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When access to your data lags, your business lags. Understand how to apply machine learning in your data center to predict and prevent the problems that cause downtime.

This research by Nimble Storage, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, outlines the top five causes of application delays. The report analyses more than 12,000 anonymised cases of downtime and slow performance. Read this report and find out:

• Top 5 causes of downtime and poor performance across the infrastructure stack
• How machine learning and predictive analytics can prevent issues
• Steps you can take to boost performance and availability

Download the free report by completing the fields below

Beating customer SLA’s

HPE InfoSight took infrastructure management out of the equation for Rent-a-Center, and freed up staff time to execute instead of managing storage. Hear from their Director of Technical Operations on how they transformed.

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Explore how an integrated network, built around 802.11ac, can provide SMBs with a higher-performing, secure network for today’s business environment, and how simple – and profitable – setting up such a network really is.

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A smart strategy and the right investments can help organisations to stay ahead of cybersecurity threats

With health care experiencing accelerated adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT), demand is skyrocketing for connected medical, operational and personal “things.” Not coincidentally, attacks on health care organisations are also rising, with numerous high-profile breaches having been reported this past year.

Although many IoT devices offer extraordinary benefits for improving patient outcomes, staff effectiveness and operational cost savings, they also bring with them new security risks. Instead of just targeting employees with sophisticated email phishing schemes, hackers now can exploit vulnerabilities in any type of connected device, right down to your light bulbs.

That’s why the latest cybersecurity best practices call for a multilayered IoT security strategy to mitigate threats and reduce risks. These seven steps can help organisations to develop a comprehensive cybersecurity game plan while ensuring that they won’t become the next headline.

Step 1. Know what’s on your network

Understand how to secure the network that supports IoT infrastructure begins with knowing what’s running on it. Assuming it’s a great network, people will want to connect devices to it. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Further, it’s no longer just information technology (IT) staff who are connecting devices via wired ports or wireless systems. Practically every hospital staff member is skilled enough to connect a device. In other words, no matter how hard an IT team tries to establish guidelines and procedures, someone will always connect something unexpected.

This makes modern network access control (NAC) solutions the first line of defense, the best of which offer granular centralised, role-based management and network segmentation. Such solutions enable policies to be set regarding which devices or things can, and cannot, access a network, as well as what data or applications they can access and who has the ability to manage or maintain these devices.

Such solutions monitor connections 24/7 and automatically quarantine anything that doesn’t fit. Simultaneously, an alert about a quarantined device goes to the individual assigned.

Quickly alerting IT is a vital capability, as it ensures that a human can swiftly permit the right people to gain access in support of the primary mission: meeting patient needs. For example, an IT team can determine whether a quarantine alert is simply a biomedical technician attempting to connect a new patient device or a suspicious activity that merits further investigation.

Step 2. Know the role of each user, device and thing

Controlling IoT access to a network requires controlling both the devices and the humans who connect them. To determine what type of access to give a person or an IoT device, it’s not as important to know what each one is as it is to understand what they do. In other words, it requires understanding the business aspect of why a person or device is seeking network access.

This may seem like a no-brainer, but it needs to be emphasized because a significant number of health care IT and facilities professionals are hired from outside the field. It’s important for organisations that fall under this category to work with their business counterparts to understand the role each connected user or device plays.

For example, IoT-enabled, smart hand-washing stations track clinician compliance with organizational hygiene policies. The data these stations collect is critical to tracing and mitigating infection sources before they become a hazard to patients or put an organization at risk.

On the staff safety side, an increasing number of building security systems include a smartphone-enabled duress app. This empowers clinicians to request assistance with a single touch.

Clearly, each of these IoT connection types requires the right role to ensure smooth, seamless and always-on network access.

Step 3. Infuse real-time intelligence to detect subtle changes

Security experts agree. No matter how well wired and wireless network are secured, threats eventually will find their way in. In fact, recent reports show that more than two-thirds of breaches actually involve internal actors rather than external forces.

That’s why the most advanced defenses now include sophisticated analytics and artificial intelligence (AI)-based machine learning. Such solutions spot changes in user or device behavior that often indicates that an invader has evaded perimeter defenses, whether originating from inside or out.

So, if a smart hand-washing station tries to masquerade as a duress app, an AI-infused access control solution can detect this behavior faster than humanly possible and immediately deny network access while notifying both the appropriate IT staffer and facilities manager.

An even more advanced solution provides clear, understandable feedback to anyone attempting to use the compromised statio, such as sending a text message to a station’s potential user to redirect the person to an operational unit.

Step 4. Insist that your vendors improve device security

Historically, medical and facilities device vendors have focused on engineering their products to address health care and building needs with less, or no, regard for the security implications. Consequently, most are still well below IT networking standards, such as supporting the ability to utilize and store encryption keys on the device.

This is where you, the IoT-enabled device purchaser, comes in. By insisting that vendors place networking best-practice security protocols on their development road maps prior to making the investment, it will challenge them to improve their solutions to earn more business.

In some cases, health care organisations may even be able to share with prospective vendors why they’ve selected a competing product.

The sooner users start insisting that IoT device manufacturers comply with security expectations, the faster we’ll see solutions to match.

Step 5. Change default credentials and passwords

Despite the fact that most high-profile IoT-related breaches to date have resulted from failing to change default credentials, it’s surprising how often we still encounter organisations that permit devices to connect via manufacturer-supplied user names and passwords.

Although many vendors now embed options that are more unique than classic “admin” and “password” defaults, know that all factory settings are documented — to enable users to receive help remediating a device — and, therefore, are easily found on the internet.

However, this doesn’t require creating a unique user name and password for every single infusion pump or door lock. Instead, assign need role-based credentials that follow today’s recommendations for character combinations and length. This allows one set of credentials for all infusion pumps or other medical device types.

Additionally, only employees with the correct role, based on their login credentials and the device’s role, should be permitted to access device settings, all of which are then monitored by the sophisticated access control solutions already addressed.

Step 6. Remember, cybersecurity is really about people

No matter what technologies are adopted for securing IoT, people remain the most important priority. All of the sophisticated systems in the world won’t protect a network if someone places the credentials for a device on the unit itself or hangs a list of passwords on the wall in his or her office.

Most of the time, inadequate practices result from insufficient understanding. This makes training on IoT device security policies critical, as well as requiring regular review or recertification, for all staff members across all departments. Strict enforcement of security protocols is also key.

When training, one of the most important tips to give employees is to create prompts for passwords based on something they know, but others will not, and record only the prompt where it’s accessible. For example, the prompt “fishing trip” could relate to the password “B$gH0rnMTo9^2o^16.”

Once employees have created their lists of prompts and associated passwords, make sure they lock lists containing passwords in a drawer and never, ever, discuss them — either at or outside of work. Of course, they can keep their prompt lists handy for efficiency.

Step 7: Reassess and revise

Regardless of how thorough an IT department is at creating a comprehensive IoT security strategy, it should never be considered “complete.” Instead, the most secure organisations are those that continue to evolve their practices as new tools and recommendations emerge.

This doesn’t mean becoming a cybersecurity guru. Instead, savvy professionals leverage trusted resources to learn about the latest best practices and options. Simultaneously, they regularly scan their organisations for ways to improve.

Source: Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company.

Are you looking to go greener with your IT efforts?

Whilst universities have been at the forefront of understanding the challenges of sustainability, Higher Education remains one of the UK’s largest non-commercial consumers of energy, therefore concerns about sustainability need to be addressed.

An increasing number of universities are focusing on carbon emissions and footprint and putting this as a main priority, with targets to reduce emissions set by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

The HEFCE is committed to reducing carbon emission levels by 43% (against a 2005 baseline) by 2020 and requires all the higher education institutions (HEIs) it funds, to have a carbon management plan that contains carbon reduction targets, meaning it’s paramount to monitor performance to create a sustainable campus.

To help the sector reduce their carbon emissions, HEFCE are providing:

• Recoverable grants through the Revolving Green Fund (RGF) for projects that reduce institutions’ emissions
• Good practice guidance on producing carbon reduction strategies, targets and associated carbon management plans
• A report to estimate carbon dioxide emission baselines for each HEI that they fund.

However, many institutions have also adopted the SMART strategy when setting targets:

1. Specific – each target should address one issue
2. Measurable – targets should be expressed as a quantity
3. Achievable – targets should be reasonable for everyone involved
4. Realistic – targets should be challenging but practical, they can be reviewed once accomplished
5. Time-bound – target must have a deadline

Although, there are no financial penalties for failing to meet the 2020 targets, institutions are required to publicly report their progress towards carbon reduction targets – which is hoped will encourage them. It’s also predicted that a university’s record on sustainability will become increasingly important for students deciding where to study.

What is conclusive, is that sustainability must become deeply embedded in an institution’s policies and practices, the easiest way to make a difference and become more sustainable is through innovative and pioneering new technologies.

XMA sit on a number of frameworks that can help you meet your needs. Our team of tech specialists can find opportunities for you to save time and money in your efforts to provide cleaner, greener technology in your institution.

We are thrilled to have achieved HP Premier MPS Partner Status. This is an industry wide trading status, and a symbol that we are recognised as an established print IT reseller and a key partner of HP.

Achieving this status is testament to our ability to provide strategic guidance in managing print environments and providing services and software solutions that can help reduce costs, improve security and free up your time.

We operate a technology-based, results oriented approach to managing your print environment, built on the premise that printing and document management are essential parts of your IT architecture.

What could you achieve with MPS?

• Lower printing costs by implementing a targeted print strategy for improving processes and increasing efficiencies.
• Reduced need for IT support for your printing environment, so your IT staff can spend more time on strategic projects.
• Manage and deploy devices and supplies from multiple vendors in a more convenient and effective manner.
• Ensure that your imaging and printing devices are being used in the best ways for your employees and your organisation.
• Increase employee productivity by reducing device downtime.

Because we recognise the importance of incremental and continuous improvement, you will be better able to respond to changes in your business as they arise.

Ready to talk MPS?

Go to our Managed Document Service page or contact us below.

Looking to reduce risk and ensure infrastructure availability and resiliency? HPE will help you determine a risk mitigation strategy for your Hybrid IT environment. Your enterprise’s greatest threat may already be present in your data center.

Discovering Chromebook has transformed learning and teaching at pioneering primary school

Southbourne Junior School has introduced over 140 Chromebooks to their learners and teachers encouraging collaboration both inside and outside of the classroom.

When Neil Hall took over as Head of IT at Southbourne Junior School, days were spent wheeling around a laptop trolley from classroom to classroom. As any teacher will know, equipment failings can be one of the most time-consuming and frustrating factors within education.

The school’s IT support resource spent two hours a week on-site and was in high demand. The rest of the time staff were forced to work around IT problems which meant devices were often either abandoned altogether or used to a fraction of their full capabilities. Even when everything was in full working order, IT time in the classroom was minimal. A timetabled activity for an hour a week, IT lessons focused on teaching general office skills such as word processing, spreadsheets and presentations. The internet was used for research and teachers lost confidence in utilising IT within other subject areas.

With the support from Headteacher, Luke Hanna, Neil began researching what other schools were doing. It was on a visit to another school that they witnessed a group of pupils utilising Chromebooks that they decided to research them further.

Having contacted Google for guidance, the school was directed to XMA. Following the success of the pioneering allLearn programme which was already a market leader with iPad, XMA were about to launch allLearn with Chromebook. This was the start of a long-term, collaborative partnership with XMA providing guidance and support on Southbourne Junior School’s mobile device deployment. Through this partnership, Southbourne Junior School has currently deployed over 140 Chromebooks to their learners.

XMA worked with the school to explore their specific requirements.

Some of the main features of Chromebook result in hidden cost savings. With Chromebook web based operating system, regular updates are delivered automatically, saving precious IT resource time manually installing patches. User data and settings are stored in Google Cloud, which means devices can be easily shared. Data is backed up in the event of a device being lost and they don’t need to be imaged after each academic year.

Google’s Online Management Console, included for each Chromebook, allows teachers to react instantly, whether it be introducing or changing firewalls and filters or deploying Apps to devices. Google Apps for Education allow users to work collaboratively on the same documents at the same time from multiple locations. School staff have also found it much easier to manage multiple user groups and updates can be made centrally.

Since introducing Chromebooks, use of IT across the curriculum has increased significantly.

Due to their relative ease of use, teachers have embraced them quickly and are using them in lessons across the curriculum. Further to this, Chromebooks are helping to facilitate communication between the school and parents. Pupils create their own web pages to store homework and information, which can be seen by parents as well as teachers in the classroom.

Southbourne Junior School plans to become an IT specialist school. They will be one of the first schools in the UK to have three of their existing teaching staff accredited as Google Educators.

Children leaving Southbourne Junior School will be equipped with basic knowledge and understanding of the very latest technology, placing them at an advantage for further education and their future career. A high percentage of the jobs that our children will be doing in the future don’t currently exist and one way to skill up children for these roles is to give them access to the very latest, cutting edge technology and encourage them to use this technology productively to aid learning.

XMA remain on hand to help, support and advise. Through two in-house educational experts, Dr. Steve Bunce and David Ryan, both educators themselves – XMA offers first- hand knowledge of how technology can enhance the learning environment and support both staff and learners in the pedagogical application of Chromebook in the classroom.

XMA in Partnership with outstanding specialist school

Making a difference to learning

Dorothy Goodman School is an Outstanding (Ofsted 2016) Special School serving pupils from 3-19 and supporting parents and guardians. It caters for pupils with a wide range of special educational needs. In recognition of the diversity of their pupils, the School tailors their curriculum to meet the needs of each individual pupil. This is supported by the School’s extensive equipment and facilities, such as Soft Play Room, Hydrotherapy Pool and Sensory Room, which are all used to support and educate pupils.

The School awarded XMA the contract for the design, supply, delivery, installation, testing, commissioning and ongoing support of the ICT infrastructure. XMA worked closely with Dorothy Goodman School and SEND Specialists, iansyst, to deliver state-of-the-art devices, systems and support.

Exceptional ICT for an exception student body

Pupils and staff use ICT to enable rich communication and expression. “For example, in one class, two pupils with profound communication and physical needs were able to confidently express their choices and engage in meaningful communication with the adults.” Ofsted Report 2016

Sensory rooms and sensory spaces use light and sound or even darkness to enable children with various abilities, including Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties to develop skills such as switching and cause and effect to colour or hand eye coordination skills, additionally, it supports learners with Autistic Spectrum Disorders to relax or be engaged in their environment. Music linked to light has found to be supportive for either calming pupils or raising their attention levels.

The most common device for pupils is iPad, typically with a ‘voice box’ to ‘speak’ for pupils. From this, many pupils run an application called Grid Player, made by Smart Box. Grid Player is an Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) App that helps people who cannot speak or who have unclear speech to communicate. Pupils create sentences on their iPad that speak aloud.

Pupils with motor disabilities are able to utilise Grid Player and other Smart Box applications using Eye Gaze, which mounts on iPad or Windows tablet.

The range of input devices is as diverse as the pupil population. These include a huge variety of switches (USB, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth), joysticks, trackballs and special keyboards. The goal always being to provide the best possible interface for pupils to express themselves and control their environment.

Google’s speech to text enables other pupils to create documents using speech within Google’s GSuite for Education.

In short, together with the School and XMA’s SEND specialist partner iansyst, the School is able to rapidly draw upon thousands of IT solutions for the needs of each and every child.

ICT challenges and resolutions

The School faces many daily challenges that arise from the variety of needs within an All-through

Special School. They were looking for a partner who can provide flexibility in the delivery of service and one with the expertise to respond quickly to their many needs. We demonstrate this below through some examples of the challenges we have resolved together during our six-year partnership:

The School’ split network made it difficult for information to be accessed and teachers had to navigate around this issue by carrying dongles across all sites to access the network and complete their work.

XMA resolved this problem through clear communication, detailed planning and a thorough execution.

By working with the School’s previous on-site engineer, XMA was able to analyse the issue and build a secure configuration for the ICT systems. This allowed us to join the networks into one unified collaboration platform. Our solution enabled teachers to have easy and instant access to the network regardless of the site and without the provision of dongles, which is better for data access and security. This meant that all educators were able to work more efficiently to create and deliver engaging lessons.

With difficulty logging in across different sites for pupils and teachers due to different systems,

XMA consolidated all usernames and passwords across all sites on one domain, which allowed for a more streamlined and secure logging in process.

The School site spreads across five different locations, two main sites – the upper school and a lower school – with three inclusive satellite bases located on the sites of local mainstream schools.

The School’s XMA Technician Tom is involved in liaising with all existing stakeholders, across all 5 sites and those of the mainstream schools. This means that Tom has to be organised in documenting and reporting his conversations and agreements so that he can relay accurate information and advice for all interested parties. He is responsible for coordinating the relevant departments at XMA and updating the Service Desk system for the purposes of resiliency and escalation.

XMAs technical knowledge has helped Barnsley Academy successfully refresh and transform its server infrastructure so it can better support the IT requirements of its 1,000 students and staff.

The success of a major IT project is often due as much to how the solution was implemented – as to what exactly was put in place. That’s the opinion of Andy Mellor, network manager at Barnsley Academy, which was why when the Academy decided to refresh its server infrastructure he chose to partner with IT provider XMA.

Mr Mellor said: “A certain proportion of our IT budget is allocated to replacing hardware. In the case of our servers, once they get to four years old we automatically refresh them. So we put the project out to tender and shortlisted three organisations. XMA was one of those companies.”

“In all honesty, each was proposing very similar solutions. There was not much to choose between them but I picked XMA because of a feeling. It was a feeling I got about the organisation’s people. I thought I could work with them the best. I felt comfortable with them. It was mostly just about the impression they gave me.”

Better storage and back-up

Since then, XMA has put in place a SAN installation and server virtualisation project for the Academy. Engineers set up a new SAN and used three servers as a virtualisation platform. Another server acted as a domain controller, management and backup server while the fifth ran the Academy’s MIS solution.

Mr Mellor said: “We used all physical servers before but virtualisation is where technology is headed so this was the next step for us. It has dramatically reduced the amount of energy and space we need to run our servers. The new infrastructure is also faster and more efficient. Our overheads are much reduced and the management of the Academy’s IT systems are easier – with just one place to look at all the servers.”

Mr Mellor added: “One of the key advantages is that the new infrastructure has enabled us to restore our server in 30 minutes where before it would have taken a full day. Disaster recovery time is nothing compared to what it was before and that’s a massive bonus.”

“The back-up is also fantastic. My back-up window used to take 30 to 40 hours but now it’s three or four. That’s a massive difference because it enables me to make more storage available to our users. The staff and students don’t notice any difference but the new system has made it so much easier for me to manage with everything being in the same place.”

Experts on hand

Mr Mellow said XMA’s technical expertise was one of the major advantages of using the company. He said: “The technical guys have been great. They were very personable and their knowledge is fantastic. If I ask them to show me anything they are very accommodating. We are a small team here even though the Academy is growing quickly and so access to this technical expertise gives us a step up.”

“In fact, this technical knowledge was on display from the very start of the project.” Mr Mellor explained: “XMA was the only company that sent a technician to the initial consultation rather than just a sales person. I found that a benefit. The engineer had a look at our system and simply talked through what we needed. All the other companies only sent sales people which gave the meeting a very different vibe.”

An on-going partnership

The IT project is now up and running successfully at Barnsley.

“XMA provides the hardware and the systems support for everything they provide. That is also going well. We have had a couple of issues but they have been fantastic in sorting it out. The company has a large knowledge nase and the engineers working with us have just got on to it with no fuss. They have answered any questions and everything has gone very smoothly.”

Improving access to information

One of the UK’s largest educational facilities, City College Manchester supports a growing number of students from around the world, and over 1,200 employees. In order to provide 24/7 access to essential materials and services online, the college needed a data storage and protection system to support this.

The challenges

“As we increased the number of college services, we had to continually buy more servers and storage to keep pace with the data this produced. IT management costs were soaring, and we were worried about network integrity as we didn’t have consistent disaster recovery and backup processes.”

“At the time, all our data storage was direct attached. Each server had its own storage that couldn’t be accessed by other servers. This just wasn’t efficient.”

John Goulden, Network Support Manager, City College Manchester

City College Manchester began the process of selecting a vendor to build a storage area network (SAN) that would link each of its four major campuses and partner sites across the city.

“Our key requirements were quality of hardware and an ability to scale to meet future needs,” explains Goulden. “Disaster recovery was also critical.”

The solution

City College Manchester selected a complete solution from XMA, a specialist ICT provider to the UK’s education sector. XMA installed and integrated a SAN across the college’s campuses and implemented a disaster recovery suite to ensure data is stored and replicated for quick and simple recovery. XMA also provided training to the college’s network technicians to ensure they were fully utilising the system’s capabilities. The hardware installed comprised two Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage 1000 models, one at each of the college’s two main data centres.

XMA states, “By designing and deploying this complex storage solution, City College Manchester can now quickly and securely store and replicate all of their data. It also provides them with a solid platform for growth.”

Implementation was fast and efficient and was completed in just two weeks. City College Manchester is investing in VMware virtualisation tools as part of a server consolidation drive, and XMA ensured that the new storage infrastructure supported this environment.

Network technicians at the college have found the consolidated storage solution easy to use and manage. If they do need assistance on either the hardware or software, support is available around the clock.

The result

“We can now provision storage as and when we need it, which is absolutely brilliant. We’ve never been able to do it so fast,” says Goulden.

The college can also now monitor and manage its storage more efficiently, spotting problems faster and predicting future requirements. This in turn provides students and staff with higher information availability and better access to services and resources, in line with service level requirements.

Technicians have identified significant time savings by being able to perform data replication and backup procedures more efficiently, and reduced downtime means better time efficiency for users, too.

“With XMA’s new setup, if we lost our primary data centre, we could have all the data back within hours,” explains Goulden. “Before, it would have been a nightmare task that would have taken days to recover just some of the lost data.”

“Recently, one of our network volumes was corrupted. In the past we would have spent hours searching through the tape library for the backup, but thanks to the advanced Hitachi software which is built into the solution, we were able to recover it within 15 minutes.”

John Goulden, Network Support Manager, City College Manchester

The college uses a Novell GroupWise e-mail system and, since deployment, technicians have found that a disaster recovery task which used to take several days can now be completed within an hour. Data replication capabilities have also been found to be very robust. Data at the two main campuses is backed up locally, then between each other while data from remote sites is replicated to the two central data centres. This ensures that no matter where information is stored, it is automatically and securely replicated at a different location. The college’s opening hours are extending and a growing body of international students want access to information from anywhere, at any time.

Goulden concludes, “The College is becoming a 24/7 learning environment and its IT infrastructure is now able to support this important shift. At the time of implementation our data requirement was for 3.5TB and this is growing at 50% year on year. It’s a significant mountain to climb, but we are now equipped with the tools we need to meet the challenge.”