Information Technology (IT) Insights & News

Storcom aims to keep you informed of the new trending topics and news in the IT landscape

Information Technology News and Insights

As part of Storcom’s editorial mission statement, we strive to provide original and creative content on our website, plus create quality informational newsletters to send to our customers and potential clients. We believe that educated clients and customers are happy customers, so Storcom keeps you up-to-date with the hottest trends, insights and news, videos, blogs, articles, research reports, webinars, products, solutions, and services in information technology. Additionally, we strive to keep our clients knowledgeable about new products and IT solutions from Storcom and our technology partners.

Storcom’s Insights, News, and Blog Posts

Storcom's Blog Posts

Learn more about Storcom's insights and trends in our blog post. 

Ransomware Recovery and Prevention Roadmap

Learn how to protect your data from ransomware with Storcom’s Ransomware Recovery and Prevention Roadmap solution. 

Evolve to the Cloud with Storcom

Learn how to Evolve to the Cloud with Storcom. We can help you migrate your data to a public, private, or hybrid cloud safely and securely. 

Recover By Storcom Infographic

Learn how our Recover by Storcom solution can help you backup and protect your data in case of a disaster. 

VMware Carbon Black Infographic

Learn more about VMware Carbon Black with Storcom’s new infographic! 

Storcom: Enabling Clients to “Evolve to the Cloud”

Dave Kluger, Co-founder and CTO As a high-touch IT solutions provider, Storcom focuses on the management, movement, and protection of data. The company was formed 20 years ago with a mission to provide small to mid-sized clients with expertise, processes, and technologies that were typically only available to enterprise organizations. Storcom provides enterprise-grade solutions and consulting that are custom-tailored for mid-tier clients. Its services include enabling clients to Evolve to th…

VDI and Desktop as-a-Service Blog Post

My name is Dave Kluger and I am the Principal Technology Architect at Storcom. Storcom has been in business in the Chicagoland area for 20 years and has been specializing in the management, movement, and protection of data since its inception in 2000.  Today I will discuss VDI and Desktop-as-a-Service.I have created this blog series because, just like you, I see a ton of emails in my inbox on the topic of virtual workspace and remote work options. I felt that it was time to write a blog se…

Data Protection in Storage and Hyperconverged Infrastructure

Today’s topic is on data protection in storage and hyperconverged infrastructure. Specifically, “backup software” and its ability to be replaced by what capabilities storage arrays (SAN) or hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution vendors claim they can provide.This is a multi-part blog series. I want to dispel some of the myths and mysteries about certain topics in the information technology field where I think IT vendors’ claims can be very misleading.  I am not affiliated with any ve…

Cloud Migration Questionnaire

My name is Dave Kluger, and I am the CTO for Storcom, an information technology solution provider located outside of Chicago in Lombard, Illinois.  I have compiled this list of questions to help you make informed decisions when considering a cloud migration project.  Cloud computing is an extremely complex endeavor, and if done incorrectly then it can be a costly nightmare. Use this cloud migration questionnaire as a checklist to ensure a smooth transition to cloud computing. Te…

Colocation Service Solution Provider

You can deploy and manage your existing infrastructure in our best-in-class T3 data center powered by 360TCS with colocation, thus eliminating the hassle and cost of running your own data center.You can also leverage Storcom’s experts who are adept at how to best leverage your existing infrastructure investment and navigate through the intricacies of how, when, and what applications to move to the cloud and other managed services. Reasons to Choose Storcom for Your ColocationON-SITE ENGIN…

Planning for Cloud Adoption is Not Easy

Dave Kluger, CTO of Storcom   2019 Was the Year of the Cloud-First Strategy Cloud-first strategies were all the rage in 2019. What do I mean by “cloud-first?” A cloud-first initiative is when organizations consider operating a project, workflow, process, application, as cloud-based before any other methods. In essence, a cloud-first approach means that businesses prioritize the use of shared, publicly-hosted infrastructure. This is chosen over building and managing private data center facil…

Legacy Home Directories and User Directory Data Migration

Dave Kluger, CTO of Storcom Learn more about legacy home directories and user directory data migration in today’s blog post. Many corporations are trying to figure out how to leverage OneDrive from Microsoft to potentially replace legacy home directory data. For a lot of people, Microsoft OneDrive is potentially free depending on the type of Microsoft O365 licensing they have. OneDrive looks like an attractive option to take the data that was once in our home directories/home drives and mov…

Top 10 Things to Consider When Selecting a Data Center

Questions to Ask Yourself When Choosing the Right Location for Your DataDave Kluger – Storcom CTO Many IT professionals are often tasked with finding secure facilities to store their data and often ask the question “how do I select a data center for my business?” This list of the top 10 things to consider when selecting a data center will guide you through the process of choosing a data center to fit your specific business needs. Just like different types of technologies, the capabilities …

Why Object Storage for a Microsoft 0365 Data Backup

by:Dave Kluger, Storcom CTOThere are many reasons to consider object storage for a Microsoft O365 data backup. With today’s strict regulatory requirements, retaining email and other communication data in a centralized, manageable repository remains the most secure strategy.  A company’s electronic communication data, which includes email and social media content, can be used as evidence in everyday workplace disputes and legal proceedings.  This includes investigations, Freedom of Informat…

General IT News and Trends

Information Technology Insights and News

Learn more about new trends and emerging technology.

Veeam and Storcom Ransomware Prevention and Protection in 2021 Webinar

What is Ransomware? What is the History of Ransomware? How is Ransomware Evolving in 2021? How Can I Prevent and Protect My Business Against a …

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Storcom and HPE Nimble Storage Video

What is HPE Nimble? At Storcom, we’re a high-touch IT solutions provider that’s focused on the management, movement, and protection of data for more than twenty years – and over those two decades, we’ve been early adopters of many emerging solutions, including Nimble Storage. Nimble’s game-changing solutions combine predictive analytics from HPE InfoSight with a multi-cloud flash fabric to create an all-flash storage platform that’s incredibly efficient, reliably fast, radically simple, and ready for everything you need to do in the cloud. InfoSight uses AI and global intelligence to not only simplify storage management, but also create a self-improving and self-healing infrastructure that transforms the support experience into one you’ll actually like since many problems are resolved before you even realize there’s an issue. And with Nimble’s multi-cloud flash fabric, you can deliver fast and reliable flash storage to all your applications under a single, scalable architecture – whether they’re on-premises or in the cloud. As the first Nimble partner in the Midwest, Storcom has unparalleled experience with Nimble technology and can help you take advantage of it to simplify data storage and infrastructure support both now, and in the future. Contact us today to schedule a demo to learn how Nimble Storage can help you create better business and IT outcomes. www.storcom.net

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IDC Study: 5 Stages To Enterprise Recovery

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of digital transformation in the eyes of CEOs across all industries. But with a recession on the horizon, CEOs are at a decision point – to follow the same course of cost cutting as all previous recessions have dictated, or to flatten their own organization’s recessionary curve by leveraging technology.

Remote Work Readiness Part 2: Virtual Collaboration – Cloud File-Sharing

Storcom is hosting a 4-part series on Remote Work Readiness. In today’s world amidst the current pandemic, working from home has become the new norm. Storcom’s second installation is focusing on Cloud File-Sharing solutions, from Microsoft Azure Files, OneDrive, and Storcom’s own CloudFilez™ solution. 

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Arrow IT Priority Study

Arrow Electronics asked over two-thousand CIOs, VPs of IT and IT directors to tell us how their priorities have shifted at this time and what their biggest challenges and initiatives are for the remainder of 2020. The results tell a story about what IT leaders are most concerned about and what IT initiatives they plan to direct budget toward in order to address their challenges and concerns. Previously, we saw more traditional technology initiatives in play. In this new world, we’re seeing and hearing that IT plans and priorities will never go back to what they were before. As the initial wave of urgency subsides and becomes the new normal, businesses are shifting priorities for 2020 to ensure that they can continue to operate securely and resiliently for these weird and uncertain times. 

Storcom and HPE SimpliVity Webinar- 4/29/2020

Please join Dave Kluger, CTO of Storcom, and Jose Cornejo, Hybrid IT Sales Specialist at HPE, for a brief introductory webinar on HPE SimpliVity. SimpliVity is the HCI innovation that’s changing the game by combining IT infrastructure and advanced data services into a single, integrated, all-flash solution at a fraction of the cost of traditional and public cloud offerings. During this event you will get answers to your questions about how this fast, simple, and scalable hyperconverged platform can streamline your IT operations and facilitate your transition to Hybrid IT.

Remote Work Readiness Part 1: VDI and Remote Desktop Services (RDS)

Storcom has created this series because we are seeing, just like you, a ton of emails in our inbox on the topic of virtual workspace and remote work options. We felt that it was time to put on a series that was coming from a vendor-agnostic standpoint and really was designed to provide information that you really need to make informed decisions. We hope that we can help cut through the clutter and marketing hype in this series and dig into some of the real questions you need to be asking around any of the topics we are planning to discuss in this series. These seven questions are: 1) How much customization will each employee require? 2) How many applications do my remote users need to have access to? 3) What kind of device will your end-user be utilizing? 4) What do my users need as far as performance to get their work done effectively?5) Why not choose RDS (remote desktop services)?6) How are you going to deal with security challenges today? 7) Which financial model do you want to use?

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How To Cultivate Effective Remote Work Programs

Recommendations for IT leaders responsible for digital workplace programs that include remote work initiatives:■ Establish a foundation of trust by empowering both employees and managers to be effective in remote work scenarios.■ Determine what work lends itself to a remote model by analyzing responsibilities, tasks and the roles that can fulfill them.■ Prepare employees for remote work demands by setting accurate expectations and enabling supportive interactions.

Gartner A Digital Workplace Is Crucial To Digital Transformation

Digital transformation efforts will struggle to achieve their full potential unless employees have the ability and ambition to engage fully in the organization’s digital journey. Application leaders should prioritize digital workplace initiatives, and deploy the tools needed to enable them.

Gartner HPE Vendor Report 2020

HPE continues on its multiyear path to transform its business, delivering its consumption-based as a service model to evolve the IT infrastructure and platform software market. This research provides insights for CIOs, IT leaders, and sourcing, procurement and vendor management leaders.

Who is Storcom? Who we are and how we help.

Learn more about IT. solutions provider Storcom Inc. and co-founders Jeff James and Dave Kluger. Storcom is a high-touch IT. solutions provider located in the …

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CIO: The Strategic CIO’s Playbook

CIO: The Strategic CIO’s Playbook: Changing business demands require agility, flexibility, and scale. The right mix of Hybrid IT will accelerate digital transformation. 

Evolve to the Cloud with Storcom

Learn how to Evolve to the Cloud with Storcom. We can help you migrate your data to a public, private, or hybrid cloud safely and securely. 

Gartner Predicts 2020 Barriers Fall As Technology Adoption Grows A Gartner Trend Insight Report

Gartner predicts 2020 barriers fall as technology adoption grows. 

Hybrid IT for Dummies – HPE Special Edition

Hybrid IT for Dummies – HPE Special Edition

Introduction to HCI: HPE SimpliVity Overview

https://www.storcom.net/contact-us/ Storcom and HPE SimpliVity have teamed up to create this fantastic video on hyper-converged infrastructure and how HPE …

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Ransomware Recovery and Prevention Roadmap

Learn how to protect your data from ransomware with Storcom’s Ransomware Recovery and Prevention Roadmap solution. 

Gartner Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends For 2020

Strategic information technology trends have the potential both to create opportunity and to drive significant disruption. Enterprise architecture and technology innovation leaders must evaluate these top trends to determine how combinations of trends can power their innovation strategies. Here is Gartner’s list of the top 10 strategic technology trends for 2020.

Gartner Cool Vendors The Best Cool Vendors Change The Competitive Landscape

CIOs should consider Cool Vendors whose coolness factors — innovative, impactful and/or intriguing — align to the enterprise’s culture and information technology profile. Early adopters should consider offerings that are both innovative and impactful and thus potentially game-changing.

IDC The Future of Hybrid IT Made Simple

IDC The Future of Hybrid IT Made Simple

Recover By Storcom Infographic

Learn how our Recover by Storcom solution can help you backup and protect your data in case of a disaster. 

Gartner Last Call For Digital Society Departing Now

Digital business is deeply transforming society, and executive leaders carry a responsibility beyond their organizations to influence what our quickly emerging digital society will look like. To make this society a positive one, IT leaders should adopt proactive idealism — not reactive realism.

Recover By Storcom Powered By: 360 TCS

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Gartner How To Strengthen Your Digital Workplace Program To Sustain Digital Transformation

Exploiting digital technology for new ways of working often results in technology islands that are remote from employees’ needs and cut off from business outcomes. Application leaders should build a flexible digital workplace program that can evolve to sustain digital transformation.

Forrester Window Of Opportunity

The companies and leaders that will thrive in this level of uncertainty predicted in 2020 will differentiate themselves by investing in customer and employee experiences that are data-driven, personalized, real-time, and secure. They will stand out in the era of digital sameness. It’s where technology-driven innovation takes center stage. And that’s where the opportunity for the CIO, and all IT leaders, emerges. 

IDC Futurescape: Worldwide IT Industry 2020 Predictions

This IDC study presents the top 10 predictions and key drivers for the IT industry for the next five years.According to IDC Chief Analyst Frank Gens, “As more than half the global economy turns digital by 2023, a new species of enterprise will be required to compete and thrive. Our 2020 predictions show enterprises will get ready for the digitized economy by accelerating investments in key technologies and new operating models to become hyperspeed, hyperscaled, and hyperconnected.”

How Storcom can help you Evolve to the Cloud™ with our cloud migration practice.

Storcom’s Cloud Enablement Roadmap® will help you Evolve to the Cloud™ efficiently and cost-effectively. Storcom offers an array of products and services to fill gaps in your IT environment. We strive to offer white-glove service and work as your trusted advisor in the IT space. Visit https://www.storcom.net to learn more!

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Gartner For Technical Professionals 2020 Planning Guide Overview Building Skills For Digital Transformation

Technical professionals find architecture decisions to be increasingly difficult. A widening skills gap exacerbates the problem and can impede digital business transformation. To help address this challenge, Gartner summarizes the top trends and planning considerations across 10 key technology areas for 2020.

2020 Business IT Trends Annual Report

This 2020 Business IT Trends report was created based on responses from 726 individuals in IT decision-making positions in North America, Australia/New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Download it now and see exactly how they plan to approach IT this year.

Gartner How Augmented Analytics Will Transform Your Organization

A Gartner trend insight report on how augmented analytics will transform your organization. 

Coronavirus: 3 things CIOs need to do now

Gartner has recommended three short-term actions that chief information officers should take to prepare for business disruptions as a result of the coronavirus health crisis.“With such a dyanmic situation like COVID-19, it has the potential to be as disruptive, or more, to an organisation’s continuity of operations as a cyber intrusion or natural disaster,” said Gartner research director, Sandy Shen. “When traditional channels and operations are impacted by the outbreak, the value of digital…

CIOs Vs. COVID-19: Tech Leaders Are Key To Companies’ Emergency Plans

People standing in line for a temperature check outside an office building in Singapore's central … [+] business district. © 2020 Bloomberg Finance LP Like many other CIOs, Prakash Kota of Autodesk is closely monitoring the pronouncements about the new coronavirus disease, COVID-19, coming from governments and health organizations. The $34 billion design-software giant has already had to close some offices near to affected regions and to ask employees there to work from home. Plent…

10 Pillars of Pandemic Preparation

The COVID-19 coronavirus has left many organizations unsure whether their risk mitigation is sufficient. Gartner expert Jim Mello explains what good operational risk management looks like.Just 12% of more than 1,500 people polled in a Gartner business continuity webinar on March 6 believe their businesses are highly prepared for the impact of coronavirus, while 26% believe that the virus will have little or no impact on their business.Most respondents (56%) rate themselves somewhat prepared, …

With Coronavirus in Mind, Are You Ready for Remote Work?

Ready or not, many coronavirus contingency plans require remote work. Seize the opportunity to bolster your policies — and prepare for future workplace and employee needs.Are you reading this article in your work-from-home office space? Due to the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus, remote work is suddenly an overnight requirement for many. Few organizations feel prepared for large-scale remote work, but you can take steps to make the experience productive for both employees and your organization…

Stress-Test Your Business Continuity Management – Smarter With Gartner

Recent events, such as the spread of coronavirus, demonstrate the importance of stress-testing business continuity management plans.The spread of a severe pneumonia now known to be COVID-19 through China and into other countries offers a timely reminder of the difficulty of planning for pandemic events and natural disasters. Businesses always need robust and current continuity plans that stipulate exactly how business operations will respond to and resume after a disruption — whether it is a …

Coronavirus: CIO Areas of Focus During the COVID-19 Outbreak

CIOs should prepare IT systems now to safely and reliably handle a vast increase in remote workers and digital fulfillment of market demand.As the coronavirus continues to spread around the world, the economic symptoms are emerging. More than a dozen global firms have announced they will miss their financial goals for the upcoming quarter due to the combined impact of supply chain disruptions and dampened customer demand.“The value of digital channels, products and operations is immediately o…

Top IT spending priorities for 2020

The CIO role has become a transformational one. Forty-six percent of IT leaders say their work is primarily focused on transforming the business, according to our 2020 State of the CIO survey.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)

CIOs discuss their top priorities for 2020

It’s the start of a new year, a new decade even. Pivotal moments in time like these call for new resolutions; an analysis of what’s brought us to where we are and the envisioning of where we’d like to go and how we plan to get there.In that spirit, we kicked off this new year with an #IDGTECHTalk Twitter Chat on CIOs top priorities for 2020.What unfolded was a deep dive into improving operations as a whole – beyond technology itself – through things like better training, understanding orga…

Checklist For Companies With Remote Employees Due To COVID-19

Getty The official response to the COVID-19 expansion in the US is already resulting in companies being told to have their employees work from home. You can expect these work-at-home requirements to spread, regardless of whether they’re called social distancing or shelter-in-place. The official response to the COVID-19 expansion in the US is already resulting in companies being told to have their employees work from home For companies that haven’t had remote employees in any great …

The one transformation goal CIO must prioritize in 2020

Do you know the one thing that you have to change in your organization in 2020?Will you focus on developing new products and services? Surely that’s a critical place to start, especially for the growing number of companies that want to sell and deliver digitally driven products and services directly to end-users. Or maybe your business is already experiencing digital disruption, losing market share, or recognizing competitive threats from new startups and must revitalize the customer exper…

Thales, Telstra, Microsoft and Arduino working on scalable IoT security with GSMA standard

Thales and Telstra have collaborated with Microsoft and Arduino to implement a GSMA solution that would allow trusted and secure end-to-end communication between device and cloud in order to pave way for scalable security for connected IoT devices.As billions of devices collect, process and send data to the cloud within the IoT ecosystem, a variety of IoT services are executed. In order to enable security, the IoT cloud service must have absolute trust in data received from connected devices…

Opinion: Data isn’t the new oil – with IoT, it will be much bigger

In tech circles, data becoming the world’s most valuable resource is a common refrain. Some even say it’s the new oil. And as with oil, the world’s economy is starting to pivot around the wealth and potential data promises.In the context of the Internet of Things, however, data starts to paint a different picture — a much bigger picture. Whereas oil is a finite resource whose value is tied mostly to its scarcity, IoT has the potential to make data virtually unlimited. Imagine you’re an enter…

Are You Going About the Talent Shortage Wrong? It’s Time to Stop MacGyvering

Transforms your security teams from business blockers to business enablers with Cisco SecureX – the industry broadest security platform that unifies visibility, enables automation, and simplifies securityThe post Are You Going About the Talent Shortage Wrong? It’s Time to Stop MacGyvering appeared first on Cisco Blogs.

Our commitment to business continuity and security during COVID-19

This email was sent to all customers on March 13, 2020 Our hearts go out to the many people and businesses that have been impacted by the COVID-19 virus. As the outbreak expands, many businesses worldwide are experiencing uncertainty. We see it as our duty, during this difficult time, to promote health and safety among […]The post Our commitment to business continuity and security during COVID-19 appeared first on RingCentral Blog.

Accelerate Your cloud strategy with Skytap on Azure

Skytap on Azure allows businesses to innovate with the cloud faster, while minimizing impact to traditional applications running on IBM Power.

Business continuity: Coronavirus crisis puts CIOs’ plans to the test

As the COVID-19 coronavirus rattles industries, it’s more important than ever for IT leaders to ensure employees have the tools they require to work remotely and securely.“When traditional channels and operations are impacted by the outbreak, the value of digital channels, products and operations becomes immediately obvious," according to Gartner analyst Sandy Shen. "This is a wake-up call to organizations that focus on daily operational needs at the expense of investing in digital busines…

Spring 2020: State of the CIO

Welcome to the Spring 2020 digital issue of CIO. In these pages, we take a deep dive into our annual State of the CIO research to understand the evolving role of the CIO, including the areas where they are taking on new responsibilities, the top business initiatives driving IT investments, and some of the challenges ahead.[ Register now to download this issue ]ContentsGROWIT’s new ROI: Return on innovationCIOs struggle to temper business expectations of 100 percent innovation success with…

Coronavirus: 3 things CIOs need to do now

Gartner has recommended three short-term actions that chief information officers should take to prepare for business disruptions as a result of the coronavirus health crisis.“With such a dyanmic situation like COVID-19, it has the potential to be as disruptive, or more, to an organisation’s continuity of operations as a cyber intrusion or natural disaster,” said Gartner research director, Sandy Shen. “When traditional channels and operations are impacted by the outbreak, the value of digital…

5 reasons you need a business relationship manager

Is your IT group overwhelmed with competing demands from different business functions for new or improved technologies they say they need to do their work efficiently? If you’re like most IT leaders, your answer is probably yes. And the solution may surprise you: Hire a business relationship manager.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)

Tech companies could face more pressure to share location data with governments to fight coronavirus

By now most Americans have gotten the message that, as much as possible, they need to stay away from everyone else. In San Francisco and a growing number of other cities around the world, all non-essential travel has been banned. Even in cases where life more closely resembles normalcy, the government has encouraged social distancing. And if anyone in your life isn’t yet under self-quarantine, sending …

BrandPost: A tale of two missions: From IT modernization to business transformation

Home IT Leadership Digital Transformation How DXC Technology’s Enterprise Technology Stack delivers new levels of performance, competitiveness and customer experiences and allows organizations to drive business transformation. iStock Digital Transformation IT Leadership Copyright © 2020 IDG Communications, Inc.

Reskilling IT for digital success

The tech talent shortage has CIOs scrambling to ensure that employees brush up on the latest skills and technologies that facilitate business agility. Among the domains in the highest demand: cloud computing, machine learning, data science, software engineering and cybersecurity.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)

7 digital transformation myths

The pace of change in business is forcing many companies to transform, often enabled by technology. This is variously termed digital transformation or tech-enabled business transformation, but regardless of label, technology leaders are at the center.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)

Cloud computing is even greener than we thought

The idea that cloud computing is green really depends on whom you’re talking to. Some say data center growth is driven by those evil cloud providers. They build huge, ugly structures that consume more power and water than a small town, take up a lot of real estate that could be used for farming, and really don’t employ that many people.However, the data centers run by the major public cloud providers have a positive effect on power consumption for computing, generally speaking. Why? They o…

Enterprises are still spending on data centers. What gives?

Synergy Research Group’s review of enterprise IT spending during the last 10 years shows that “annual spending on cloud infrastructure services has gone from virtually zero to almost $100 billion.” No surprise here. However, “enterprise spending on data center hardware and software has been stagnant through much of the decade.” Huh? Not declining?What’s most interesting about this analysis is that core IT spending doubled during the same time period, with the cloud seeing most of that growt…

How to build a collaboration environment for a changing workforce

By 2025, most workers will be millennials. These ‘digital natives’ will have a major impact on how collaboration takes place – and it won’t involve walking next door to an office to collaborate.

Top 9 challenges IT leaders will face in 2020

This year will assuredly see tech leaders laser-focused once again on digital initiatives, but the processes they have in place for doing so won’t be a slam dunk for success. Worse, recent research suggests that mistakes born of digital transformation are a top cause of concern for businesses. A Gartner report on emerging risks shows that while companies continue to prioritize and fund digital initiatives, two-thirds not only fail to deliver on their promises but also reveal “…

What is a technology roadmap? A plan for managing digital transformation

A technology roadmap is a document or guide that outlines an organization’s technology initiatives, products, services and strategies. It details the technology your business is already using, what you will need to implement in the future, how to avoid risks and costly mistakes and how to upgrade outdated technologies.Your business’ strategy and goals are a key element of a technology roadmap — the document helps organizations visualize new strategies to ensure they align with current or fut…

Recession-proof IT: How to survive and thrive through any economy

CIO Albert Ruocco decided to use the quieter weeks before the December holiday to test how an artificial intelligence tool could add capabilities within his company, West Monroe Partners. For Ruocco, the proof of concept does more than tease out the potential business value; it gives him time to watch the economic indicators, too.“I have the option in two months to decide whether to invest. So if the economy doesn’t look good, I can table it if we don’t want to take a risk,” h…

The 10 most powerful cybersecurity companies

Anyone who ever attended an RSA conference understands that cybersecurity vendors introduce hundreds of amazing, innovative products every year. But C-level execs aren’t looking for the flashiest new point products. Faced with a severe shortage of security professionals and up against rapidly evolving threats, CISOs are looking for strategic partners, advisory services, and vendors that offer broad platforms. They are also gravitating toward managed security services and cloud-based solution…

Data is The New Oil and Much Much More.

Today Cisco partner Commvault announced its Commvault IntelliSnap® technology is now integrated with Cisco HyperFlex™For those that are in a hurry skip to the bottom of the pageThe Difference between Data and OilOver the past few years you may have heard the quote, “data has become the new oil.” The argument can be made, however, that data is much more than just the new oil.Businesses have begun to look for ways to leverage analytics, data management, and IoT while storing a vast amo…

Business Continuity through Unexpected Events: Is Your Organization Prepared?  

Mar 4, 2020 We all know life is unpredictable. Unplanned events such as natural disasters, severe weather, illness, and travel restrictions make it nearly impossible to continue “business as usual.” Is your organization prepared for a scenario in which traditional ways of working aren’t feasible for a considerable amount of time? Will you need to make tradeoffs between security and business continuity? If you’re considering or already deploying a digital workspace solution, you may be more…

Microsoft Azure cloud migration: 3 success stories

The ongoing shift to the cloud is affecting nearly all types of IT environments—including Microsoft platforms and applications that companies have been relying on for years to support key business processes.Because these applications are generally so well entrenched within organizations and among end users, migrating to the cloud can be a cultural and technical challenge. It can also take a relatively long time to complete, particularly for large enterprises with far-flung operations.[ Al…

VMware vSphere goes Kubernetes native

As much as enterprises might want to modernize IT and go cloud, it’s still a stubborn fact that 95 percent of IT spending remains firmly on-premises. That’s changing, and fast, but CIOs have struggled to upgrade their information technology for the cloud era.In a bid to ease that struggle, VMware today announced Project Pacific, a re-architecture of its vSphere server virtualization platform that turns vSphere into a Kubernetes native platform. What does that mean? In practical terms it me…

Multiple DDoS Botnets Exploited 0-Day Flaws in LILIN DVR Surveillance Systems

Multiple zero-day vulnerabilities in digital video recorders (DVRs) for surveillance systems manufactured by Taiwan-based LILIN have been exploited by botnet operators to infect and co-opt vulnerable devices into a family of denial-of-service bots.The findings come from Chinese security firm Qihoo 360's Netlab team, who say different attack groups have been using LILIN DVR zero-day

Using Cloud Data Insights to Generate Results on the Ground | Microsoft SMB

Mobilize Your Business: Cloud Storage to Access Data Anywhere | Microsoft SMB

New for HPE SimpliVity! Integrated StoreOnce backup, expanded scale, improved productivity

Announcing HPE SimpliVity options that simplify management, help you scale your hyperconverged infrastructure, and, with the integration of HPE StoreOnce, make backup simpler and more cost-effective.

Take a look at me now – HPE SimpliVity with AI

HPE InfoSight predictive analytics services, combined with HPE SimpliVity hyperconverged infrastructure, enables a new generation of hyperconverged infrastructure with far-reaching capabilities to become an intelligently simple, hyper-efficient, edge-optimized solution for the data center. 

InfoSight for HPE SimpliVity: How AI simplifies HCI, Part 3 – Deep dive into clusters

Part 3 in a series that explores HPE Infosight for HPE SimpliVity. Expert Matt Haron steps through cluster management in your hyperconverged infrastructure. 

HPE a Leader for 3 Consecutive Years in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Hyperconverged Infrastructure

More customers than ever are benefiting from the simplicity and hyper-efficiency of HPE SimpliVity. We believe the latest Gartner findings validate HPE’s vision to redefine the HCI experience.

7 secrets of successful remote IT teams

When there's a contagious disease outbreak, a natural disaster or any other type of widespread emergency, IT team members may be required to work from home or at some other safe location until normal business operations can resume.Maintaining productivity and ensuring that essential IT services continue functioning uninterrupted throughout the emergency period can be challenging for both IT leaders and staff. Here are seven tips that can help you keep key operations and activities humming al…

VDI and Desktop as-a-Service Blog Post

My name is Dave Kluger and I am the Principal Technology Architect at Storcom. Storcom has been in business in the Chicagoland area for 20 years and has been specializing in the management, movement, and protection of data since its inception in 2000.  Today I will discuss VDI and Desktop-as-a-Service.I have created this blog series because, just like you, I see a ton of emails in my inbox on the topic of virtual workspace and remote work options. I felt that it was time to write a blog se…

10 reasons why digital transformations fail

Home IT Leadership Digital Transformation Digital transformations remain fashionable. CIOs are stitching together cloud, APIs and microservices into platforms to augment business processes. Agile architectures, they believe, help streamline operations and better serve customers.Forty-seven percent of 510 business and tech leaders claim that their organization is advancing digital transformation plans across the enterprise, according to research conducted by consultancy TEKs…

5 lessons companies should learn about working at home

We’ve all been working from home now for several weeks, and there is no end of stories —  good and bad — about the experience. But there are some important implications that IT and organizations, in general, should have internalized, to be ready for when the next disaster that hits. Here is a list of 5 “learnings” that should be considered in making strategic plans for the future. 1. Bad apps don’t scale well One apparent concept that has not always been top of mind in organizations is how…

Exclusive survey: What 400 IT leaders really think about the COVID-19 crisis

A crisis on the scale of the one we’re facing demands decisive action. Luckily for many IT leaders, the first move was easy: When COVID-19 work-from-home mandates hit, those with the right policies and infrastructure in place endured the massive shift to remote work with minimal disruption. Add VPN capacity, videoconferencing, and a healthy dose of candid communication, and productivity can remain relatively unscathed.The really tough part is planning ahead. When you’re staring into the crat…

CIOs prep for the coming IT recession

Over the last few weeks, I have hesitated to consider the R word. After all, the economists predicted a quick V-based contraction followed by a return to normal. But it has become clear that there will be phases to coming back to what will be a new normal; and as this will take place over a longer period of time, it has become clear that a recession is coming for IT spending. Analyst firms have started estimating differing impacts from the COVID-19 crisis. I have personally seen zero growth …

CIOs offer strategies for engaging an entirely mobile workforce

If one thing is clear about the coronavirus crisis that has engulfed us, it is that it has forever changed the nature of work. The business press is filled with stories about CFOs wanting fewer  workers to return to on-premises work. Meanwhile, CEOs are seeing the opportunity to build world class workforces regardless of where workers live. According to Geoff Colvin of Fortune Magazine, “as businesses respond to this grand-scale reordering of their world, some implications are already clear….

The CSO guide to top security conferences, 2020

There is nothing like attending a face-to-face event for career networking and knowledge gathering, and we don’t have to tell you how helpful it can be to get a hands-on demo of a new tool or to have your questions answered by experts.Fortunately, plenty of great conferences are coming up in the months ahead.If keeping abreast of security trends and evolving threats is critical to your job — and we know it is — then attending some top-notch security conferences is on your must-do list for 20…

Multifactor Authentication: The Next Battleground

X-Force Incident Response and Intelligence Services (IRIS) has responded to multiple security incidents where multifactor authentication (MFA) was not implemented—but where implementing MFA might have significantly reduced the impact of the incident. Such incidents have even included destructive malware attacks, resulting in millions of dollars in losses and the irreversible destruction of thousands of machines on the network. In fact, unauthorized use of credentials accounted for 29% of all…

The 2020 IDG Cloud Computing Survey

Not long ago, if you were a business stakeholder or IT manager, you had to work hard to explain exactly why you would opt for applications or infrastructure in the public cloud. Today, in many organizations, you’re more likely to get pushback when you try to justify deploying a workload in your own data center, where resources are precious.IDG’s 2020 Cloud Computing Survey puts some fresh data behind this paradigm shift. In our poll of 551 tech buyers, all of whom are involved in the purchas…

Threat protection: The WastedLocker ransomware

Co-authored by Martin Lee, Talos Outreach manager, EMEA.Threat Protection is a new blog series as part of a collaboration between Talos and Cisco Security, combining Talos’ knowledge of the threat landscape and the Cisco Security portfolio. In it, we will highlight particular threats and showcase how Cisco Security’s multi-layered approach can prevent them from affecting your network.WastedLocker is a ransomware family that threat actors continue to use in targeted attacks. Cisco Talos ori…

Planning for Cloud Adoption is Not Easy

Dave Kluger, CTO of Storcom   2019 Was the Year of the Cloud-First Strategy Cloud-first strategies were all the rage in 2019. What do I mean by “cloud-first?” A cloud-first initiative is when organizations consider operating a project, workflow, process, application, as cloud-based before any other methods. In essence, a cloud-first approach means that businesses prioritize the use of shared, publicly-hosted infrastructure. This is chosen over building and managing private data center facil…