Remote Office Tech Tips
From Wikibon
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| - | [[Category:Education]][[Category: Efficiency]][[Category: High Availability]][[Category: Hyper-V]][[Category: Management]][[Category: Professional alerts]][[Category: Quorum Servers | + | [[Category:Cloud]][[Category: Converged infrastructure]][[Category: Education]][[Category: Efficiency]][[Category: High Availability]][[Category: Hyper-V]][[Category: Management]][[Category: Professional alerts]][[Category: Quorum Servers]][[Category: ROBO]][[Category: VSAN]][[Category: VMware]][[Category: ESXI]] |
Revision as of 19:28, 10 March 2015
Remote Office Tech Tip Educational Videos
StorMagic commissioned this educational video series, focused on the challenges and decision making process for remote office IT. Videos can also be seen on
StorMagic's Remote Office Tech Tips Channel.
Optimizing Branch Office and Remote Office IT
Wikibon contributor, John McArthur, talks about the importance of branch offices and the challenges of branch office IT support.
Watch the full video here.
Conducting an Application Inventory
The first step in branch-office IT consolidation and efficiency is conducting an application inventory.
Watch the full video here.
Branch Office Infrastructure Consolidation
Once the remote office application inventory is complete, CIO's can begin to look at ways to reduce cost and consolidate infrastructure.
Watch the full video here.
Requirements for High Availability
Not every application requires high availability. And for the ones that do, it still has to be affordable.
Watch the full video here.
How To Deliver High-Availability Applications
Virtualization and shared storage are key components for high availability. They also enable non-disruptive software and maintenance.
Watch the full video here.
Options for Shared Storage
There are many options for shared storage, but in a remote office, where storage requirements are small, but availability requirements are high, a virtual storage appliance is likely to be a much better fit than traditional SAN or NAS storage.
Watch the full video here.
Split-Brain Conditions
Split-brain conditions can lead to downtime and data corruption. Spilt brain risks can be avoided through the use of a quorum service.
Watch the full video here.
Quorum Server Deployment Options
By consolidating quorum servers in a single location, organizations can reduce remote-site hardware requirements by 1/3rd. But not all VSA solutions can tolerate the longer latencies that come with centralized quorum servers.
Watch the full video here.
The Cost of Downtime
The cost of application downtime is dependent upon the value of the application for a specific organization. Don't rely on industry averages.
Watch the full video here.
Speed of Deployment
When it comes to refreshing remote-office IT infrastructure, speed of deployment matters. The fewer special-purpose devices, the better. Look for software-based solutions and services that can leverage existing, virtualized application servers.
Watch the full video here.
Minimizing Hardware Footprint
It's tempting to consider removing all servers from branches, but performance, availability, cost, risk, and compliance concerns may prevent such a move. The key, then, is to reduce hardware footprint as much as possible.
Watch the full video here.
Which Applications Can Be Migrated to the Cloud
Some applications can be safely migrated to a cloud infrastructure. Others can not. Application performance, data security and privacy, application availability, and regulatory compliance are all factors to be weighed.
Watch the full video here.
Action Item: Remote Office IT presents a unique set of challenges for CIOs. Like data center IT, availability, serviceability and efficiency are key requirements. Unlike data centers, however, on-premises IT staff are limited. Solutions designed for small businesses often lack the remote-deployment and remote management capabilities of solutions designed for large-enterprise branch offices. CIOs considering a branch office refresh should pay special attention to recently introduced technologies that enable centralized deployment, centralized management, and lean remote-office IT.
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