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Welcome to our blog, the WEI Tech Exchange, where our subject matter experts exchange ideas, best practices, and thoughts on the latest data center and enterprise IT technologies and trends.
By Jay Cardin | Oct 18, 2018
New buzz words tend to come and go, especially as enterprise storage vendors promote their offerings to prospective customers. A few years’ back, we started to hear a lot about scale-out storage vs. scale-up storage. The popularity of scale-out storage has since grown, as have the questions about the difference between scale-up, scale-out, and related terms like hyperconverged and converged infrastructures.
By Michael Thweatt | Oct 16, 2018
Popping up on prime time television and local news reports, ransomware is so commonplace it has practically become a household phrase. The frequent attacks have made it a focus area for many enterprises because high-profile attacks against them have risen dramatically in the past few years.
By Joshua Satrape | Oct 11, 2018
As we discussed in our white paper, “Augmenting and Enhancing Your Existing Network with a Hybrid Cloud,” there are many advantages of a hybrid cloud model such as greater levels of redundancy and elasticity. To acquire the advantages that a hybrid cloud offers requires a lot of planning and preparation. We have compiled a comprehensive checklist to aid you in the preparation of your deployment.
By Jay Cardin | Oct 09, 2018
The face of data storage in enterprise data centers has changed in the past few years with the rise to prominence of solid-state, or flash, storage. This advancement of storage technology has now become so widespread among enterprise IT infrastructures around the world that 49% of organizations surveyed by the Enterprise Strategy Group indicated they already use flash technology, and another 38% have made plans to or are currently investigating the technology.
By Jay Cardin | Oct 04, 2018
Last week we published part one of this two-part blog series, “How to Successfully Navigate Enterprise Storage Sizing and Pricing Issues.” This week, we will focus on challenges related to how to think about enterprise storage and how to evaluate it.
By Jay Cardin | Oct 02, 2018
Today’s IT leaders are at a crossroads. Behind them, there’s a long legacy of hardware and software deployment decisions that have served the business well for years. But new business requirements and application development methods have begun to test the status quo, and as they seek to modernize, they will face several difficult decisions. IT leaders can either commit to the cloud, go all in with on-premises infrastructure or evaluate something entirely new.
By Jay Cardin | Sep 27, 2018
Despite the growing popularity of cloud-based workloads, many companies’ own enterprise data centers keep thriving and growing. Among these on-going investments is the need to upgrade or replace an organization’s current enterprise storage. Often considered the central cog in a data center network, enterprise storage plays a key custodial role in housing many organizations’ mission-critical data assets.
By Kerry Cotter | Sep 25, 2018
In case you missed it: HPE announced some major news for the IT industry with the acquisition of Plexxi, a software-defined network provider, and will be rolling out its new product offerings at the end of this month. What does this acquisition mean for enterprises?
By Joshua Satrape | Sep 20, 2018
Mainstream support ended for Windows 7 in 2015 and it will be entirely phased out by 2020. Windows 10 is the new standard for companies seeking to have the most current, up-to-date operating system. Many large organizations looking to upgrade usually either wait until they have a hardware refresh cycle or it winds up being a long process involving Microsoft Model-Based Testing (MDT) or something similar. With Horizon View, it becomes a lot easier to upgrade because you can build out a brand new desktop pool based on Windows 10 and then deploy that pool to all your users overnight or even within minutes instantaneously with insta-clone technology. VMware Horizon view is the go to for deploying Windows 10 in the enterprise.
By Greg LaBrie | Sep 18, 2018
With an increasing number of enterprises investing in digital transformation and the software defined data center (SDDC), IT leaders are getting accustomed to managing overwhelming large volumes of data and business applications. With this shift, network security is proving to be a foundational (and required) layer when it comes to building the data center needed to drive business of today.
By David Fafel | Sep 13, 2018
Did you know that 34% of IT Decision Makers reported they are concerned with adopting containers due to a lack of full visibility?1
By Jay Cardin | Sep 11, 2018
One of the biggest struggles with managing an enterprise data center is the need for various tools with multiple interfaces to manage the different systems associated with IT. This struggle is compounded with the fact that each of these data center systems do not talk to each out of the box, and complex integrations begin to take over. HPE Synergy addresses this challenge by delivering an infrastructure that can manage the technical, as well as the organizational side by combining storage, compute, and network equipment into one.
By David Fafel | Sep 06, 2018
Containers are best known for their role in simplifying application development, providing a disposable, reusable unit to modularize delivery, and bring consistency to virtually every development stage. They have demonstrated an ability to move DevOps forward by transforming the way development and infrastructure teams operate, and they have helped these teams move ever closer to continuous delivery. However, managing containers presents an entirely new challenge for most organizations. Containers, by their very nature, rely on shared resources. These may range from operating systems and application files to hosting resources including memory and CPU. When left unchecked, container use can lead to sprawl and may result in resource drain. With hooks into so many different areas, there is a strong incentive to know precisely what these containers are doing, what resources they are consuming, and how they are utilizing the network.
By Jay Cardin | Sep 04, 2018
Despite the growing popularity of cloud-based storage, many enterprises have seen that their data centers keep thriving and growing. Companies that seek increased governance, security and protection of their data continue to invest in their own on-prem data center environments, especially when it comes to storage.
By Kerry Cotter | Aug 30, 2018
VMware is a leading software and services company focused on cloud computing and virtualization. It also develops and accredits some of the most prestigious certifications in the industry. These certifications are referred to as VCDX certifications. VCDX stands for VMware Certified Design Expert. This is for those that have earned a top tier certification from a VMware panel. For example, Cisco CCIE has always been recognized as a highly coveted certification in the networking discipline and VCDX is the equivalent in the virtualization space. Some people even think of this like getting a Ph.D. in virtualization. There are only 269 VCDXs across the globe. There are not very many VCDXs in the New England region and Mark Gabryjelski, WEI's Virtualization Architect & Ambassador, is the only VCDX in New Hampshire. He is VCDX #23.
By Greg LaBrie | Aug 28, 2018
With the rise of digital transformation in today’s modern workplace, traditional Wide Area Network solutions are unable to keep up with enterprise demands. A growing number of organizations are moving their data and applications to a cloud environment, which means they are increasing their bandwidth use - resulting in network congestion and rising costs, as well as growing security concerns. It is for these reasons SD-WAN (software defined wide area network) is a compelling and attainable alternative; however, most SD-WAN solutions are not as secure as enterprises need them to be, with add-on security offerings that pose a risk by creating a fragmented solution.
By David Fafel | Aug 23, 2018
Containers are the next level of virtualization and they are here to stay. There are many reasons enterprises adopt containers. The top three reasons include:
By Jay Cardin | Aug 21, 2018
Many organizations are intrigued by the concept of Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS). The biggest lure? You may no longer have to pay capital costs to set up and staff a secondary data center in order to recover systems after a disaster. In the days before cloud, having dual data center sites was one of the few ways to ensure rapid recovery of systems after a disaster. However, due to its cost, it was an option typically reserved for large companies or those in highly regulated fields. Disaster Recovery as a Service now makes secondary storage available to many small-to-midrange organizations, and what’s more, DRaaS providers offer many different variations on the theme of cloud-based recovery. [click to tweet]
By Joshua Satrape | Aug 16, 2018
If you are considering the idea of a Hyperconverged Infrastructure Solution for your enterprise, consider this, VMware debuted as a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for HCI in 2018. It’s solution is also the fastest growing HCI solution in the world today. This should all come as no surprise for those familiar with the company behind the industry’s leading virtualization platform. VMware has paired the hypervisor that transformed data centers across the globe with their software defined storage solution, vSAN. Combined with their unified management solution, vCenter, VMware has created an HCI solution that accounted for 33% of HCI market revenue in the first half of 2017, making it the largest software vendor in the market.
By Kerry Cotter | Aug 14, 2018
Within the last few years, there has been a dramatic shift in how enterprises manage their data. Many are leaving the in-house servers behind as their only source of data management and using some mixture of cloud computing. [click to tweet] As it sounds, multi-cloud model uses multiple cloud computing and storage services within a single architecture.
By Josh Cronin | Aug 09, 2018
As companies grow and cloud models change and develop, whether you have AWS or Azure, most people aren't finding that they use one single cloud provider and stick with them. They use clouds from multiple providers, creating a hybrid cloud environment with multiple data centers. When you mix public clouds into this strategy, whether it be AWS, Azure, or Google, it is important to realize that every time a cloud connection is made there is usually connectivity back to your sites as well. You have that increased traffic flow and you have to consider how you're connecting, managing, and securing it.
By Joshua Satrape | Aug 07, 2018
By now you’ve heard about VMware vSAN—a software defined storage (SDS) solution that combines direct storage devices across a vSphere cluster to create a shared data area distributed across an enterprise network. With vSAN, the user is able to decide on the storage requirements, performance and availability and makes sure the policies put in place are upheld. These are not the only benefits of using VMware vSAN. Keep reading to discover four ways your enterprise can benefit from it.
By Mark Gabryjelski | Aug 02, 2018
VMware’s vSphere, the composition of vCenter and its ESXi hosts used to run workloads and containers, has experienced dominance in the IT landscape. There has been talk for years about extending a vSphere environment into the world of public cloud and not being required to run all of this separately through other means. There are many ways to achieve a cloud strategy, and fortunately, VMware accomplishes all of this with vSphere. This post focuses on one of the ways to achieve this type of public cloud strategy with VMware Cloud, which offers VMware on Amazon Web Services (AWS). This is a full SDDC (Software Defined Data Center) offering covering compute, storage, and networking capabilities.
By Greg LaBrie | Jul 31, 2018
With the expansion of the Internet of Things, the BYOD movement and emerging wireless technologies, you may be realizing its time to invest in a more modern approach to networking security in order to stay competitive, and secure, in the global environment.
By Greg LaBrie | Jul 26, 2018
The truth is that data center management has never been more challenging, and it’s only getting harder. Increased data center complexity produces an alarming rate of challenging problems. Complex infrastructure issues are impossible to effectively manage with traditional analytics and support methods. Conventional tools aren’t smart enough to recognize why complex problems occur and how to resolve them. Data centers are unable to run at optimal levels with excessive manual tuning and guesswork. Fortunately, there is a new tool for the data center.
By Jay Cardin | Jul 24, 2018
Hybrid IT and flash storage are an impressive match. With hybrid IT’s structure combining a mixture of on and off premise resources, it delivers services in a more optimized, balanced and automated fashion, while flash storage has the ability to offer agility and impressive backup and disaster recovery capabilities. The two together can provide:
By Josh Cronin | Jul 19, 2018
In last week's post we discussed the Cisco Tetration Analytics Platform—what the platform is and how it integrates with the modern enterprise. We talked about how it supports a “Zero-Trust” security model and explained the story that ties in with its creation with an interesting use case involving Cisco and WEI.
By Greg LaBrie | Jul 17, 2018
When it comes to upper level executives and their IT security teams, there seems to be a disconnect when it comes to the level of support IT needs to protect the enterprise. In order to better prevent a security breech from happening, it’s important that the C-level executives are aware and on the same page with your enterprise security team. Only 12% of C-suite executives expect a major, successful attack on their organization in the next 90 days. In addition, two out of five CEOs, other C-level executives, and non-executive directors feel they are not responsible for the repercussions of a cyber-attack. Any breech that is caused by the void between these important roles has serious costs associated with them.
By Josh Cronin | Jul 12, 2018
How much visibility do you have into your organization’s network? How confident is your IT team in its ability to accurately map out the network, which is a necessary step in data center migrations. According to a white paper from IDC, a mere 18% increase in network visibility can improve security breach preventative measures by over 40%. Many organizations know there are devices on their network that are unaccounted for, but many do not have a way of even guessing how many devices that is, let alone strategizing how to secure them.
By Michael Thweatt | Jul 10, 2018
When was the last time you gave your storage solutions an in-depth and thorough review? Whichever enterprise storage solution you use for your organization, it’s important to make sure that the brain of your operations is working smoothly and data is flowing where it’s needed, when it’s needed.
By Kerry Cotter | Jul 05, 2018
A leading workforce management company addresses unique security and connectivity challenges with a custom machine-to-machine network solution.
By Jay Cardin | Jul 03, 2018
What storage solution can be found in both the enterprise and personal cell phones? Flash storage. It’s a flexible and compact option that does away with the traditional Hard Disk Drive (HDD). While it is becoming more common to see flash in both the enterprise as well as consumer electronics, the similarities stop there. In this article, you will discover how HPE’s Nimble flash storage is not just any other solution on the market and why you should choose their secondary flash array.
By Fred McHugh | Jun 28, 2018
The WEI engineering team thrives on solving our customer's toughest technology challenges. Often times these challenges are the first of their kind--meaning there are no google searches that will lead to a solution, the forums haven't covered it yet and the vendor/supplier teams are racking their brains to solve the unique challenge.
By Michael Thweatt | Jun 26, 2018
If a disaster were to hit your enterprise, would your data be protected? This information is the backbone of your organization so hopefully the answer to the questions is yes. However, if your disaster recovery plan is not what you would like it to be, or if it’s missing all together, it’s not too late to protect your data in the event of disaster.
By Kerry Cotter | Jun 21, 2018
If you have ever heard someone refer to a device as “smart,” then you have been exposed to IoT. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a buzzword thrown around not only the business world, but everyday life as well. It is both “the future” and “the now,” but what exactly is it? According to Network World, “The internet of things, at its simplest level, is a network of smart devices - from refrigerators that warn you when you’re out of milk to industrial sensors – that are connected to the internet so they can share data.”
By Michael Thweatt | Jun 19, 2018
Apple is one of the greatest comeback success stories for technology. Since the mid-1980s, the Mac computer grew from owning only five-percent of the computer market to dominating it today. While loyal Apple users demand the ability to use their devices in the workplace, enterprises and IT have pushed back since their products are expensive and not easily adaptable to the enterprise mobility setting. As Apple grows and continues to dominate the market, IT is shifting its thoughts on the use of these products and devices in the organization.
By Greg LaBrie | Jun 14, 2018
Some things are meant to be together. Think of your favorite foods like peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, bacon and eggs. When it comes to IT, one can argue that the partnership between HPE and Arista is meant to be as well. In today’s datacenter in which the traditional worlds of computer, storage, and cloud fuse together, this collaboration between these two innovative giants is melding the world’s leading servers and storage with high-performance networking solutions into a single deliverable platform. Together they are collaborating to create new architectural best practices designed to take enterprises to the cloud. The result is the ability to scale large cluster growth, lower costs, and drive high compute efficiencies. Their shared vision of delivering secure Hybrid IT solutions built on industry-leading software defined infrastructure is indeed one that can help in a world in which change is the only constant.
By Kerry Cotter | Jun 12, 2018
As an IT solutions provider dedicated to innovation and solving our clients’ technology challenges, we are pleased to announce our recent recognition by CRN on the 2018 Solution Provider 500 (SP500) list; WEI was ranked at #109 on the prestigious list.
By Greg LaBrie | Jun 07, 2018
We want our data and we want it now! That is the mantra of Enterprise Storage today. Businesses today are data driven and as part of the digital transformation process, companies are finding innovative uses to utilize their data. Those companies that can best employ their data to spur greater innovation will achieve a competitive edge over their competitors.
By Greg LaBrie | Jun 05, 2018
Wi-Fi has come a long way since it was first introduced. Originally, wireless connectivity was used for basic services such as checking email, but technology has changed and more devices now connect to wireless networks in order to perform their job tasks. With this evolution of the workplace, Wi-Fi has needed to adapt to support the growing number of devices and applications. How can Wi-Fi meet the needs of the modern workforce?
By Greg LaBrie | May 31, 2018
Over the years, the public cloud has been promoted as the panacea of innovation and reduced costs where companies could host their network infrastructure and service their workloads. In doing so, many companies have found out that not everything is ideally suited for the cloud. Latency prone applications, data sovereignty, and security compliance are just some of the challenges that have reduced the luster of the public cloud recently. As a result, two-thirds of enterprises are scaling back or discontinuing their use of public cloud services and shifting workloads to on premises private and/or hybrid cloud environments.
By Greg LaBrie | May 29, 2018
Chances are since you were a kid you were fascinated by speed, whether it be athletes, cars, or planes. Speed is impressive—especially in the modern cloud-first data center architectures of today. It is expected. The legacy single gigabit network infrastructure of yesteryear is over. Increased adoption of 10 Gigabit Ethernet servers coupled with applications using higher bandwidth is accelerating the need for dense 10, 40, and 100 Gigabit Ethernet switching. In fact, it is no longer unusual to see hosts generating 10Gbs of traffic or find 25/40 gigabit Ethernet switches at the edge of today’s enterprises. In fact, according to a study in 2017, the combined market for 25Gbe and 100GbE will account for over half of all data center Ethernet switch shipments by 2021. Shipments of 100Gbe switches reached 1.3 million ports and $661 million in revenues in the fourth quarter of 2017 for the U.S. alone. In Hollywood, sixty may be the new fifty, but in today’s datacenter, twenty-five is the new ten.
By Michael Thweatt | May 24, 2018
Mobile applications and devices are seeping into every aspect of our personal and professional lives. To keep up with the changing times and the demands of consumers and employees, it’s important for enterprises to leverage the mobility trend to their advantage.
By David Fafel | May 22, 2018
The ability of an enterprise to keep up with changing technology depends on the skills of its IT employees. The pace of innovation can be overwhelming even for the most experienced professionals, but this isn’t the only challenge organizations face. As companies understand the importance of digital transformation and take it on within their company, the demand for IT professionals with the required skillsets to transform legacy driven data centers into hybrid infrastructures is skyrocketing. As a result of this move towards hybrid IT, the demand is outpacing supply.
By Kerry Cotter | May 17, 2018
We are excited to share the news that Jennifer Burl, WEI’s Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility, was named to CRN’s prestigious 2018 Women of the Channel list. CRN editors select the Women of the Channel honorees based on their professional accomplishments, demonstrated expertise, and ongoing dedication to the IT channel.
By Jay Cardin | May 15, 2018
Think about how much data your company created in 2016. According to IDC, the world collectively created about 16.3 zettabytes (yes, a zettabyte is a billion terabytes). They also predict that the world will create 10x that amount by the year 2025. Approximately 90% of that data will be stored in file and object storage. While consumers have traditionally created the bulk of the data up to now, enterprises will create 60% of the world’s data in 2025. At that time, ten percent of all data will be created by IoT. This brings with it a number of challenges as a result of this exponential growth.
By Greg LaBrie | May 10, 2018
When discussing the ongoing digital transformation that companies are implementing on a global basis, enterprise architects articulate the benefits of hybrid IT and the software defined data center. The process of digitizing business services and delivering them through highly scalable redundant multi-cloud ecospheres is generating agility and flexibility that companies need to compete in a hyperactive competitive global world. However, the necessity to harness new technology is not restricted to enterprise infrastructure only. Just as the makeup of the data center is transforming itself, the nature of work itself is also changing.
By David Fafel | May 08, 2018
Last week we began a discussion on the steps you need to take to prepare your enterprise for containerization; now we continue the conversation with the rest of the actions you need to take before you can deploy a containerized approach.
By Shane Garrett | May 03, 2018
Goldman Sachs describes the Nutanix software-driven enterprise cloud as a “once-in-a-decade infrastructure story.” Goldman Sachs does not toss out lofty acknowledgements like that haphazardly. Their research shows that companies are moving to hyperconverged systems to escape the legacy silo dominated IT infrastructure of yesteryear that is holding them back in a dynamic digital world. They see Nutanix as being a large benefactor of this movement due to its leadership and innovation. Nutanix and its Enterprise Cloud solution are positioned for success. This is further substantiated by Gartner, who recently recognized Nutanix as a leader in its magic quadrant for Hyperconverged Infrastructure.
By David Fafel | May 01, 2018
Have you heard the term “containerization” thrown around a lot recently? It’s a hot topic in the IT world, but what exactly does it mean and how can you prepare your enterprise to take advantage of what it has to offer? Continue reading to learn all about it and the steps your enterprise needs to take to deploy containers in your organization.
By Mark Gabryjelski | Apr 26, 2018
Two months ago, Gartner devoted a Magic Quadrant for the Hyperconverged Infrastructure market and placed Nutanix as the leader in the upper right-hand corner. On top of its recognized leadership status, Nutanix serves as the #1 HCI market share leader. The recognition of the HCI industry is of no surprise as Gartner predicts that 20 percent of business-critical applications currently deployed on three-tier infrastructure will transition to hyperconverged infrastructure by 2020. HCI is a new type of IT framework architecture that combines compute, storage, networking, and software-defined intelligence into a single system that reduces data center complexity while increasing scalability.
By Kerry Cotter | Apr 24, 2018
At WEI, we’re always looking for ways we can step up and can give back to our local communities, from gathering clothes for those in need to volunteering at a soup kitchen. One recent initiative to serve our community has been to host a food drive in partnership with a local non-profit, End 68 Hours of Hunger’s Salem Chapter. Earlier this month we wrapped up our annual drive for them, and the results were astounding—a testament to the generosity of the wonderful group of people working at WEI!
By Jay Cardin | Apr 19, 2018
Data plays a critical role driving decisions today for your company and your competitors. Having the ability to access your data as quickly and efficiently as possible can provide a competitive edge in a crowded and disruptive marketplace. The demand to acquire the data you need, when you need it, is why many companies are turning to all-flash storage systems that are smart, fast and efficient. Your enterprise storage system is about more than just storing your company data. It is about making your data work for your business and the customers it serves.
By Jay Cardin | Apr 17, 2018
A hyperconverged infrastructure provides enterprises with the ability to expand their network into the virtual realm. This setup combines the functionality of traditional hardware into manageable software functions, all of which are controlled through one tool. This ability to use services as a software allows enterprises to respond more quickly to internal and external environmental changes, plus it offers the security, capacity, and customization ability needed to be successful.
By Kerry Cotter | Apr 12, 2018
By Michael Thweatt | Apr 10, 2018
When discussing hybrid solutions and digital transformation, there is often some confusion between Hybrid IT and Hybrid Cloud. While there are certain striking similarities, it is critical to understand that there are also very important differences between the two and how enterprises use them within their organization.
By Kerry Cotter | Apr 05, 2018
There seems to be a lot of hype these days within the IT industry. IT manufacturers herald “this time it’s different,” with every new generation of products. Each subsequent generation of products boasts the same claims such as lower support and maintenance costs, reduced TCO and greater ROI, and greater agility, flexibility and scalability in deployments and management. Newly introduced generational products in the IT industry often do deliver these promised benefits to some extent. However, the overwhelming amount of industry buzz often times makes it hard to sift through accurate claims concerning enterprise equipment. This is especially true concerning enterprise data storage.
By Greg LaBrie | Apr 03, 2018
The digital landscape is changing at a rapid pace, and with change comes an increase in the need for cybersecurity measures that protect businesses. Although technology is providing exciting opportunities, it also brings with it challenges that enterprises must learn to overcome.
By Jay Cardin | Mar 29, 2018
Those who are pursuing the latest architype known as hybrid IT in order to revolutionize their enterprise and complete the digital transformation of their organizations know the dream. The dream is to free ourselves from the isolated silos of the traditional data center and obtain the flexibility of a free flowing ecosphere in which workloads are matched with the right platform that both optimizes the user experience and maximizes ROI at the same time. Hybrid IT is about obtaining an unparalleled degree of elasticity in order to migrate applications at will amongst hosting structures (cloud and on-premises). This agility not only delivers infrastructure plasticity, but peace of mind as well by delivering on the ability to achieve near absolute levels of business continuity and disaster recovery.
By Greg LaBrie | Mar 27, 2018
What was once a far-fetched dream, the Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile devices, have permeated our lives, personally and professionally. In order to compete, enterprises must acknowledge this shift and implement infrastructure that supports it.
By Jay Cardin | Mar 22, 2018
It is a truly amazing world in which we work today. While the flow of capital is still essential for businesses to grow, materialize, and sustain them, it is ideas today that feed the global economy. Today’s businesses rely on innovators and visionaries. The delivery method for these ideas and revolutionary concepts is IT. IT is a part of nearly every business today because they depend on one or more essential apps to either communicate with their customers or manage their business. Just as the flow of capital is attracted to the most fluid and efficient markets, customers, and business transactions, tech stacks are attracted to those businesses with the most innovative, efficient, and flexible apps and technology. Those that can simplify and streamline the transaction experience will have an advantage over their competitors. In order for your business to make the most of any web related advantage, you need an adaptable ecosphere that is conducive to the constant evolution of those apps through DevOps.
By Kerry Cotter | Mar 20, 2018
At WEI, social responsibility goes hand in hand with traditional measures of corporate success. WEI encourages all employees, no matter their title or position, to spend time volunteering, organizing, and participating in civic programs; we genuinely care and support our diverse, growing community. We firmly believe that when you invest time in the community, you invest in a happier, healthier, brighter future, which is why we created the WEI StepsUP program.
By David Fafel | Mar 15, 2018
Although Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) is not a dominant solution yet, all signs indicate it will be soon. In fact, Gartner predicts that in five years it will be reaching $5 billion in spending. According to Gartner, there are five keys as to why so many organizations and IT leaders are turning to HCI.
By Michael Thweatt | Mar 13, 2018
Digital-ready networks represent the future of enterprise growth and innovation with the use of technologies such as cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, social, and big data and analytics. But there is more to being digital-ready than just using these technologies; it requires your enterprise to view it as an essential business strategy for success.
By Kerry Cotter | Mar 08, 2018
Hybrid IT is many things. It is a new approach to the enterprise that requires new architectures, skills and toolsets. It also brings a whole new verbiage with it. These are terms that your management and staff need to become accustomed to because hybrid IT incorporates a number of new technologies. Many of these concepts are a divergence from the traditional IT structure of which we are all conversant. For those unfamiliar to this new vocabulary, we present to you a glossary of the primary hybrid IT terms/
Featured research: 92% of companies are implementing some form of hybrid IT (Source: IDG Research commissioned by WEI, June 20,2017.)
By Greg LaBrie | Mar 06, 2018
What exactly is digital transformation and how can an enterprise benefit from it? That is a top question among executives, and for good reason. According to a 2017 IDG Role & Influence of the Technology Decision-Maker Study, 72 percent of IT Decision Makers reported their organization is still exploring a digital first approach.
By Jay Cardin | Mar 01, 2018
Imagine for a moment that you are calling technical support for a traditional storage solution. You are first greeted by a customer service representative whose job is to take basic information about your problem at hand and forward it on to the appropriate technical support technician or engineer. The representative will ask for the usual product ID numbers, your name, contact information, and remind you of the expiration date of your current service contract. Once your customer profile is established, the barrage of questions begins:
By Greg LaBrie | Feb 27, 2018
Mobile devices, cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) are changing the way industries, including higher education, conduct business. Two major benefits to mobile-first technology strategy include the ability to provide more flexibility and promote collaboration between individuals – two main points of interest for the millennial generation entering the workforce.
By Jay Cardin | Feb 22, 2018
For automobile owners, nothing probably generates as much uncertainty as the “Check Engine” light on the dashboard. A stream of questions commences through your mind once that ominous amber light announces its presence.
By Kerry Cotter | Feb 20, 2018
Are you considering switching your enterprise from a legacy hardware infrastructure to a more streamlined system? Are you afraid of the enterprise security risks that come with using a cloud-based technology? While the anxiety is understandable, there are proactive measures you can take to ensure the security of your data. Keep reading to discover the pros and cons of each deployment option as well as our cloud security recommendations to protect your information.
By Greg LaBrie | Feb 15, 2018
gnIn Part 1 of this blog series, we discussed the unprecedented amount of money being allocated to cybersecurity in the coming year and beyond, as well as how money, without a core foundational strategy, could be simply money that is tossed to the wind. In Part 2, we will look at the remaining three of the five core principles that can make a meaningful difference concerning the your enterprise cybersecurity and users.
By Greg LaBrie | Feb 13, 2018
It is the start of a new year - that time in which we break down the complexities of life into more manageable elements in order to strategize for the year ahead and attempt to improve upon our efforts of the year prior. This also applies to your company’s enterprise cybersecurity strategy. According to Gartner, worldwide cybersecurity spending reached $90 billion in 2017.
By Joshua Satrape | Feb 08, 2018
When we talk about cloud computing we are usually referring to the public cloud. The concept of the public cloud is revolutionary. The idea of ridding ourselves of our hardware centric data centers to a more flexible, scalable, and resilient world of the cloud is indeed liberating. Internal IT can spend their time matching business needs with solutions rather than allocating their time to maintaining hardware that will only have to be replaced one day. It is wonderful to contemplate and visualize all the ways the cloud can make your job as an IT manager so much easier.
By Jay Cardin | Feb 07, 2018
If your data center is on an evolutionary track from siloed and hardware-centric to agile and software-defined, you’re aware of converged and hyperconverged infrastructures. If you haven’t yet been introduced to composable infrastructure, welcome to the next gen step in your data center modernization journey.
By Greg LaBrie | Feb 06, 2018
With the advancement in technology, employees are no longer stuck working at their desk in order to access the information they need to do their jobs. This freedom allows greater flexibility and productivity, but it also opens the door for enterprise cybersecurity threats and the potential for unauthorized access to proprietary information.
By Joshua Satrape | Feb 01, 2018
There are a number of compelling reasons to migrate your services and resources to the cloud such as cost savings, agility, scalability, and redundancy. Another reason is to escape the entrapment of vendor lock in. Ironically however, some enterprises find themselves moving to the cloud, only to constrain themselves with the same restrictions that plagued them in the traditional datacenter. Others are finding themselves in a problematical situation of competing organizations that muddle the cloud landscape.
By Michael Thweatt | Jan 30, 2018
Ransomware was a top concern for enterprises around the world in 2017 and continues to be one moving forward. Organizations around the globe are increasingly dependent on technology to help reach business goals, but it comes with risk. Cybercriminals are masters at exploiting technological weak spots to hit companies where it hurts the most.
By Joshua Satrape | Jan 25, 2018
As a society, we love to put entities head-to-head against one another. Automotive enthusiasts have debated Ford vs. Chevy for decades. Every year college football fans debate which conference is stronger: Big Ten or SEC. When it comes to IaaS cloud computing, the inevitable debate between Azure and AWS separates the room between enthusiasts of each provider as well. Unfortunately, deliberating between the two in hopes of distinguishing a clear winner is kind of like debating who the greater basketball player is between LeBron James and Michael Jordan. It kind of all depends on your point of view and what you value.
By Michael Thweatt | Jan 23, 2018
It feels like every time we turn around there is a new cybersecurity threat to report that organizations need to protect themselves from. Malware is an unfortunate reality of living in a digital world, but there are many lessons we can learn from these attacks to safeguard sensitive material.
By David Fafel | Jan 18, 2018
It’s been two weeks since the IT world was rocked by the news of the CPU vulnerabilities known as Meltdown and Spectre. It’s making headline news due to how far the vulnerabilities extend—to nearly every processor manufactured over the past 20 years—as well as the potential impacts in mitigating these vulnerabilities. Every server, computer, tablet, phone or any other computing device with a modern CPU is potentially affected. (See WEI’s Customer Advisory about Meltdown and Spectre in this blog post.)
By Greg LaBrie | Jan 16, 2018
Happy New Year! As we say hello to 2018, we can reflect on the massive progress technology made throughout 2017. The cloud came to a new level of maturity, cybersecurity incidents rocked the world and organizations embraced hyperconverged infrastructure as the future of data center modernization. But what lies ahead? Read on for a look at cybersecurity predictions for the coming year.
By Greg LaBrie | Jan 11, 2018
Have you ever looked at your dog or cat staring out the window of your house towards the horizon? Ever wonder if they contemplate what may be beyond their visible perimeter? It used to be that internal IT did not have to contemplate what lay beyond the perimeter. Network security was fairly simple – create a wall of security around the data center and its resources, along with the users and their desktops scattered throughout the building. Traffic passed through the perimeter firewall while users passed through the front building entrance to access the network. It was a page out of the medieval castle defense playbook in that unauthorized users, unknown devices and external threats were kept at bay outside of the walled perimeter.
By Kerry Cotter | Jan 09, 2018
WEI recognizes that a successful business has a significant role in the community and WEI shows this with its WEI StepsUp corporate responsibility initiative. This past holiday season WEI carried out its Random Acts of Kindness initiative. This initiative was started by WEI’s founders, Belisario and Leslie Rosas. Every holiday season, each employee is provided fifty dollars to be used to carry out a “random act of kindness.” Random acts of kindness can be grand or small gestures, such as lending a helping hand to someone in need. There are two guidelines:
By David Fafel | Jan 05, 2018
WEI is aware of the new vulnerabilities related to Intel and other CPUs which could potentially allow an attacker to gather privileged information from CPU cache and system memory, putting enterprise security at risk. The vulnerabilities are code named “Meltdown” and “Spectre." The “Meltdown” issue is reported to only affect Intel CPUs while “Spectre” is reported to affect Intel, AMD, and ARM. The impact of these vulnerabilities could extend back to CPUs from as early as 1995 (in the case of Intel).
By Greg LaBrie | Jan 04, 2018
This holiday season, the frenzy is not about the “must have” toy, it is the must have investment – Bitcoin. The TV networks cannot stop talking about the dramatic rise in its value that seems to occur on a daily basis, if not hourly. The cable business news shows shuffle in cryptocurrency and financial industry pundits to discuss the significance the new digital gold and the cryptocurrency market at large. They debate each other whether bitcoin is a sure deal that will continue returning positive dividends, or a bubble that is about to burst. Both sides of the argument have their “experts” as to why you should or should not get involved bitcoin mania. CNBC reports that people are maxing out their credit cards to buy, buy, and buy. Some people are even taking home equity loans on their house to maximize the number of coins they can afford.
By Kerry Cotter | Jan 02, 2018
This year has seen monumental growth in cloud computing and companies are embracing a cloud-first attitude more than ever before. The hybrid cloud computing model allows organizations to leverage the strengths of their current on premise network and augment them with the elasticity and innovations of the cloud. It offers organizations great opportunities, not through new technology exactly, but by a new fresh approach to technology that is continuing to evolve and mature in real time.
By Greg LaBrie | Dec 26, 2017
Is your organization’s wireless networking in need of some modernization? Digital transformation has the power to boost your company’s productivity, bottom line, and even employee retention. While the concept may seem complicated, working with a trusted technology partner helps to simplify these concepts.
By Kerry Cotter | Dec 19, 2017
The digital transformation we are witnessing today has catapulted IT to a role of prominence, innovation, and leadership. IT must now understand more than just technology architectures, it must understand the business drivers and goals of the company that it serves. Innovation and new ideas are the building blocks of business today and it is the job of IT to provide the technology to help make those ideas come to fruition. This is one of the factors leading companies to adopt a Hybrid IT model. But this shift has less to do with technology and more to do with operations management, policies and procedures and the delivery of IT services. A good exercise for developing a hybrid IT strategy begins with asking leadership to re-examine the role that the IT department holds within the organization, with questions such as:
By Greg LaBrie | Dec 14, 2017
Mark Twain popularized the phrase, “There’s gold in them thar hills,” when he wrote about the gold rush of 1849. Today, the gold lies not in the hills of California, but within crypto mining servers dispersed across the Internet. This new gold is not mined by the power of the pick and shovel, or even dynamite. Instead, computer processors power the mining operations that create this digital gold. Welcome to the modern day gold rush of today’s digital age.
By David Fafel | Dec 12, 2017
Has your organization clearly defined your hybrid IT strategy? According to Gartner’s Managing Vice President, Chris Howard, "Many organizations have now passed the definitional stage of cloud computing and are testing cloud architectures inside and outside the enterprise, and over time, the cloud will simply become one of the ways that we 'do' computing, and workloads will move around in hybrid internal/external IT environments. As a result, the traditional role of the enterprise IT professional is changing and becoming multifaceted. A hybrid IT model requires internal and external IT professionals to support the business capabilities of the enterprise."
By David Fafel | Dec 05, 2017
According to the findings of a recent study, it is estimated that 90 percent of companies will eventually move to a Hybrid IT model. This is no surprise considering the many advantages such as agility, scalability, resiliency, automation, simplicity, and reduced costs that only hybrid IT can offer. The quickening migration to hybrid IT is evident in an IDG study published in Forbes, which estimates that a typical IT department has only 40% of its apps and platforms residing in on premise solutions. How exactly does hybrid IT transform the role of the traditional IT team? Read on to find out.
By David Fafel | Nov 28, 2017
Hybrid IT is a new paradigm that is redefining the function of IT within an organization. However, the implementation of new archetypes always comes with challenges along the way. Change is never easy, but often worth it. The traditional on premise enterprise took a long time to build, so naturally, rebuilding and modernizing it will not happen overnight.
By Greg LaBrie | Nov 21, 2017
Is your organization ready to make the switch from legacy to wireless networking? Transforming your business to be digitally ready is a big step, so it’s important to work with an IT solutions provider to map out all the available solutions before taking the leap. Read on to learn about the benefits of wireless networking and an overview of available solutions from Aruba.
By Greg LaBrie | Nov 14, 2017
Are you familiar with wireless networking? This IT strategy has exploded in popularity over the past few years, almost to the point of being able to replace the traditional plug in networks. Whether you’re interested in pursuing the concept for the first time with an IT consulting company or are well-versed in traditional networking, there are many benefits of this approach to network design and management.
By Joshua Satrape | Nov 07, 2017
Where is your company in deploying a cloud model? Are you utilizing public cloud, or is your cloud strategy a little more advanced that leverages a hybrid cloud model? Don’t let the name trip you up; the term “cloud” is an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it conceals. The generally accepted definition of cloud computing comes from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). “Cloud Computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.”
By David Fafel | Oct 31, 2017
There is a great deal of conversation and interest about hybrid cloud and hybrid IT in the IT community today. While these two buzzwords do share some distinct similarities, they are also very different business IT solutions. Here’s where they find common ground:
By David Fafel | Oct 24, 2017
If you could start your company’s IT strategy from scratch, is there anything you would do differently? We’d bet that if most organizations asked themselves this question, hybrid IT would be part of the ideal setup. Here are some of the ways your existing IT would benefit from an overhaul, if given the opportunity:
By Greg LaBrie | Oct 17, 2017
Is your organization’s network fully optimized to operate in today’s digital world? Even today’s most technologically-forward companies may still have some legacy hardware that is holding them back from taking full advantage of the benefits that cloud computing offers. If you’re using digital networking as a product and service delivery method, you may be missing out on an opportunity to truly turn digital transformation into a long term business development strategy.
By Shane Garrett | Oct 10, 2017
There’s a sea of change afoot in enterprise data centers, focused on identifying the best storage media for the mountain of application data. As opposed to the loyal, hard disk drive (HDD), enterprise storage is being transformed by the use of persistent flash memory for primary workloads. Yet, with all the good flash storage can do, there are a few misconceptions that can derail an otherwise solid flash storage investment. If you plan to deploy flash storage, read on for three cautions and considerations from a technology partner.
By Joshua Satrape | Oct 03, 2017
Has your organization paved the way for a hybrid cloud deployment? If not, we believe that the hybrid model deserves a closer look; Gartner estimates nearly half of all large enterprises will have hybrid cloud deployments by the end of this year, due to the added flexibility and elasticity it provides organizations with existing on premise infrastructures.
By David Fafel | Sep 26, 2017
Today, the wide variety of available technology solutions opens the possibilities for organizations seeking the right combination of strategies to meet their diverse, unique needs. Luckily, companies who want to leverage the benefits of cloud computing don’t have to go “all-in” immediately; they are able to mix their traditional IT approaches with cloud-based solutions: this is described as hybrid IT. Why is traditional IT limiting? Read on for a look at hybrid IT’s importance.
By Greg LaBrie | Sep 19, 2017
Many technology solutions pride themselves on reducing an organization’s instances of unplanned downtime, since this can be a big drain on company resources and productivity. That’s why IT managers may be surprised to learn there is a happy medium somewhere between unacceptable downtime and zero downtime.
By David Fafel | Sep 12, 2017
Have you heard about the benefits of hybrid IT? In the world of technology, there was a time in which IT drove business needs and the organization was pressured to keep up with its speed. An obvious example was the proliferation of the internet in the 90’s and the integration of shared resources through Ethernet. These technologies launched new paradigms in the same way that the cloud and the progression of software defining the data center are doing so today.
By Kerry Cotter | Sep 05, 2017
Did you know WEI is a great company to work for? In addition to providing standout technology solutions to our clients and partners, we also go above and beyond when taking care of our team members! We’re proud to share that WEI came in an impressive second place out of hundreds of entrants in our inaugural entry in Business NH Magazine’s prestigious 2017 Best Companies to Work For in NH list. [click to tweet] The award honors our commitment to a great company culture that showcases respect, diversity, volunteerism, charity and community involvement. Read on to learn more!
By Greg LaBrie | Aug 29, 2017
Have you heard about Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)? It’s a hot new buzzword, but is simpler than it sounds. If you want to keep your organization’s data safe from threats, both criminally perpetuated and natural, read on to find out why you should invest in DRaaS today.
By Greg LaBrie | Aug 22, 2017
Did you catch our previous advice for avoiding and containing ransomware? Today’s digital businesses are facing this pervasive threat like never before, and there are a wide variety of security tactics that can improve your security strategy. Keep reading for five more tips that will help you avoid a destructive ransomware attack.
By Greg LaBrie | Aug 15, 2017
If organizations weren’t serious about tightening their cybersecurity strategy to combat ransomware within the past sixteen months, the mammoth WannaCry attack launched against the world on Friday, May 12, 2017 has certainly induced them to do so. Like most enterprise security threats, there are multiple ways to combat ransomware. Some methods are more intrusive than others though.
By David Fafel | Aug 08, 2017
The world is indeed going digital, and not just because technology is dictating it. This massive upheaval is the result of change agents such as the cloud, mobile computing, social media, big data analytics, and the consumerization of IT; all of these have transformed how the world does business today. Is your organization keeping up with the times? Read on to brush up on the topic of hybrid IT, and find out why 63 percent of organizations are now pursuing a hybrid IT approach, according to a Harvard Business Review survey.
By David Fafel | Aug 01, 2017
Today's business environment is fast paced and highly innovative, thanks to technology organizations that are advancing from zero to market leaders before their competitors even see them coming. While this frees companies up to manage their IT in a new way, it also creates an issue: last-generation infrastructures aren't built with speed or elasticity in mind.
By Greg LaBrie | Jul 25, 2017
There’s a lot to learn every day in the world of technology, especially with the ever-increasing amount of high-profile cyber breaches and criminal hacks. It seems every news article brings a new security scare, and businesses should be more alert than ever before. Want to know what threats are out there? Read on for an overview of recent security breaches, and find out what your organization can learn from them.
By Joshua Satrape | Jul 18, 2017
Is your organization among the 70 percent that have had to change their network infrastructure to support hybrid cloud? According to this statistic, you are far from alone. We recently shared three considerations that CIOs must pay attention to when deploying a hybrid cloud transition strategy. Here are five more items to focus on to make the most of your technology approach.
By Kerry Cotter | Jul 11, 2017
At WEI, we’re not just an award-winning technology services provider focusing on helping our customers drive business value; we’re also a company that cares for the health, happiness, and wellbeing of our employees, our environment, and the community around us. We do this through our community outreach and corporate responsibility initiative: WEI Steps UP. Earlier this year we worked with Habitat for Humanity and we are excited to announce that this past June 15th we held our second annual Care Pack Family BBQ, which aimed to benefit our military men and women serving overseas with the help of the Pease Greeters organization.
By Joshua Satrape | Jul 04, 2017
Are you moving to the hybrid cloud? Anyone who has managed the transition of relocating a data center knows firsthand the planning and organization that is required for such an enormous endeavor. The conversionary process from an on premise environment to a hybrid model demands the same level of preparation to ensure a successful implementation. The location of your company’s resources is irrelevant to your users, so if resources aren’t available for your end users, then it is your local network that will be blamed.
By Michael Thweatt | Jun 29, 2017
Remember the destruction WannaCry caused? The casualties included up to 300,000 encrypted computers in over 150 countries, not to mention the damage or loss of data entirely. The newest ransomware cyber-attack threat is far worse than WannaCry, and it's going by the name “Petya.”
By Greg LaBrie | Jun 27, 2017
We recently went over some common high availability (HA) architectures and solutions that can transform your organization’s technology approach. While high availability can provide the flexibility and reliability that you’re seeking for backup and recovery solutions, it can only do so when implemented properly. Below are some ways to avoid three common missteps.
