The traditional workplace, dominated by Windows-based desktops and laptops, has suddenly given way to a new workspace featuring a hybrid blend of form factors, platforms and work styles. We refer to this new world as the User Workspace, and it covers mobile devices, tablets, desktops, laptops, Windows, Mac, Android, iOS and much more. Today's users are no longer restricted to one device or one platform, or even one application - they expect to be able to work on every device, whether it is personally owned or provided by their company.
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Posted by Jon Rolls on 08/08/20124 comments
The impending release of Windows 8 brings a range of new benefits, opportunities and challenges for organizations of all shapes and sizes. The wave of new technology coming from Redmond in the coming months includes not just Windows 8 on the client, but also Windows RT, Windows Server 2012, Hyper-V Server 2012, App-V 5.0, Office 14, and Internet Explorer 10. All of these releases promise major advances in business efficiency and agility, with more features than ever in the out-of-the-box platform bringing the promise of reduced costs.
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Posted by Jon Rolls on 06/05/20121 comments
Data growth is unquestionably one of the most formidable challenges IT departments are grappling with on a daily basis. For all its benefits, virtualization has added to the data growth challenge, as large amounts of redundant data often reside within virtual machine disk files. To address this growing end-user concern, Quest recently introduced NetVault SmartDisk--vRanger Edition (NVSD vRanger Edition), which provides a new deduplication option for users of vRanger 5.3. You may recall NetVault SmartDisk (NVSD) as the software-based deduplication technology Quest inherited as part of the Bakbone acquisition in early 2011.
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Posted by John Maxwell on 02/08/20120 comments
Beginning with its 5.1 release, Quest vRanger (now at version 5.3) includes support for VMware's HotAdd disk transport functionality. HotAdd is a critical feature in that it allows you to perform LAN-free backups with vRanger installed inside a virtual machine. It also enables faster backup speeds for network backups of ESXi. This specifically is where the primary performance benefit of HotAdd is realized. In a LAN-free configuration, HotAdd yields similar result to the standard vRanger Fibre backups.
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Posted by John Maxwell on 12/12/20117 comments
Deploying Internet Explorer 6 to Windows 7 desktops is an extremely hot and somewhat controversial topic in IT right now. There are a few approaches, but not all of them are in compliance with Microsoft's license agreement. This blog post will attempt to cut through some of the confusion by discussing the various methods being used to deploy IE6 to Windows 7 desktops, and perhaps more importantly, will look at which methods are in compliance Microsoft's license agreement, and which are not.
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Posted by Jon Rolls on 12/09/20113 comments
In recognition of the great demand for “how-to” information, I am starting my first blog by hitting on a very hot topic: How companies can save costs by reducing storage footprints. Quest vRanger Pro 5.0 features a number of tools designed to reduce the amount of data you back up by leveraging technologies that filter out unchanged and deleted data. Exploiting vRanger's ability to minimize backup data requires enabling a few functionalities in the proper manner. This blog will take you through the steps required to fully leverage vRanger's data reduction capabilities.
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Posted by John Maxwell on 07/26/20113 comments