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Branch Office Best Practices Alert

Delves into the issues vital to network managers who support branch offices and remote workers.

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Five key challenges for branch computing: 12/16/08; I am sorry to say this is the last column of the Branch Office Best Practices newsletter. I want to first thank all of the readers for the past three years who have communicated with me, challenged me, and most importantly, who have used this forum as a way to improve their branch strategies. Second, I would like to leave you with some key "closing thoughts" on the trends and challenges I foresee for the branch, and my recommendations for addressing them.
Travel freeze? Log on: 12/09/08; Those of us who have been in the workforce for a few decades now have been through our share of economic downturns.
Why MSPs?: 12/02/08; Managed Service Providers are one of the types of businesses that are seeing benefits from the economic situation. Now, about 63% of businesses use some third-party service to help serve branch locations.
Desktop virtualization helps deliver functionality to virtual workers: 11/25/08; An emerging technology destined to resolve many IT headaches without prescription medication is desktop virtualization. The technology helps IT staffs deliver functionality to remote workers faster and with more control than using traditional means.
Who's making sure apps perform well?: 11/18/08; Delivering applications out to branch offices and virtual workers isn't as easy as it sounds. There are many moving parts that require focus and attention from the IT staff.
The trend towards third-party MSPs: 11/11/08; With the economic downturn in full nosedive-mode, companies are concerned about earnings reports, managers are worried about their budgets, and IT staffs are trying to figure out how to keep the infrastructure secure and performing well with flat or decreasing headcounts.
Web Conferencing: Top branch collaborative app: 11/04/08; I started working from home full-time in 1991, and through 2002, I worked for two telecommuter-friendly companies. In 2002, my partners and I launched Nemertes Research - a virtual company.
Managed high-def videoconferencing overcomes obstacles: 10/28/08; Managed Service Providers are of the few groups of companies experiencing a boost in their businesses while many others are carefully watching every dollar they spend.
Are MSPs immune to the economic slow down?: 10/21/08; Managed Service Providers are of the few groups of companies experiencing a boost in their businesses while many others are carefully watching every dollar they spend.
Renaming the telecommuter: 10/14/08; The term "telecommuter" is synonymous with an individual who works from home - plain and simple. But dissect the word, and what do you have? A person who uses telecommunications to avoid a commute into the office.
Branch network influences IP telephony management: 10/07/08; One of the drivers encouraging companies to implement IP telephony throughout the organization is the ability to provide consistent communications features from any location.
Teleworking drives Web 2.0 applications: 09/30/08; Though early adoption was primarily in the consumer space, Web 2.0 applications - including wikis, blogs, shared workspaces, and social computing - are infiltrating businesses, as well.
Green's effect on branch collaboration: 09/23/08; We are bombarded lately with "green" everything. No longer does green simply describe the mixture of blue and yellow. And the Irish? Sorry, no longer do you have exclusive ownership of this hue. Now it describes everything from recycling to hybrid vehicles to energy-efficient IT organizations.
How rigid should you be at the branch?: 09/16/08; Last week, I wrote about how companies are paying closer attention to the architecture, products, and decision-makers for branch office IT.
Branch decision-making: Then and now: 09/09/08; One of the more refreshing changes to IT organizations is how they're addressing IT challenges at the branch. I have talked to many IT executives who have revamped how they make decisions about the technologies, products, and services that go into branch offices. As branch locations and virtual workers grow, IT staffs must take inventory of what is in the branches and how they will best deliver data, applications, and bandwidth out to the remote workforce.
Appliance-based option for remote troubleshooting: 09/02/08; Troubleshooting IT problems among workers in branch offices is a challenge regardless of company size or IT sophistication. That's one reason companies are moving toward managed services to help offload IT staff responsibilities.
Location decision: Where to implement branch services: 08/26/08; Flat IT budgets and lean IT staffs are making it challenging for organizations to effectively manage a growing number of branch locations. That's why about 60% of businesses rely upon third-party services to serve as an extension of the IT staff.
Social networking at the branch, the downside: 08/19/08; Though there are benefits to bringing social networking sites, such as Facebook, Linked In, Myspace, and YouTube, to the workplace, there are disadvantages, too. And companies must weigh the two and develop an appropriate policy regarding the sites.
Social networking at the branch: 08/12/08; Social networking sites, such as Facebook, Linked In, MySpace, and others, present numerous opportunities and oddities to employees - particularly those at branch offices.
Unified communications is catching on...but what is unified communications?: 08/05/08; It hasn't taken long for "unified communications" to infiltrate corporate IT planning. Nemertes' latest research shows only 16% of companies are doing nothing with unified communications.
The trend is toward centralization: 07/29/08; The movement toward centralizing applications continues to grow stronger. Nemertes' latest research shows 67.7% of companies store their applications centrally. Just one year ago, this figure was at 56%.
Automation of branch management picking up steam: 07/22/08; As IT staffs discuss how to handle growing IT requirements often with flat IT budgets, one topic that always emerges is more efficient ways to manage the infrastructure.
Branch-in-a-box simplicity and security: 5 simple questions: 07/15/08; Last week I wrote about the convenient confluence of consolidating multiple applications - the branch-in-a-box (BiaB) - and the emergence of virtualization as a consolidation platform. As discussed, there are real benefits to a BiaB, including: reduced cost, streamlined operations and reduced footprint (power, heat and rack space).
What's in your refrigeroven?: 07/08/08; At Nemertes, our research shows that enterprise IT is very interested in consolidation of applications and devices into fewer boxes, especially for branch operations: the branch in a box (BiaB). Concurrently, virtualization has dramatically increased consolidation options. Consolidation done well has real benefits, including: reduced cost, streamlined operations and reduced footprint (power, heat and rack space). It's quite attractive - and seemingly straight-forward - to fire up your hypervisor, load up guest operating systems and run your IP PBX, e-mail server, file/print server and even your content management and Web servers all on one box.
Demand for unified communications not just from IT: 07/01/08; As employees increasingly work virtually, collaborative applications and an overall unified communications strategy become more vital. Unified communications gives virtual workers a way to communicate effectively and productively.