so on; ventilation and data center cooling systems, such as computer room air conditioners; and adequate provisioning for network carrier (telco) connectivity. All of this demands a physical facility with physical security and sufficient physical space to house the entire collection of infrastructure and equipment.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the requirements for modern data centers?</span>\r\nModernization and data center transformation enhances performance and energy efficiency.\r\nInformation security is also a concern, and for this reason a data center has to offer a secure environment which minimizes the chances of a security breach. A data center must therefore keep high standards for assuring the integrity and functionality of its hosted computer environment.\r\nIndustry research company International Data Corporation (IDC) puts the average age of a data center at nine years old. Gartner, another research company, says data centers older than seven years are obsolete. The growth in data (163 zettabytes by 2025) is one factor driving the need for data centers to modernize.\r\nFocus on modernization is not new: Concern about obsolete equipment was decried in 2007, and in 2011 Uptime Institute was concerned about the age of the equipment therein. By 2018 concern had shifted once again, this time to the age of the staff: &quot;data center staff are aging faster than the equipment.&quot;\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Meeting standards for data centers</span></span>\r\nThe Telecommunications Industry Association's Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers specifies the minimum requirements for telecommunications infrastructure of data centers and computer rooms including single tenant enterprise data centers and multi-tenant Internet hosting data centers. The topology proposed in this document is intended to be applicable to any size data center.\r\nTelcordia GR-3160, NEBS Requirements for Telecommunications Data Center Equipment and Spaces, provides guidelines for data center spaces within telecommunications networks, and environmental requirements for the equipment intended for installation in those spaces. These criteria were developed jointly by Telcordia and industry representatives. They may be applied to data center spaces housing data processing or Information Technology (IT) equipment. The equipment may be used to:\r\n<ul><li>Operate and manage a carrier's telecommunication network</li><li>Provide data center based applications directly to the carrier's customers</li><li>Provide hosted applications for a third party to provide services to their customers</li><li>Provide a combination of these and similar data center applications</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Data center transformation</span></span>\r\nData center transformation takes a step-by-step approach through integrated projects carried out over time. This differs from a traditional method of data center upgrades that takes a serial and siloed approach. The typical projects within a data center transformation initiative include standardization/consolidation, virtualization, automation and security.\r\n<ul><li>Standardization/consolidation: Reducing the number of data centers and avoiding server sprawl (both physical and virtual) often includes replacing aging data center equipment, and is aided by standardization.</li><li>Virtualization: Lowers capital and operational expenses, reduce energy consumption. Virtualized desktops can be hosted in data centers and rented out on a subscription basis. Investment bank Lazard Capital Markets estimated in 2008 that 48 percent of enterprise operations will be virtualized by 2012. Gartner views virtualization as a catalyst for modernization.</li><li>Automating: Automating tasks such as provisioning, configuration, patching, release management and compliance is needed, not just when facing fewer skilled IT workers.</li><li>Securing: Protection of virtual systems is integrated with existing security of physical infrastructures.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Machine room</span></span>\r\nThe term &quot;Machine Room&quot; is at times used to refer to the large room within a Data Center where the actual Central Processing Unit is located; this may be separate from where high-speed printers are located. Air conditioning is most important in the machine room.\r\nAside from air-conditioning, there must be monitoring equipment, one type of which is to detect water prior to flood-level situations. One company, for several decades, has had share-of-mind: Water Alert. The company, as of 2018, has 2 competing manufacturers (Invetex, Hydro-Temp) and 3 competing distributors (Longden,Northeast Flooring, Slayton). ","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Data_center.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]},{"id":3318,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Silver_Peak_logo.png","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect SD-WAN Solution","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"1.00","implementationsCount":0,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":0,"alias":"silver-peak-unity-edgeconnect-sd-wan-solution","companyTitle":"Silver Peak","companyTypes":["supplier","vendor"],"companyId":5230,"companyAlias":"silver-peak","description":"Unlike router-centric and basic SD-WAN solutions, EdgeConnect enables you to shift to a business-first networking model.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Built for Today’s Cloud-First Enterprise</span>\r\nUnity EdgeConnect physical or virtual appliances deliver:\r\n<ul> <li>Always-consistent, always-available application performance</li> <li>The highest quality of voice and video, across any combination of transport services</li> </ul>\r\nUnity Orchestrator enables IT to rapidly and centrally define:\r\n<ul> <li>Application Quality of Service and security policies to 1000s of sites</li> <li>Simplified service chaining to third-party network and security services</li> </ul>\r\nUnity Boost optional WAN optimization performance pack:\r\n<ul> <li>Improves the performance of latency-sensitive applications</li> <li>Reduces transmission of repetitive data</li> </ul>","shortDescription":"Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect SD-WAN solutions enable enterprises to dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of building a WAN by leveraging broadband to connect users to applications.","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":3,"sellingCount":9,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect SD-WAN Solution","keywords":"","description":"Unlike router-centric and basic SD-WAN solutions, EdgeConnect enables you to shift to a business-first networking model.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Built for Today’s Cloud-First Enterprise</span>\r\nUnity EdgeConnect physical or virtual appliances deliver","og:title":"Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect SD-WAN Solution","og:description":"Unlike router-centric and basic SD-WAN solutions, EdgeConnect enables you to shift to a business-first networking model.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Built for Today’s Cloud-First Enterprise</span>\r\nUnity EdgeConnect physical or virtual appliances deliver","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Silver_Peak_logo.png"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":3319,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[{"id":93,"title":"Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN)"}],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":34,"title":"ITSM - IT Service Management","alias":"itsm-it-service-management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">IT service management (ITSM)</span> is the process of designing, delivering, managing, and improving the IT services an organization provides to its end users. ITSM is focused on aligning IT processes and services with business objectives to help an organization grow.\r\nITSM positions IT services as the key means of delivering and obtaining value, where an internal or external IT service provider works with business customers, at the same time taking responsibility for the associated costs and risks. ITSM works across the whole lifecycle of a service, from the original strategy, through design, transition and into live operation.\r\nTo ensure sustainable quality of IT services, ITSM establishes a set of practices, or processes, constituting a service management system. There are industrial, national and international standards for IT service management solutions, setting up requirements and good practices for the management system. \r\nITSM system is based on a set of principles, such as focusing on value and continual improvement. It is not just a set of processes – it is a cultural mindset to ensure that the desired outcome for the business is achieved. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library)</span> is a framework of best practices and recommendations for managing an organization's IT operations and services. IT service management processes, when built based on the ITIL framework, pave the way for better IT service operations management and improved business. To summarize, ITIL is a set of guidelines for effective IT service management best practices. ITIL has evolved beyond the delivery of services to providing end-to-end value delivery. The focus is now on the co-creation of value through service relationships. \r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM processes typically include five stages, all based on the ITIL framework:</span></p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM strategy.</span> This stage forms the foundation or the framework of an organization's ITSM process building. It involves defining the services that the organization will offer, strategically planning processes, and recognizing and developing the required assets to keep processes moving. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service design.</span> This stage's main aim is planning and designing the IT services the organization offers to meet business demands. It involves creating and designing new services as well as assessing current services and making relevant improvements.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service transition.</span> Once the designs for IT services and their processes have been finalized, it's important to build them and test them out to ensure that processes flow. IT teams need to ensure that the designs don't disrupt services in any way, especially when existing IT service processes are upgraded or redesigned. This calls for change management, evaluation, and risk management. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service operation. </span>This phase involves implementing the tried and tested new or modified designs in a live environment. While in this stage, the processes have already been tested and the issues fixed, but new processes are bound to have hiccups—especially when customers start using the services. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Continual service improvement (CSI).</span> Implementing IT processes successfully shouldn't be the final stage in any organization. There's always room for improvement and new development based on issues that pop up, customer needs and demands, and user feedback.\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of efficient ITSM processes</h1>\r\nIrrespective of the size of business, every organization is involved in IT service management in some way. ITSM ensures that incidents, service requests, problems, changes, and IT assets—in addition to other aspects of IT services—are managed in a streamlined way.\r\nIT teams in your organization can employ various workflows and best practices in ITSM, as outlined in ITIL. Effective IT service management can have positive effects on an IT organization's overall function.\r\nHere are the 10 key benefits of ITSM:\r\n<ul><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lower costs for IT operations</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Higher returns on IT investments</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Minimal service outages</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ability to establish well-defined, repeatable, and manageable IT processes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Efficient analysis of IT problems to reduce repeat incidents</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Improved efficiency of IT help desk teams</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well-defined roles and responsibilities</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Clear expectations on service levels and service availability</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Risk-free implementation of IT changes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Better transparency into IT processes and services</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">How to choose an ITSM tool?</h1>\r\nWith a competent IT service management goal in mind, it's important to invest in a service desk solution that caters to your business needs. It goes without saying, with more than 150 service desk tools to choose from, selecting the right one is easier said than done. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing an ITSM products:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Identify key processes and their dependencies. </span>Based on business goals, decide which key ITSM processes need to be implemented and chart out the integrations that need to be established to achieve those goals. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Consult with ITSM experts.</span> Participate in business expos, webinars, demos, etc., and educate yourself about the various options that are available in the market. Reports from expert analysts such as Gartner and Forrester are particularly useful as they include reviews of almost every solution, ranked based on multiple criteria.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Choose a deployment option.</span> Every business has a different IT infrastructure model. Selecting an on-premises or software as a service (SaaS IT service management) tool depends on whether your business prefers to host its applications and data on its own servers or use a public or private cloud.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Plan ahead for the future.</span> Although it's important to consider the &quot;needs&quot; primarily, you shouldn't rule out the secondary or luxury capabilities. If the ITSM tool doesn't have the potential to adapt to your needs as your organization grows, it can pull you back from progressing. Draw a clear picture of where your business is headed and choose an service ITSM that is flexible and technology-driven.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Don't stop with the capabilities of the ITSM tool.</span> It might be tempting to assess an ITSM tool based on its capabilities and features but it's important to evaluate the vendor of the tool. A good IT support team, and a vendor that is endorsed for their customer-vendor relationship can take your IT services far. Check Gartner's magic quadrant and other analyst reports, along with product and support reviews to ensure that the said tool provides good customer support.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_ITSM.png"},{"id":52,"title":"SaaS - software as a service","alias":"saas-software-as-a-service","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Software as a service (SaaS)</span> is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as &quot;on-demand software&quot;, and was formerly referred to as &quot;software plus services&quot; by Microsoft.\r\n SaaS services is typically accessed by users using a thin client, e.g. via a web browser. SaaS software solutions has become a common delivery model for many business applications, including office software, messaging software, payroll processing software, DBMS software, management software, CAD software, development software, gamification, virtualization, accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM), Management Information Systems (MIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing, human resource management (HRM), talent acquisition, learning management systems, content management (CM), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and service desk management. SaaS has been incorporated into the strategy of nearly all leading enterprise software companies.\r\nSaaS applications are also known as <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Web-based software</span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">on-demand software</span> and<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> hosted software</span>.\r\nThe term &quot;Software as a Service&quot; (SaaS) is considered to be part of the nomenclature of cloud computing, along with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Desktop as a Service (DaaS),managed software as a service (MSaaS), mobile backend as a service (MBaaS), and information technology management as a service (ITMaaS).\r\nBecause SaaS is based on cloud computing it saves organizations from installing and running applications on their own systems. That eliminates or at least reduces the associated costs of hardware purchases and maintenance and of software and support. The initial setup cost for a SaaS application is also generally lower than it for equivalent enterprise software purchased via a site license.\r\nSometimes, the use of SaaS cloud software can also reduce the long-term costs of software licensing, though that depends on the pricing model for the individual SaaS offering and the enterprise’s usage patterns. In fact, it’s possible for SaaS to cost more than traditional software licenses. This is an area IT organizations should explore carefully.<br />SaaS also provides enterprises the flexibility inherent with cloud services: they can subscribe to a SaaS offering as needed rather than having to buy software licenses and install the software on a variety of computers. The savings can be substantial in the case of applications that require new hardware purchases to support the software.<br /><br /><br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Who uses SaaS?</span></h1>\r\nIndustry analyst Forrester Research notes that SaaS adoption has so far been concentrated mostly in human resource management (HRM), customer relationship management (CRM), collaboration software (e.g., email), and procurement solutions, but is poised to widen. Today it’s possible to have a data warehouse in the cloud that you can access with business intelligence software running as a service and connect to your cloud-based ERP like NetSuite or Microsoft Dynamics.The dollar savings can run into the millions. And SaaS installations are often installed and working in a fraction of the time of on-premises deployments—some can be ready in hours. \r\nSales and marketing people are likely familiar with Salesforce.com, the leading SaaS CRM software, with millions of users across more than 100,000 customers. Sales is going SaaS too, with apps available to support sales in order management, compensation, quote production and configure, price, quoting, electronic signatures, contract management and more.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Why SaaS? Benefits of software as a service</span></h1>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Lower cost of entry</span>. With SaaS solution, you pay for what you need, without having to buy hardware to host your new applications. Instead of provisioning internal resources to install the software, the vendor provides APIs and performs much of the work to get their software working for you. The time to a working solution can drop from months in the traditional model to weeks, days or hours with the SaaS model. In some businesses, IT wants nothing to do with installing and running a sales app. In the case of funding software and its implementation, this can be a make-or-break issue for the sales and marketing budget, so the lower cost really makes the difference.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Reduced time to benefit/rapid prototyping</span>. In the SaaS model, the software application is already installed and configured. Users can provision the server for the cloud and quickly have the application ready for use. This cuts the time to benefit and allows for rapid demonstrations and prototyping. With many SaaS companies offering free trials, this means a painless proof of concept and discovery phase to prove the benefit to the organization. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Pay as you go</span>. SaaS business software gives you the benefit of predictable costs both for the subscription and to some extent, the administration. Even as you scale, you can have a clear idea of what your costs will be. This allows for much more accurate budgeting, especially as compared to the costs of internal IT to manage upgrades and address issues for an owned instance.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The SaaS vendor is responsible for upgrades, uptime and security</span>. Under the SaaS model, since the software is hosted by the vendor, they take on the responsibility for maintaining the software and upgrading it, ensuring that it is reliable and meeting agreed-upon service level agreements, and keeping the application and its data secure.&nbsp; While some IT people worry about Software as a Service security outside of the enterprise walls, the likely truth is that the vendor has a much higher level of security than the enterprise itself would provide. Many will have redundant instances in very secure data centers in multiple geographies.&nbsp; Also, the data is being automatically backed up by the vendor, providing additional security and peace of mind. Because of the data center hosting, you’re getting the added benefit of at least some disaster recovery. Lastly, the vendor manages these issues as part of their core competencies—let them.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Integration and scalability.</span> Most SaaS apps are designed to support some amount of customization for the way you do business. SaaS vendors create APIs to allow connections not only to internal applications like ERPs or CRMs but also to other SaaS providers. One of the terrific aspects of integration is that orders written in the field can be automatically sent to the ERP. Now a salesperson in the field can check inventory through the catalog, write the order in front of the customer for approval, send it and receive confirmation, all in minutes. And as you scale with a SaaS vendor, there’s no need to invest in server capacity and software licenses. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Work anywhere</span>. Since the software is hosted in the cloud and accessible over the internet, users can access it via mobile devices wherever they are connected. This includes checking customer order histories prior to a sales call, as well as having access to real time data and real time order taking with the customer.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">&nbsp;</p>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/SaaS__1_.png"},{"id":499,"title":"SDN Software-Defined Network","alias":"sdn-software-defined-network","description":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Software-defined networking (SDN)</span> technology is an approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance and monitoring, making it more like cloud computing than traditional network management.\r\nSDN encompasses several types of technologies, including functional separation, network virtualization and automation through programmability. SDN solution is meant to address the fact that the static architecture of traditional networks is decentralized and complex while current networks require more flexibility and easy troubleshooting. \r\nSDN technology attempts to centralize network intelligence in one network component by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane</span>) from the routing process (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">control plane</span>). The control plane consists of one or more controllers which are considered as the brain of SDN network where the whole intelligence is incorporated. Originally, software defined technology focused solely on separation of the network control plane from the data plane. While the control plane makes decisions about how packets should flow through the network, the data plane actually moves packets from place to place. \r\nIn a classic SDN scenario, a packet arrives at a network switch, and rules built into the switch's proprietary firmware tell the switch where to forward the packet. These packet-handling rules are sent to the switch from the centralized controller. The switch - also known as a <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane device</span> - queries the controller for guidance as needed, and it provides the controller with information about traffic it handles. The switch sends every packet going to the same destination along the same path and treats all the packets the exact same way.\r\nSoftware defined networking solutions use an operation mode that is sometimes called adaptive or dynamic, in which a switch issues a route request to a controller for a packet that does not have a specific route. This process is separate from adaptive routing, which issues route requests through routers and algorithms based on the network topology, not through a controller.\r\nThe <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">virtualization</span> aspect of SDN comes into play through a virtual overlay, which is a logically separate network on top of the physical network. Users can implement end-to-end overlays to abstract the underlying network and segment network traffic. This microsegmentation is especially useful for service providers and operators with multi-tenant cloud environments and cloud services, as they can provision a separate virtual network with specific policies for each tenant.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of Software Defined Networking</h1>\r\nWith SDN software, an <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">administrator can change any network switch's rules when necessary</span> - prioritizing, deprioritizing or even blocking specific types of packets with a granular level of control and security. This is especially helpful in a cloud computing multi-tenant architecture, because it enables the administrator to manage traffic loads in a flexible and more efficient manner. Essentially, this enables the administrator to use less expensive commodity switches and have more control over network traffic flow than ever before.\r\nOther benefits of SDN are <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">network management</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">end-to-end visibility.</span>A network administrator need only deal with one centralized controller to distribute policies to the connected switches, instead of configuring multiple individual devices. This capability is also a security advantage because the controller can monitor traffic and deploy security policies. If the controller deems traffic suspicious, for example, it can reroute or drop the packets.\r\nSoftware defined networking software also <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">virtualizes hardware</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">services </span>that were previously carried out by dedicated hardware, resulting in the touted benefits of a reduced hardware footprint and lower operational costs.\r\nAdditionally, SDN contributed to the emergence of <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN)</span> technology. SD-WAN employs the virtual overlay aspect of SDN technology, abstracting an organization's connectivity links throughout its WAN and creating a virtual network that can use whichever connection the controller deems fit to send traffic.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Are there any SDN security benefits?</h1>\r\nAs security issues become more complex at the edge of the network, it’s no wonder that network and security professionals are looking for new ways to approach network protection. Nowadays, it seems like SDN is going to be the answer. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Centralized Network Control </span></li></ul>\r\nIn a traditional network, devices (router/switches) make their own decisions locally about where and how best to send traffic.&nbsp; In terms of network security, SDN can be used to route data packets through a single firewall and make IDS and IPS data capture more efficient.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Simplify Configuration</span></li></ul>\r\nThe SDN makes it easier to automate configuration and improves the traceability of those configurations. The introduction of SDN network management allows dynamic programming and restructuring of network settings, which reduces the risk of DDoS attacks. It is also worth adding that SDN has automatic quarantine capabilities. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Creation of High-level Network Policies</span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Rather than physically configuring security solutions, SDN facilitates the central management of security policies to make network operator roles more efficient and flexible. Moreover, SDN helps to move away from current management approaches such as SNMP/CLI and build more effective policy management. </span>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Easy to use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)</span></span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Cloud APIs are interfaces presented by software and play a vital role in SDN controllers and applications. Easy to use APIs help to manage network resources, improve the efficiency of IT resources, and aid integration with IT tools. Additionally, a number of good cloud security practices have been introduced recently. </span>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_SDN_Software_Defined_Network.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]},{"id":3320,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Talari_logo.png","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"Talari SD-WAN","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"1.00","implementationsCount":0,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":0,"alias":"talari-sd-wan","companyTitle":"Talari","companyTypes":["supplier","vendor"],"companyId":5231,"companyAlias":"talari","description":"Talari's SD-WAN solution creates a smart and responsive network, one that adapts in real time to bandwidth demand and actual network conditions, ensuring that presently and regardless of network issues, critical applications have priority and all applications take the best quality path through the network, ensuring uptime so the business can get done.\r\nWhether the WAN is all MPLS, a hybrid WAN of MPLS and broadband, all Internet links, backed up with wireless or extended to the cloud, Talari's Software-Defined or ‘Simplified-Defined’ WAN solution will ensure continuous availability and predictable application performance to keep productivity moving at optimal speed.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">SD-WAN Benefits</span>\r\nFor organizations hampered by expensive and rigid private legacy networks and locked into a single carrier per location, an SD-WAN unlocks untapped WAN connectivity.&nbsp; It achieves this by simplifying network deployments, automating network management, lowering bandwidth and management costs, and enabling service provider independence.\r\nThe Talari SD-WAN takes advantage of existing private network bandwidth (e.g., MPLS), while combining low-cost Internet broadband bandwidth (e.g. cable, DSL, LTE), to enable a more open, reliable, resilient, agile and cost-efficient enterprise WAN. Talari SD-WAN components include:\r\n<ul> <li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Talari Controller</span> – centrally manages and distributes services and application policies</li> <li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Talari Appliances</span> – deliver cost-effective services, and address application needs</li> <li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Talari Overlay Network</span> – securely links all appliances and controller</li> <li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Talari Reporting</span> – Aware provides real-time analytics, visibility for troubleshooting, and capacity planning</li> <li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Talari Cloud Connect</span> - a platform available to service provider partners to enable failsafe, multi-link- multi-path access to cloud services and SaaS for Talari SD-WAN customers.</li> </ul>\r\nTalari SD-WAN enables an open and extensible wide-area network that supports enterprise data centers, remote offices, and cloud services with a new paradigm in which packets are routed deterministically, based on bandwidth suitability for the packet’s protocol. Talari embeds this capability in the packet header to allow low latency applications that are less business-critical to be subordinated in favor of business-critical applications.","shortDescription":"The Talari SD-WAN transforms the Internet and branch office connectivity, to ensure application performance and unparalleled resiliency, when deployed at the physical, virtual edge, or in the cloud.","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":20,"sellingCount":14,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"Talari SD-WAN","keywords":"","description":"Talari's SD-WAN solution creates a smart and responsive network, one that adapts in real time to bandwidth demand and actual network conditions, ensuring that presently and regardless of network issues, critical applications have priority and all applications ","og:title":"Talari SD-WAN","og:description":"Talari's SD-WAN solution creates a smart and responsive network, one that adapts in real time to bandwidth demand and actual network conditions, ensuring that presently and regardless of network issues, critical applications have priority and all applications ","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Talari_logo.png"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":3321,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[{"id":93,"title":"Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN)"}],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":34,"title":"ITSM - IT Service Management","alias":"itsm-it-service-management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">IT service management (ITSM)</span> is the process of designing, delivering, managing, and improving the IT services an organization provides to its end users. ITSM is focused on aligning IT processes and services with business objectives to help an organization grow.\r\nITSM positions IT services as the key means of delivering and obtaining value, where an internal or external IT service provider works with business customers, at the same time taking responsibility for the associated costs and risks. ITSM works across the whole lifecycle of a service, from the original strategy, through design, transition and into live operation.\r\nTo ensure sustainable quality of IT services, ITSM establishes a set of practices, or processes, constituting a service management system. There are industrial, national and international standards for IT service management solutions, setting up requirements and good practices for the management system. \r\nITSM system is based on a set of principles, such as focusing on value and continual improvement. It is not just a set of processes – it is a cultural mindset to ensure that the desired outcome for the business is achieved. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library)</span> is a framework of best practices and recommendations for managing an organization's IT operations and services. IT service management processes, when built based on the ITIL framework, pave the way for better IT service operations management and improved business. To summarize, ITIL is a set of guidelines for effective IT service management best practices. ITIL has evolved beyond the delivery of services to providing end-to-end value delivery. The focus is now on the co-creation of value through service relationships. \r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM processes typically include five stages, all based on the ITIL framework:</span></p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM strategy.</span> This stage forms the foundation or the framework of an organization's ITSM process building. It involves defining the services that the organization will offer, strategically planning processes, and recognizing and developing the required assets to keep processes moving. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service design.</span> This stage's main aim is planning and designing the IT services the organization offers to meet business demands. It involves creating and designing new services as well as assessing current services and making relevant improvements.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service transition.</span> Once the designs for IT services and their processes have been finalized, it's important to build them and test them out to ensure that processes flow. IT teams need to ensure that the designs don't disrupt services in any way, especially when existing IT service processes are upgraded or redesigned. This calls for change management, evaluation, and risk management. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service operation. </span>This phase involves implementing the tried and tested new or modified designs in a live environment. While in this stage, the processes have already been tested and the issues fixed, but new processes are bound to have hiccups—especially when customers start using the services. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Continual service improvement (CSI).</span> Implementing IT processes successfully shouldn't be the final stage in any organization. There's always room for improvement and new development based on issues that pop up, customer needs and demands, and user feedback.\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of efficient ITSM processes</h1>\r\nIrrespective of the size of business, every organization is involved in IT service management in some way. ITSM ensures that incidents, service requests, problems, changes, and IT assets—in addition to other aspects of IT services—are managed in a streamlined way.\r\nIT teams in your organization can employ various workflows and best practices in ITSM, as outlined in ITIL. Effective IT service management can have positive effects on an IT organization's overall function.\r\nHere are the 10 key benefits of ITSM:\r\n<ul><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lower costs for IT operations</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Higher returns on IT investments</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Minimal service outages</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ability to establish well-defined, repeatable, and manageable IT processes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Efficient analysis of IT problems to reduce repeat incidents</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Improved efficiency of IT help desk teams</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well-defined roles and responsibilities</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Clear expectations on service levels and service availability</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Risk-free implementation of IT changes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Better transparency into IT processes and services</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">How to choose an ITSM tool?</h1>\r\nWith a competent IT service management goal in mind, it's important to invest in a service desk solution that caters to your business needs. It goes without saying, with more than 150 service desk tools to choose from, selecting the right one is easier said than done. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing an ITSM products:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Identify key processes and their dependencies. </span>Based on business goals, decide which key ITSM processes need to be implemented and chart out the integrations that need to be established to achieve those goals. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Consult with ITSM experts.</span> Participate in business expos, webinars, demos, etc., and educate yourself about the various options that are available in the market. Reports from expert analysts such as Gartner and Forrester are particularly useful as they include reviews of almost every solution, ranked based on multiple criteria.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Choose a deployment option.</span> Every business has a different IT infrastructure model. Selecting an on-premises or software as a service (SaaS IT service management) tool depends on whether your business prefers to host its applications and data on its own servers or use a public or private cloud.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Plan ahead for the future.</span> Although it's important to consider the &quot;needs&quot; primarily, you shouldn't rule out the secondary or luxury capabilities. If the ITSM tool doesn't have the potential to adapt to your needs as your organization grows, it can pull you back from progressing. Draw a clear picture of where your business is headed and choose an service ITSM that is flexible and technology-driven.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Don't stop with the capabilities of the ITSM tool.</span> It might be tempting to assess an ITSM tool based on its capabilities and features but it's important to evaluate the vendor of the tool. A good IT support team, and a vendor that is endorsed for their customer-vendor relationship can take your IT services far. Check Gartner's magic quadrant and other analyst reports, along with product and support reviews to ensure that the said tool provides good customer support.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_ITSM.png"},{"id":52,"title":"SaaS - software as a service","alias":"saas-software-as-a-service","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Software as a service (SaaS)</span> is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as &quot;on-demand software&quot;, and was formerly referred to as &quot;software plus services&quot; by Microsoft.\r\n SaaS services is typically accessed by users using a thin client, e.g. via a web browser. SaaS software solutions has become a common delivery model for many business applications, including office software, messaging software, payroll processing software, DBMS software, management software, CAD software, development software, gamification, virtualization, accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM), Management Information Systems (MIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing, human resource management (HRM), talent acquisition, learning management systems, content management (CM), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and service desk management. SaaS has been incorporated into the strategy of nearly all leading enterprise software companies.\r\nSaaS applications are also known as <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Web-based software</span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">on-demand software</span> and<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> hosted software</span>.\r\nThe term &quot;Software as a Service&quot; (SaaS) is considered to be part of the nomenclature of cloud computing, along with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Desktop as a Service (DaaS),managed software as a service (MSaaS), mobile backend as a service (MBaaS), and information technology management as a service (ITMaaS).\r\nBecause SaaS is based on cloud computing it saves organizations from installing and running applications on their own systems. That eliminates or at least reduces the associated costs of hardware purchases and maintenance and of software and support. The initial setup cost for a SaaS application is also generally lower than it for equivalent enterprise software purchased via a site license.\r\nSometimes, the use of SaaS cloud software can also reduce the long-term costs of software licensing, though that depends on the pricing model for the individual SaaS offering and the enterprise’s usage patterns. In fact, it’s possible for SaaS to cost more than traditional software licenses. This is an area IT organizations should explore carefully.<br />SaaS also provides enterprises the flexibility inherent with cloud services: they can subscribe to a SaaS offering as needed rather than having to buy software licenses and install the software on a variety of computers. The savings can be substantial in the case of applications that require new hardware purchases to support the software.<br /><br /><br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Who uses SaaS?</span></h1>\r\nIndustry analyst Forrester Research notes that SaaS adoption has so far been concentrated mostly in human resource management (HRM), customer relationship management (CRM), collaboration software (e.g., email), and procurement solutions, but is poised to widen. Today it’s possible to have a data warehouse in the cloud that you can access with business intelligence software running as a service and connect to your cloud-based ERP like NetSuite or Microsoft Dynamics.The dollar savings can run into the millions. And SaaS installations are often installed and working in a fraction of the time of on-premises deployments—some can be ready in hours. \r\nSales and marketing people are likely familiar with Salesforce.com, the leading SaaS CRM software, with millions of users across more than 100,000 customers. Sales is going SaaS too, with apps available to support sales in order management, compensation, quote production and configure, price, quoting, electronic signatures, contract management and more.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Why SaaS? Benefits of software as a service</span></h1>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Lower cost of entry</span>. With SaaS solution, you pay for what you need, without having to buy hardware to host your new applications. Instead of provisioning internal resources to install the software, the vendor provides APIs and performs much of the work to get their software working for you. The time to a working solution can drop from months in the traditional model to weeks, days or hours with the SaaS model. In some businesses, IT wants nothing to do with installing and running a sales app. In the case of funding software and its implementation, this can be a make-or-break issue for the sales and marketing budget, so the lower cost really makes the difference.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Reduced time to benefit/rapid prototyping</span>. In the SaaS model, the software application is already installed and configured. Users can provision the server for the cloud and quickly have the application ready for use. This cuts the time to benefit and allows for rapid demonstrations and prototyping. With many SaaS companies offering free trials, this means a painless proof of concept and discovery phase to prove the benefit to the organization. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Pay as you go</span>. SaaS business software gives you the benefit of predictable costs both for the subscription and to some extent, the administration. Even as you scale, you can have a clear idea of what your costs will be. This allows for much more accurate budgeting, especially as compared to the costs of internal IT to manage upgrades and address issues for an owned instance.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The SaaS vendor is responsible for upgrades, uptime and security</span>. Under the SaaS model, since the software is hosted by the vendor, they take on the responsibility for maintaining the software and upgrading it, ensuring that it is reliable and meeting agreed-upon service level agreements, and keeping the application and its data secure.&nbsp; While some IT people worry about Software as a Service security outside of the enterprise walls, the likely truth is that the vendor has a much higher level of security than the enterprise itself would provide. Many will have redundant instances in very secure data centers in multiple geographies.&nbsp; Also, the data is being automatically backed up by the vendor, providing additional security and peace of mind. Because of the data center hosting, you’re getting the added benefit of at least some disaster recovery. Lastly, the vendor manages these issues as part of their core competencies—let them.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Integration and scalability.</span> Most SaaS apps are designed to support some amount of customization for the way you do business. SaaS vendors create APIs to allow connections not only to internal applications like ERPs or CRMs but also to other SaaS providers. One of the terrific aspects of integration is that orders written in the field can be automatically sent to the ERP. Now a salesperson in the field can check inventory through the catalog, write the order in front of the customer for approval, send it and receive confirmation, all in minutes. And as you scale with a SaaS vendor, there’s no need to invest in server capacity and software licenses. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Work anywhere</span>. Since the software is hosted in the cloud and accessible over the internet, users can access it via mobile devices wherever they are connected. This includes checking customer order histories prior to a sales call, as well as having access to real time data and real time order taking with the customer.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">&nbsp;</p>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/SaaS__1_.png"},{"id":499,"title":"SDN Software-Defined Network","alias":"sdn-software-defined-network","description":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Software-defined networking (SDN)</span> technology is an approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance and monitoring, making it more like cloud computing than traditional network management.\r\nSDN encompasses several types of technologies, including functional separation, network virtualization and automation through programmability. SDN solution is meant to address the fact that the static architecture of traditional networks is decentralized and complex while current networks require more flexibility and easy troubleshooting. \r\nSDN technology attempts to centralize network intelligence in one network component by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane</span>) from the routing process (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">control plane</span>). The control plane consists of one or more controllers which are considered as the brain of SDN network where the whole intelligence is incorporated. Originally, software defined technology focused solely on separation of the network control plane from the data plane. While the control plane makes decisions about how packets should flow through the network, the data plane actually moves packets from place to place. \r\nIn a classic SDN scenario, a packet arrives at a network switch, and rules built into the switch's proprietary firmware tell the switch where to forward the packet. These packet-handling rules are sent to the switch from the centralized controller. The switch - also known as a <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane device</span> - queries the controller for guidance as needed, and it provides the controller with information about traffic it handles. The switch sends every packet going to the same destination along the same path and treats all the packets the exact same way.\r\nSoftware defined networking solutions use an operation mode that is sometimes called adaptive or dynamic, in which a switch issues a route request to a controller for a packet that does not have a specific route. This process is separate from adaptive routing, which issues route requests through routers and algorithms based on the network topology, not through a controller.\r\nThe <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">virtualization</span> aspect of SDN comes into play through a virtual overlay, which is a logically separate network on top of the physical network. Users can implement end-to-end overlays to abstract the underlying network and segment network traffic. This microsegmentation is especially useful for service providers and operators with multi-tenant cloud environments and cloud services, as they can provision a separate virtual network with specific policies for each tenant.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of Software Defined Networking</h1>\r\nWith SDN software, an <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">administrator can change any network switch's rules when necessary</span> - prioritizing, deprioritizing or even blocking specific types of packets with a granular level of control and security. This is especially helpful in a cloud computing multi-tenant architecture, because it enables the administrator to manage traffic loads in a flexible and more efficient manner. Essentially, this enables the administrator to use less expensive commodity switches and have more control over network traffic flow than ever before.\r\nOther benefits of SDN are <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">network management</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">end-to-end visibility.</span>A network administrator need only deal with one centralized controller to distribute policies to the connected switches, instead of configuring multiple individual devices. This capability is also a security advantage because the controller can monitor traffic and deploy security policies. If the controller deems traffic suspicious, for example, it can reroute or drop the packets.\r\nSoftware defined networking software also <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">virtualizes hardware</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">services </span>that were previously carried out by dedicated hardware, resulting in the touted benefits of a reduced hardware footprint and lower operational costs.\r\nAdditionally, SDN contributed to the emergence of <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN)</span> technology. SD-WAN employs the virtual overlay aspect of SDN technology, abstracting an organization's connectivity links throughout its WAN and creating a virtual network that can use whichever connection the controller deems fit to send traffic.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Are there any SDN security benefits?</h1>\r\nAs security issues become more complex at the edge of the network, it’s no wonder that network and security professionals are looking for new ways to approach network protection. Nowadays, it seems like SDN is going to be the answer. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Centralized Network Control </span></li></ul>\r\nIn a traditional network, devices (router/switches) make their own decisions locally about where and how best to send traffic.&nbsp; In terms of network security, SDN can be used to route data packets through a single firewall and make IDS and IPS data capture more efficient.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Simplify Configuration</span></li></ul>\r\nThe SDN makes it easier to automate configuration and improves the traceability of those configurations. The introduction of SDN network management allows dynamic programming and restructuring of network settings, which reduces the risk of DDoS attacks. It is also worth adding that SDN has automatic quarantine capabilities. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Creation of High-level Network Policies</span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Rather than physically configuring security solutions, SDN facilitates the central management of security policies to make network operator roles more efficient and flexible. Moreover, SDN helps to move away from current management approaches such as SNMP/CLI and build more effective policy management. </span>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Easy to use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)</span></span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Cloud APIs are interfaces presented by software and play a vital role in SDN controllers and applications. Easy to use APIs help to manage network resources, improve the efficiency of IT resources, and aid integration with IT tools. Additionally, a number of good cloud security practices have been introduced recently. </span>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_SDN_Software_Defined_Network.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]},{"id":3322,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Versa_Networks_logo.png","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"The Versa Cloud IP Platform","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"1.00","implementationsCount":0,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":0,"alias":"the-versa-cloud-ip-platform","companyTitle":"Versa Networks","companyTypes":["supplier","vendor"],"companyId":5232,"companyAlias":"versa-networks","description":"Versa’s software-based approach provides unmatched agility, cost savings, and flexibility vs. traditional network hardware.\r\nFor service providers, Versa Cloud IP Platform enables next-generation managed services for virtual customer premises equipment (vCPE), managed software-defined router (SD-Router), managed software-defined WAN (SD-WAN), managed software-defined security (SD-Security) and to fully software-defined the branch (SD-Branch) with a unified multi-service next-generation secure software platform. For enterprises, it provides a secure multi-cloud and multi-site software-defined branch connectivity solution for SD-WAN and branch security projects.","shortDescription":"Cloud IP Platform enables service providers and large enterprises to transform the WAN and branch network to achieve unprecedented business advantages.","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":6,"sellingCount":3,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"The Versa Cloud IP Platform","keywords":"","description":"Versa’s software-based approach provides unmatched agility, cost savings, and flexibility vs. traditional network hardware.\r\nFor service providers, Versa Cloud IP Platform enables next-generation managed services for virtual customer premises equipment (vCPE),","og:title":"The Versa Cloud IP Platform","og:description":"Versa’s software-based approach provides unmatched agility, cost savings, and flexibility vs. traditional network hardware.\r\nFor service providers, Versa Cloud IP Platform enables next-generation managed services for virtual customer premises equipment (vCPE),","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Versa_Networks_logo.png"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":3323,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[{"id":93,"title":"Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN)"}],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":34,"title":"ITSM - IT Service Management","alias":"itsm-it-service-management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">IT service management (ITSM)</span> is the process of designing, delivering, managing, and improving the IT services an organization provides to its end users. ITSM is focused on aligning IT processes and services with business objectives to help an organization grow.\r\nITSM positions IT services as the key means of delivering and obtaining value, where an internal or external IT service provider works with business customers, at the same time taking responsibility for the associated costs and risks. ITSM works across the whole lifecycle of a service, from the original strategy, through design, transition and into live operation.\r\nTo ensure sustainable quality of IT services, ITSM establishes a set of practices, or processes, constituting a service management system. There are industrial, national and international standards for IT service management solutions, setting up requirements and good practices for the management system. \r\nITSM system is based on a set of principles, such as focusing on value and continual improvement. It is not just a set of processes – it is a cultural mindset to ensure that the desired outcome for the business is achieved. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library)</span> is a framework of best practices and recommendations for managing an organization's IT operations and services. IT service management processes, when built based on the ITIL framework, pave the way for better IT service operations management and improved business. To summarize, ITIL is a set of guidelines for effective IT service management best practices. ITIL has evolved beyond the delivery of services to providing end-to-end value delivery. The focus is now on the co-creation of value through service relationships. \r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM processes typically include five stages, all based on the ITIL framework:</span></p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM strategy.</span> This stage forms the foundation or the framework of an organization's ITSM process building. It involves defining the services that the organization will offer, strategically planning processes, and recognizing and developing the required assets to keep processes moving. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service design.</span> This stage's main aim is planning and designing the IT services the organization offers to meet business demands. It involves creating and designing new services as well as assessing current services and making relevant improvements.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service transition.</span> Once the designs for IT services and their processes have been finalized, it's important to build them and test them out to ensure that processes flow. IT teams need to ensure that the designs don't disrupt services in any way, especially when existing IT service processes are upgraded or redesigned. This calls for change management, evaluation, and risk management. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service operation. </span>This phase involves implementing the tried and tested new or modified designs in a live environment. While in this stage, the processes have already been tested and the issues fixed, but new processes are bound to have hiccups—especially when customers start using the services. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Continual service improvement (CSI).</span> Implementing IT processes successfully shouldn't be the final stage in any organization. There's always room for improvement and new development based on issues that pop up, customer needs and demands, and user feedback.\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of efficient ITSM processes</h1>\r\nIrrespective of the size of business, every organization is involved in IT service management in some way. ITSM ensures that incidents, service requests, problems, changes, and IT assets—in addition to other aspects of IT services—are managed in a streamlined way.\r\nIT teams in your organization can employ various workflows and best practices in ITSM, as outlined in ITIL. Effective IT service management can have positive effects on an IT organization's overall function.\r\nHere are the 10 key benefits of ITSM:\r\n<ul><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lower costs for IT operations</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Higher returns on IT investments</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Minimal service outages</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ability to establish well-defined, repeatable, and manageable IT processes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Efficient analysis of IT problems to reduce repeat incidents</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Improved efficiency of IT help desk teams</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well-defined roles and responsibilities</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Clear expectations on service levels and service availability</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Risk-free implementation of IT changes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Better transparency into IT processes and services</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">How to choose an ITSM tool?</h1>\r\nWith a competent IT service management goal in mind, it's important to invest in a service desk solution that caters to your business needs. It goes without saying, with more than 150 service desk tools to choose from, selecting the right one is easier said than done. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing an ITSM products:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Identify key processes and their dependencies. </span>Based on business goals, decide which key ITSM processes need to be implemented and chart out the integrations that need to be established to achieve those goals. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Consult with ITSM experts.</span> Participate in business expos, webinars, demos, etc., and educate yourself about the various options that are available in the market. Reports from expert analysts such as Gartner and Forrester are particularly useful as they include reviews of almost every solution, ranked based on multiple criteria.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Choose a deployment option.</span> Every business has a different IT infrastructure model. Selecting an on-premises or software as a service (SaaS IT service management) tool depends on whether your business prefers to host its applications and data on its own servers or use a public or private cloud.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Plan ahead for the future.</span> Although it's important to consider the &quot;needs&quot; primarily, you shouldn't rule out the secondary or luxury capabilities. If the ITSM tool doesn't have the potential to adapt to your needs as your organization grows, it can pull you back from progressing. Draw a clear picture of where your business is headed and choose an service ITSM that is flexible and technology-driven.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Don't stop with the capabilities of the ITSM tool.</span> It might be tempting to assess an ITSM tool based on its capabilities and features but it's important to evaluate the vendor of the tool. A good IT support team, and a vendor that is endorsed for their customer-vendor relationship can take your IT services far. Check Gartner's magic quadrant and other analyst reports, along with product and support reviews to ensure that the said tool provides good customer support.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_ITSM.png"},{"id":52,"title":"SaaS - software as a service","alias":"saas-software-as-a-service","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Software as a service (SaaS)</span> is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as &quot;on-demand software&quot;, and was formerly referred to as &quot;software plus services&quot; by Microsoft.\r\n SaaS services is typically accessed by users using a thin client, e.g. via a web browser. SaaS software solutions has become a common delivery model for many business applications, including office software, messaging software, payroll processing software, DBMS software, management software, CAD software, development software, gamification, virtualization, accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM), Management Information Systems (MIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing, human resource management (HRM), talent acquisition, learning management systems, content management (CM), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and service desk management. SaaS has been incorporated into the strategy of nearly all leading enterprise software companies.\r\nSaaS applications are also known as <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Web-based software</span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">on-demand software</span> and<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> hosted software</span>.\r\nThe term &quot;Software as a Service&quot; (SaaS) is considered to be part of the nomenclature of cloud computing, along with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Desktop as a Service (DaaS),managed software as a service (MSaaS), mobile backend as a service (MBaaS), and information technology management as a service (ITMaaS).\r\nBecause SaaS is based on cloud computing it saves organizations from installing and running applications on their own systems. That eliminates or at least reduces the associated costs of hardware purchases and maintenance and of software and support. The initial setup cost for a SaaS application is also generally lower than it for equivalent enterprise software purchased via a site license.\r\nSometimes, the use of SaaS cloud software can also reduce the long-term costs of software licensing, though that depends on the pricing model for the individual SaaS offering and the enterprise’s usage patterns. In fact, it’s possible for SaaS to cost more than traditional software licenses. This is an area IT organizations should explore carefully.<br />SaaS also provides enterprises the flexibility inherent with cloud services: they can subscribe to a SaaS offering as needed rather than having to buy software licenses and install the software on a variety of computers. The savings can be substantial in the case of applications that require new hardware purchases to support the software.<br /><br /><br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Who uses SaaS?</span></h1>\r\nIndustry analyst Forrester Research notes that SaaS adoption has so far been concentrated mostly in human resource management (HRM), customer relationship management (CRM), collaboration software (e.g., email), and procurement solutions, but is poised to widen. Today it’s possible to have a data warehouse in the cloud that you can access with business intelligence software running as a service and connect to your cloud-based ERP like NetSuite or Microsoft Dynamics.The dollar savings can run into the millions. And SaaS installations are often installed and working in a fraction of the time of on-premises deployments—some can be ready in hours. \r\nSales and marketing people are likely familiar with Salesforce.com, the leading SaaS CRM software, with millions of users across more than 100,000 customers. Sales is going SaaS too, with apps available to support sales in order management, compensation, quote production and configure, price, quoting, electronic signatures, contract management and more.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Why SaaS? Benefits of software as a service</span></h1>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Lower cost of entry</span>. With SaaS solution, you pay for what you need, without having to buy hardware to host your new applications. Instead of provisioning internal resources to install the software, the vendor provides APIs and performs much of the work to get their software working for you. The time to a working solution can drop from months in the traditional model to weeks, days or hours with the SaaS model. In some businesses, IT wants nothing to do with installing and running a sales app. In the case of funding software and its implementation, this can be a make-or-break issue for the sales and marketing budget, so the lower cost really makes the difference.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Reduced time to benefit/rapid prototyping</span>. In the SaaS model, the software application is already installed and configured. Users can provision the server for the cloud and quickly have the application ready for use. This cuts the time to benefit and allows for rapid demonstrations and prototyping. With many SaaS companies offering free trials, this means a painless proof of concept and discovery phase to prove the benefit to the organization. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Pay as you go</span>. SaaS business software gives you the benefit of predictable costs both for the subscription and to some extent, the administration. Even as you scale, you can have a clear idea of what your costs will be. This allows for much more accurate budgeting, especially as compared to the costs of internal IT to manage upgrades and address issues for an owned instance.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The SaaS vendor is responsible for upgrades, uptime and security</span>. Under the SaaS model, since the software is hosted by the vendor, they take on the responsibility for maintaining the software and upgrading it, ensuring that it is reliable and meeting agreed-upon service level agreements, and keeping the application and its data secure.&nbsp; While some IT people worry about Software as a Service security outside of the enterprise walls, the likely truth is that the vendor has a much higher level of security than the enterprise itself would provide. Many will have redundant instances in very secure data centers in multiple geographies.&nbsp; Also, the data is being automatically backed up by the vendor, providing additional security and peace of mind. Because of the data center hosting, you’re getting the added benefit of at least some disaster recovery. Lastly, the vendor manages these issues as part of their core competencies—let them.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Integration and scalability.</span> Most SaaS apps are designed to support some amount of customization for the way you do business. SaaS vendors create APIs to allow connections not only to internal applications like ERPs or CRMs but also to other SaaS providers. One of the terrific aspects of integration is that orders written in the field can be automatically sent to the ERP. Now a salesperson in the field can check inventory through the catalog, write the order in front of the customer for approval, send it and receive confirmation, all in minutes. And as you scale with a SaaS vendor, there’s no need to invest in server capacity and software licenses. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Work anywhere</span>. Since the software is hosted in the cloud and accessible over the internet, users can access it via mobile devices wherever they are connected. This includes checking customer order histories prior to a sales call, as well as having access to real time data and real time order taking with the customer.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">&nbsp;</p>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/SaaS__1_.png"},{"id":499,"title":"SDN Software-Defined Network","alias":"sdn-software-defined-network","description":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Software-defined networking (SDN)</span> technology is an approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance and monitoring, making it more like cloud computing than traditional network management.\r\nSDN encompasses several types of technologies, including functional separation, network virtualization and automation through programmability. SDN solution is meant to address the fact that the static architecture of traditional networks is decentralized and complex while current networks require more flexibility and easy troubleshooting. \r\nSDN technology attempts to centralize network intelligence in one network component by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane</span>) from the routing process (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">control plane</span>). The control plane consists of one or more controllers which are considered as the brain of SDN network where the whole intelligence is incorporated. Originally, software defined technology focused solely on separation of the network control plane from the data plane. While the control plane makes decisions about how packets should flow through the network, the data plane actually moves packets from place to place. \r\nIn a classic SDN scenario, a packet arrives at a network switch, and rules built into the switch's proprietary firmware tell the switch where to forward the packet. These packet-handling rules are sent to the switch from the centralized controller. The switch - also known as a <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane device</span> - queries the controller for guidance as needed, and it provides the controller with information about traffic it handles. The switch sends every packet going to the same destination along the same path and treats all the packets the exact same way.\r\nSoftware defined networking solutions use an operation mode that is sometimes called adaptive or dynamic, in which a switch issues a route request to a controller for a packet that does not have a specific route. This process is separate from adaptive routing, which issues route requests through routers and algorithms based on the network topology, not through a controller.\r\nThe <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">virtualization</span> aspect of SDN comes into play through a virtual overlay, which is a logically separate network on top of the physical network. Users can implement end-to-end overlays to abstract the underlying network and segment network traffic. This microsegmentation is especially useful for service providers and operators with multi-tenant cloud environments and cloud services, as they can provision a separate virtual network with specific policies for each tenant.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of Software Defined Networking</h1>\r\nWith SDN software, an <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">administrator can change any network switch's rules when necessary</span> - prioritizing, deprioritizing or even blocking specific types of packets with a granular level of control and security. This is especially helpful in a cloud computing multi-tenant architecture, because it enables the administrator to manage traffic loads in a flexible and more efficient manner. Essentially, this enables the administrator to use less expensive commodity switches and have more control over network traffic flow than ever before.\r\nOther benefits of SDN are <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">network management</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">end-to-end visibility.</span>A network administrator need only deal with one centralized controller to distribute policies to the connected switches, instead of configuring multiple individual devices. This capability is also a security advantage because the controller can monitor traffic and deploy security policies. If the controller deems traffic suspicious, for example, it can reroute or drop the packets.\r\nSoftware defined networking software also <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">virtualizes hardware</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">services </span>that were previously carried out by dedicated hardware, resulting in the touted benefits of a reduced hardware footprint and lower operational costs.\r\nAdditionally, SDN contributed to the emergence of <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN)</span> technology. SD-WAN employs the virtual overlay aspect of SDN technology, abstracting an organization's connectivity links throughout its WAN and creating a virtual network that can use whichever connection the controller deems fit to send traffic.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Are there any SDN security benefits?</h1>\r\nAs security issues become more complex at the edge of the network, it’s no wonder that network and security professionals are looking for new ways to approach network protection. Nowadays, it seems like SDN is going to be the answer. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Centralized Network Control </span></li></ul>\r\nIn a traditional network, devices (router/switches) make their own decisions locally about where and how best to send traffic.&nbsp; In terms of network security, SDN can be used to route data packets through a single firewall and make IDS and IPS data capture more efficient.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Simplify Configuration</span></li></ul>\r\nThe SDN makes it easier to automate configuration and improves the traceability of those configurations. The introduction of SDN network management allows dynamic programming and restructuring of network settings, which reduces the risk of DDoS attacks. It is also worth adding that SDN has automatic quarantine capabilities. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Creation of High-level Network Policies</span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Rather than physically configuring security solutions, SDN facilitates the central management of security policies to make network operator roles more efficient and flexible. Moreover, SDN helps to move away from current management approaches such as SNMP/CLI and build more effective policy management. </span>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Easy to use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)</span></span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Cloud APIs are interfaces presented by software and play a vital role in SDN controllers and applications. Easy to use APIs help to manage network resources, improve the efficiency of IT resources, and aid integration with IT tools. Additionally, a number of good cloud security practices have been introduced recently. </span>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_SDN_Software_Defined_Network.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]},{"id":3324,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/riverbed_SteelConnect_logo.jpg","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"Riverbed SteelConnect","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"1.00","implementationsCount":0,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":0,"alias":"riverbed-steelconnect","companyTitle":"Riverbed","companyTypes":["supplier","vendor"],"companyId":2779,"companyAlias":"riverbed","description":"Riverbed SteelConnect is the cornerstone of Riverbed’s strategy for next-generation, application-defined enterprise networking. SteelConnect is a complete SD-WAN system for securely connecting users and business to the applications they need, wherever they reside - on a remote LAN, in a data center, or in the cloud.\r\nSteelConnect offers several differentiators - ubiquitous and unified connectivity across LAN, WAN, and the Cloud; business aligned orchestration for fast, agile, and secure application delivery; and unique cloud-centric workflow, easy menu-driven network design of sites, zones, uplinks, and rules, and centralized, business intent-based policy management—all within a simple graphical user interface - for ease of use and greater business agility.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">SteelConnect provides:</span>\r\n<ul> <li>WAN optimization and SD-WAN capabilities</li> <li>Identification and classification of over 1300 applications with deep packet inspection</li> <li>Optimization and acceleration of applications—on-premises and cloud—leveraging data (scalable data referencing or SDR), transport, and application streamlining</li> <li>Centralized network management capabilities based on a single intent-and user-based “plain-language” global business policy</li> <li>The ability to enforce application policy (path quality, path selection, network QoS, and security)</li> <li>Pre-defined Application Groups (for example, business critical) for traffic path rule and security policy creation, as well as scalability with fewer policy rules. Add custom applications and leverage a constantly updated catalog of public applications to identify applications for advanced classification</li> <li>Instant, single-click provisioning to the cloud with SteelHead™ CX for Cloud to automate cloud networking and accelerate cloud performance</li> <li>Automated zero-touch provisioning of devices</li> <li>Dynamic Native Routing – branch-&nbsp; and WAN-side—to eliminate routers and reduce complexity</li> <li>Path monitoring and quality-based, Hybrid WAN path selection</li> <li>Integrated and third-party security providers</li> <li>Scalability (up to 1000 branches/sites)</li> <li>Cloud (AWS and Microsoft Azure) and self-hosting in a physical or virtual data center (for example, VMware)</li> <li>End-to-end visibility with unified views, plus reporting and troubleshooting of application and network performance</li> </ul>\r\nWith SteelConnect, Riverbed is integrating its centralized, policy-based management and core SD-WAN capabilities with its industry-leading network and application optimization, enterprise-class scalability and end-to-end visibility into clouds, thus extending Riverbed’s Application-Defined Networking and End-to-End Unified Visibility for large-scale enterprises.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Benefits:</span>\r\n<ul> <li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Agility:</span> Faster IT response times based on deep automation and intuitive GUI design.</li> <li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Efficiency:</span> High ROI and quick payback delivered through network infrastructure savings and operational ease.</li> <li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Security:</span> Native security capabilities supplemented with deep automation with 3rd party security vendors for cloud-first security.</li> <li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Flexibility:</span> Ability to integrate into complex, secure, enterprise environments while catalyzing successful digital transformations.</li> </ul>","shortDescription":"SteelConnect offers a single, unified orchestration and connectivity fabric across the entire distributed enterprise network.","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":0,"sellingCount":2,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"Riverbed SteelConnect","keywords":"","description":"Riverbed SteelConnect is the cornerstone of Riverbed’s strategy for next-generation, application-defined enterprise networking. SteelConnect is a complete SD-WAN system for securely connecting users and business to the applications they need, wherever they res","og:title":"Riverbed SteelConnect","og:description":"Riverbed SteelConnect is the cornerstone of Riverbed’s strategy for next-generation, application-defined enterprise networking. SteelConnect is a complete SD-WAN system for securely connecting users and business to the applications they need, wherever they res","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/riverbed_SteelConnect_logo.jpg"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":3325,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[{"id":93,"title":"Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN)"}],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":34,"title":"ITSM - IT Service Management","alias":"itsm-it-service-management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">IT service management (ITSM)</span> is the process of designing, delivering, managing, and improving the IT services an organization provides to its end users. ITSM is focused on aligning IT processes and services with business objectives to help an organization grow.\r\nITSM positions IT services as the key means of delivering and obtaining value, where an internal or external IT service provider works with business customers, at the same time taking responsibility for the associated costs and risks. ITSM works across the whole lifecycle of a service, from the original strategy, through design, transition and into live operation.\r\nTo ensure sustainable quality of IT services, ITSM establishes a set of practices, or processes, constituting a service management system. There are industrial, national and international standards for IT service management solutions, setting up requirements and good practices for the management system. \r\nITSM system is based on a set of principles, such as focusing on value and continual improvement. It is not just a set of processes – it is a cultural mindset to ensure that the desired outcome for the business is achieved. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library)</span> is a framework of best practices and recommendations for managing an organization's IT operations and services. IT service management processes, when built based on the ITIL framework, pave the way for better IT service operations management and improved business. To summarize, ITIL is a set of guidelines for effective IT service management best practices. ITIL has evolved beyond the delivery of services to providing end-to-end value delivery. The focus is now on the co-creation of value through service relationships. \r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM processes typically include five stages, all based on the ITIL framework:</span></p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM strategy.</span> This stage forms the foundation or the framework of an organization's ITSM process building. It involves defining the services that the organization will offer, strategically planning processes, and recognizing and developing the required assets to keep processes moving. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service design.</span> This stage's main aim is planning and designing the IT services the organization offers to meet business demands. It involves creating and designing new services as well as assessing current services and making relevant improvements.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service transition.</span> Once the designs for IT services and their processes have been finalized, it's important to build them and test them out to ensure that processes flow. IT teams need to ensure that the designs don't disrupt services in any way, especially when existing IT service processes are upgraded or redesigned. This calls for change management, evaluation, and risk management. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service operation. </span>This phase involves implementing the tried and tested new or modified designs in a live environment. While in this stage, the processes have already been tested and the issues fixed, but new processes are bound to have hiccups—especially when customers start using the services. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Continual service improvement (CSI).</span> Implementing IT processes successfully shouldn't be the final stage in any organization. There's always room for improvement and new development based on issues that pop up, customer needs and demands, and user feedback.\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of efficient ITSM processes</h1>\r\nIrrespective of the size of business, every organization is involved in IT service management in some way. ITSM ensures that incidents, service requests, problems, changes, and IT assets—in addition to other aspects of IT services—are managed in a streamlined way.\r\nIT teams in your organization can employ various workflows and best practices in ITSM, as outlined in ITIL. Effective IT service management can have positive effects on an IT organization's overall function.\r\nHere are the 10 key benefits of ITSM:\r\n<ul><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lower costs for IT operations</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Higher returns on IT investments</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Minimal service outages</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ability to establish well-defined, repeatable, and manageable IT processes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Efficient analysis of IT problems to reduce repeat incidents</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Improved efficiency of IT help desk teams</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well-defined roles and responsibilities</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Clear expectations on service levels and service availability</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Risk-free implementation of IT changes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Better transparency into IT processes and services</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">How to choose an ITSM tool?</h1>\r\nWith a competent IT service management goal in mind, it's important to invest in a service desk solution that caters to your business needs. It goes without saying, with more than 150 service desk tools to choose from, selecting the right one is easier said than done. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing an ITSM products:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Identify key processes and their dependencies. </span>Based on business goals, decide which key ITSM processes need to be implemented and chart out the integrations that need to be established to achieve those goals. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Consult with ITSM experts.</span> Participate in business expos, webinars, demos, etc., and educate yourself about the various options that are available in the market. Reports from expert analysts such as Gartner and Forrester are particularly useful as they include reviews of almost every solution, ranked based on multiple criteria.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Choose a deployment option.</span> Every business has a different IT infrastructure model. Selecting an on-premises or software as a service (SaaS IT service management) tool depends on whether your business prefers to host its applications and data on its own servers or use a public or private cloud.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Plan ahead for the future.</span> Although it's important to consider the &quot;needs&quot; primarily, you shouldn't rule out the secondary or luxury capabilities. If the ITSM tool doesn't have the potential to adapt to your needs as your organization grows, it can pull you back from progressing. Draw a clear picture of where your business is headed and choose an service ITSM that is flexible and technology-driven.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Don't stop with the capabilities of the ITSM tool.</span> It might be tempting to assess an ITSM tool based on its capabilities and features but it's important to evaluate the vendor of the tool. A good IT support team, and a vendor that is endorsed for their customer-vendor relationship can take your IT services far. Check Gartner's magic quadrant and other analyst reports, along with product and support reviews to ensure that the said tool provides good customer support.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_ITSM.png"},{"id":52,"title":"SaaS - software as a service","alias":"saas-software-as-a-service","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Software as a service (SaaS)</span> is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as &quot;on-demand software&quot;, and was formerly referred to as &quot;software plus services&quot; by Microsoft.\r\n SaaS services is typically accessed by users using a thin client, e.g. via a web browser. SaaS software solutions has become a common delivery model for many business applications, including office software, messaging software, payroll processing software, DBMS software, management software, CAD software, development software, gamification, virtualization, accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM), Management Information Systems (MIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing, human resource management (HRM), talent acquisition, learning management systems, content management (CM), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and service desk management. SaaS has been incorporated into the strategy of nearly all leading enterprise software companies.\r\nSaaS applications are also known as <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Web-based software</span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">on-demand software</span> and<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> hosted software</span>.\r\nThe term &quot;Software as a Service&quot; (SaaS) is considered to be part of the nomenclature of cloud computing, along with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Desktop as a Service (DaaS),managed software as a service (MSaaS), mobile backend as a service (MBaaS), and information technology management as a service (ITMaaS).\r\nBecause SaaS is based on cloud computing it saves organizations from installing and running applications on their own systems. That eliminates or at least reduces the associated costs of hardware purchases and maintenance and of software and support. The initial setup cost for a SaaS application is also generally lower than it for equivalent enterprise software purchased via a site license.\r\nSometimes, the use of SaaS cloud software can also reduce the long-term costs of software licensing, though that depends on the pricing model for the individual SaaS offering and the enterprise’s usage patterns. In fact, it’s possible for SaaS to cost more than traditional software licenses. This is an area IT organizations should explore carefully.<br />SaaS also provides enterprises the flexibility inherent with cloud services: they can subscribe to a SaaS offering as needed rather than having to buy software licenses and install the software on a variety of computers. The savings can be substantial in the case of applications that require new hardware purchases to support the software.<br /><br /><br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Who uses SaaS?</span></h1>\r\nIndustry analyst Forrester Research notes that SaaS adoption has so far been concentrated mostly in human resource management (HRM), customer relationship management (CRM), collaboration software (e.g., email), and procurement solutions, but is poised to widen. Today it’s possible to have a data warehouse in the cloud that you can access with business intelligence software running as a service and connect to your cloud-based ERP like NetSuite or Microsoft Dynamics.The dollar savings can run into the millions. And SaaS installations are often installed and working in a fraction of the time of on-premises deployments—some can be ready in hours. \r\nSales and marketing people are likely familiar with Salesforce.com, the leading SaaS CRM software, with millions of users across more than 100,000 customers. Sales is going SaaS too, with apps available to support sales in order management, compensation, quote production and configure, price, quoting, electronic signatures, contract management and more.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Why SaaS? Benefits of software as a service</span></h1>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Lower cost of entry</span>. With SaaS solution, you pay for what you need, without having to buy hardware to host your new applications. Instead of provisioning internal resources to install the software, the vendor provides APIs and performs much of the work to get their software working for you. The time to a working solution can drop from months in the traditional model to weeks, days or hours with the SaaS model. In some businesses, IT wants nothing to do with installing and running a sales app. In the case of funding software and its implementation, this can be a make-or-break issue for the sales and marketing budget, so the lower cost really makes the difference.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Reduced time to benefit/rapid prototyping</span>. In the SaaS model, the software application is already installed and configured. Users can provision the server for the cloud and quickly have the application ready for use. This cuts the time to benefit and allows for rapid demonstrations and prototyping. With many SaaS companies offering free trials, this means a painless proof of concept and discovery phase to prove the benefit to the organization. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Pay as you go</span>. SaaS business software gives you the benefit of predictable costs both for the subscription and to some extent, the administration. Even as you scale, you can have a clear idea of what your costs will be. This allows for much more accurate budgeting, especially as compared to the costs of internal IT to manage upgrades and address issues for an owned instance.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The SaaS vendor is responsible for upgrades, uptime and security</span>. Under the SaaS model, since the software is hosted by the vendor, they take on the responsibility for maintaining the software and upgrading it, ensuring that it is reliable and meeting agreed-upon service level agreements, and keeping the application and its data secure.&nbsp; While some IT people worry about Software as a Service security outside of the enterprise walls, the likely truth is that the vendor has a much higher level of security than the enterprise itself would provide. Many will have redundant instances in very secure data centers in multiple geographies.&nbsp; Also, the data is being automatically backed up by the vendor, providing additional security and peace of mind. Because of the data center hosting, you’re getting the added benefit of at least some disaster recovery. Lastly, the vendor manages these issues as part of their core competencies—let them.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Integration and scalability.</span> Most SaaS apps are designed to support some amount of customization for the way you do business. SaaS vendors create APIs to allow connections not only to internal applications like ERPs or CRMs but also to other SaaS providers. One of the terrific aspects of integration is that orders written in the field can be automatically sent to the ERP. Now a salesperson in the field can check inventory through the catalog, write the order in front of the customer for approval, send it and receive confirmation, all in minutes. And as you scale with a SaaS vendor, there’s no need to invest in server capacity and software licenses. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Work anywhere</span>. Since the software is hosted in the cloud and accessible over the internet, users can access it via mobile devices wherever they are connected. This includes checking customer order histories prior to a sales call, as well as having access to real time data and real time order taking with the customer.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">&nbsp;</p>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/SaaS__1_.png"},{"id":499,"title":"SDN Software-Defined Network","alias":"sdn-software-defined-network","description":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Software-defined networking (SDN)</span> technology is an approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance and monitoring, making it more like cloud computing than traditional network management.\r\nSDN encompasses several types of technologies, including functional separation, network virtualization and automation through programmability. SDN solution is meant to address the fact that the static architecture of traditional networks is decentralized and complex while current networks require more flexibility and easy troubleshooting. \r\nSDN technology attempts to centralize network intelligence in one network component by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane</span>) from the routing process (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">control plane</span>). The control plane consists of one or more controllers which are considered as the brain of SDN network where the whole intelligence is incorporated. Originally, software defined technology focused solely on separation of the network control plane from the data plane. While the control plane makes decisions about how packets should flow through the network, the data plane actually moves packets from place to place. \r\nIn a classic SDN scenario, a packet arrives at a network switch, and rules built into the switch's proprietary firmware tell the switch where to forward the packet. These packet-handling rules are sent to the switch from the centralized controller. The switch - also known as a <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane device</span> - queries the controller for guidance as needed, and it provides the controller with information about traffic it handles. The switch sends every packet going to the same destination along the same path and treats all the packets the exact same way.\r\nSoftware defined networking solutions use an operation mode that is sometimes called adaptive or dynamic, in which a switch issues a route request to a controller for a packet that does not have a specific route. This process is separate from adaptive routing, which issues route requests through routers and algorithms based on the network topology, not through a controller.\r\nThe <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">virtualization</span> aspect of SDN comes into play through a virtual overlay, which is a logically separate network on top of the physical network. Users can implement end-to-end overlays to abstract the underlying network and segment network traffic. This microsegmentation is especially useful for service providers and operators with multi-tenant cloud environments and cloud services, as they can provision a separate virtual network with specific policies for each tenant.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of Software Defined Networking</h1>\r\nWith SDN software, an <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">administrator can change any network switch's rules when necessary</span> - prioritizing, deprioritizing or even blocking specific types of packets with a granular level of control and security. This is especially helpful in a cloud computing multi-tenant architecture, because it enables the administrator to manage traffic loads in a flexible and more efficient manner. Essentially, this enables the administrator to use less expensive commodity switches and have more control over network traffic flow than ever before.\r\nOther benefits of SDN are <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">network management</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">end-to-end visibility.</span>A network administrator need only deal with one centralized controller to distribute policies to the connected switches, instead of configuring multiple individual devices. This capability is also a security advantage because the controller can monitor traffic and deploy security policies. If the controller deems traffic suspicious, for example, it can reroute or drop the packets.\r\nSoftware defined networking software also <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">virtualizes hardware</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">services </span>that were previously carried out by dedicated hardware, resulting in the touted benefits of a reduced hardware footprint and lower operational costs.\r\nAdditionally, SDN contributed to the emergence of <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN)</span> technology. SD-WAN employs the virtual overlay aspect of SDN technology, abstracting an organization's connectivity links throughout its WAN and creating a virtual network that can use whichever connection the controller deems fit to send traffic.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Are there any SDN security benefits?</h1>\r\nAs security issues become more complex at the edge of the network, it’s no wonder that network and security professionals are looking for new ways to approach network protection. Nowadays, it seems like SDN is going to be the answer. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Centralized Network Control </span></li></ul>\r\nIn a traditional network, devices (router/switches) make their own decisions locally about where and how best to send traffic.&nbsp; In terms of network security, SDN can be used to route data packets through a single firewall and make IDS and IPS data capture more efficient.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Simplify Configuration</span></li></ul>\r\nThe SDN makes it easier to automate configuration and improves the traceability of those configurations. The introduction of SDN network management allows dynamic programming and restructuring of network settings, which reduces the risk of DDoS attacks. It is also worth adding that SDN has automatic quarantine capabilities. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Creation of High-level Network Policies</span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Rather than physically configuring security solutions, SDN facilitates the central management of security policies to make network operator roles more efficient and flexible. Moreover, SDN helps to move away from current management approaches such as SNMP/CLI and build more effective policy management. </span>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Easy to use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)</span></span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Cloud APIs are interfaces presented by software and play a vital role in SDN controllers and applications. Easy to use APIs help to manage network resources, improve the efficiency of IT resources, and aid integration with IT tools. Additionally, a number of good cloud security practices have been introduced recently. </span>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_SDN_Software_Defined_Network.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]},{"id":3326,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Ecessa_logo.png","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"Ecessa SD-WAN","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"1.00","implementationsCount":0,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":0,"alias":"ecessa-sd-wan","companyTitle":"Ecessa","companyTypes":["supplier","vendor"],"companyId":5234,"companyAlias":"ecessa","description":"Any business or entity that relies on public or private networks to operate their business.\r\nSD-WAN is the most disruptive technology to hit the telecom market in the last decade, delivering the benefits of increased bandwidth, network uptime and, in some cases, cost savings through the use of low-cost broadband connections.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">WHERE WE HELP</span>\r\n<ul> <li>We help you differentiate from direct</li> <li>We add incremental revenue streams and increase your margins with new and existing partners</li> <li>We can be your technical experts on SD-WAN helping you be the value-added partner</li> <li>We offer a variety of SD-WAN solutions with prices as low as $50/month</li> </ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">WHERE ECESSA TENDS TO WIN</span>\r\n<ul> <li>Voice, video and VDI environments</li> <li>SMB/SME with 1 to 500 sites are in Ecessa’s sweet spot</li> <li>Regulated markets where data must be controlled from end-to-end, e.g. medical, banking/finance</li> <li>Customers who need flexible networks</li> </ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">WHY WE ARE DIFFERENT</span>\r\n<ul> <li>Bandwidth and carrier agnostic</li> <li>Ecessa offers 3 unique, and upgradeable, platforms that can be mixed and matched to create the perfect solution for any environment</li> <li>Ecessa has products that range from 60 Mbps to 20 Gbps</li> <li>Easy to consume with both CapEx and OpEx pricing options</li> <li>Ecessa is a premise-based solution which means all the intelligence sits on the device</li> <li>Cloud-based SD-WAN can introduce issues with security, oversubscription, and latency</li> </ul>","shortDescription":"At Ecessa, we help organizations deploy SD-WAN using a guided process and real-time data to prove the return on investment of an SD-WAN solution from the start.","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":7,"sellingCount":11,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"Ecessa SD-WAN","keywords":"","description":"Any business or entity that relies on public or private networks to operate their business.\r\nSD-WAN is the most disruptive technology to hit the telecom market in the last decade, delivering the benefits of increased bandwidth, network uptime and, in some case","og:title":"Ecessa SD-WAN","og:description":"Any business or entity that relies on public or private networks to operate their business.\r\nSD-WAN is the most disruptive technology to hit the telecom market in the last decade, delivering the benefits of increased bandwidth, network uptime and, in some case","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Ecessa_logo.png"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":3327,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[{"id":93,"title":"Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN)"}],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":34,"title":"ITSM - IT Service Management","alias":"itsm-it-service-management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">IT service management (ITSM)</span> is the process of designing, delivering, managing, and improving the IT services an organization provides to its end users. ITSM is focused on aligning IT processes and services with business objectives to help an organization grow.\r\nITSM positions IT services as the key means of delivering and obtaining value, where an internal or external IT service provider works with business customers, at the same time taking responsibility for the associated costs and risks. ITSM works across the whole lifecycle of a service, from the original strategy, through design, transition and into live operation.\r\nTo ensure sustainable quality of IT services, ITSM establishes a set of practices, or processes, constituting a service management system. There are industrial, national and international standards for IT service management solutions, setting up requirements and good practices for the management system. \r\nITSM system is based on a set of principles, such as focusing on value and continual improvement. It is not just a set of processes – it is a cultural mindset to ensure that the desired outcome for the business is achieved. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library)</span> is a framework of best practices and recommendations for managing an organization's IT operations and services. IT service management processes, when built based on the ITIL framework, pave the way for better IT service operations management and improved business. To summarize, ITIL is a set of guidelines for effective IT service management best practices. ITIL has evolved beyond the delivery of services to providing end-to-end value delivery. The focus is now on the co-creation of value through service relationships. \r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM processes typically include five stages, all based on the ITIL framework:</span></p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM strategy.</span> This stage forms the foundation or the framework of an organization's ITSM process building. It involves defining the services that the organization will offer, strategically planning processes, and recognizing and developing the required assets to keep processes moving. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service design.</span> This stage's main aim is planning and designing the IT services the organization offers to meet business demands. It involves creating and designing new services as well as assessing current services and making relevant improvements.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service transition.</span> Once the designs for IT services and their processes have been finalized, it's important to build them and test them out to ensure that processes flow. IT teams need to ensure that the designs don't disrupt services in any way, especially when existing IT service processes are upgraded or redesigned. This calls for change management, evaluation, and risk management. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service operation. </span>This phase involves implementing the tried and tested new or modified designs in a live environment. While in this stage, the processes have already been tested and the issues fixed, but new processes are bound to have hiccups—especially when customers start using the services. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Continual service improvement (CSI).</span> Implementing IT processes successfully shouldn't be the final stage in any organization. There's always room for improvement and new development based on issues that pop up, customer needs and demands, and user feedback.\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of efficient ITSM processes</h1>\r\nIrrespective of the size of business, every organization is involved in IT service management in some way. ITSM ensures that incidents, service requests, problems, changes, and IT assets—in addition to other aspects of IT services—are managed in a streamlined way.\r\nIT teams in your organization can employ various workflows and best practices in ITSM, as outlined in ITIL. Effective IT service management can have positive effects on an IT organization's overall function.\r\nHere are the 10 key benefits of ITSM:\r\n<ul><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lower costs for IT operations</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Higher returns on IT investments</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Minimal service outages</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ability to establish well-defined, repeatable, and manageable IT processes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Efficient analysis of IT problems to reduce repeat incidents</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Improved efficiency of IT help desk teams</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well-defined roles and responsibilities</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Clear expectations on service levels and service availability</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Risk-free implementation of IT changes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Better transparency into IT processes and services</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">How to choose an ITSM tool?</h1>\r\nWith a competent IT service management goal in mind, it's important to invest in a service desk solution that caters to your business needs. It goes without saying, with more than 150 service desk tools to choose from, selecting the right one is easier said than done. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing an ITSM products:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Identify key processes and their dependencies. </span>Based on business goals, decide which key ITSM processes need to be implemented and chart out the integrations that need to be established to achieve those goals. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Consult with ITSM experts.</span> Participate in business expos, webinars, demos, etc., and educate yourself about the various options that are available in the market. Reports from expert analysts such as Gartner and Forrester are particularly useful as they include reviews of almost every solution, ranked based on multiple criteria.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Choose a deployment option.</span> Every business has a different IT infrastructure model. Selecting an on-premises or software as a service (SaaS IT service management) tool depends on whether your business prefers to host its applications and data on its own servers or use a public or private cloud.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Plan ahead for the future.</span> Although it's important to consider the &quot;needs&quot; primarily, you shouldn't rule out the secondary or luxury capabilities. If the ITSM tool doesn't have the potential to adapt to your needs as your organization grows, it can pull you back from progressing. Draw a clear picture of where your business is headed and choose an service ITSM that is flexible and technology-driven.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Don't stop with the capabilities of the ITSM tool.</span> It might be tempting to assess an ITSM tool based on its capabilities and features but it's important to evaluate the vendor of the tool. A good IT support team, and a vendor that is endorsed for their customer-vendor relationship can take your IT services far. Check Gartner's magic quadrant and other analyst reports, along with product and support reviews to ensure that the said tool provides good customer support.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_ITSM.png"},{"id":52,"title":"SaaS - software as a service","alias":"saas-software-as-a-service","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Software as a service (SaaS)</span> is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as &quot;on-demand software&quot;, and was formerly referred to as &quot;software plus services&quot; by Microsoft.\r\n SaaS services is typically accessed by users using a thin client, e.g. via a web browser. SaaS software solutions has become a common delivery model for many business applications, including office software, messaging software, payroll processing software, DBMS software, management software, CAD software, development software, gamification, virtualization, accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM), Management Information Systems (MIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing, human resource management (HRM), talent acquisition, learning management systems, content management (CM), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and service desk management. SaaS has been incorporated into the strategy of nearly all leading enterprise software companies.\r\nSaaS applications are also known as <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Web-based software</span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">on-demand software</span> and<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> hosted software</span>.\r\nThe term &quot;Software as a Service&quot; (SaaS) is considered to be part of the nomenclature of cloud computing, along with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Desktop as a Service (DaaS),managed software as a service (MSaaS), mobile backend as a service (MBaaS), and information technology management as a service (ITMaaS).\r\nBecause SaaS is based on cloud computing it saves organizations from installing and running applications on their own systems. That eliminates or at least reduces the associated costs of hardware purchases and maintenance and of software and support. The initial setup cost for a SaaS application is also generally lower than it for equivalent enterprise software purchased via a site license.\r\nSometimes, the use of SaaS cloud software can also reduce the long-term costs of software licensing, though that depends on the pricing model for the individual SaaS offering and the enterprise’s usage patterns. In fact, it’s possible for SaaS to cost more than traditional software licenses. This is an area IT organizations should explore carefully.<br />SaaS also provides enterprises the flexibility inherent with cloud services: they can subscribe to a SaaS offering as needed rather than having to buy software licenses and install the software on a variety of computers. The savings can be substantial in the case of applications that require new hardware purchases to support the software.<br /><br /><br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Who uses SaaS?</span></h1>\r\nIndustry analyst Forrester Research notes that SaaS adoption has so far been concentrated mostly in human resource management (HRM), customer relationship management (CRM), collaboration software (e.g., email), and procurement solutions, but is poised to widen. Today it’s possible to have a data warehouse in the cloud that you can access with business intelligence software running as a service and connect to your cloud-based ERP like NetSuite or Microsoft Dynamics.The dollar savings can run into the millions. And SaaS installations are often installed and working in a fraction of the time of on-premises deployments—some can be ready in hours. \r\nSales and marketing people are likely familiar with Salesforce.com, the leading SaaS CRM software, with millions of users across more than 100,000 customers. Sales is going SaaS too, with apps available to support sales in order management, compensation, quote production and configure, price, quoting, electronic signatures, contract management and more.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Why SaaS? Benefits of software as a service</span></h1>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Lower cost of entry</span>. With SaaS solution, you pay for what you need, without having to buy hardware to host your new applications. Instead of provisioning internal resources to install the software, the vendor provides APIs and performs much of the work to get their software working for you. The time to a working solution can drop from months in the traditional model to weeks, days or hours with the SaaS model. In some businesses, IT wants nothing to do with installing and running a sales app. In the case of funding software and its implementation, this can be a make-or-break issue for the sales and marketing budget, so the lower cost really makes the difference.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Reduced time to benefit/rapid prototyping</span>. In the SaaS model, the software application is already installed and configured. Users can provision the server for the cloud and quickly have the application ready for use. This cuts the time to benefit and allows for rapid demonstrations and prototyping. With many SaaS companies offering free trials, this means a painless proof of concept and discovery phase to prove the benefit to the organization. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Pay as you go</span>. SaaS business software gives you the benefit of predictable costs both for the subscription and to some extent, the administration. Even as you scale, you can have a clear idea of what your costs will be. This allows for much more accurate budgeting, especially as compared to the costs of internal IT to manage upgrades and address issues for an owned instance.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The SaaS vendor is responsible for upgrades, uptime and security</span>. Under the SaaS model, since the software is hosted by the vendor, they take on the responsibility for maintaining the software and upgrading it, ensuring that it is reliable and meeting agreed-upon service level agreements, and keeping the application and its data secure.&nbsp; While some IT people worry about Software as a Service security outside of the enterprise walls, the likely truth is that the vendor has a much higher level of security than the enterprise itself would provide. Many will have redundant instances in very secure data centers in multiple geographies.&nbsp; Also, the data is being automatically backed up by the vendor, providing additional security and peace of mind. Because of the data center hosting, you’re getting the added benefit of at least some disaster recovery. Lastly, the vendor manages these issues as part of their core competencies—let them.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Integration and scalability.</span> Most SaaS apps are designed to support some amount of customization for the way you do business. SaaS vendors create APIs to allow connections not only to internal applications like ERPs or CRMs but also to other SaaS providers. One of the terrific aspects of integration is that orders written in the field can be automatically sent to the ERP. Now a salesperson in the field can check inventory through the catalog, write the order in front of the customer for approval, send it and receive confirmation, all in minutes. And as you scale with a SaaS vendor, there’s no need to invest in server capacity and software licenses. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Work anywhere</span>. Since the software is hosted in the cloud and accessible over the internet, users can access it via mobile devices wherever they are connected. This includes checking customer order histories prior to a sales call, as well as having access to real time data and real time order taking with the customer.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">&nbsp;</p>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/SaaS__1_.png"},{"id":499,"title":"SDN Software-Defined Network","alias":"sdn-software-defined-network","description":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Software-defined networking (SDN)</span> technology is an approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance and monitoring, making it more like cloud computing than traditional network management.\r\nSDN encompasses several types of technologies, including functional separation, network virtualization and automation through programmability. SDN solution is meant to address the fact that the static architecture of traditional networks is decentralized and complex while current networks require more flexibility and easy troubleshooting. \r\nSDN technology attempts to centralize network intelligence in one network component by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane</span>) from the routing process (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">control plane</span>). The control plane consists of one or more controllers which are considered as the brain of SDN network where the whole intelligence is incorporated. Originally, software defined technology focused solely on separation of the network control plane from the data plane. While the control plane makes decisions about how packets should flow through the network, the data plane actually moves packets from place to place. \r\nIn a classic SDN scenario, a packet arrives at a network switch, and rules built into the switch's proprietary firmware tell the switch where to forward the packet. These packet-handling rules are sent to the switch from the centralized controller. The switch - also known as a <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane device</span> - queries the controller for guidance as needed, and it provides the controller with information about traffic it handles. The switch sends every packet going to the same destination along the same path and treats all the packets the exact same way.\r\nSoftware defined networking solutions use an operation mode that is sometimes called adaptive or dynamic, in which a switch issues a route request to a controller for a packet that does not have a specific route. This process is separate from adaptive routing, which issues route requests through routers and algorithms based on the network topology, not through a controller.\r\nThe <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">virtualization</span> aspect of SDN comes into play through a virtual overlay, which is a logically separate network on top of the physical network. Users can implement end-to-end overlays to abstract the underlying network and segment network traffic. This microsegmentation is especially useful for service providers and operators with multi-tenant cloud environments and cloud services, as they can provision a separate virtual network with specific policies for each tenant.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of Software Defined Networking</h1>\r\nWith SDN software, an <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">administrator can change any network switch's rules when necessary</span> - prioritizing, deprioritizing or even blocking specific types of packets with a granular level of control and security. This is especially helpful in a cloud computing multi-tenant architecture, because it enables the administrator to manage traffic loads in a flexible and more efficient manner. Essentially, this enables the administrator to use less expensive commodity switches and have more control over network traffic flow than ever before.\r\nOther benefits of SDN are <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">network management</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">end-to-end visibility.</span>A network administrator need only deal with one centralized controller to distribute policies to the connected switches, instead of configuring multiple individual devices. This capability is also a security advantage because the controller can monitor traffic and deploy security policies. If the controller deems traffic suspicious, for example, it can reroute or drop the packets.\r\nSoftware defined networking software also <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">virtualizes hardware</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">services </span>that were previously carried out by dedicated hardware, resulting in the touted benefits of a reduced hardware footprint and lower operational costs.\r\nAdditionally, SDN contributed to the emergence of <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN)</span> technology. SD-WAN employs the virtual overlay aspect of SDN technology, abstracting an organization's connectivity links throughout its WAN and creating a virtual network that can use whichever connection the controller deems fit to send traffic.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Are there any SDN security benefits?</h1>\r\nAs security issues become more complex at the edge of the network, it’s no wonder that network and security professionals are looking for new ways to approach network protection. Nowadays, it seems like SDN is going to be the answer. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Centralized Network Control </span></li></ul>\r\nIn a traditional network, devices (router/switches) make their own decisions locally about where and how best to send traffic.&nbsp; In terms of network security, SDN can be used to route data packets through a single firewall and make IDS and IPS data capture more efficient.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Simplify Configuration</span></li></ul>\r\nThe SDN makes it easier to automate configuration and improves the traceability of those configurations. The introduction of SDN network management allows dynamic programming and restructuring of network settings, which reduces the risk of DDoS attacks. It is also worth adding that SDN has automatic quarantine capabilities. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Creation of High-level Network Policies</span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Rather than physically configuring security solutions, SDN facilitates the central management of security policies to make network operator roles more efficient and flexible. Moreover, SDN helps to move away from current management approaches such as SNMP/CLI and build more effective policy management. </span>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Easy to use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)</span></span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Cloud APIs are interfaces presented by software and play a vital role in SDN controllers and applications. Easy to use APIs help to manage network resources, improve the efficiency of IT resources, and aid integration with IT tools. Additionally, a number of good cloud security practices have been introduced recently. </span>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_SDN_Software_Defined_Network.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]},{"id":3330,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/juniper_networks.png","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"Juniper Cloud CPE with SD-WAN","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"1.40","implementationsCount":0,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":2,"alias":"juniper-cloud-cpe-with-sd-wan","companyTitle":"Juniper Networks","companyTypes":["supplier","vendor"],"companyId":2784,"companyAlias":"juniper-networks","description":"The Juniper Networks Cloud Customer premises equipment (CPE) and SD-WAN solutions use the Contrail Service Orchestration (CSO) to transform traditional branch networks, offering opportunities for high flexibility of the network, rapid introduction of new services, automation of network administration, and cost savings. The solutions can be implemented by service providers for their customers or by Enterprise IT departments in a campus and branch environment. In this documentation, service providers and Enterprise IT departments are called service providers, and the consumers of their services are called customers.\r\nThe Cloud CPE solution supports both Juniper Networks and third-party virtualized network functions (VNFs) that network providers use to create network services. The following deployment models are available:\r\n<ul> <li>Cloud CPE Centralized Deployment Model (centralized deployment). In the centralized deployment, customers access network services in a service provider’s cloud. Sites that access network services in this way are called service edge sites in this documentation.</li> <li>Cloud CPE Distributed Deployment Model (distributed deployment), also known as a hybrid WAN deployment. In the distributed deployment, customers access network services on a CPE device, located at a customer’s site. These sites are called on-premise sites in this documentation.</li> <li>A combined centralized and distributed deployment. In this deployment, the network contains both service edge sites and on-premise sites. A customer can have both cloud sites and tenant sites; however, you cannot share a network service between the centralized and distributed deployments. If you require the same network service for the centralized deployment and the distributed deployment, you must create two identical network services with different names.</li> </ul>\r\nYou must consider several issues when choosing whether to employ one or both types of deployment. The centralized deployment offers a fast migration route and this deployment is the recommended model for sites that can accommodate network services—particularly security services—in the cloud. In contrast, the distributed deployment supports private hosting of network services on a CPE device at a customer’s site and can be extended to offer software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) capabilities. Implementing a combination network in which some sites use the centralized deployment and some sites use the distributed deployment provides appropriate access for different sites.\r\nThe SD-WAN solution offers a flexible and automated way to route traffic through the cloud. Similar to a distributed deployment, this implementation uses CPE devices located at on-premise sites to connect to the LAN segments. Hub-and-spoke and full mesh topologies are supported. The CSO software uses SD-WAN policies and service-level agreement measurements to differentiate and route traffic for different applications.\r\nOne CSO installation can support a combined centralized and distributed deployment and an SD-WAN solution simultaneously. The same set of CPE devices can be used for the distributed deployment and the SD-WAN solution. Alternatively, you can implement only the deployments that you need.\r\nYou can either use the solutions as turnkey implementations or connect to other operational support and business support systems (OSS/BSS) through northbound Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs.","shortDescription":"Junipers’ SD-WAN joins the company’s expanding portfolio of cloud-delivered networking products while simultaneously overtaking rival SD-WAN solutions by including branch universal CPE, LAN and Wi-Fi\r\n","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":20,"sellingCount":8,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"Juniper Cloud CPE with SD-WAN","keywords":"","description":"The Juniper Networks Cloud Customer premises equipment (CPE) and SD-WAN solutions use the Contrail Service Orchestration (CSO) to transform traditional branch networks, offering opportunities for high flexibility of the network, rapid introduction of new servi","og:title":"Juniper Cloud CPE with SD-WAN","og:description":"The Juniper Networks Cloud Customer premises equipment (CPE) and SD-WAN solutions use the Contrail Service Orchestration (CSO) to transform traditional branch networks, offering opportunities for high flexibility of the network, rapid introduction of new servi","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/juniper_networks.png"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":3331,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[{"id":93,"title":"Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN)"}],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":34,"title":"ITSM - IT Service Management","alias":"itsm-it-service-management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">IT service management (ITSM)</span> is the process of designing, delivering, managing, and improving the IT services an organization provides to its end users. ITSM is focused on aligning IT processes and services with business objectives to help an organization grow.\r\nITSM positions IT services as the key means of delivering and obtaining value, where an internal or external IT service provider works with business customers, at the same time taking responsibility for the associated costs and risks. ITSM works across the whole lifecycle of a service, from the original strategy, through design, transition and into live operation.\r\nTo ensure sustainable quality of IT services, ITSM establishes a set of practices, or processes, constituting a service management system. There are industrial, national and international standards for IT service management solutions, setting up requirements and good practices for the management system. \r\nITSM system is based on a set of principles, such as focusing on value and continual improvement. It is not just a set of processes – it is a cultural mindset to ensure that the desired outcome for the business is achieved. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library)</span> is a framework of best practices and recommendations for managing an organization's IT operations and services. IT service management processes, when built based on the ITIL framework, pave the way for better IT service operations management and improved business. To summarize, ITIL is a set of guidelines for effective IT service management best practices. ITIL has evolved beyond the delivery of services to providing end-to-end value delivery. The focus is now on the co-creation of value through service relationships. \r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM processes typically include five stages, all based on the ITIL framework:</span></p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM strategy.</span> This stage forms the foundation or the framework of an organization's ITSM process building. It involves defining the services that the organization will offer, strategically planning processes, and recognizing and developing the required assets to keep processes moving. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service design.</span> This stage's main aim is planning and designing the IT services the organization offers to meet business demands. It involves creating and designing new services as well as assessing current services and making relevant improvements.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service transition.</span> Once the designs for IT services and their processes have been finalized, it's important to build them and test them out to ensure that processes flow. IT teams need to ensure that the designs don't disrupt services in any way, especially when existing IT service processes are upgraded or redesigned. This calls for change management, evaluation, and risk management. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service operation. </span>This phase involves implementing the tried and tested new or modified designs in a live environment. While in this stage, the processes have already been tested and the issues fixed, but new processes are bound to have hiccups—especially when customers start using the services. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Continual service improvement (CSI).</span> Implementing IT processes successfully shouldn't be the final stage in any organization. There's always room for improvement and new development based on issues that pop up, customer needs and demands, and user feedback.\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of efficient ITSM processes</h1>\r\nIrrespective of the size of business, every organization is involved in IT service management in some way. ITSM ensures that incidents, service requests, problems, changes, and IT assets—in addition to other aspects of IT services—are managed in a streamlined way.\r\nIT teams in your organization can employ various workflows and best practices in ITSM, as outlined in ITIL. Effective IT service management can have positive effects on an IT organization's overall function.\r\nHere are the 10 key benefits of ITSM:\r\n<ul><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lower costs for IT operations</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Higher returns on IT investments</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Minimal service outages</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ability to establish well-defined, repeatable, and manageable IT processes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Efficient analysis of IT problems to reduce repeat incidents</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Improved efficiency of IT help desk teams</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well-defined roles and responsibilities</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Clear expectations on service levels and service availability</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Risk-free implementation of IT changes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Better transparency into IT processes and services</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">How to choose an ITSM tool?</h1>\r\nWith a competent IT service management goal in mind, it's important to invest in a service desk solution that caters to your business needs. It goes without saying, with more than 150 service desk tools to choose from, selecting the right one is easier said than done. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing an ITSM products:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Identify key processes and their dependencies. </span>Based on business goals, decide which key ITSM processes need to be implemented and chart out the integrations that need to be established to achieve those goals. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Consult with ITSM experts.</span> Participate in business expos, webinars, demos, etc., and educate yourself about the various options that are available in the market. Reports from expert analysts such as Gartner and Forrester are particularly useful as they include reviews of almost every solution, ranked based on multiple criteria.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Choose a deployment option.</span> Every business has a different IT infrastructure model. Selecting an on-premises or software as a service (SaaS IT service management) tool depends on whether your business prefers to host its applications and data on its own servers or use a public or private cloud.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Plan ahead for the future.</span> Although it's important to consider the &quot;needs&quot; primarily, you shouldn't rule out the secondary or luxury capabilities. If the ITSM tool doesn't have the potential to adapt to your needs as your organization grows, it can pull you back from progressing. Draw a clear picture of where your business is headed and choose an service ITSM that is flexible and technology-driven.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Don't stop with the capabilities of the ITSM tool.</span> It might be tempting to assess an ITSM tool based on its capabilities and features but it's important to evaluate the vendor of the tool. A good IT support team, and a vendor that is endorsed for their customer-vendor relationship can take your IT services far. Check Gartner's magic quadrant and other analyst reports, along with product and support reviews to ensure that the said tool provides good customer support.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_ITSM.png"},{"id":52,"title":"SaaS - software as a service","alias":"saas-software-as-a-service","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Software as a service (SaaS)</span> is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as &quot;on-demand software&quot;, and was formerly referred to as &quot;software plus services&quot; by Microsoft.\r\n SaaS services is typically accessed by users using a thin client, e.g. via a web browser. SaaS software solutions has become a common delivery model for many business applications, including office software, messaging software, payroll processing software, DBMS software, management software, CAD software, development software, gamification, virtualization, accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM), Management Information Systems (MIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing, human resource management (HRM), talent acquisition, learning management systems, content management (CM), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and service desk management. SaaS has been incorporated into the strategy of nearly all leading enterprise software companies.\r\nSaaS applications are also known as <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Web-based software</span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">on-demand software</span> and<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> hosted software</span>.\r\nThe term &quot;Software as a Service&quot; (SaaS) is considered to be part of the nomenclature of cloud computing, along with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Desktop as a Service (DaaS),managed software as a service (MSaaS), mobile backend as a service (MBaaS), and information technology management as a service (ITMaaS).\r\nBecause SaaS is based on cloud computing it saves organizations from installing and running applications on their own systems. That eliminates or at least reduces the associated costs of hardware purchases and maintenance and of software and support. The initial setup cost for a SaaS application is also generally lower than it for equivalent enterprise software purchased via a site license.\r\nSometimes, the use of SaaS cloud software can also reduce the long-term costs of software licensing, though that depends on the pricing model for the individual SaaS offering and the enterprise’s usage patterns. In fact, it’s possible for SaaS to cost more than traditional software licenses. This is an area IT organizations should explore carefully.<br />SaaS also provides enterprises the flexibility inherent with cloud services: they can subscribe to a SaaS offering as needed rather than having to buy software licenses and install the software on a variety of computers. The savings can be substantial in the case of applications that require new hardware purchases to support the software.<br /><br /><br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Who uses SaaS?</span></h1>\r\nIndustry analyst Forrester Research notes that SaaS adoption has so far been concentrated mostly in human resource management (HRM), customer relationship management (CRM), collaboration software (e.g., email), and procurement solutions, but is poised to widen. Today it’s possible to have a data warehouse in the cloud that you can access with business intelligence software running as a service and connect to your cloud-based ERP like NetSuite or Microsoft Dynamics.The dollar savings can run into the millions. And SaaS installations are often installed and working in a fraction of the time of on-premises deployments—some can be ready in hours. \r\nSales and marketing people are likely familiar with Salesforce.com, the leading SaaS CRM software, with millions of users across more than 100,000 customers. Sales is going SaaS too, with apps available to support sales in order management, compensation, quote production and configure, price, quoting, electronic signatures, contract management and more.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Why SaaS? Benefits of software as a service</span></h1>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Lower cost of entry</span>. With SaaS solution, you pay for what you need, without having to buy hardware to host your new applications. Instead of provisioning internal resources to install the software, the vendor provides APIs and performs much of the work to get their software working for you. The time to a working solution can drop from months in the traditional model to weeks, days or hours with the SaaS model. In some businesses, IT wants nothing to do with installing and running a sales app. In the case of funding software and its implementation, this can be a make-or-break issue for the sales and marketing budget, so the lower cost really makes the difference.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Reduced time to benefit/rapid prototyping</span>. In the SaaS model, the software application is already installed and configured. Users can provision the server for the cloud and quickly have the application ready for use. This cuts the time to benefit and allows for rapid demonstrations and prototyping. With many SaaS companies offering free trials, this means a painless proof of concept and discovery phase to prove the benefit to the organization. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Pay as you go</span>. SaaS business software gives you the benefit of predictable costs both for the subscription and to some extent, the administration. Even as you scale, you can have a clear idea of what your costs will be. This allows for much more accurate budgeting, especially as compared to the costs of internal IT to manage upgrades and address issues for an owned instance.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The SaaS vendor is responsible for upgrades, uptime and security</span>. Under the SaaS model, since the software is hosted by the vendor, they take on the responsibility for maintaining the software and upgrading it, ensuring that it is reliable and meeting agreed-upon service level agreements, and keeping the application and its data secure.&nbsp; While some IT people worry about Software as a Service security outside of the enterprise walls, the likely truth is that the vendor has a much higher level of security than the enterprise itself would provide. Many will have redundant instances in very secure data centers in multiple geographies.&nbsp; Also, the data is being automatically backed up by the vendor, providing additional security and peace of mind. Because of the data center hosting, you’re getting the added benefit of at least some disaster recovery. Lastly, the vendor manages these issues as part of their core competencies—let them.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Integration and scalability.</span> Most SaaS apps are designed to support some amount of customization for the way you do business. SaaS vendors create APIs to allow connections not only to internal applications like ERPs or CRMs but also to other SaaS providers. One of the terrific aspects of integration is that orders written in the field can be automatically sent to the ERP. Now a salesperson in the field can check inventory through the catalog, write the order in front of the customer for approval, send it and receive confirmation, all in minutes. And as you scale with a SaaS vendor, there’s no need to invest in server capacity and software licenses. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Work anywhere</span>. Since the software is hosted in the cloud and accessible over the internet, users can access it via mobile devices wherever they are connected. This includes checking customer order histories prior to a sales call, as well as having access to real time data and real time order taking with the customer.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">&nbsp;</p>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/SaaS__1_.png"},{"id":499,"title":"SDN Software-Defined Network","alias":"sdn-software-defined-network","description":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Software-defined networking (SDN)</span> technology is an approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance and monitoring, making it more like cloud computing than traditional network management.\r\nSDN encompasses several types of technologies, including functional separation, network virtualization and automation through programmability. SDN solution is meant to address the fact that the static architecture of traditional networks is decentralized and complex while current networks require more flexibility and easy troubleshooting. \r\nSDN technology attempts to centralize network intelligence in one network component by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane</span>) from the routing process (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">control plane</span>). The control plane consists of one or more controllers which are considered as the brain of SDN network where the whole intelligence is incorporated. Originally, software defined technology focused solely on separation of the network control plane from the data plane. While the control plane makes decisions about how packets should flow through the network, the data plane actually moves packets from place to place. \r\nIn a classic SDN scenario, a packet arrives at a network switch, and rules built into the switch's proprietary firmware tell the switch where to forward the packet. These packet-handling rules are sent to the switch from the centralized controller. The switch - also known as a <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane device</span> - queries the controller for guidance as needed, and it provides the controller with information about traffic it handles. The switch sends every packet going to the same destination along the same path and treats all the packets the exact same way.\r\nSoftware defined networking solutions use an operation mode that is sometimes called adaptive or dynamic, in which a switch issues a route request to a controller for a packet that does not have a specific route. This process is separate from adaptive routing, which issues route requests through routers and algorithms based on the network topology, not through a controller.\r\nThe <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">virtualization</span> aspect of SDN comes into play through a virtual overlay, which is a logically separate network on top of the physical network. Users can implement end-to-end overlays to abstract the underlying network and segment network traffic. This microsegmentation is especially useful for service providers and operators with multi-tenant cloud environments and cloud services, as they can provision a separate virtual network with specific policies for each tenant.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of Software Defined Networking</h1>\r\nWith SDN software, an <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">administrator can change any network switch's rules when necessary</span> - prioritizing, deprioritizing or even blocking specific types of packets with a granular level of control and security. This is especially helpful in a cloud computing multi-tenant architecture, because it enables the administrator to manage traffic loads in a flexible and more efficient manner. Essentially, this enables the administrator to use less expensive commodity switches and have more control over network traffic flow than ever before.\r\nOther benefits of SDN are <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">network management</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">end-to-end visibility.</span>A network administrator need only deal with one centralized controller to distribute policies to the connected switches, instead of configuring multiple individual devices. This capability is also a security advantage because the controller can monitor traffic and deploy security policies. If the controller deems traffic suspicious, for example, it can reroute or drop the packets.\r\nSoftware defined networking software also <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">virtualizes hardware</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">services </span>that were previously carried out by dedicated hardware, resulting in the touted benefits of a reduced hardware footprint and lower operational costs.\r\nAdditionally, SDN contributed to the emergence of <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN)</span> technology. SD-WAN employs the virtual overlay aspect of SDN technology, abstracting an organization's connectivity links throughout its WAN and creating a virtual network that can use whichever connection the controller deems fit to send traffic.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Are there any SDN security benefits?</h1>\r\nAs security issues become more complex at the edge of the network, it’s no wonder that network and security professionals are looking for new ways to approach network protection. Nowadays, it seems like SDN is going to be the answer. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Centralized Network Control </span></li></ul>\r\nIn a traditional network, devices (router/switches) make their own decisions locally about where and how best to send traffic.&nbsp; In terms of network security, SDN can be used to route data packets through a single firewall and make IDS and IPS data capture more efficient.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Simplify Configuration</span></li></ul>\r\nThe SDN makes it easier to automate configuration and improves the traceability of those configurations. The introduction of SDN network management allows dynamic programming and restructuring of network settings, which reduces the risk of DDoS attacks. It is also worth adding that SDN has automatic quarantine capabilities. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Creation of High-level Network Policies</span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Rather than physically configuring security solutions, SDN facilitates the central management of security policies to make network operator roles more efficient and flexible. Moreover, SDN helps to move away from current management approaches such as SNMP/CLI and build more effective policy management. </span>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Easy to use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)</span></span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Cloud APIs are interfaces presented by software and play a vital role in SDN controllers and applications. Easy to use APIs help to manage network resources, improve the efficiency of IT resources, and aid integration with IT tools. Additionally, a number of good cloud security practices have been introduced recently. </span>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_SDN_Software_Defined_Network.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]},{"id":3337,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/forcepoint_logo.png","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"Forcepoint Secure Enterprise SD-WAN","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"2.00","implementationsCount":0,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":8,"alias":"forcepoint-secure-enterprise-sd-wan","companyTitle":"Forcepoint","companyTypes":["supplier","vendor"],"companyId":178,"companyAlias":"forcepoint","description":"Forcepoint’s network security products combine the latest in software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) with the industry’s top-rated next-generation firewall (NGFW) security, all managed at enterprise scale from a single policy-based console. It is used by organizations of all sizes in retail, hospitality, and financial services around the globe.\r\nForcepoint is depended upon by distributed organizations around the world to safely and efficiently connect and protect their remote stores, branches, and office buildings. Our SD-WAN technology enables sites to seamlessly use multiple connections from different ISPs, secure each of those links with the industry’s top-rated security, and manage all of it together from one console.\r\nWhether you’re a global organization that needs unified visibility and control, a growing business aspiring to have many locations, or a smaller organization that administers remote locations from a central office, Forcepoint’s enterprise-grade approach helps untangle unnecessary complexity to achieve new levels of operational efficiency.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Zero-Touch Deployment</span>\r\nSave time and money by deploying Forcepoint to remote offices and branch locations without an on-site technician. Devices can automatically download their initial configuration from Forcepoint’s Installation Cloud, eliminating the need for manual setup.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Smarter Policies &amp; Updates</span>\r\nForcepoint’s Smart Policies express your business processes in familiar terms, such as users, applications, locations and more. Easy grouping replaces hardcoded values, enabling policies to be dynamically reused throughout your network. Administrators can quickly update and publish policies to all affected devices, globally with a single click.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Faster Incident Response</span>\r\nForcepoint SMC makes it easy to visualize and analyze what’s happening throughout your network.Network admins can interactively drill into the corresponding data to rapidly investigate patterns and anomalies and turn insights into immediate actions.","shortDescription":"Forcepoint Secure Enterprise SD-WAN allows you to safely and efficiently extend your network from your data centers and headquarters out to your remote branch offices and into the cloud.","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":11,"sellingCount":0,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"Forcepoint Secure Enterprise SD-WAN","keywords":"","description":"Forcepoint’s network security products combine the latest in software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) with the industry’s top-rated next-generation firewall (NGFW) security, all managed at enterprise scale from a single policy-based console. It is used b","og:title":"Forcepoint Secure Enterprise SD-WAN","og:description":"Forcepoint’s network security products combine the latest in software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) with the industry’s top-rated next-generation firewall (NGFW) security, all managed at enterprise scale from a single policy-based console. It is used b","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/forcepoint_logo.png"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":3338,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[{"id":93,"title":"Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN)"}],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":34,"title":"ITSM - IT Service Management","alias":"itsm-it-service-management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">IT service management (ITSM)</span> is the process of designing, delivering, managing, and improving the IT services an organization provides to its end users. ITSM is focused on aligning IT processes and services with business objectives to help an organization grow.\r\nITSM positions IT services as the key means of delivering and obtaining value, where an internal or external IT service provider works with business customers, at the same time taking responsibility for the associated costs and risks. ITSM works across the whole lifecycle of a service, from the original strategy, through design, transition and into live operation.\r\nTo ensure sustainable quality of IT services, ITSM establishes a set of practices, or processes, constituting a service management system. There are industrial, national and international standards for IT service management solutions, setting up requirements and good practices for the management system. \r\nITSM system is based on a set of principles, such as focusing on value and continual improvement. It is not just a set of processes – it is a cultural mindset to ensure that the desired outcome for the business is achieved. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library)</span> is a framework of best practices and recommendations for managing an organization's IT operations and services. IT service management processes, when built based on the ITIL framework, pave the way for better IT service operations management and improved business. To summarize, ITIL is a set of guidelines for effective IT service management best practices. ITIL has evolved beyond the delivery of services to providing end-to-end value delivery. The focus is now on the co-creation of value through service relationships. \r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM processes typically include five stages, all based on the ITIL framework:</span></p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM strategy.</span> This stage forms the foundation or the framework of an organization's ITSM process building. It involves defining the services that the organization will offer, strategically planning processes, and recognizing and developing the required assets to keep processes moving. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service design.</span> This stage's main aim is planning and designing the IT services the organization offers to meet business demands. It involves creating and designing new services as well as assessing current services and making relevant improvements.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service transition.</span> Once the designs for IT services and their processes have been finalized, it's important to build them and test them out to ensure that processes flow. IT teams need to ensure that the designs don't disrupt services in any way, especially when existing IT service processes are upgraded or redesigned. This calls for change management, evaluation, and risk management. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service operation. </span>This phase involves implementing the tried and tested new or modified designs in a live environment. While in this stage, the processes have already been tested and the issues fixed, but new processes are bound to have hiccups—especially when customers start using the services. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Continual service improvement (CSI).</span> Implementing IT processes successfully shouldn't be the final stage in any organization. There's always room for improvement and new development based on issues that pop up, customer needs and demands, and user feedback.\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of efficient ITSM processes</h1>\r\nIrrespective of the size of business, every organization is involved in IT service management in some way. ITSM ensures that incidents, service requests, problems, changes, and IT assets—in addition to other aspects of IT services—are managed in a streamlined way.\r\nIT teams in your organization can employ various workflows and best practices in ITSM, as outlined in ITIL. Effective IT service management can have positive effects on an IT organization's overall function.\r\nHere are the 10 key benefits of ITSM:\r\n<ul><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lower costs for IT operations</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Higher returns on IT investments</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Minimal service outages</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ability to establish well-defined, repeatable, and manageable IT processes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Efficient analysis of IT problems to reduce repeat incidents</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Improved efficiency of IT help desk teams</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well-defined roles and responsibilities</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Clear expectations on service levels and service availability</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Risk-free implementation of IT changes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Better transparency into IT processes and services</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">How to choose an ITSM tool?</h1>\r\nWith a competent IT service management goal in mind, it's important to invest in a service desk solution that caters to your business needs. It goes without saying, with more than 150 service desk tools to choose from, selecting the right one is easier said than done. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing an ITSM products:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Identify key processes and their dependencies. </span>Based on business goals, decide which key ITSM processes need to be implemented and chart out the integrations that need to be established to achieve those goals. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Consult with ITSM experts.</span> Participate in business expos, webinars, demos, etc., and educate yourself about the various options that are available in the market. Reports from expert analysts such as Gartner and Forrester are particularly useful as they include reviews of almost every solution, ranked based on multiple criteria.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Choose a deployment option.</span> Every business has a different IT infrastructure model. Selecting an on-premises or software as a service (SaaS IT service management) tool depends on whether your business prefers to host its applications and data on its own servers or use a public or private cloud.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Plan ahead for the future.</span> Although it's important to consider the &quot;needs&quot; primarily, you shouldn't rule out the secondary or luxury capabilities. If the ITSM tool doesn't have the potential to adapt to your needs as your organization grows, it can pull you back from progressing. Draw a clear picture of where your business is headed and choose an service ITSM that is flexible and technology-driven.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Don't stop with the capabilities of the ITSM tool.</span> It might be tempting to assess an ITSM tool based on its capabilities and features but it's important to evaluate the vendor of the tool. A good IT support team, and a vendor that is endorsed for their customer-vendor relationship can take your IT services far. Check Gartner's magic quadrant and other analyst reports, along with product and support reviews to ensure that the said tool provides good customer support.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_ITSM.png"},{"id":52,"title":"SaaS - software as a service","alias":"saas-software-as-a-service","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Software as a service (SaaS)</span> is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as &quot;on-demand software&quot;, and was formerly referred to as &quot;software plus services&quot; by Microsoft.\r\n SaaS services is typically accessed by users using a thin client, e.g. via a web browser. SaaS software solutions has become a common delivery model for many business applications, including office software, messaging software, payroll processing software, DBMS software, management software, CAD software, development software, gamification, virtualization, accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM), Management Information Systems (MIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing, human resource management (HRM), talent acquisition, learning management systems, content management (CM), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and service desk management. SaaS has been incorporated into the strategy of nearly all leading enterprise software companies.\r\nSaaS applications are also known as <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Web-based software</span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">on-demand software</span> and<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> hosted software</span>.\r\nThe term &quot;Software as a Service&quot; (SaaS) is considered to be part of the nomenclature of cloud computing, along with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Desktop as a Service (DaaS),managed software as a service (MSaaS), mobile backend as a service (MBaaS), and information technology management as a service (ITMaaS).\r\nBecause SaaS is based on cloud computing it saves organizations from installing and running applications on their own systems. That eliminates or at least reduces the associated costs of hardware purchases and maintenance and of software and support. The initial setup cost for a SaaS application is also generally lower than it for equivalent enterprise software purchased via a site license.\r\nSometimes, the use of SaaS cloud software can also reduce the long-term costs of software licensing, though that depends on the pricing model for the individual SaaS offering and the enterprise’s usage patterns. In fact, it’s possible for SaaS to cost more than traditional software licenses. This is an area IT organizations should explore carefully.<br />SaaS also provides enterprises the flexibility inherent with cloud services: they can subscribe to a SaaS offering as needed rather than having to buy software licenses and install the software on a variety of computers. The savings can be substantial in the case of applications that require new hardware purchases to support the software.<br /><br /><br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Who uses SaaS?</span></h1>\r\nIndustry analyst Forrester Research notes that SaaS adoption has so far been concentrated mostly in human resource management (HRM), customer relationship management (CRM), collaboration software (e.g., email), and procurement solutions, but is poised to widen. Today it’s possible to have a data warehouse in the cloud that you can access with business intelligence software running as a service and connect to your cloud-based ERP like NetSuite or Microsoft Dynamics.The dollar savings can run into the millions. And SaaS installations are often installed and working in a fraction of the time of on-premises deployments—some can be ready in hours. \r\nSales and marketing people are likely familiar with Salesforce.com, the leading SaaS CRM software, with millions of users across more than 100,000 customers. Sales is going SaaS too, with apps available to support sales in order management, compensation, quote production and configure, price, quoting, electronic signatures, contract management and more.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Why SaaS? Benefits of software as a service</span></h1>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Lower cost of entry</span>. With SaaS solution, you pay for what you need, without having to buy hardware to host your new applications. Instead of provisioning internal resources to install the software, the vendor provides APIs and performs much of the work to get their software working for you. The time to a working solution can drop from months in the traditional model to weeks, days or hours with the SaaS model. In some businesses, IT wants nothing to do with installing and running a sales app. In the case of funding software and its implementation, this can be a make-or-break issue for the sales and marketing budget, so the lower cost really makes the difference.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Reduced time to benefit/rapid prototyping</span>. In the SaaS model, the software application is already installed and configured. Users can provision the server for the cloud and quickly have the application ready for use. This cuts the time to benefit and allows for rapid demonstrations and prototyping. With many SaaS companies offering free trials, this means a painless proof of concept and discovery phase to prove the benefit to the organization. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Pay as you go</span>. SaaS business software gives you the benefit of predictable costs both for the subscription and to some extent, the administration. Even as you scale, you can have a clear idea of what your costs will be. This allows for much more accurate budgeting, especially as compared to the costs of internal IT to manage upgrades and address issues for an owned instance.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The SaaS vendor is responsible for upgrades, uptime and security</span>. Under the SaaS model, since the software is hosted by the vendor, they take on the responsibility for maintaining the software and upgrading it, ensuring that it is reliable and meeting agreed-upon service level agreements, and keeping the application and its data secure.&nbsp; While some IT people worry about Software as a Service security outside of the enterprise walls, the likely truth is that the vendor has a much higher level of security than the enterprise itself would provide. Many will have redundant instances in very secure data centers in multiple geographies.&nbsp; Also, the data is being automatically backed up by the vendor, providing additional security and peace of mind. Because of the data center hosting, you’re getting the added benefit of at least some disaster recovery. Lastly, the vendor manages these issues as part of their core competencies—let them.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Integration and scalability.</span> Most SaaS apps are designed to support some amount of customization for the way you do business. SaaS vendors create APIs to allow connections not only to internal applications like ERPs or CRMs but also to other SaaS providers. One of the terrific aspects of integration is that orders written in the field can be automatically sent to the ERP. Now a salesperson in the field can check inventory through the catalog, write the order in front of the customer for approval, send it and receive confirmation, all in minutes. And as you scale with a SaaS vendor, there’s no need to invest in server capacity and software licenses. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Work anywhere</span>. Since the software is hosted in the cloud and accessible over the internet, users can access it via mobile devices wherever they are connected. This includes checking customer order histories prior to a sales call, as well as having access to real time data and real time order taking with the customer.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">&nbsp;</p>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/SaaS__1_.png"},{"id":499,"title":"SDN Software-Defined Network","alias":"sdn-software-defined-network","description":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Software-defined networking (SDN)</span> technology is an approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance and monitoring, making it more like cloud computing than traditional network management.\r\nSDN encompasses several types of technologies, including functional separation, network virtualization and automation through programmability. SDN solution is meant to address the fact that the static architecture of traditional networks is decentralized and complex while current networks require more flexibility and easy troubleshooting. \r\nSDN technology attempts to centralize network intelligence in one network component by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane</span>) from the routing process (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">control plane</span>). The control plane consists of one or more controllers which are considered as the brain of SDN network where the whole intelligence is incorporated. Originally, software defined technology focused solely on separation of the network control plane from the data plane. While the control plane makes decisions about how packets should flow through the network, the data plane actually moves packets from place to place. \r\nIn a classic SDN scenario, a packet arrives at a network switch, and rules built into the switch's proprietary firmware tell the switch where to forward the packet. These packet-handling rules are sent to the switch from the centralized controller. The switch - also known as a <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane device</span> - queries the controller for guidance as needed, and it provides the controller with information about traffic it handles. The switch sends every packet going to the same destination along the same path and treats all the packets the exact same way.\r\nSoftware defined networking solutions use an operation mode that is sometimes called adaptive or dynamic, in which a switch issues a route request to a controller for a packet that does not have a specific route. This process is separate from adaptive routing, which issues route requests through routers and algorithms based on the network topology, not through a controller.\r\nThe <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">virtualization</span> aspect of SDN comes into play through a virtual overlay, which is a logically separate network on top of the physical network. Users can implement end-to-end overlays to abstract the underlying network and segment network traffic. This microsegmentation is especially useful for service providers and operators with multi-tenant cloud environments and cloud services, as they can provision a separate virtual network with specific policies for each tenant.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of Software Defined Networking</h1>\r\nWith SDN software, an <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">administrator can change any network switch's rules when necessary</span> - prioritizing, deprioritizing or even blocking specific types of packets with a granular level of control and security. This is especially helpful in a cloud computing multi-tenant architecture, because it enables the administrator to manage traffic loads in a flexible and more efficient manner. Essentially, this enables the administrator to use less expensive commodity switches and have more control over network traffic flow than ever before.\r\nOther benefits of SDN are <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">network management</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">end-to-end visibility.</span>A network administrator need only deal with one centralized controller to distribute policies to the connected switches, instead of configuring multiple individual devices. This capability is also a security advantage because the controller can monitor traffic and deploy security policies. If the controller deems traffic suspicious, for example, it can reroute or drop the packets.\r\nSoftware defined networking software also <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">virtualizes hardware</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">services </span>that were previously carried out by dedicated hardware, resulting in the touted benefits of a reduced hardware footprint and lower operational costs.\r\nAdditionally, SDN contributed to the emergence of <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN)</span> technology. SD-WAN employs the virtual overlay aspect of SDN technology, abstracting an organization's connectivity links throughout its WAN and creating a virtual network that can use whichever connection the controller deems fit to send traffic.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Are there any SDN security benefits?</h1>\r\nAs security issues become more complex at the edge of the network, it’s no wonder that network and security professionals are looking for new ways to approach network protection. Nowadays, it seems like SDN is going to be the answer. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Centralized Network Control </span></li></ul>\r\nIn a traditional network, devices (router/switches) make their own decisions locally about where and how best to send traffic.&nbsp; In terms of network security, SDN can be used to route data packets through a single firewall and make IDS and IPS data capture more efficient.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Simplify Configuration</span></li></ul>\r\nThe SDN makes it easier to automate configuration and improves the traceability of those configurations. The introduction of SDN network management allows dynamic programming and restructuring of network settings, which reduces the risk of DDoS attacks. It is also worth adding that SDN has automatic quarantine capabilities. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Creation of High-level Network Policies</span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Rather than physically configuring security solutions, SDN facilitates the central management of security policies to make network operator roles more efficient and flexible. Moreover, SDN helps to move away from current management approaches such as SNMP/CLI and build more effective policy management. </span>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Easy to use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)</span></span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Cloud APIs are interfaces presented by software and play a vital role in SDN controllers and applications. Easy to use APIs help to manage network resources, improve the efficiency of IT resources, and aid integration with IT tools. Additionally, a number of good cloud security practices have been introduced recently. </span>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_SDN_Software_Defined_Network.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]},{"id":3339,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Fortinet.png","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"Fortinet FortiGate SD-WAN","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"2.00","implementationsCount":0,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":21,"alias":"fortinet-fortigate-sd-wan","companyTitle":"Fortinet","companyTypes":["vendor"],"companyId":690,"companyAlias":"fortinet","description":"As the use of business-critical, cloud-based applications and tools continue to increase, distributed organizations with multiple remote offices are switching from performance-inhibited wide-area networks (WANs) to software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) architectures. SD-WAN offers business application steering, cost savings, and performance for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, as well as unified communication services. However, SD-WAN has its own shortcomings—especially when it comes to security with direct internet access.\r\nFortinet FortiGate Secure SD-WAN includes best-of-breed next-generation firewall (NGFW) security, SD-WAN, advanced routing, and WAN optimization capabilities, delivering a security-driven networking WAN edge transformation in a unified offering. Fortinet has received a “Recommended” rating in the first ever test conducted by NSS Labs for Software-Defined Wide Area Networking. Fortinet was ranked highly for delivering excellent quality of experience for voice and video, high overlay VPN throughput, and best price/performance.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">FortiGate Secure SD-WAN Product Details:</span>\r\n<ul> <li>Best WAN Edge Price/Performance</li> <li>WAN Path Controller with Remediation</li> <li>Fastest Application Identification and Steering</li> <li>Advance Routing Capabilities and WAN Optimization</li> </ul>","shortDescription":"FortiGate Secure SD-WAN includes NGFW security, SD-WAN, advanced routing, and WAN optimization capabilities, delivering a security-driven networking WAN edge transformation in a unified offering.","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":9,"sellingCount":20,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"Fortinet FortiGate SD-WAN","keywords":"","description":"As the use of business-critical, cloud-based applications and tools continue to increase, distributed organizations with multiple remote offices are switching from performance-inhibited wide-area networks (WANs) to software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) architectures. ","og:title":"Fortinet FortiGate SD-WAN","og:description":"As the use of business-critical, cloud-based applications and tools continue to increase, distributed organizations with multiple remote offices are switching from performance-inhibited wide-area networks (WANs) to software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) architectures. ","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Fortinet.png"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":3340,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[{"id":93,"title":"Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN)"}],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":34,"title":"ITSM - IT Service Management","alias":"itsm-it-service-management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">IT service management (ITSM)</span> is the process of designing, delivering, managing, and improving the IT services an organization provides to its end users. ITSM is focused on aligning IT processes and services with business objectives to help an organization grow.\r\nITSM positions IT services as the key means of delivering and obtaining value, where an internal or external IT service provider works with business customers, at the same time taking responsibility for the associated costs and risks. ITSM works across the whole lifecycle of a service, from the original strategy, through design, transition and into live operation.\r\nTo ensure sustainable quality of IT services, ITSM establishes a set of practices, or processes, constituting a service management system. There are industrial, national and international standards for IT service management solutions, setting up requirements and good practices for the management system. \r\nITSM system is based on a set of principles, such as focusing on value and continual improvement. It is not just a set of processes – it is a cultural mindset to ensure that the desired outcome for the business is achieved. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library)</span> is a framework of best practices and recommendations for managing an organization's IT operations and services. IT service management processes, when built based on the ITIL framework, pave the way for better IT service operations management and improved business. To summarize, ITIL is a set of guidelines for effective IT service management best practices. ITIL has evolved beyond the delivery of services to providing end-to-end value delivery. The focus is now on the co-creation of value through service relationships. \r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM processes typically include five stages, all based on the ITIL framework:</span></p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM strategy.</span> This stage forms the foundation or the framework of an organization's ITSM process building. It involves defining the services that the organization will offer, strategically planning processes, and recognizing and developing the required assets to keep processes moving. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service design.</span> This stage's main aim is planning and designing the IT services the organization offers to meet business demands. It involves creating and designing new services as well as assessing current services and making relevant improvements.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service transition.</span> Once the designs for IT services and their processes have been finalized, it's important to build them and test them out to ensure that processes flow. IT teams need to ensure that the designs don't disrupt services in any way, especially when existing IT service processes are upgraded or redesigned. This calls for change management, evaluation, and risk management. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service operation. </span>This phase involves implementing the tried and tested new or modified designs in a live environment. While in this stage, the processes have already been tested and the issues fixed, but new processes are bound to have hiccups—especially when customers start using the services. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Continual service improvement (CSI).</span> Implementing IT processes successfully shouldn't be the final stage in any organization. There's always room for improvement and new development based on issues that pop up, customer needs and demands, and user feedback.\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of efficient ITSM processes</h1>\r\nIrrespective of the size of business, every organization is involved in IT service management in some way. ITSM ensures that incidents, service requests, problems, changes, and IT assets—in addition to other aspects of IT services—are managed in a streamlined way.\r\nIT teams in your organization can employ various workflows and best practices in ITSM, as outlined in ITIL. Effective IT service management can have positive effects on an IT organization's overall function.\r\nHere are the 10 key benefits of ITSM:\r\n<ul><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lower costs for IT operations</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Higher returns on IT investments</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Minimal service outages</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ability to establish well-defined, repeatable, and manageable IT processes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Efficient analysis of IT problems to reduce repeat incidents</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Improved efficiency of IT help desk teams</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well-defined roles and responsibilities</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Clear expectations on service levels and service availability</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Risk-free implementation of IT changes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Better transparency into IT processes and services</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">How to choose an ITSM tool?</h1>\r\nWith a competent IT service management goal in mind, it's important to invest in a service desk solution that caters to your business needs. It goes without saying, with more than 150 service desk tools to choose from, selecting the right one is easier said than done. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing an ITSM products:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Identify key processes and their dependencies. </span>Based on business goals, decide which key ITSM processes need to be implemented and chart out the integrations that need to be established to achieve those goals. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Consult with ITSM experts.</span> Participate in business expos, webinars, demos, etc., and educate yourself about the various options that are available in the market. Reports from expert analysts such as Gartner and Forrester are particularly useful as they include reviews of almost every solution, ranked based on multiple criteria.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Choose a deployment option.</span> Every business has a different IT infrastructure model. Selecting an on-premises or software as a service (SaaS IT service management) tool depends on whether your business prefers to host its applications and data on its own servers or use a public or private cloud.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Plan ahead for the future.</span> Although it's important to consider the &quot;needs&quot; primarily, you shouldn't rule out the secondary or luxury capabilities. If the ITSM tool doesn't have the potential to adapt to your needs as your organization grows, it can pull you back from progressing. Draw a clear picture of where your business is headed and choose an service ITSM that is flexible and technology-driven.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Don't stop with the capabilities of the ITSM tool.</span> It might be tempting to assess an ITSM tool based on its capabilities and features but it's important to evaluate the vendor of the tool. A good IT support team, and a vendor that is endorsed for their customer-vendor relationship can take your IT services far. Check Gartner's magic quadrant and other analyst reports, along with product and support reviews to ensure that the said tool provides good customer support.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_ITSM.png"},{"id":52,"title":"SaaS - software as a service","alias":"saas-software-as-a-service","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Software as a service (SaaS)</span> is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as &quot;on-demand software&quot;, and was formerly referred to as &quot;software plus services&quot; by Microsoft.\r\n SaaS services is typically accessed by users using a thin client, e.g. via a web browser. SaaS software solutions has become a common delivery model for many business applications, including office software, messaging software, payroll processing software, DBMS software, management software, CAD software, development software, gamification, virtualization, accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM), Management Information Systems (MIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing, human resource management (HRM), talent acquisition, learning management systems, content management (CM), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and service desk management. SaaS has been incorporated into the strategy of nearly all leading enterprise software companies.\r\nSaaS applications are also known as <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Web-based software</span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">on-demand software</span> and<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> hosted software</span>.\r\nThe term &quot;Software as a Service&quot; (SaaS) is considered to be part of the nomenclature of cloud computing, along with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Desktop as a Service (DaaS),managed software as a service (MSaaS), mobile backend as a service (MBaaS), and information technology management as a service (ITMaaS).\r\nBecause SaaS is based on cloud computing it saves organizations from installing and running applications on their own systems. That eliminates or at least reduces the associated costs of hardware purchases and maintenance and of software and support. The initial setup cost for a SaaS application is also generally lower than it for equivalent enterprise software purchased via a site license.\r\nSometimes, the use of SaaS cloud software can also reduce the long-term costs of software licensing, though that depends on the pricing model for the individual SaaS offering and the enterprise’s usage patterns. In fact, it’s possible for SaaS to cost more than traditional software licenses. This is an area IT organizations should explore carefully.<br />SaaS also provides enterprises the flexibility inherent with cloud services: they can subscribe to a SaaS offering as needed rather than having to buy software licenses and install the software on a variety of computers. The savings can be substantial in the case of applications that require new hardware purchases to support the software.<br /><br /><br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Who uses SaaS?</span></h1>\r\nIndustry analyst Forrester Research notes that SaaS adoption has so far been concentrated mostly in human resource management (HRM), customer relationship management (CRM), collaboration software (e.g., email), and procurement solutions, but is poised to widen. Today it’s possible to have a data warehouse in the cloud that you can access with business intelligence software running as a service and connect to your cloud-based ERP like NetSuite or Microsoft Dynamics.The dollar savings can run into the millions. And SaaS installations are often installed and working in a fraction of the time of on-premises deployments—some can be ready in hours. \r\nSales and marketing people are likely familiar with Salesforce.com, the leading SaaS CRM software, with millions of users across more than 100,000 customers. Sales is going SaaS too, with apps available to support sales in order management, compensation, quote production and configure, price, quoting, electronic signatures, contract management and more.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Why SaaS? Benefits of software as a service</span></h1>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Lower cost of entry</span>. With SaaS solution, you pay for what you need, without having to buy hardware to host your new applications. Instead of provisioning internal resources to install the software, the vendor provides APIs and performs much of the work to get their software working for you. The time to a working solution can drop from months in the traditional model to weeks, days or hours with the SaaS model. In some businesses, IT wants nothing to do with installing and running a sales app. In the case of funding software and its implementation, this can be a make-or-break issue for the sales and marketing budget, so the lower cost really makes the difference.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Reduced time to benefit/rapid prototyping</span>. In the SaaS model, the software application is already installed and configured. Users can provision the server for the cloud and quickly have the application ready for use. This cuts the time to benefit and allows for rapid demonstrations and prototyping. With many SaaS companies offering free trials, this means a painless proof of concept and discovery phase to prove the benefit to the organization. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Pay as you go</span>. SaaS business software gives you the benefit of predictable costs both for the subscription and to some extent, the administration. Even as you scale, you can have a clear idea of what your costs will be. This allows for much more accurate budgeting, especially as compared to the costs of internal IT to manage upgrades and address issues for an owned instance.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The SaaS vendor is responsible for upgrades, uptime and security</span>. Under the SaaS model, since the software is hosted by the vendor, they take on the responsibility for maintaining the software and upgrading it, ensuring that it is reliable and meeting agreed-upon service level agreements, and keeping the application and its data secure.&nbsp; While some IT people worry about Software as a Service security outside of the enterprise walls, the likely truth is that the vendor has a much higher level of security than the enterprise itself would provide. Many will have redundant instances in very secure data centers in multiple geographies.&nbsp; Also, the data is being automatically backed up by the vendor, providing additional security and peace of mind. Because of the data center hosting, you’re getting the added benefit of at least some disaster recovery. Lastly, the vendor manages these issues as part of their core competencies—let them.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Integration and scalability.</span> Most SaaS apps are designed to support some amount of customization for the way you do business. SaaS vendors create APIs to allow connections not only to internal applications like ERPs or CRMs but also to other SaaS providers. One of the terrific aspects of integration is that orders written in the field can be automatically sent to the ERP. Now a salesperson in the field can check inventory through the catalog, write the order in front of the customer for approval, send it and receive confirmation, all in minutes. And as you scale with a SaaS vendor, there’s no need to invest in server capacity and software licenses. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Work anywhere</span>. Since the software is hosted in the cloud and accessible over the internet, users can access it via mobile devices wherever they are connected. This includes checking customer order histories prior to a sales call, as well as having access to real time data and real time order taking with the customer.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">&nbsp;</p>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/SaaS__1_.png"},{"id":499,"title":"SDN Software-Defined Network","alias":"sdn-software-defined-network","description":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Software-defined networking (SDN)</span> technology is an approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance and monitoring, making it more like cloud computing than traditional network management.\r\nSDN encompasses several types of technologies, including functional separation, network virtualization and automation through programmability. SDN solution is meant to address the fact that the static architecture of traditional networks is decentralized and complex while current networks require more flexibility and easy troubleshooting. \r\nSDN technology attempts to centralize network intelligence in one network component by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane</span>) from the routing process (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">control plane</span>). The control plane consists of one or more controllers which are considered as the brain of SDN network where the whole intelligence is incorporated. Originally, software defined technology focused solely on separation of the network control plane from the data plane. While the control plane makes decisions about how packets should flow through the network, the data plane actually moves packets from place to place. \r\nIn a classic SDN scenario, a packet arrives at a network switch, and rules built into the switch's proprietary firmware tell the switch where to forward the packet. These packet-handling rules are sent to the switch from the centralized controller. The switch - also known as a <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane device</span> - queries the controller for guidance as needed, and it provides the controller with information about traffic it handles. The switch sends every packet going to the same destination along the same path and treats all the packets the exact same way.\r\nSoftware defined networking solutions use an operation mode that is sometimes called adaptive or dynamic, in which a switch issues a route request to a controller for a packet that does not have a specific route. This process is separate from adaptive routing, which issues route requests through routers and algorithms based on the network topology, not through a controller.\r\nThe <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">virtualization</span> aspect of SDN comes into play through a virtual overlay, which is a logically separate network on top of the physical network. Users can implement end-to-end overlays to abstract the underlying network and segment network traffic. This microsegmentation is especially useful for service providers and operators with multi-tenant cloud environments and cloud services, as they can provision a separate virtual network with specific policies for each tenant.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of Software Defined Networking</h1>\r\nWith SDN software, an <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">administrator can change any network switch's rules when necessary</span> - prioritizing, deprioritizing or even blocking specific types of packets with a granular level of control and security. This is especially helpful in a cloud computing multi-tenant architecture, because it enables the administrator to manage traffic loads in a flexible and more efficient manner. Essentially, this enables the administrator to use less expensive commodity switches and have more control over network traffic flow than ever before.\r\nOther benefits of SDN are <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">network management</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">end-to-end visibility.</span>A network administrator need only deal with one centralized controller to distribute policies to the connected switches, instead of configuring multiple individual devices. This capability is also a security advantage because the controller can monitor traffic and deploy security policies. If the controller deems traffic suspicious, for example, it can reroute or drop the packets.\r\nSoftware defined networking software also <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">virtualizes hardware</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">services </span>that were previously carried out by dedicated hardware, resulting in the touted benefits of a reduced hardware footprint and lower operational costs.\r\nAdditionally, SDN contributed to the emergence of <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN)</span> technology. SD-WAN employs the virtual overlay aspect of SDN technology, abstracting an organization's connectivity links throughout its WAN and creating a virtual network that can use whichever connection the controller deems fit to send traffic.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Are there any SDN security benefits?</h1>\r\nAs security issues become more complex at the edge of the network, it’s no wonder that network and security professionals are looking for new ways to approach network protection. Nowadays, it seems like SDN is going to be the answer. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Centralized Network Control </span></li></ul>\r\nIn a traditional network, devices (router/switches) make their own decisions locally about where and how best to send traffic.&nbsp; In terms of network security, SDN can be used to route data packets through a single firewall and make IDS and IPS data capture more efficient.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Simplify Configuration</span></li></ul>\r\nThe SDN makes it easier to automate configuration and improves the traceability of those configurations. The introduction of SDN network management allows dynamic programming and restructuring of network settings, which reduces the risk of DDoS attacks. It is also worth adding that SDN has automatic quarantine capabilities. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Creation of High-level Network Policies</span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Rather than physically configuring security solutions, SDN facilitates the central management of security policies to make network operator roles more efficient and flexible. Moreover, SDN helps to move away from current management approaches such as SNMP/CLI and build more effective policy management. </span>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Easy to use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)</span></span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Cloud APIs are interfaces presented by software and play a vital role in SDN controllers and applications. Easy to use APIs help to manage network resources, improve the efficiency of IT resources, and aid integration with IT tools. Additionally, a number of good cloud security practices have been introduced recently. </span>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_SDN_Software_Defined_Network.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]},{"id":1052,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/IBM_LinuxONE.jpg","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"IBM LinuxONE","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"2.00","implementationsCount":0,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":100,"alias":"ibm-linuxone","companyTitle":"IBM","companyTypes":["supplier","vendor"],"companyId":177,"companyAlias":"ibm","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The industry’s best security</span>\r\nProtect your data with unique Secure Service Containers and crypto cards on the industry’s most secure platform\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Engineered to move data</span>\r\nSend data where it needs to be, faster without hogging resources using dedicated I/O processing\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Instant scale</span>\r\nGrowing? Get 2.4x more throughput on a system that can support 2M Docker containers, and scale up MongoDB to 17TB\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">LinuxONE Emperor II</span>\r\nDeliver exceptional digital experiences through premium cloud services. Protect data, run at lightning speed, and scale massively and instantly.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">LinuxONE Rockhopper</span>\r\nNeed a smaller footprint and investment? Get it with the highest data security on a cloud ready platform and lower TCO over x86.","shortDescription":"IBM LinuxONE systems are engineered for the industry’s most secure data serving, with faster throughput, even when you have massive and unpredictable transaction volumes and large database sizes.","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":18,"sellingCount":2,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"IBM LinuxONE","keywords":"data, scale, LinuxONE, cloud, platform, Protect, industry’s, with","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The industry’s best security</span>\r\nProtect your data with unique Secure Service Containers and crypto cards on the industry’s most secure platform\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Engineered to move data</span>\r\nSend data wh","og:title":"IBM LinuxONE","og:description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The industry’s best security</span>\r\nProtect your data with unique Secure Service Containers and crypto cards on the industry’s most secure platform\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Engineered to move data</span>\r\nSend data wh","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/IBM_LinuxONE.jpg"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":1053,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":4,"title":"Data center","alias":"data-center","description":" A data center (or datacenter) is a facility composed of networked computers and storage that businesses or other organizations use to organize, process, store and disseminate large amounts of data. A business typically relies heavily upon the applications, services and data contained within a data center, making it a focal point and critical asset for everyday operations.\r\nData centers are not a single thing, but rather, a conglomeration of elements. At a minimum, data centers serve as the principal repositories for all manner of IT equipment, including servers, storage subsystems, networking switches, routers and firewalls, as well as the cabling and physical racks used to organize and interconnect the IT equipment. A data center must also contain an adequate infrastructure, such as power distribution and supplemental power subsystems, including electrical switching; uninterruptable power supplies; backup generators and so on; ventilation and data center cooling systems, such as computer room air conditioners; and adequate provisioning for network carrier (telco) connectivity. All of this demands a physical facility with physical security and sufficient physical space to house the entire collection of infrastructure and equipment.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the requirements for modern data centers?</span>\r\nModernization and data center transformation enhances performance and energy efficiency.\r\nInformation security is also a concern, and for this reason a data center has to offer a secure environment which minimizes the chances of a security breach. A data center must therefore keep high standards for assuring the integrity and functionality of its hosted computer environment.\r\nIndustry research company International Data Corporation (IDC) puts the average age of a data center at nine years old. Gartner, another research company, says data centers older than seven years are obsolete. The growth in data (163 zettabytes by 2025) is one factor driving the need for data centers to modernize.\r\nFocus on modernization is not new: Concern about obsolete equipment was decried in 2007, and in 2011 Uptime Institute was concerned about the age of the equipment therein. By 2018 concern had shifted once again, this time to the age of the staff: &quot;data center staff are aging faster than the equipment.&quot;\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Meeting standards for data centers</span></span>\r\nThe Telecommunications Industry Association's Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers specifies the minimum requirements for telecommunications infrastructure of data centers and computer rooms including single tenant enterprise data centers and multi-tenant Internet hosting data centers. The topology proposed in this document is intended to be applicable to any size data center.\r\nTelcordia GR-3160, NEBS Requirements for Telecommunications Data Center Equipment and Spaces, provides guidelines for data center spaces within telecommunications networks, and environmental requirements for the equipment intended for installation in those spaces. These criteria were developed jointly by Telcordia and industry representatives. They may be applied to data center spaces housing data processing or Information Technology (IT) equipment. The equipment may be used to:\r\n<ul><li>Operate and manage a carrier's telecommunication network</li><li>Provide data center based applications directly to the carrier's customers</li><li>Provide hosted applications for a third party to provide services to their customers</li><li>Provide a combination of these and similar data center applications</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Data center transformation</span></span>\r\nData center transformation takes a step-by-step approach through integrated projects carried out over time. This differs from a traditional method of data center upgrades that takes a serial and siloed approach. The typical projects within a data center transformation initiative include standardization/consolidation, virtualization, automation and security.\r\n<ul><li>Standardization/consolidation: Reducing the number of data centers and avoiding server sprawl (both physical and virtual) often includes replacing aging data center equipment, and is aided by standardization.</li><li>Virtualization: Lowers capital and operational expenses, reduce energy consumption. Virtualized desktops can be hosted in data centers and rented out on a subscription basis. Investment bank Lazard Capital Markets estimated in 2008 that 48 percent of enterprise operations will be virtualized by 2012. Gartner views virtualization as a catalyst for modernization.</li><li>Automating: Automating tasks such as provisioning, configuration, patching, release management and compliance is needed, not just when facing fewer skilled IT workers.</li><li>Securing: Protection of virtual systems is integrated with existing security of physical infrastructures.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Machine room</span></span>\r\nThe term &quot;Machine Room&quot; is at times used to refer to the large room within a Data Center where the actual Central Processing Unit is located; this may be separate from where high-speed printers are located. Air conditioning is most important in the machine room.\r\nAside from air-conditioning, there must be monitoring equipment, one type of which is to detect water prior to flood-level situations. One company, for several decades, has had share-of-mind: Water Alert. The company, as of 2018, has 2 competing manufacturers (Invetex, Hydro-Temp) and 3 competing distributors (Longden,Northeast Flooring, Slayton). ","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Data_center.png"},{"id":35,"title":"Server","alias":"server","description":"In computing, a server is a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called &quot;clients&quot;. This architecture is called the client–server model, and a single overall computation is distributed across multiple processes or devices. Servers can provide various functionalities, often called &quot;services&quot;, such as sharing data or resources among multiple clients, or performing computation for a client. A single server can serve multiple clients, and a single client can use multiple servers. A client process may run on the same device or may connect over a network to a server on a different device. Typical servers are database servers, file servers, mail servers, print servers, web servers, game servers, and application servers.\r\nClient–server systems are today most frequently implemented by (and often identified with) the request–response model: a client sends a request to the server, which performs some action and sends a response back to the client, typically with a result or acknowledgement. Designating a computer as &quot;server-class hardware&quot; implies that it is specialized for running servers on it. This often implies that it is more powerful and reliable than standard personal computers, but alternatively, large computing clusters may be composed of many relatively simple, replaceable server components.\r\nStrictly speaking, the term server refers to a computer program or process (running program). Through metonymy, it refers to a device used for (or a device dedicated to) running one or several server programs. On a network, such a device is called a host. In addition to server, the words serve and service (as noun and as verb) are frequently used, though servicer and servant are not. The word service (noun) may refer to either the abstract form of functionality, e.g. Web service. Alternatively, it may refer to a computer program that turns a computer into a server, e.g. Windows service. Originally used as &quot;servers serve users&quot; (and &quot;users use servers&quot;), in the sense of &quot;obey&quot;, today one often says that &quot;servers serve data&quot;, in the same sense as &quot;give&quot;. For instance, web servers &quot;serve web pages to users&quot; or &quot;service their requests&quot;.\r\nThe server is part of the client–server model; in this model, a server serves data for clients. The nature of communication between a client and server is request and response. This is in contrast with peer-to-peer model in which the relationship is on-demand reciprocation. In principle, any computerized process that can be used or called by another process (particularly remotely, particularly to share a resource) is a server, and the calling process or processes is a client. Thus any general purpose computer connected to a network can host servers. For example, if files on a device are shared by some process, that process is a file server. Similarly, web server software can run on any capable computer, and so a laptop or a personal computer can host a web server.\r\nWhile request–response is the most common client–server design, there are others, such as the publish–subscribe pattern. In the publish–subscribe pattern, clients register with a pub–sub server, subscribing to specified types of messages; this initial registration may be done by request–response. Thereafter, the pub–sub server forwards matching messages to the clients without any further requests: the server pushes messages to the client, rather than the client pulling messages from the server as in request–response.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is a server?</span>\r\nA server is a software or hardware device that accepts and responds to requests made over a network. The device that makes the request, and receives a response from the server, is called a client. On the Internet, the term &quot;server&quot; commonly refers to the computer system which receives a request for a web document and sends the requested information to the client.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are they used for?</span>\r\nServers are used to manage network resources. For example, a user may set up a server to control access to a network, send/receive an e-mail, manage print jobs, or host a website. They are also proficient at performing intense calculations. Some servers are committed to a specific task, often referred to as dedicated. However, many servers today are shared servers which can take on the responsibility of e-mail, DNS, FTP, and even multiple websites in the case of a web server.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Why are servers always on?</span>\r\nBecause they are commonly used to deliver services that are constantly required, most servers are never turned off. Consequently, when servers fail, they can cause the network users and company many problems. To alleviate these issues, servers are commonly set up to be fault-tolerant.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the examples of servers?</span>\r\nThe following list contains links to various server types:\r\n<ul><li>Application server;</li><li>Blade server;</li><li>Cloud server;</li><li>Database server;</li><li>Dedicated server;</li><li>Domain name service;</li><li>File server;</li><li>Mail server;</li><li>Print server;</li><li>Proxy server;</li><li>Standalone server;</li><li>Web server.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">How do other computers connect to a server?</span>\r\nWith a local network, the server connects to a router or switch that all other computers on the network use. Once connected to the network, other computers can access that server and its features. For example, with a web server, a user could connect to the server to view a website, search, and communicate with other users on the network.\r\nAn Internet server works the same way as a local network server, but on a much larger scale. The server is assigned an IP address by InterNIC, or by a web host.\r\nUsually, users connect to a server using its domain name, which is registered with a domain name registrar. When users connect to the domain name (such as &quot;computerhope.com&quot;), the name is automatically translated to the server's IP address by a DNS resolver.\r\nThe domain name makes it easier for users to connect to the server because the name is easier to remember than an IP address. Also, domain names enable the server operator to change the IP address of the server without disrupting the way that users access the server. The domain name can always remain the same, even if the IP address changes.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Where are servers stored?</span>\r\nIn a business or corporate environment, a server and other network equipment are often stored in a closet or glasshouse. These areas help isolate sensitive computers and equipment from people who should not have access to them.\r\nServers that are remote or not hosted on-site are located in a data center. With these types of servers, the hardware is managed by another company and configured remotely by you or your company.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Server.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]},{"id":193,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/FusionModule2000_Series_Modular_Data_Centers.jpg","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"FusionModule2000 Series Modular Data Centers","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"2.00","implementationsCount":0,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":4,"alias":"fusionmodule2000-series-modular-data-centers","companyTitle":"Huawei","companyTypes":["vendor"],"companyId":2743,"companyAlias":"huawei","description":"Huawei FusionModule2000 is a next-generation modular data center solution with complete integration of cabinets, power supply and distribution systems, cooling systems, cabling systems, management software, and other subsystems. It supports flexible deployment with single or dual row, cold or hot aisle containment. The maximum IT power capacity is 21 kW/rack.\r\nSingle modules can be applied to small or medium data centers (total IT load ≤ 128 kW, area ≤ 300m2), as well as to large data centers for branch offices of big enterprises.\r\nMultiple modules can be used to construct a large data center to meet large enterprise data center requirements.","shortDescription":"Huawei FusionModule2000 is a next-generation modular data center solution with complete integration of cabinets, power supply and distribution systems, cooling systems, cabling systems, management software, and other subsystems.","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":15,"sellingCount":13,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"FusionModule2000 Series Modular Data Centers","keywords":"data, large, systems, center, power, modules, FusionModule2000, centers","description":"Huawei FusionModule2000 is a next-generation modular data center solution with complete integration of cabinets, power supply and distribution systems, cooling systems, cabling systems, management software, and other subsystems. It supports flexible deployment","og:title":"FusionModule2000 Series Modular Data Centers","og:description":"Huawei FusionModule2000 is a next-generation modular data center solution with complete integration of cabinets, power supply and distribution systems, cooling systems, cabling systems, management software, and other subsystems. It supports flexible deployment","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/FusionModule2000_Series_Modular_Data_Centers.jpg"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":194,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":4,"title":"Data center","alias":"data-center","description":" A data center (or datacenter) is a facility composed of networked computers and storage that businesses or other organizations use to organize, process, store and disseminate large amounts of data. A business typically relies heavily upon the applications, services and data contained within a data center, making it a focal point and critical asset for everyday operations.\r\nData centers are not a single thing, but rather, a conglomeration of elements. At a minimum, data centers serve as the principal repositories for all manner of IT equipment, including servers, storage subsystems, networking switches, routers and firewalls, as well as the cabling and physical racks used to organize and interconnect the IT equipment. A data center must also contain an adequate infrastructure, such as power distribution and supplemental power subsystems, including electrical switching; uninterruptable power supplies; backup generators and so on; ventilation and data center cooling systems, such as computer room air conditioners; and adequate provisioning for network carrier (telco) connectivity. All of this demands a physical facility with physical security and sufficient physical space to house the entire collection of infrastructure and equipment.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the requirements for modern data centers?</span>\r\nModernization and data center transformation enhances performance and energy efficiency.\r\nInformation security is also a concern, and for this reason a data center has to offer a secure environment which minimizes the chances of a security breach. A data center must therefore keep high standards for assuring the integrity and functionality of its hosted computer environment.\r\nIndustry research company International Data Corporation (IDC) puts the average age of a data center at nine years old. Gartner, another research company, says data centers older than seven years are obsolete. The growth in data (163 zettabytes by 2025) is one factor driving the need for data centers to modernize.\r\nFocus on modernization is not new: Concern about obsolete equipment was decried in 2007, and in 2011 Uptime Institute was concerned about the age of the equipment therein. By 2018 concern had shifted once again, this time to the age of the staff: &quot;data center staff are aging faster than the equipment.&quot;\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Meeting standards for data centers</span></span>\r\nThe Telecommunications Industry Association's Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers specifies the minimum requirements for telecommunications infrastructure of data centers and computer rooms including single tenant enterprise data centers and multi-tenant Internet hosting data centers. The topology proposed in this document is intended to be applicable to any size data center.\r\nTelcordia GR-3160, NEBS Requirements for Telecommunications Data Center Equipment and Spaces, provides guidelines for data center spaces within telecommunications networks, and environmental requirements for the equipment intended for installation in those spaces. These criteria were developed jointly by Telcordia and industry representatives. They may be applied to data center spaces housing data processing or Information Technology (IT) equipment. The equipment may be used to:\r\n<ul><li>Operate and manage a carrier's telecommunication network</li><li>Provide data center based applications directly to the carrier's customers</li><li>Provide hosted applications for a third party to provide services to their customers</li><li>Provide a combination of these and similar data center applications</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Data center transformation</span></span>\r\nData center transformation takes a step-by-step approach through integrated projects carried out over time. This differs from a traditional method of data center upgrades that takes a serial and siloed approach. The typical projects within a data center transformation initiative include standardization/consolidation, virtualization, automation and security.\r\n<ul><li>Standardization/consolidation: Reducing the number of data centers and avoiding server sprawl (both physical and virtual) often includes replacing aging data center equipment, and is aided by standardization.</li><li>Virtualization: Lowers capital and operational expenses, reduce energy consumption. Virtualized desktops can be hosted in data centers and rented out on a subscription basis. Investment bank Lazard Capital Markets estimated in 2008 that 48 percent of enterprise operations will be virtualized by 2012. Gartner views virtualization as a catalyst for modernization.</li><li>Automating: Automating tasks such as provisioning, configuration, patching, release management and compliance is needed, not just when facing fewer skilled IT workers.</li><li>Securing: Protection of virtual systems is integrated with existing security of physical infrastructures.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Machine room</span></span>\r\nThe term &quot;Machine Room&quot; is at times used to refer to the large room within a Data Center where the actual Central Processing Unit is located; this may be separate from where high-speed printers are located. Air conditioning is most important in the machine room.\r\nAside from air-conditioning, there must be monitoring equipment, one type of which is to detect water prior to flood-level situations. One company, for several decades, has had share-of-mind: Water Alert. The company, as of 2018, has 2 competing manufacturers (Invetex, Hydro-Temp) and 3 competing distributors (Longden,Northeast Flooring, Slayton). ","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Data_center.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]},{"id":3314,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/VMware_NSX_SD-WAN.png","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"NSX SD-WAN by VeloCloud","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"2.00","implementationsCount":0,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":97,"alias":"nsx-sd-wan-by-velocloud","companyTitle":"VMware","companyTypes":["vendor"],"companyId":168,"companyAlias":"vmware","description":"VMware NSX SD-WAN by VeloCloud enables enterprises to support application growth, network agility and simplified branch implementations while delivering optimized access to cloud services, private data centers and enterprise applications simultaneously over both ordinary broadband Internet and private links.\r\nNSXSD-WAN combines the economics and flexibility of a hybrid WAN with the deployment speed and low maintenance of a cloud-based service. It includes policy-based network-wide application performance, visibility and control while dramatically simplifying the WAN by delivering virtualized services from the cloud to branch offices.\r\nThe VMware NSX SD-WAN Edge by VeloCloud appliance is a compact, thin edge device that is zero-touch provisioned from the cloud for secure,optimized connectivity to applications and data. The NSX SD-WANEdge is also available as a VNF (virtual network function) for instantiation on a virtual CPE platform. The NSX SD-WAN Edge with Dynamic Multi-Path Optimization (DMPO) and deep application recognition aggregates multiple links (e.g. Private, Cable, DSL, 4G-LTE) and steers traffic over the optimal links to other on-premises NSX SD-WAN Edges in branch offices, private data centers, campuses, and headquarters. The NSX SD-WAN Edge can also optionally connect to the system of global VMware NSX SD-WAN Gateway by VeloCloud to provide performance, security,and visibility for cloud services (SaaS, IaaS, B2B Internet).\r\nThis system of NSX SD-WAN Gateways is deployed globally at top-tier cloud data centers to provide scalable and on-demand cloud network services. NSX SD-WAN Gateways implement NSX SD-WAN DMPO, cloud VPN and NSX SD-WAN Multisource Inbound Quality of Service between global cloud services (SaaS, IaaS, network services) and each NSX SD-WAN Edge, enabling multiple broadband and private leased lines to appear as a single, high-performance WAN. The cloud-based VMware NSX SD-WAN Orchestrator by VeloCloud is used to provision network-wide business policy, enable services insertion, perform real-time monitoring,and analyze application performance.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Deploy in Minutes</span>\r\nUsing NSX SD-WAN’s zero-touch deployment capability, NSX SD-WAN can be quickly installed. The NSX SD-WAN Edge is shipped to the branch office where a non-technical person simply plugs in power and a few cables. Activation, configuration, and ongoing management are all handled in the cloud.\r\nEnterprise-wide Business Policies NSX SD-WAN makes setting policy as simple as a single click. Enterprises or their managed service providers can define business level policies that apply enterprise wide across many Edges, all througha centralized, cloud based NSX SD-WAN Orchestrator. Link steering, link remediation and QoS are all applied automatically based on the business policies; however specific configuration overrides may also be applied. The centralized NSX SD-WAN Orchestratoralso provides an enterprise wide view and configurability of routing in an overlay flow control table, eliminating complex node by node route configurations.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">SDN for the WAN</span>\r\nNSX SD-WAN brings SDN concepts to the enterprise branch WAN. Business policies implemented across the logical overlay deliver abstraction of application flows from the underlying physical transport. Agility is achieved based on adjusting forwarding to meet policy as well as real-time link conditions. NSX SD-WAN has a distributed control plane for forwarding decisions to be made locally with context, so there are no latency issues nor points of failure across the WAN. Yet each NSX SD-WAN node receives centralized control policies for easy programmability and enterprise wide visibility.\r\nA software based approach enables the flexibility and portability of deploying virtual NSX SD-WAN Edges on off-the-shelf x86 based hardware or as virtual network functions (VNFs) on virtual CPEs. Management is configurable via both a GUI and a Rest API.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Solution Benefits</span>\r\nThe WAN is in transition as enterprises seek to improve agility and economics, and adapt to the shift of applications to the cloud. NSX SD-WAN offers enterprise-grade performance, security, visibility, and control over both public Internet and private networks.NSX SD-WAN dramatically simplifies the WAN with zero touch deployment, one-click business policy and services insertion, and cloud-based network as a service.","shortDescription":"NSX SD-WAN increases agility and cost effectiveness, while assuring application performance across the WAN.","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":17,"sellingCount":17,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"NSX SD-WAN by VeloCloud","keywords":"","description":"VMware NSX SD-WAN by VeloCloud enables enterprises to support application growth, network agility and simplified branch implementations while delivering optimized access to cloud services, private data centers and enterprise applications simultaneously over bo","og:title":"NSX SD-WAN by VeloCloud","og:description":"VMware NSX SD-WAN by VeloCloud enables enterprises to support application growth, network agility and simplified branch implementations while delivering optimized access to cloud services, private data centers and enterprise applications simultaneously over bo","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/VMware_NSX_SD-WAN.png"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":3315,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[{"id":93,"title":"Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN)"}],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":34,"title":"ITSM - IT Service Management","alias":"itsm-it-service-management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">IT service management (ITSM)</span> is the process of designing, delivering, managing, and improving the IT services an organization provides to its end users. ITSM is focused on aligning IT processes and services with business objectives to help an organization grow.\r\nITSM positions IT services as the key means of delivering and obtaining value, where an internal or external IT service provider works with business customers, at the same time taking responsibility for the associated costs and risks. ITSM works across the whole lifecycle of a service, from the original strategy, through design, transition and into live operation.\r\nTo ensure sustainable quality of IT services, ITSM establishes a set of practices, or processes, constituting a service management system. There are industrial, national and international standards for IT service management solutions, setting up requirements and good practices for the management system. \r\nITSM system is based on a set of principles, such as focusing on value and continual improvement. It is not just a set of processes – it is a cultural mindset to ensure that the desired outcome for the business is achieved. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library)</span> is a framework of best practices and recommendations for managing an organization's IT operations and services. IT service management processes, when built based on the ITIL framework, pave the way for better IT service operations management and improved business. To summarize, ITIL is a set of guidelines for effective IT service management best practices. ITIL has evolved beyond the delivery of services to providing end-to-end value delivery. The focus is now on the co-creation of value through service relationships. \r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM processes typically include five stages, all based on the ITIL framework:</span></p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM strategy.</span> This stage forms the foundation or the framework of an organization's ITSM process building. It involves defining the services that the organization will offer, strategically planning processes, and recognizing and developing the required assets to keep processes moving. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service design.</span> This stage's main aim is planning and designing the IT services the organization offers to meet business demands. It involves creating and designing new services as well as assessing current services and making relevant improvements.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service transition.</span> Once the designs for IT services and their processes have been finalized, it's important to build them and test them out to ensure that processes flow. IT teams need to ensure that the designs don't disrupt services in any way, especially when existing IT service processes are upgraded or redesigned. This calls for change management, evaluation, and risk management. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service operation. </span>This phase involves implementing the tried and tested new or modified designs in a live environment. While in this stage, the processes have already been tested and the issues fixed, but new processes are bound to have hiccups—especially when customers start using the services. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Continual service improvement (CSI).</span> Implementing IT processes successfully shouldn't be the final stage in any organization. There's always room for improvement and new development based on issues that pop up, customer needs and demands, and user feedback.\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of efficient ITSM processes</h1>\r\nIrrespective of the size of business, every organization is involved in IT service management in some way. ITSM ensures that incidents, service requests, problems, changes, and IT assets—in addition to other aspects of IT services—are managed in a streamlined way.\r\nIT teams in your organization can employ various workflows and best practices in ITSM, as outlined in ITIL. Effective IT service management can have positive effects on an IT organization's overall function.\r\nHere are the 10 key benefits of ITSM:\r\n<ul><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lower costs for IT operations</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Higher returns on IT investments</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Minimal service outages</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ability to establish well-defined, repeatable, and manageable IT processes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Efficient analysis of IT problems to reduce repeat incidents</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Improved efficiency of IT help desk teams</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well-defined roles and responsibilities</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Clear expectations on service levels and service availability</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Risk-free implementation of IT changes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Better transparency into IT processes and services</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">How to choose an ITSM tool?</h1>\r\nWith a competent IT service management goal in mind, it's important to invest in a service desk solution that caters to your business needs. It goes without saying, with more than 150 service desk tools to choose from, selecting the right one is easier said than done. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing an ITSM products:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Identify key processes and their dependencies. </span>Based on business goals, decide which key ITSM processes need to be implemented and chart out the integrations that need to be established to achieve those goals. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Consult with ITSM experts.</span> Participate in business expos, webinars, demos, etc., and educate yourself about the various options that are available in the market. Reports from expert analysts such as Gartner and Forrester are particularly useful as they include reviews of almost every solution, ranked based on multiple criteria.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Choose a deployment option.</span> Every business has a different IT infrastructure model. Selecting an on-premises or software as a service (SaaS IT service management) tool depends on whether your business prefers to host its applications and data on its own servers or use a public or private cloud.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Plan ahead for the future.</span> Although it's important to consider the &quot;needs&quot; primarily, you shouldn't rule out the secondary or luxury capabilities. If the ITSM tool doesn't have the potential to adapt to your needs as your organization grows, it can pull you back from progressing. Draw a clear picture of where your business is headed and choose an service ITSM that is flexible and technology-driven.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Don't stop with the capabilities of the ITSM tool.</span> It might be tempting to assess an ITSM tool based on its capabilities and features but it's important to evaluate the vendor of the tool. A good IT support team, and a vendor that is endorsed for their customer-vendor relationship can take your IT services far. Check Gartner's magic quadrant and other analyst reports, along with product and support reviews to ensure that the said tool provides good customer support.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_ITSM.png"},{"id":52,"title":"SaaS - software as a service","alias":"saas-software-as-a-service","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Software as a service (SaaS)</span> is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as &quot;on-demand software&quot;, and was formerly referred to as &quot;software plus services&quot; by Microsoft.\r\n SaaS services is typically accessed by users using a thin client, e.g. via a web browser. SaaS software solutions has become a common delivery model for many business applications, including office software, messaging software, payroll processing software, DBMS software, management software, CAD software, development software, gamification, virtualization, accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM), Management Information Systems (MIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing, human resource management (HRM), talent acquisition, learning management systems, content management (CM), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and service desk management. SaaS has been incorporated into the strategy of nearly all leading enterprise software companies.\r\nSaaS applications are also known as <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Web-based software</span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">on-demand software</span> and<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> hosted software</span>.\r\nThe term &quot;Software as a Service&quot; (SaaS) is considered to be part of the nomenclature of cloud computing, along with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Desktop as a Service (DaaS),managed software as a service (MSaaS), mobile backend as a service (MBaaS), and information technology management as a service (ITMaaS).\r\nBecause SaaS is based on cloud computing it saves organizations from installing and running applications on their own systems. That eliminates or at least reduces the associated costs of hardware purchases and maintenance and of software and support. The initial setup cost for a SaaS application is also generally lower than it for equivalent enterprise software purchased via a site license.\r\nSometimes, the use of SaaS cloud software can also reduce the long-term costs of software licensing, though that depends on the pricing model for the individual SaaS offering and the enterprise’s usage patterns. In fact, it’s possible for SaaS to cost more than traditional software licenses. This is an area IT organizations should explore carefully.<br />SaaS also provides enterprises the flexibility inherent with cloud services: they can subscribe to a SaaS offering as needed rather than having to buy software licenses and install the software on a variety of computers. The savings can be substantial in the case of applications that require new hardware purchases to support the software.<br /><br /><br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Who uses SaaS?</span></h1>\r\nIndustry analyst Forrester Research notes that SaaS adoption has so far been concentrated mostly in human resource management (HRM), customer relationship management (CRM), collaboration software (e.g., email), and procurement solutions, but is poised to widen. Today it’s possible to have a data warehouse in the cloud that you can access with business intelligence software running as a service and connect to your cloud-based ERP like NetSuite or Microsoft Dynamics.The dollar savings can run into the millions. And SaaS installations are often installed and working in a fraction of the time of on-premises deployments—some can be ready in hours. \r\nSales and marketing people are likely familiar with Salesforce.com, the leading SaaS CRM software, with millions of users across more than 100,000 customers. Sales is going SaaS too, with apps available to support sales in order management, compensation, quote production and configure, price, quoting, electronic signatures, contract management and more.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Why SaaS? Benefits of software as a service</span></h1>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Lower cost of entry</span>. With SaaS solution, you pay for what you need, without having to buy hardware to host your new applications. Instead of provisioning internal resources to install the software, the vendor provides APIs and performs much of the work to get their software working for you. The time to a working solution can drop from months in the traditional model to weeks, days or hours with the SaaS model. In some businesses, IT wants nothing to do with installing and running a sales app. In the case of funding software and its implementation, this can be a make-or-break issue for the sales and marketing budget, so the lower cost really makes the difference.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Reduced time to benefit/rapid prototyping</span>. In the SaaS model, the software application is already installed and configured. Users can provision the server for the cloud and quickly have the application ready for use. This cuts the time to benefit and allows for rapid demonstrations and prototyping. With many SaaS companies offering free trials, this means a painless proof of concept and discovery phase to prove the benefit to the organization. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Pay as you go</span>. SaaS business software gives you the benefit of predictable costs both for the subscription and to some extent, the administration. Even as you scale, you can have a clear idea of what your costs will be. This allows for much more accurate budgeting, especially as compared to the costs of internal IT to manage upgrades and address issues for an owned instance.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The SaaS vendor is responsible for upgrades, uptime and security</span>. Under the SaaS model, since the software is hosted by the vendor, they take on the responsibility for maintaining the software and upgrading it, ensuring that it is reliable and meeting agreed-upon service level agreements, and keeping the application and its data secure.&nbsp; While some IT people worry about Software as a Service security outside of the enterprise walls, the likely truth is that the vendor has a much higher level of security than the enterprise itself would provide. Many will have redundant instances in very secure data centers in multiple geographies.&nbsp; Also, the data is being automatically backed up by the vendor, providing additional security and peace of mind. Because of the data center hosting, you’re getting the added benefit of at least some disaster recovery. Lastly, the vendor manages these issues as part of their core competencies—let them.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Integration and scalability.</span> Most SaaS apps are designed to support some amount of customization for the way you do business. SaaS vendors create APIs to allow connections not only to internal applications like ERPs or CRMs but also to other SaaS providers. One of the terrific aspects of integration is that orders written in the field can be automatically sent to the ERP. Now a salesperson in the field can check inventory through the catalog, write the order in front of the customer for approval, send it and receive confirmation, all in minutes. And as you scale with a SaaS vendor, there’s no need to invest in server capacity and software licenses. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Work anywhere</span>. Since the software is hosted in the cloud and accessible over the internet, users can access it via mobile devices wherever they are connected. This includes checking customer order histories prior to a sales call, as well as having access to real time data and real time order taking with the customer.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">&nbsp;</p>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/SaaS__1_.png"},{"id":499,"title":"SDN Software-Defined Network","alias":"sdn-software-defined-network","description":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Software-defined networking (SDN)</span> technology is an approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance and monitoring, making it more like cloud computing than traditional network management.\r\nSDN encompasses several types of technologies, including functional separation, network virtualization and automation through programmability. SDN solution is meant to address the fact that the static architecture of traditional networks is decentralized and complex while current networks require more flexibility and easy troubleshooting. \r\nSDN technology attempts to centralize network intelligence in one network component by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane</span>) from the routing process (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">control plane</span>). The control plane consists of one or more controllers which are considered as the brain of SDN network where the whole intelligence is incorporated. Originally, software defined technology focused solely on separation of the network control plane from the data plane. While the control plane makes decisions about how packets should flow through the network, the data plane actually moves packets from place to place. \r\nIn a classic SDN scenario, a packet arrives at a network switch, and rules built into the switch's proprietary firmware tell the switch where to forward the packet. These packet-handling rules are sent to the switch from the centralized controller. The switch - also known as a <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane device</span> - queries the controller for guidance as needed, and it provides the controller with information about traffic it handles. The switch sends every packet going to the same destination along the same path and treats all the packets the exact same way.\r\nSoftware defined networking solutions use an operation mode that is sometimes called adaptive or dynamic, in which a switch issues a route request to a controller for a packet that does not have a specific route. This process is separate from adaptive routing, which issues route requests through routers and algorithms based on the network topology, not through a controller.\r\nThe <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">virtualization</span> aspect of SDN comes into play through a virtual overlay, which is a logically separate network on top of the physical network. Users can implement end-to-end overlays to abstract the underlying network and segment network traffic. This microsegmentation is especially useful for service providers and operators with multi-tenant cloud environments and cloud services, as they can provision a separate virtual network with specific policies for each tenant.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of Software Defined Networking</h1>\r\nWith SDN software, an <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">administrator can change any network switch's rules when necessary</span> - prioritizing, deprioritizing or even blocking specific types of packets with a granular level of control and security. This is especially helpful in a cloud computing multi-tenant architecture, because it enables the administrator to manage traffic loads in a flexible and more efficient manner. Essentially, this enables the administrator to use less expensive commodity switches and have more control over network traffic flow than ever before.\r\nOther benefits of SDN are <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">network management</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">end-to-end visibility.</span>A network administrator need only deal with one centralized controller to distribute policies to the connected switches, instead of configuring multiple individual devices. This capability is also a security advantage because the controller can monitor traffic and deploy security policies. If the controller deems traffic suspicious, for example, it can reroute or drop the packets.\r\nSoftware defined networking software also <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">virtualizes hardware</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">services </span>that were previously carried out by dedicated hardware, resulting in the touted benefits of a reduced hardware footprint and lower operational costs.\r\nAdditionally, SDN contributed to the emergence of <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN)</span> technology. SD-WAN employs the virtual overlay aspect of SDN technology, abstracting an organization's connectivity links throughout its WAN and creating a virtual network that can use whichever connection the controller deems fit to send traffic.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Are there any SDN security benefits?</h1>\r\nAs security issues become more complex at the edge of the network, it’s no wonder that network and security professionals are looking for new ways to approach network protection. Nowadays, it seems like SDN is going to be the answer. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Centralized Network Control </span></li></ul>\r\nIn a traditional network, devices (router/switches) make their own decisions locally about where and how best to send traffic.&nbsp; In terms of network security, SDN can be used to route data packets through a single firewall and make IDS and IPS data capture more efficient.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Simplify Configuration</span></li></ul>\r\nThe SDN makes it easier to automate configuration and improves the traceability of those configurations. The introduction of SDN network management allows dynamic programming and restructuring of network settings, which reduces the risk of DDoS attacks. It is also worth adding that SDN has automatic quarantine capabilities. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Creation of High-level Network Policies</span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Rather than physically configuring security solutions, SDN facilitates the central management of security policies to make network operator roles more efficient and flexible. Moreover, SDN helps to move away from current management approaches such as SNMP/CLI and build more effective policy management. </span>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Easy to use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)</span></span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Cloud APIs are interfaces presented by software and play a vital role in SDN controllers and applications. Easy to use APIs help to manage network resources, improve the efficiency of IT resources, and aid integration with IT tools. Additionally, a number of good cloud security practices have been introduced recently. </span>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_SDN_Software_Defined_Network.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]},{"id":3316,"logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Viptela_Secure_Extensible_Network.png","logo":true,"scheme":false,"title":"Viptela Secure Extensible Network (SEN)","vendorVerified":0,"rating":"2.00","implementationsCount":0,"suppliersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":125,"alias":"viptela-secure-extensible-network-sen","companyTitle":"Cisco","companyTypes":["supplier","vendor"],"companyId":170,"companyAlias":"cisco","description":"The Viptela Secure Extensible Network (SEN) solution is an industry-leading platform that delivers secure end-to-end network virtualization. Enterprises can use the SEN solution to build large-scale networks with full integration of routing, security, centralized policy,&nbsp; and orchestration. The end result is a network that is operationally easy to manage and that eliminates disconnects between business and IT.\r\nViptela Secure Extensible Network comprises of five key architectural elements:\r\n<ol> <li>Enables transport independence</li> <li>Automatically secures any routed end-points</li> <li>Provides end-to-end network segmentation</li> <li>Enforces policies with a centralized controller</li> <li>Enables advertisement of network services</li> </ol>\r\nViptela Secure Extensible Network enables your business to:\r\n<ul> <li>Securely extend the enterprise’s footprint anywhere</li> <li>Have the freedom to choose any transport network, independent of the carrier’s service</li> <li>Optimize performance for public clouds and the Internet</li> <li>Centralize enforcement of access control and network policies</li> <li>Achieve network-wide segmentation for lines of business, compliance and business partners</li> <li>Centralize network-based services</li> </ul>\r\nViptela Secure Extensible Network is made up of the following four major components:\r\n<ul> <li>vSmart Controller</li> <li>vEdge Router</li> <li>vBond Orchestrator</li> <li>vManage Configuring and Monitoring System</li> </ul>","shortDescription":"The Viptela Secure Extensible Network (SEN) solution is an industry-leading platform that delivers secure end-to-end network virtualization.","type":null,"isRoiCalculatorAvaliable":false,"isConfiguratorAvaliable":false,"bonus":100,"usingCount":8,"sellingCount":8,"discontinued":0,"rebateForPoc":0,"rebate":0,"seo":{"title":"Viptela Secure Extensible Network (SEN)","keywords":"","description":"The Viptela Secure Extensible Network (SEN) solution is an industry-leading platform that delivers secure end-to-end network virtualization. Enterprises can use the SEN solution to build large-scale networks with full integration of routing, security, centrali","og:title":"Viptela Secure Extensible Network (SEN)","og:description":"The Viptela Secure Extensible Network (SEN) solution is an industry-leading platform that delivers secure end-to-end network virtualization. Enterprises can use the SEN solution to build large-scale networks with full integration of routing, security, centrali","og:image":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Viptela_Secure_Extensible_Network.png"},"eventUrl":"","translationId":3317,"dealDetails":null,"roi":null,"price":null,"bonusForReference":null,"templateData":[{"id":93,"title":"Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN)"}],"testingArea":"","categories":[{"id":34,"title":"ITSM - IT Service Management","alias":"itsm-it-service-management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">IT service management (ITSM)</span> is the process of designing, delivering, managing, and improving the IT services an organization provides to its end users. ITSM is focused on aligning IT processes and services with business objectives to help an organization grow.\r\nITSM positions IT services as the key means of delivering and obtaining value, where an internal or external IT service provider works with business customers, at the same time taking responsibility for the associated costs and risks. ITSM works across the whole lifecycle of a service, from the original strategy, through design, transition and into live operation.\r\nTo ensure sustainable quality of IT services, ITSM establishes a set of practices, or processes, constituting a service management system. There are industrial, national and international standards for IT service management solutions, setting up requirements and good practices for the management system. \r\nITSM system is based on a set of principles, such as focusing on value and continual improvement. It is not just a set of processes – it is a cultural mindset to ensure that the desired outcome for the business is achieved. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library)</span> is a framework of best practices and recommendations for managing an organization's IT operations and services. IT service management processes, when built based on the ITIL framework, pave the way for better IT service operations management and improved business. To summarize, ITIL is a set of guidelines for effective IT service management best practices. ITIL has evolved beyond the delivery of services to providing end-to-end value delivery. The focus is now on the co-creation of value through service relationships. \r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM processes typically include five stages, all based on the ITIL framework:</span></p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ITSM strategy.</span> This stage forms the foundation or the framework of an organization's ITSM process building. It involves defining the services that the organization will offer, strategically planning processes, and recognizing and developing the required assets to keep processes moving. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service design.</span> This stage's main aim is planning and designing the IT services the organization offers to meet business demands. It involves creating and designing new services as well as assessing current services and making relevant improvements.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service transition.</span> Once the designs for IT services and their processes have been finalized, it's important to build them and test them out to ensure that processes flow. IT teams need to ensure that the designs don't disrupt services in any way, especially when existing IT service processes are upgraded or redesigned. This calls for change management, evaluation, and risk management. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service operation. </span>This phase involves implementing the tried and tested new or modified designs in a live environment. While in this stage, the processes have already been tested and the issues fixed, but new processes are bound to have hiccups—especially when customers start using the services. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Continual service improvement (CSI).</span> Implementing IT processes successfully shouldn't be the final stage in any organization. There's always room for improvement and new development based on issues that pop up, customer needs and demands, and user feedback.\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of efficient ITSM processes</h1>\r\nIrrespective of the size of business, every organization is involved in IT service management in some way. ITSM ensures that incidents, service requests, problems, changes, and IT assets—in addition to other aspects of IT services—are managed in a streamlined way.\r\nIT teams in your organization can employ various workflows and best practices in ITSM, as outlined in ITIL. Effective IT service management can have positive effects on an IT organization's overall function.\r\nHere are the 10 key benefits of ITSM:\r\n<ul><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lower costs for IT operations</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Higher returns on IT investments</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Minimal service outages</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ability to establish well-defined, repeatable, and manageable IT processes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Efficient analysis of IT problems to reduce repeat incidents</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Improved efficiency of IT help desk teams</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Well-defined roles and responsibilities</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Clear expectations on service levels and service availability</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Risk-free implementation of IT changes</li><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Better transparency into IT processes and services</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">How to choose an ITSM tool?</h1>\r\nWith a competent IT service management goal in mind, it's important to invest in a service desk solution that caters to your business needs. It goes without saying, with more than 150 service desk tools to choose from, selecting the right one is easier said than done. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing an ITSM products:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Identify key processes and their dependencies. </span>Based on business goals, decide which key ITSM processes need to be implemented and chart out the integrations that need to be established to achieve those goals. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Consult with ITSM experts.</span> Participate in business expos, webinars, demos, etc., and educate yourself about the various options that are available in the market. Reports from expert analysts such as Gartner and Forrester are particularly useful as they include reviews of almost every solution, ranked based on multiple criteria.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Choose a deployment option.</span> Every business has a different IT infrastructure model. Selecting an on-premises or software as a service (SaaS IT service management) tool depends on whether your business prefers to host its applications and data on its own servers or use a public or private cloud.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Plan ahead for the future.</span> Although it's important to consider the &quot;needs&quot; primarily, you shouldn't rule out the secondary or luxury capabilities. If the ITSM tool doesn't have the potential to adapt to your needs as your organization grows, it can pull you back from progressing. Draw a clear picture of where your business is headed and choose an service ITSM that is flexible and technology-driven.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Don't stop with the capabilities of the ITSM tool.</span> It might be tempting to assess an ITSM tool based on its capabilities and features but it's important to evaluate the vendor of the tool. A good IT support team, and a vendor that is endorsed for their customer-vendor relationship can take your IT services far. Check Gartner's magic quadrant and other analyst reports, along with product and support reviews to ensure that the said tool provides good customer support.","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_ITSM.png"},{"id":52,"title":"SaaS - software as a service","alias":"saas-software-as-a-service","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Software as a service (SaaS)</span> is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as &quot;on-demand software&quot;, and was formerly referred to as &quot;software plus services&quot; by Microsoft.\r\n SaaS services is typically accessed by users using a thin client, e.g. via a web browser. SaaS software solutions has become a common delivery model for many business applications, including office software, messaging software, payroll processing software, DBMS software, management software, CAD software, development software, gamification, virtualization, accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM), Management Information Systems (MIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing, human resource management (HRM), talent acquisition, learning management systems, content management (CM), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and service desk management. SaaS has been incorporated into the strategy of nearly all leading enterprise software companies.\r\nSaaS applications are also known as <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Web-based software</span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">on-demand software</span> and<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> hosted software</span>.\r\nThe term &quot;Software as a Service&quot; (SaaS) is considered to be part of the nomenclature of cloud computing, along with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Desktop as a Service (DaaS),managed software as a service (MSaaS), mobile backend as a service (MBaaS), and information technology management as a service (ITMaaS).\r\nBecause SaaS is based on cloud computing it saves organizations from installing and running applications on their own systems. That eliminates or at least reduces the associated costs of hardware purchases and maintenance and of software and support. The initial setup cost for a SaaS application is also generally lower than it for equivalent enterprise software purchased via a site license.\r\nSometimes, the use of SaaS cloud software can also reduce the long-term costs of software licensing, though that depends on the pricing model for the individual SaaS offering and the enterprise’s usage patterns. In fact, it’s possible for SaaS to cost more than traditional software licenses. This is an area IT organizations should explore carefully.<br />SaaS also provides enterprises the flexibility inherent with cloud services: they can subscribe to a SaaS offering as needed rather than having to buy software licenses and install the software on a variety of computers. The savings can be substantial in the case of applications that require new hardware purchases to support the software.<br /><br /><br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Who uses SaaS?</span></h1>\r\nIndustry analyst Forrester Research notes that SaaS adoption has so far been concentrated mostly in human resource management (HRM), customer relationship management (CRM), collaboration software (e.g., email), and procurement solutions, but is poised to widen. Today it’s possible to have a data warehouse in the cloud that you can access with business intelligence software running as a service and connect to your cloud-based ERP like NetSuite or Microsoft Dynamics.The dollar savings can run into the millions. And SaaS installations are often installed and working in a fraction of the time of on-premises deployments—some can be ready in hours. \r\nSales and marketing people are likely familiar with Salesforce.com, the leading SaaS CRM software, with millions of users across more than 100,000 customers. Sales is going SaaS too, with apps available to support sales in order management, compensation, quote production and configure, price, quoting, electronic signatures, contract management and more.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Why SaaS? Benefits of software as a service</span></h1>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Lower cost of entry</span>. With SaaS solution, you pay for what you need, without having to buy hardware to host your new applications. Instead of provisioning internal resources to install the software, the vendor provides APIs and performs much of the work to get their software working for you. The time to a working solution can drop from months in the traditional model to weeks, days or hours with the SaaS model. In some businesses, IT wants nothing to do with installing and running a sales app. In the case of funding software and its implementation, this can be a make-or-break issue for the sales and marketing budget, so the lower cost really makes the difference.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Reduced time to benefit/rapid prototyping</span>. In the SaaS model, the software application is already installed and configured. Users can provision the server for the cloud and quickly have the application ready for use. This cuts the time to benefit and allows for rapid demonstrations and prototyping. With many SaaS companies offering free trials, this means a painless proof of concept and discovery phase to prove the benefit to the organization. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Pay as you go</span>. SaaS business software gives you the benefit of predictable costs both for the subscription and to some extent, the administration. Even as you scale, you can have a clear idea of what your costs will be. This allows for much more accurate budgeting, especially as compared to the costs of internal IT to manage upgrades and address issues for an owned instance.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The SaaS vendor is responsible for upgrades, uptime and security</span>. Under the SaaS model, since the software is hosted by the vendor, they take on the responsibility for maintaining the software and upgrading it, ensuring that it is reliable and meeting agreed-upon service level agreements, and keeping the application and its data secure.&nbsp; While some IT people worry about Software as a Service security outside of the enterprise walls, the likely truth is that the vendor has a much higher level of security than the enterprise itself would provide. Many will have redundant instances in very secure data centers in multiple geographies.&nbsp; Also, the data is being automatically backed up by the vendor, providing additional security and peace of mind. Because of the data center hosting, you’re getting the added benefit of at least some disaster recovery. Lastly, the vendor manages these issues as part of their core competencies—let them.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Integration and scalability.</span> Most SaaS apps are designed to support some amount of customization for the way you do business. SaaS vendors create APIs to allow connections not only to internal applications like ERPs or CRMs but also to other SaaS providers. One of the terrific aspects of integration is that orders written in the field can be automatically sent to the ERP. Now a salesperson in the field can check inventory through the catalog, write the order in front of the customer for approval, send it and receive confirmation, all in minutes. And as you scale with a SaaS vendor, there’s no need to invest in server capacity and software licenses. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Work anywhere</span>. Since the software is hosted in the cloud and accessible over the internet, users can access it via mobile devices wherever they are connected. This includes checking customer order histories prior to a sales call, as well as having access to real time data and real time order taking with the customer.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">&nbsp;</p>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/SaaS__1_.png"},{"id":499,"title":"SDN Software-Defined Network","alias":"sdn-software-defined-network","description":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Software-defined networking (SDN)</span> technology is an approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance and monitoring, making it more like cloud computing than traditional network management.\r\nSDN encompasses several types of technologies, including functional separation, network virtualization and automation through programmability. SDN solution is meant to address the fact that the static architecture of traditional networks is decentralized and complex while current networks require more flexibility and easy troubleshooting. \r\nSDN technology attempts to centralize network intelligence in one network component by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane</span>) from the routing process (<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">control plane</span>). The control plane consists of one or more controllers which are considered as the brain of SDN network where the whole intelligence is incorporated. Originally, software defined technology focused solely on separation of the network control plane from the data plane. While the control plane makes decisions about how packets should flow through the network, the data plane actually moves packets from place to place. \r\nIn a classic SDN scenario, a packet arrives at a network switch, and rules built into the switch's proprietary firmware tell the switch where to forward the packet. These packet-handling rules are sent to the switch from the centralized controller. The switch - also known as a <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data plane device</span> - queries the controller for guidance as needed, and it provides the controller with information about traffic it handles. The switch sends every packet going to the same destination along the same path and treats all the packets the exact same way.\r\nSoftware defined networking solutions use an operation mode that is sometimes called adaptive or dynamic, in which a switch issues a route request to a controller for a packet that does not have a specific route. This process is separate from adaptive routing, which issues route requests through routers and algorithms based on the network topology, not through a controller.\r\nThe <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">virtualization</span> aspect of SDN comes into play through a virtual overlay, which is a logically separate network on top of the physical network. Users can implement end-to-end overlays to abstract the underlying network and segment network traffic. This microsegmentation is especially useful for service providers and operators with multi-tenant cloud environments and cloud services, as they can provision a separate virtual network with specific policies for each tenant.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of Software Defined Networking</h1>\r\nWith SDN software, an <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">administrator can change any network switch's rules when necessary</span> - prioritizing, deprioritizing or even blocking specific types of packets with a granular level of control and security. This is especially helpful in a cloud computing multi-tenant architecture, because it enables the administrator to manage traffic loads in a flexible and more efficient manner. Essentially, this enables the administrator to use less expensive commodity switches and have more control over network traffic flow than ever before.\r\nOther benefits of SDN are <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">network management</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">end-to-end visibility.</span>A network administrator need only deal with one centralized controller to distribute policies to the connected switches, instead of configuring multiple individual devices. This capability is also a security advantage because the controller can monitor traffic and deploy security policies. If the controller deems traffic suspicious, for example, it can reroute or drop the packets.\r\nSoftware defined networking software also <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">virtualizes hardware</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">services </span>that were previously carried out by dedicated hardware, resulting in the touted benefits of a reduced hardware footprint and lower operational costs.\r\nAdditionally, SDN contributed to the emergence of <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN)</span> technology. SD-WAN employs the virtual overlay aspect of SDN technology, abstracting an organization's connectivity links throughout its WAN and creating a virtual network that can use whichever connection the controller deems fit to send traffic.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Are there any SDN security benefits?</h1>\r\nAs security issues become more complex at the edge of the network, it’s no wonder that network and security professionals are looking for new ways to approach network protection. Nowadays, it seems like SDN is going to be the answer. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Centralized Network Control </span></li></ul>\r\nIn a traditional network, devices (router/switches) make their own decisions locally about where and how best to send traffic.&nbsp; In terms of network security, SDN can be used to route data packets through a single firewall and make IDS and IPS data capture more efficient.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Simplify Configuration</span></li></ul>\r\nThe SDN makes it easier to automate configuration and improves the traceability of those configurations. The introduction of SDN network management allows dynamic programming and restructuring of network settings, which reduces the risk of DDoS attacks. It is also worth adding that SDN has automatic quarantine capabilities. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Creation of High-level Network Policies</span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Rather than physically configuring security solutions, SDN facilitates the central management of security policies to make network operator roles more efficient and flexible. Moreover, SDN helps to move away from current management approaches such as SNMP/CLI and build more effective policy management. </span>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Easy to use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)</span></span></li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Cloud APIs are interfaces presented by software and play a vital role in SDN controllers and applications. Easy to use APIs help to manage network resources, improve the efficiency of IT resources, and aid integration with IT tools. Additionally, a number of good cloud security practices have been introduced recently. </span>","iconURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_SDN_Software_Defined_Network.png"}],"characteristics":[],"concurentProducts":[],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":[],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":[],"implementations":[]}],"jobRoles":[],"organizationalFeatures":[],"complementaryCategories":[],"solutions":["High costs"],"materials":[],"useCases":[],"best_practices":[],"values":["Reduce Costs"],"implementations":[{"id":528,"title":"Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) for Experian","url":"https://old.roi4cio.com/vnedrenija/vnedrenie/cisco-application-centric-infrastructure-aci-for-experian/"}],"presenterCodeLng":"","productImplementations":[{"id":528,"title":"Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) for Experian","description":"<span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; \">The foundation for global&nbsp;</span><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; \">data center connectivity</span>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; \">Size: 17,000 employees | Industry: Information services | Location: Dublin, Ireland</span>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; \">Experian is a global leader in consumer and business credit reporting and marketing services. A constituent of the United Kingdom’s</span><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; \">Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 Index, the company generates total revenue of more than US$4.3 billion annually.</span><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; \">Experian supports clients in more than 80 countries and employs approximately 17,000 people in 37 countries.</span>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Results</span>\r\n• Implemented the network foundation for global data center connectivity\r\n• Aligned the visibility and control of physical and virtual environments\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Challenges</span>\r\n• Standardize network architecture and policies across dozens of data centers\r\n• Improve the visibility and control of infrastructure systems and traffic\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Solutions</span>\r\n• Application-centric, software-defined network with:\r\n- Multipod capability\r\n- Virtual data switching\r\n- Centralized, automated infrastructure management\r\n• Converged infrastructure\r\n• Traffic telemetry and analysis\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; \">“ACI Virtual Edge will eliminate the need of VLAN management. It will allow us to configure once and deploy everywhere, which will save a ton of time and cost.” - Robert Abner, Senior network engineer, Experian</span>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Challenge: Standardizing network operations around the world</span>\r\n“Data is our product,” says Robert Abner, senior network engineer at Experian. “We gather information from a variety of sources, and then we analyze, process, and package it for our customers. There’s a lot of data coming in and going out at all times, and our services need to be available at all times.” This is difficult to accomplish when the services are managed, secured, and delivered from dozens of disparate data centers and colocation sites in multiple regions. So Experian launched a global data center innovation initiative.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; \">“We have 50 to 60 sites around the world, and we needed them to be more alike,” says Abner. “We wanted a standardized network architecture with consistency for how applications are deployed and managed and how data is transported.”</span>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; \">“We’re putting more workloads onto ACI, we’re implementing more automation, and we’re extending the fabric to our other data centers. It’s different, and it’s very exciting.” Robert Abner,</span><span style=\"font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; \">Senior network engineer, Experian</span>\r\nExperian also sought network automation, allowing changes to be made universally instead of one switch, one data center, one region at a time.<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">&nbsp;</span>\r\nAs the foundational elements of its data center innovation initiative, Experian deployed Cisco ACI— the industry’s leading software-defined network fabric—in tandem with the Intel® Xeon® processorbased Cisco UCS.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Connecting data centers in key regions</span>\r\nBefore Experian connects its data centers around the globe, it is using Cisco ACI Multipod functionality to link the data centers within three key regions.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">“Cisco ACI has given us the ability to do things we couldn’t do before,” Abner claims. “Using ACI Multipod, we’ve been able to logically connect multiple sites within the U.S., the U.K., and Brazil, which allows them to be managed as one big data center in each of those regions.”</span>\r\nThese unified fabrics have led to a number of benefits, he explains. Regional resources are now managed collectively. Workloads have been spread among multiple sites for greater redundancy. Spanning tree issues that caused service interruptions have been eliminated. And a significant portion of north-south traffic has been turned into east-west traffic using contracts and filters, reducing the load on the company’s firewalls and improving overall performance.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">“We have much more granular traffic, policy, and security control,” Abner notes. “We can make a change to a single tenant or server with contracts and filters, for example, instead of making changes to the firewalls. It’s easier, less risky, and doesn’t impact the entire environment.”</span>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Aligning virtual and physical environments </span>\r\nTo further extend data center consistency and operational efficiency, Experian is now testing and preparing to deploy the new Cisco ACI Virtual Edge. The next generation of the Cisco Application Virtual Switch (AVS), ACI Virtual Edge is a hypervisor-independent virtual appliance that pushes the functionality and control of Cisco ACI into virtual environments.\r\n“ACI Virtual Edge will eliminate the need of VLAN management,” Abner says. “It will allow us to configure once and deploy everywhere, which will save a ton of time and cost.”\r\nExperian is also planning to utilize the distributed firewall capability of ACI Virtual Edge as well as Cisco Tetration for greater visibility and management of its workloads and traffic flows— spanning both virtual and physical environments. The distributed, stateful firewall built into ACI Virtual Edge will allow the company to track the communications between virtual and physical machines. And Cisco Tetration will enable Experian to fully map its legacy applications, including data flows, rules, and dependencies.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">“As we port our legacy applications to the new fabric, we don’t want to move all of the old rules and ACLs (access control lists) with them,” Abner states. “We want to optimize the applications and get rid of the ports and rules that are no longer needed. Tetration will automate much of that work and provide additional visibility moving forward.”</span>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Increasing flexibility and control</span>\r\nIn addition to standardizing its network architecture and provisioning policies, Experian is utilizing the segmentation capabilities of Cisco ACI to attain additional control over its data resources.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">“We have the flexibility to take our legacy environment, move it onto the new fabric, and then segment the subnets into multiple endpoint groups,” Abner explains. “Those endpoint groups are locked by default and can’t talk with others, even in the same IP space.”</span>\r\nCisco ACI is also relieving the headache of managing a multitude of subnets, VLANs, ACLs, and logs.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">“We have a lot of very large ACLs, and if one is built incorrectly, it can cause a number of problems,” Abner says. “With ACI and Tetration, we can clean them up and better understand what traffic is needed and what isn’t.”</span>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Looking ahead</span>\r\nExperian is now in the process of evaluating Cisco ACI Multi-Site capability to logically and securely connect additional data centers around the world. With a standardized and connected network fabric, the company will be able to manage data center policies and maintain architectural consistency globally instead of regionally.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">“We’re putting more workloads onto ACI, we’re implementing more automation, and we’re extending the fabric to our other data centers,” says Abner. “It’s different, and it’s very exciting.”&nbsp;</span>\r\n","alias":"cisco-application-centric-infrastructure-aci-for-experian","roi":0,"seo":{"title":"Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) for Experian","keywords":"","description":"<span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; \">The foundation for global&nbsp;</span><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; \">data center connectivity</span>\r\n<span style=\"co","og:title":"Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) for Experian","og:description":"<span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; \">The foundation for global&nbsp;</span><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; \">data center connectivity</span>\r\n<span style=\"co"},"deal_info":"","user":{"id":4335,"title":"Experian","logoURL":"https://old.roi4cio.com/uploads/roi/company/Experian.png","alias":"experian","address":"","roles":[],"description":"Experian plc is a consumer credit reporting agency. 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