What's Ahead Magazine - Issue 4

aheadWhat*s

managing transformational

change

PLUSASSeSSing yoUr endPoint device StrAtegy

FastPath oFFerings designed to get you From

then to now Faster

think. Look. Plan. move. issue 4, summer 2013

*

EMC2, EMC, and the EMC logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. © Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

BIG DATATRANSFORMS BUSINESS

What’s Ahead | 3

Over the years, as the use of information technol-ogy proliferated and evolved in the workplace, IT leaders focused their resources and energy on delivering applications, data, and other critical

information to a single endpoint. The resulting operat-ing models and infrastructure were rigid and overly complicated — making them hard to manage, brittle, and expensive to modify. That’s the way it was for nearly 50 years.

But that was then — this is now. Consumerization, bring your own device (BYOD), application virtualiza-tion, and enterprise collaboration are changing the way business works. And while the resulting workforce mo-bility offers tremendous advantages, capitalizing on these requires transformational thinking, foresight, a priori-tized action plan, and the know-how to execute it.

AHEAD leadership, technologists, and consultants cut their teeth in traditional data center environments. We have deep experience integrating storage, networking, and compute to optimize performance and productivity.

We also have a well-deserved reputation for thought leadership and forward thinking, which is why we built a production-ready hybrid cloud in our demonstration lab in 2010. In doing so, we cut through the cloud hype

GreetinGs and salutations,

aheadWhat*s

Find out more about the suitability of using cloud orchestration and automation to tie together your company’s IT infrastructure. http://www.thinkahead.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Automation-Orchestration_White_Paper_Mattson_2013.pdf

dOWnlOAd White PAPer

and examined actual use cases where private, public, and hybrid cloud functionality would produce meaningful results for clients. And we proved it’s possible.

By providing services and leading-edge technologies that bridge the gap between past, present, and future, the AHEAD team enables you to enable your business. That is what we call “How then meets now,” and we welcome an opportunity to demonstrate how it works.

Our executive briefing center and demonstration lab is the perfect place to start. It is ideal for catching up on the latest technologies, getting a firsthand look at how new bundled solutions like vCloud Suite allow you to deliver Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas), and testing your workloads before investing in a solution that doesn’t accomplish what you need.

Or, if need be, we’ll come to you. Either way, you don’t have to make the journey on your own. VMware just named AHEAD Global Partner of the Year for Cloud IaaS competency. And EMC announced AHEAD as Unified Storage, Partner of the Year because AHEAD Systems “demonstrates advanced technical capabilities, client centricity, and valuable knowledge of the interde-pendence of technologies in the data center.”

Thanks for taking time to read What’s Ahead. We look forward to talking with you further about the exceptional opportunities that exist for IT to assume a leadership role in innovating across the enterprise, which is another remarkably gratifying benefit of moving from then to now. Are you ready to get started?

Best regards,

Daniel Adamany, CEOAHEAD

www.ThinkAhead .com

How then meets now.

Alex MattsonSr. Technical Architect

CLOUD ORCHESTR ATION

AND AU TOM ATION:

framing requirements

4 | What’s Ahead

think. Look. Plan. move.

issue 4, 2013

tRansFORmatiOn

managing transformational changeAHEAD FastPath offerings designed to get you from then to now faster

Cloud orchestration and automationVendor landscape assessment

industRy insights

two views on vCloud suiteThe real value; more than just licensing fluff

assessing your endpoint strategyMarket overview and analysis of product offerings

heavy equipment manufacturer deploysprivate cloud solution

in the neWs

ahead newsEMC announces AHEAD as Partner of the Year for Unified Storage; VMware recognizes AHEAD as Partner of the Year for IAAS Competency

Published by SBN Interactive,835 Sharon Drive, Suite 200, Westlake, OH 44145 (440) 250-7000www.sbninteractive.com

Editor: Todd ShryockArt Director: Stacy Vickroy Project Manager: Jessica HannaProduction Manager: Andrea Jager

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Table of Contents

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14

18

aheadWhat*s

Corporate Headquarters

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150 s. Wacker drive, suite 2500

Chicago, il 60606

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17

What’s Ahead | 5

ahead tRansFORmatiOn

after 30 years of researching organizational change, noted leadership expert John Kotter, Ph.D. found 70 percent of all major change efforts fall short of their intended objectives.

This is not good news for IT leaders in the midst of seismic shifts in the way things are done in the mod-ern workplace.

The situation is even more urgent when you consider the speed at which change is taking effect. “If we look at the speed disruptive game changers are moving today and compare them to the world of 1986, we find that in only 25 years, the rate of acceleration is astounding. Back then, disruptive changes in technology, markets and governments were like slow storms on the horizon — something you could generally see and prepare for. Today, on the other hand, perfect storms appear out of nowhere. The changes we are seeing are bigger, bolder and broader in scope than ever before,” wrote Ken Perlman in the August 2012 issue of Forbes magazine.

For Perlman, back then is 1987 — a time when desktop computing was just gaining a foothold in the enterprise. Now, 97 percent of the workforce brings at least two devices to work with them. Multi screening is the behavioral norm. And the days of building the orga-nization’s IT strategy around delivering applications,

data, and information to a single endpoint over a wired network are a thing of the past.

So how do you move from then to now with your IT strategy? Step one is engaging a trusted advisor to help you make the transformation a smooth one. The father of the total quality management movement (TQM), W. Edwards Deming, said that real change requires an outside influence, or catalyst, to initiate and complete the transformation. He also noted that the reason in-novation fails is because business leaders mistake what can be measured with what is important.

“The job of management is to replace work stan-dards by knowledgeable and intelligent leadership. Wherever work standards have been thrown out and replaced by leadership, quality and productivity have gone up substantially, and people are happier on the job,” Deming said.

The AHEAD Think, Look, Plan, Move framework was built for precisely this purpose. By collaboratively discussing your business needs and developing a thor-ough understanding of how your organization works, AHEAD consultants are able to identify and develop a breadth of possible solutions for introducing transfor-mational concepts into your data center environment. At the same time, forward thinking, detailed planning, and flawless execution ensure the solution accommo-dates both short- and long-term organizational goals and objectives.

An example of this type of thought leadership around innovation is the AHEAD FastPath service

managing tRansFORmatiOnal Change

*

the days oF buiLding the organization’s it strategy around deLivering aPPLications, data, and inFormation to a singLe endPoint over a wired network are a thing oF the Past.

Continued on page 21

ahead FastPath oFFerings designed to get you From then to now Faster

Behaviors toward data center infrastructure are changing. Although total abandonment of tradi-tional on-premise models is not likely, a growing desire for consuming IT services differently is

creating opportunities for innovations that give both IT and the end-user greater control over the cost, function-ality, and performance of the technologies that enable their businesses to succeed.

As a result, IT organizations are becoming increas-ingly sensitive to the needs of business unit owners across the enterprise — moving from builders of data center infrastructure to brokers of IT services. Doing so requires a combination of disciplined management techniques, team realignment and development, well-defined processes, and a strategy, road map, and plan capable of scaling with the business.

Orchestration and automation solutions are a key component of the transformation process. First and foremost, they allow users to decide what they need with a complete understanding of how much the services will cost. By giving users decision-making power, IT is in a position to significantly improve time-to-value, as well. Moreover, unused or underused resources can be reclaimed, which means the organization only pays for what is being utilized.

Because of the wide range of orchestration and automation products flooding the marketplace, AHEAD conducted a comprehensive assessment of leading solu-tions. The analysis segments various solutions into five vertical markets: 1) open-source, scripting-based solu-tions; 2) virtual machine managers and private cloud solutions; 3) public cloud management solutions; 4) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), hybrid cloud management solutions (emerging technologies); and 5) IaaS, hybrid cloud management solutions (incumbent technologies).

For purposes of the assessment, private cloud was defined as an infrastructure built and maintained by an internal IT organization. Public cloud is an infrastructure provisioned by a third-party service provider; hybrid cloud is a combination of both.

To help clients determine which solutions best fit

their particular business needs, AHEAD examined the manufacturers in each vertical market according to their overall approach to technology and the inherent strengths and weaknesses of the resulting product offer-ing. Other critical factors taken under consideration were the firm’s organizational leadership and go-to-market strategy, the health and current state of the user commu-nity, technical functionality, and ease of use.

Each solution was independently evaluated and then placed into a Harvey Ball chart ranking its ef-ficacy relative to the aforementioned criteria. Primary and secondary market research, technical evaluation, published reports, product reviews, and the firm’s own marketing materials were reviewed to ensure accurate feature and benefit profiles were assembled. Finally, subject matter experts were interviewed for verbatim insights and critiques on how the various products perform in different situations.

The finished report was then peer reviewed by AHEAD engineers and technical consultants to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the findings. And while the final conclusions are directional in nature, they serve as a valuable starting point and guide when considering investment in an orchestration and automation solution.

The following table illustrates the five distinct vertical markets, along with a brief description of each, use cases, and a listing of leading manufacturers in the space.

What’s Ahead | 7

Continued on next page

ahead autOmatiOn*

vendor LandscaPe assessment

lOOking ahead – ClOud ORChestRatiOn and autOmatiOn

There is no magical formula for transforming your IT organization from a technology-centric builder of infrastruc-ture to an agile, forward-thinking pro-vider of IT services. But there are proven methodologies that facilitate the process. The trademarked AHEAD framework for evaluating and developing solutions that make the most of your IT investment is a great place to start. *

8 | What’s Ahead

Continued from previous page

VertiCAl deSCriPtiOn USe CASeS tOP VendOrS

Vertical 1:

Open-Source, Scripting-Based Solutions

Open-source DevOps tools designed to configure and manage server applications and operating systems across enterprise data centers and cloud infrastructures. Opscode Chef and Puppet Labs are currently the major players.

Good for customers that have sig-nificant in-house developer expertise with a culture around application development. For example, Chef was deployed by Orbitz, the travel management company.

Vertical 2:

Virtual Machine Managers and Private Cloud Solutions

Comprised of vendors that started out as simple virtual machine manag-ers but are maturing as private cloud solutions with some hooks into public cloud. VMware vCloud Director was in this category until it acquired Dynami-cOps in the summer of 2012.

These solutions may be appropriate for SMB customers that want private cloud functionality without the myriad functions offered by the Vertical 4 or 5 solutions. For instance, Embotics is positioned as an easier-to-use, low-cost version of vCloud Director.

Vertical 3:

Public Cloud Management Solutions

These solutions focus on application management and allow customers to deploy applications across multiple public clouds. Functionality includes management of web-scale type applications, multi-tier applications, and horizontal scaling functionality. RightScale is the most mature vendor in this space, and Scalr is essentially a cheaper and easier-to-use version of RightScale.

Designed for organizations running large workloads in the public cloud with specific multi-cloud manage-ment requirements. Could be used as a complement to other hybrid and private cloud solutions.

Vertical 4:

IaaS Private / Hybrid Cloud Solutions (emerging technologies)

This category features a crowded field of innovative, open source-based startups offering private and hybrid cloud functionality. Expect a number of these competitors to fail or be acquired and integrated by the more established Vertical 5 firms as the cloud space matures and strategic consolidations intensify.

These emerging technologies offer diverse functionality, meaning proper selection depends on your use case. Cloupia (a recent Cisco ac-quisition) works well with converged infrastructure stacks like FlexPod. Abiquo supports most hypervisors, and ServiceMesh is strong on the application management side.

Vertical 5:

IaaS Private / Hybrid Cloud Solutions (incumbent technologies)

Enterprise-class cloud management solutions from leading data center software and hardware providers. These solutions differ greatly in their level of maturity and are usually cobbled together through one or more acquisitions. Vertical 5 players tend to be infrastructure focused rather than application-centric.

These solutions typically find favor with large enterprises in the process of migrating to private and hybrid cloud environments. Brand prefer-ence is generally dictated by a previous investment in technologies offered by one or more of the firms servicing this segment.

To learn more about AHEAD consulting services or to obtain a copy of the complete report on orchestration and automation product offerings, please contact AHEAD CTO eric Kaplan or EVP of Strategy and Services Mitch northcutt at 312.329.7880. They are ready and willing to help you envision how cloud computing fits within your overall business technology strategy.

leArn MOre

table 1. Five Vertical markets for Orchestration and automation solutions

• Opscode Chef

• Puppet Labs

• CFEngine

• Manage IQ

• Embotics

• RightScale

• enStratus

• Scalr

• Eucalyptus

• Abiquo

• CloudStack

• Cloupia

• Nimbula

• Open Stack

• ServiceMesh

• BMC

• Cisco

• HP

• Microsoft

• VMware

Visit vmware.com/sddc

Copyright © 2013 VMware, Inc.

The platform of the past is nomatch for the data centerof the future.The Software-Defined DataCenterfromVMware.

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Bleed: 8.875” X 11.375”Trim: 8.375” X 10.875”

the Real ValueBy John Cole

nearly all of the data center infrastructure manu-facturers are currently engaged in a heated battle around the correct way to build and deploy their wares. Each is positioning their components or

their engineered stacks as the solution to your data center ills, promising they can reduce administrative overhead and speed time to market, or that they are the answer to building a Private Cloud. They have, for the most part, realized that their individual products need to be pack-aged to add value but have missed that the infrastruc-ture-only package is by no means the most impactful aspects in the long-term management of a Private Cloud. Automation and workflows are the aspects of a Private Cloud design that will have the most influence on the efficiency, and thus success, of a design and deployment. Very few organizations are talking about this up front, however. This is partly because the management and orchestration software space is still maturing, and there is no clear winning technology yet. Also, few organizations have a mature workflow or process definition capability.

In terms of this management and orchestration software space, I think what VMware has done with the vCloud suite is genius. It has offered, in a single inte-grated suite, all of the tools to automate and orchestrate all of the infrastructure components across the physical and virtual world. Granted, the integration is still evolv-ing, but it has staked the high ground in this effort. This gives VMware the ability to begin to show the impact of such a control plane in a Private Cloud deployment, but it is still not without risk. Just like the infrastruc-ture manufacturers, all VMware provides is a capability, which does not necessarily translate to execution.

Still needed to make the solutions realize their potential are the intelligence and the actual workflows. What I am finding clients want is the capability to see an end-to-end solution that ties together the infrastruc-ture design, the management/control plane, and the actual workflows layered on top in an integrated delivery fashion. They want a truly packaged solution, where

the end of the deployment means actual push-button automation and delivery of IT services. In other words, taking the “packaged” engineering stack, layering on something like the full VMware Cloud Suite, and then populating the orchestration engine with actual work-flows. This is similar to the concept of Puppet and Chef cookbooks, but as a deployment service. *

tWO VieWs On VClOud suite

ahead*industRy insights

10 | What’s Ahead

“vmware has oFFered, in a singLe integrated suite, aLL oF the tooLs to automate and orchestrate aLL oF the inFrastructure comPonents across the PhysicaL and virtuaL worLd.”

What’s Ahead | 11

“the days oF agonizing over how many bLades to buy with what memory FootPrint and what storage caPacity are behind us. ”

VmWaRe VClOud suite –more than just Licensing FLuFFBy Tim Curless

in August, VMware introduced vCloud Suite, incor-porating several great tools into one codified cloud management stack. Not only is this a licensing move, it is also an intuitive way to think about the cloud.

We are having some great talks about vCloud with our clients (especially related to our FastPath for vCloud Suite service offering). What follows is a brief summary of those conversations.

Most mid-market to enterprise-level organizations are taking advantage of server virtualization. Many have advanced to the next level — gaining a better under-standing of how to leverage a service-offering model to meet their customer use cases (customer in this case typically means internal customers, developers, etc.).

These IT leaders are asking themselves, “How does cloud fit in my organizational strategy?” The prevail-ing conclusion is that “cloud isn’t for every app, but it is for every organization.” So developing a strategy that includes both cloud and legacy technologies is top-of-mind for technologists in the data center.

Fortunately, vCloud Suite includes both vCloud Director (vCD) and all of its functional components, as well as vCloud Automation Center (vCAC or “vCake”). This means those licenses you are already planning on purchasing as part of your virtualization initiative can be utilized to facilitate your journey to the private cloud.

AHEAD is leading the way in this area. Recently, VMware named AHEAD Partner of the Year for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service Competency. Yet it’s impor-tant to note that our clients are the main beneficiaries of these transformational innovations.

In 2013, IT leaders will begin viewing their organi-zations from a use-case and service-model perspective. The days of agonizing over how many blades to buy

with what memory footprint and what storage capac-ity are behind us. Sure, infrastructure is important, but it’s table stakes in the next-generation data center. We have capacity-on-demand models that allow us to buy units of capacity where and when we need them. There will be no more islands of compute or storage resources, growing season by season, but never shrinking when demand retreats. We get there by leveraging IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS models.

This is undoubtedly a paradigm shift, but to help you make the switch, start thinking in terms of use cases. If you start by defining the use cases in your organization, a natural service catalog will begin to evolve. From there, it’s a simple matter of matching service catalog offerings to virtual machine sizes both in the private and public cloud. *

John Cole is a principal technical architect at AHEAD. Reach him at [email protected]

Tim Curless is a technical architect at AHEAD. Reach him at [email protected]

leArn MOre

TRANSFORM IT

14 | What’s Ahead

market overview and anaLysis oF Product oFFerings

W ith IBM’s introduction of the 5150 personal computer in 1981, businesses be-came increasingly reliant on and anchored to the desktop. LAN systems served to heighten

that dependence. And that’s the way things were for 25 years or more.

But people work differently today. Customer behav-iors and preferences are radically different. Value chain partners expect faster, just-in-time efficiencies, and bor-derless networks have expanded IT outside the confines of the traditional data-center-in-a-box model.

Because of the wide range of endpoint management tools emerging in the marketplace and the need for IT organizations to formulate a strategy around their use, AHEAD conducted a comprehensive market analysis. For the purposes of this analysis, endpoint device strategy is defined by three main categories: 1) virtual end-user computing (VEUC), 2) mobile device management (MDM), and 3) endpoint security.

To help clients determine which solutions best fit

their particular business needs, AHEAD examined the manufacturers in each market category according to their overall approach to technology and the inherent strengths and weaknesses of the resulting product offer-ing. Other critical factors taken into consideration were the firm’s organizational leadership and go-to-market strategy, the health and current state of the user commu-nity, technical functionality, and ease of use.

Each solution was evaluated on its own merits and then assessed against other products in the category. Primary and secondary market research, technical evalu-ation, published reports, product reviews, and the firm’s own marketing materials were scrutinized to ensure ac-curate feature and benefit profiles were assembled. Finally, subject matter experts were interviewed for verbatim in-sights and critiques on how the various products perform in different situations.

The finished report was then peer reviewed by AHEAD engineers and technical consultants to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the findings. And while the final conclusions are directional in nature, they do serve as a valuable starting point and guide when considering investment in an endpoint device strategy.

lOOking aheadassessing yOuR endpOint deViCe stRategy

table 1. leaders in the VeuC market segment

leAder deSCriPtiOn StrenGthS WeAKneSSeS

VMware VMware, the heavyweight in the virtualiza-tion space, recently acquired DynamicOps and Nicira to increase its market influence and push VEUC solutions. While VMware’s View product offers an end-user experience similar to Citrix’s XenDesktop, View is a less complex solution.

• Large installed base

• Similar features to competitors’ products

• Offers personalization and real-time profile updates

• Supports fewer endpoint devices than competitors

• Lacks support for other virtual machine platforms

• Alienated customers by introducing, then retracting, price hikes

Citrix Citrix’s XenDesktop is a competitive but complex solution that blends technolo-gies from strategic acquisitions. The company focuses on cost-cutting initiatives without compromising the feature richness of its products.

• Well-respected, open source-based virtual desktop

• Loyal customer base

• Strong partnerships and strategic acquisitions

• Fills niche in small office/branch market

• Complex, with deployments that are more loosely integrated than VMware’s

• Heavy infrastructure requirements

• Competing in a market dominated by VMware’s hypervisor

Microsoft A newer entry in the VEUC market, Micro-soft is making up for lost time by giving away its Hyper-V solution and leveraging Enterprise Agreements to attract and keep customers.

• Relatively economical offerings

• Management support for major end-point device products

• Also offers solutions for MDM and endpoint security market segments

• Lags behind competitors in VEUC market

• Licensing issues slowing adoption

• Its VDI suite viewed as cobbled together afterthought

VeuC: market summary and Competitive landscapeIn addition to virtual desktop infrastructures (VDIs), VEUC offers server-based computing, application virtualiza-tion, and user persona virtualization and personalization. The leaders in the VEUC market are VMware, Citrix, and Microsoft. They have come to dominate this market by embracing VEUC/VDI, using pre-existing customer bases and infrastructure, creating strategic partnerships, and offering easy-to-use products at low cost.

What’s Ahead | 15


mdm: market summary and Competitive landscapeMobile device management solutions focus on policy and configuration management for mobile handheld devices. Although the primary delivery model is on-premises, software as a service (SaaS) or cloud offerings are also available. This market continues to grow, alongside interest in bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives. The top players are Zenprise, MobileIron, BoxTone, Fiberlink, AirWatch, Tangoe, and Good Technology. Market success in the MDM arena is achieved through market visibility, comprehensive and flexible security offerings, global partnerships, good customer support, innovation, competitive pricing, and strategic acquisitions.

table 2. leaders in the mdm market segment


Zenprise Founded in 2003, Zenprise is a small company with significant venture capital funding and a full feature set for lifecycle management.

§ Innovative vision leader

§ Increased visibility among mid-sized and large companies

§ Best security and compliance among competitors

§ Lacks containerization

Mobileiron Funded by leading venture capitalists, MobileIron is a private company that has grown swiftly in visibility, sales, and market share.

§ Widespread visibility and adoption

§ Successful OEM and technol-ogy partnerships

§ Emphasis on comprehensive lifecycle management

§ Lacks corporate containerization

§ Limited application mgmt.

§ Lacks native encryption capabilities

Boxtone Originally focused on mobile monitoring for BlackBerrys, has expanded into application management and support for other devices and platforms.

§ Strong multilayer defense support

§ Partnerships allow unique features

§ Management of all device types possible through a single console

§ Small international presence

§ Weak international customer support

§ Lack of containerization and market visibility

Fiberlink Fiberlink is recommended for companies of all sizes and geographies. It has long-term viability and has experienced growth in revenue and staffing.

§ Global reach via wide network of channel partners

§ Products well known in remote-access and VPN markets

§ Excellent customer service

§ Weak security and compliance capability

§ Limited int’l activities

§ Limited per-user device and application management

AirWatch Primarily delivering cloud-based MDM solutions, AirWatch has seen significant international growth.

§ Innovative and often adds features before competitors

§ Strong security focus

§ Offers single-point management for wireless infrastructures

§ Lacks customization options

§ Needs alternative channels in enterprise market

§ Limited international customer support

tangoe Tangoe is a quickly growing communications lifecycle company with growing adoption of its MDM platform.

§ Competitive market pricing

§ Offers a bundled MDM and managed service solution

§ Strong network system management features

§ Less investment in MDM features than competitors

§ Needs to improve MDM direct and indirect customization options

Good technology

Good Technology is ideal for large companies wanting strong security support for their mobile devices.

§ Successful track record in enterprise mobility

§ Deep understanding of security and compliance issues

§ Strongest implementation of containerization

§ High price per seat

§ No management or integration for BlackBerry

§ No cloud offerings

Continued on page 22

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ahead* neWs

What’s Ahead | 17

emc announces ahead as Partner oF the year For uniFied storageCustomer-centricity and services cited as key differentiatorsLas Vegas, May 8, 2013 – Chicago-based AHEAD®, LLC was named EMC Unified Storage Systems Partner of the Year, North America as part of the 2013 Global Partner Summit. AHEAD Executive Vice President of Sales Tim Frank was on hand to accept the award.

According to Leonard Iventosh, EMC vice president of Americas channel sales, the award is based on both quantitative and qualitative criteria. “AHEAD is a top performer when it comes to selling unified products,” Iventosh said. “They are truly capable of leading a sales campaign from start to finish. But they have also clearly differentiated themselves in the market. That is critical when you are selling solutions in a highly com-petitive category like unified storage. It’s usually a very tough head-to-head competition, and time and again, AHEAD successfully positions us for the best possible results.”

Eric Herzog, senior vice president, product management and product marketing at EMC, echoes Inventosh’s sentiments. “The team at AHEAD realizes the world is changing. Technical expertise is not enough anymore. For example, they understand the impact storage configuration has on application performance and other business issues our clients confront. Their customer-centricity and services orientation is a real advan-tage in identifying, designing, and executing on solutions that make a positive difference for our clients.”

vmware recognizes ahead as Partner oF the year For iaas comPetency innovation, technical expertise, and revenue growth set ahead apart Las Vegas, February 26, 2013 – Chicago-based AHEAD®, LLC, was announced as VMware’s Partner of the Year for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service Competency at an awards banquet held in Las Vegas as part of the firm’s 2013 partner exchange. AHEAD Executive Vice President of Strategy and Services Mitch Northcutt was on hand to receive the honor.

While AHEAD’s overall sales volume increased about 25 percent in 2012, year-over-year sales volume of VMware solutions escalated at an impressive 60 percent rate, mostly due to what Northcutt calls fit and function. “We created a very prescriptive service offering for facilitating the integration of a cloud strategy with traditional IT,” Northcutt said. “Our FastPath for LaaS offering is based on the way businesses are con-suming technology, both today and in the future. If IT leaders want, and need, to deliver Infrastructure as a Service, we are prepared to help them make that happen.”

“The FastPath offering resonates with our clients, who realize that cloud capabili-ties — be it public, private, or hybrid — are vital if they are going to deliver IaaS to the various lines of business that comprise their organizations,” said AHEAD CEO Dan Adamany. “We are excited about the FastPath offering and the opportunities it affords our clients. It definitely meets a critical need at a time when speed and agility are top of mind and the pressure to deliver results intensifying.” *

“(ahead’s) customer-centricity and services orientation is a reaL advantage in identiFying, designing, and executing on soLutions that make a Positive diFFerence For our cLients.”

– Eric Herzog, EMC


a major North American heavy equipment manufacturer had an initiative to build a private cloud architecture in its primary data center. The goal: to support continued virtualization

of the server environment, data center consolidation, and auto- provisioning of resources.

This data center transformation had the following objectives: • Improvetheoveralloperationalefficiencyofthe

client’s data center environment. • Developahighlyavailabledatacenterinfrastructure

that exceeds existing service level requirements. • Implementahighlyscalableenvironmentableto

meet future capacity requirements.• Streamlineongoingsupportandautomate

management of the environment.• EnabletheITdepartmenttobecomeaprovider

of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to other business units.The client engaged AHEAD to help rationalize the

available technology alternatives to best fit its environ-ment and meet its business and technical objectives. AHEAD was able to satisfy that request by leveraging our Think | Look | Plan | Move (TLPM) project deliv-ery framework, which follows a classic collaborative ap-proach to developing and implementing solutions that meet the stringent business requirements of our clients.

The key to this project delivery framework is the classic collaborative approach to capturing require-ments, understanding viable alternatives, and matching requirements to the most suitable solutions. AHEAD

heaVy equipment manuFaCtuReR deplOys pRiVate ClOud sOlutiOn

18 | What’s Ahead

consultants bring subject matter expertise, facilitation, and experience to the process. The end result is a solu-tion developed with input and consensus from crucial stakeholders and decision makers.

time to start thinking aheadThe design that AHEAD developed involved imple-menting a completely new virtual server environment in parallel to all existing physical and virtual servers in the client’s data center. This new virtualization environment was centered around VMware’s vCloud Suite of products.

The solution included the use of the latest version of VMware’s vSphere 5 platform, which is a crucial element of the overall design and enables the envi-ronment to scale without requiring a 1:1 relationship between components and physical resources. In addi-tion, VMware vCloud Director software was leveraged to manage the resources allocated to the client’s test and development environments. This met the client’s requirement to become an IaaS provider by allowing us-ers of those environments to self-provision and manage their own systems.

Another component of the vCloud Suite, VMware Operations Manager, delivered improved monitor-ing and management of the virtual environment and equipped the client to proactively identify when ad-ditional capacity would be required.

While the vCloud Suite software provided much of the business value, it required a solid foundation from which to run. In this case, a Vblock 700 MX, with its

What’s Ahead | 19

tightly integrated components and seamless support, was the platform of choice to host the client’s business-critical applications. The Vblock implementation permitted the client to drastically improve operational efficiency in its data center and to stream ongoing sup-port and management of the environment. In addition, the client was able to exceed current RTO and RPO requirements by migrating and consolidating existing production, test, and development environments onto the Vblock.

In addition to the infrastructure design, AHEAD developed a comprehensive deployment plan that iden-tified the necessary tasks, resources, and effort required to build the infrastructure and migrate production systems to the environment. As part of the deploy-ment plan, AHEAD developed a detailed precedence diagram to determine the project’s critical path, which enabled us to compress the deployment timeline as much as possible.

Following the planning exercise, the client en-gaged AHEAD to lead the implementation project. This included coordinating the Vblock installation and building and configuring all of the vCloud Suite components as defined in the detailed design. Following the build activities, AHEAD helped the client migrate hundreds of its existing physical and virtual servers to the environment with minimal impact to any critical business systems.

Leveraging AHEAD’s technical experience and proven project methodology allowed this client to successfully achieve its objectives for transforming its data center into an agile, scalable, and highly avail-able environment that exceeds existing service levels requirements and allows it to deliver IaaS to the business.

AHEAD is a new kind of company with a practical knowledge of where business technology used to be, where it is now, and where it is going to be tomorrow. By working closely with clients to understand their organization, AHEAD data center technologists and consultants are able to recommend solutions that meet current needs while anticipating what the future will bring. As a result, clients can be confident AHEAD solutions will be the building blocks for continued ad-vancement. This is what is known as thinking, looking, planning, and moving ahead. *

To learn more about how AHEAD can help you with private cloud solutions, call 312.329.7880 or email us at [email protected]

leArn MOre

TOMORROWstarts here.

Today, it’s easy to marvel at how far we’ve come.

Our phones talk to our TVs to record our favorite shows. Doctors in Estonia diagnose patients inDenmark. Social networks help companies improve customer service.

And yet, up to now, more than 99% of our world is not connected to the Internet.

But we’re working on it.

And tomorrow, we’ll wake up pretty much everything else you can imagine.

Trees will talk to networks will talk to scientists about climate change.

Stoplights will talk to cars will talk to road sensors about increasing traffic efficiency.

Ambulances will talk to patient records will talk to doctors about saving lives.

It’s a phenomenon we call the Internet of Everything—an unprecedented opportunity

for today’s businesses.

Tomorrow?

We’re going to wake the world up. And watch, with eyes wide, as it gets to work.

#tomorrowstartshere

©2013 Cisco Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved

offerings. Developed especially for harried IT executives who know they need innovation and know they need it fast — AHEAD FastPath offerings leverage years of data center experience and expertise across a multitude of industries and business use cases in formulating solu-tions that can be deployed in an accelerated time frame.

To date, AHEAD is focusing on two distinct of-ferings: FastPath for Hybrid Cloud and FastPath for Virtual End-User Computing [VEUC]. Both are developed with the same foundational principles, using a classic collaborative approach that unifies stakeholder needs and expectations around a comprehensive design and plan for the proposed solution. This initial stage establishes IT’s leadership role in proactively assessing and delivering higher levels of service to business unit owners, value chain partners, and the workforce.

Phase two of the consulting engagement involves deployment of the solution. So rather than hand you a binder outlining the solution and wishing you well, highly trained AHEAD engineers and technologists work with your team to perform on-site configuration and installation of the hardware and software accord-ing to design specifications. From there, the physical infrastructure is installed, configured, and integrated into your data center or partner co-lo facility.

Transitional support is the third and final phase of your FastPath solution implementation. The primary benefits resulting from this step are standardized oper-ating procedures for the new environment and on-site knowledge transfer from the AHEAD team to yours. This means your team can capitalize on the collective brain power, experience, and know-how of AHEAD engineers and technologists in adjusting to the trans-formed climate. In some instances AHEAD Certified Infrastructure Professionals [ACIP] can augment your team for protracted periods of time, which further ensures proper execution of the strategy.

You recognize the need for change. And intensify-ing competitive pressure and demand for technological innovation accentuate the need for accelerating time-to-value of any innovative measures you take. Market fragmentation and emergence of new product catego-ries, buyers, and user groups are adding fuel to the fire. Yet these challenges also provide tremendous opportu-nities for you and the entire IT organization to play a broader, more visible role in enabling business strategy across the enterprise.

Continued from page 5

managing tRansFORmatiOnal Change intensiFying comPetitive Pressure

and demand For technoLogicaL innovation accentuate the need For acceLerating time-to-vaLue oF any innovative measures you take.

What’s Ahead | 21

ahead tRansFORmatiOn*

To learn more about FastPath for Hybrid Cloud, visit go.thinkahead.com/vcloud_fastpath. For infor-mation on FastPath for VEUC, visit go.thinkahead.com/veuc_fastpath. Either way, you are closer than you ever imagined to finding the answers you seek for staying ahead of the business.

The AHEAD FastPath service offerings were invented for this reason. Deep knowledge of traditional data center infrastructure and operations, coupled with a proven penchant for thinking ahead (AHEAD engineers have been working with a production-ready hybrid cloud solution in their lab since 2009), make FastPath an ideal alternative when the winds of change envelope your organization. It’s a proven pathway for making a smooth transition from then to now. *

leArn MOre

TOMORROWstarts here.

Today, it’s easy to marvel at how far we’ve come.

Our phones talk to our TVs to record our favorite shows. Doctors in Estonia diagnose patients inDenmark. Social networks help companies improve customer service.

And yet, up to now, more than 99% of our world is not connected to the Internet.

But we’re working on it.

And tomorrow, we’ll wake up pretty much everything else you can imagine.

Trees will talk to networks will talk to scientists about climate change.

Stoplights will talk to cars will talk to road sensors about increasing traffic efficiency.

Ambulances will talk to patient records will talk to doctors about saving lives.

It’s a phenomenon we call the Internet of Everything—an unprecedented opportunity

for today’s businesses.

Tomorrow?

We’re going to wake the world up. And watch, with eyes wide, as it gets to work.

#tomorrowstartshere

©2013 Cisco Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved

22 | What’s Ahead


endpoint security: market summary and Competitive landscapeEndpoint security, or the enterprise protection platform (EPP) market, is made up of collections of products, including anti-malware, anti-spyware, personal firewalls, host-based intrusion prevention, endpoint data loss prevention (DLP), and application vulnerability management. This large and maturing market has traditionally been dominated by Symantec, McAfee, and Trend Micro. Sophos and Kaspersky Lab are up-and-coming vendors challenging the leaders. Successful endpoint security companies have found success through global presence, high Gartner ratings, flexible and comprehensive security management options, competitive pricing, strong customer service and support, optimization for virtual environments, and reliable spyware and malware detection.

table 3. leaders in the endpoint security market segment


Symantec Symantec offers a broad portfolio of security and information pro-tection solutions. The company has a strong malware research and management team.

§ Prominent global security player

§ High malware detection rates

§ Enables management and secu-rity for a fleet of mobile devices

§ Slow integration of acquisitions

§ Inflexible application control

§ Company mismanagement

McAfee Acquired by Intel, McAfee is a strong vendor with a wide variety of security offerings. It leads the market in cross-product management functionality.

§ Offers one of the better mobile security platforms on the market

§ Solutions and support available for a wide variety of mobile devices

§ Offers security management solution for virtual environments

§ Poor customer satisfaction

§ High administrative overhead

§ False positives and high agent footprint size

Sophos Sophos is one of the few anti-malware companies dedicated to the enterprise market. It has strong product development and has shown very fast growth.

§ Offers identification of vulnerable applications

§ Acquisitions have enabled a multitude of security options

§ Capabilities for MDM and virtual environments

§ Low brand recognition

§ Lacks the depth of large-enterprise features

§ No traditional anti-malware for mobile clients

trend Micro One of the largest vendors in this market, Trend Micro has a significant international market presence. It was one of the first vendors to optimize for virtual-ized environments.

§ Offers suites of multiple tools bundled in a single product

§ Introduced the first cloud-based signature capability

§ Has VDI-aware and agentless virtual machine solutions

§ Weak security and compliance capability

§ Limited international activities

§ Limited per-user device and application management

Kaspersky lab With effective vulnerability man-agement, Web control capabili-ties, a large European installed base, and high customer satis-faction, Kaspersky Lab is set for international growth.

§ Innovative and often adds features before competitors

§ Strong security focus

§ Offers single-point management for wireless infrastructures

§ Clumsy interface

§ Lacks flexible device control capabilities

§ Limited brand recognition in North America

ConclusionToday’s mobile enterprise requires a vastly different approach to delivering applications, data, and other critical information to end-users. AHEAD engineers, consultants, and technologist endorse a holistic approach to mobility, beginning with a strategy, road map, and solution design, culminating with deployment and implementation of that solution. *

To obtain a complete copy of the report or learn more about developing a customized VEUC strategy for your organization, call AHEAD CTO eric Kaplan or EVP of Strategy and Services Mitch northcutt at 312.329.7880. They are ready and willing to help you develop a framework for determining how cloud computing fits within your overall IT strategy.

leArn MOre

Continued from page 15



Howcanthe‘‘more expensive’’ option cost less?The Software-Defined DataCenterfromVMware.

VMware virtualization saved businesses billions

of dollars. And Total Cost of Ownership studies

prove that virtualizing with VMware costs less

than with competitive offerings. VMware vCloud®

Suite delivers even greater IT efficiency, control

and agility with the Software-Defined Data Center.

It’s the lower-cost solution as well as the better

business decision.

VMware SDDC ExpensiveWhat’s Ahead

Bleed: 8.875” X 11.375”Trim: 8.375” X 10.875”











business decision.


Bleed: 8.875” X 11.375”Trim: 8.375” X 10.875”











business decision.


Bleed: 8.875” X 11.375”Trim: 8.375” X 10.875”

EMC2, EMC, and the EMC logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. © Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

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What's Ahead Magazine - Issue 4

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