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The sky is falling for anyone not getting into artificial intelligence (AI) immediately. If you build AI for your business, you’re going to revolutionize the industry by saving huge amounts of time, boosting efficiency, and raising productivity, and it’s only going to get better over time. Just look at how good ChatGPT is now: You give it a prompt, and it spits out 700 words like it’s nothing. Evangelists spread this gospel from every corner. Businesses and governments alike see dollar signs.

There’s just one problem: Many of the leaders at these organizations don’t actually understand AI. The hype around the technology has them exploring how to build AI rather than how to use it in practical ways. By failing to cover their fundamentals, these leaders risk burning time and cash on AI investments that don’t pan out. So, in the interest of saving both, let’s take a deep breath and a deeper look at what AI is and what it can do for us.

Underneath the shiny, marketing-buffed exterior, AI is an application like anything else. That means it takes servers, data, networking, and software to build AI successfully.

Let’s take ChatGPT as an example. This bot works by crawling the internet to index the contents — just as Google Search does — and then store huge chunks of it on developer OpenAI’s servers. The bot then examines all that language to learn syntax, usage, and facts that help it mimic human writing. When you prompt ChatGPT, it accesses those servers, chews through a bunch of data, and returns it to you as a big block of text.

The classic components of an application are all there. Servers host ChatGPT’s data, networks connect those servers, and software pulls it all together into text for users to read and use. That makes it fundamentally the same as your human resources or payroll apps. The only difference is in its workload.

At this juncture, business leaders need to look past the hype around AI and treat it like any other application. The apps may do some of the work for you, but if you plan to integrate an AI solution, you will need to invest in infrastructure.

Whether it’s storage, cybersecurity, or AI, implementing a new solution means examining whether or not to outsource its infrastructure. In each case, a business has to answer for itself by evaluating the expected return on investment of either option. When it comes to storage and cybersecurity, we have an ocean of data to pore through about how to provision infrastructure. We have a strong sense of what benefits and drawbacks we can expect from different deployment methods. That leads to smarter business decisions and more efficient operations.

AI is a different story. Its use cases in business are still nascent. As a result, we simply don’t have the data we need to determine whether it’s more cost-effective to build AI infrastructure in-house or to rent it from tech giants like Google. Moreover, it will be a long time before we have that data. And there’s going to be a lot of money burned between now and then.

Despite the enthusiasm for impressive AI deployments like ChatGPT, it’s still not clear exactly how this technology will unlock the efficiency gains executives are looking for. That won’t stop them from looking. Lots of people have lots of ideas about how AI can save time and money, but they know very little for sure. Leaders in the space will likely spend billions of dollars and make tons of mistakes before they perfect the formula for AI deployment. For giant corporations, that kind of investment may be worthwhile. But for most businesses, it will prove much more cost-effective to adopt a wait-and-see approach.

Imagine a banking giant like Wells Fargo, for example. It could spend $1 billion on AI just to see $100 million of value. That return may grow over time, but the initial costs would be ruinous for a smaller company. It’s far more efficient for that smaller company to wait until the use cases have become clear and begun to demonstrate value. That way, they can invest less upfront and still see similar returns.

Think of AI like a bridge under construction via trial and error. Deep-pocketed interests can afford to send their goods across the bridge over and over despite the risk of a bridge collapse. If a collapse comes, they can eat the cost of lost goods and then use what they learned to make the bridge a little better. Over a long enough timeline — and with sufficient lost goods — they’ll come up with a great bridge. But in the meantime, it makes more sense for the rest of us to head downstream to the ford. It may take a little longer, but it’s significantly safer. Then, once the infrastructure is in place, we can swoop in and benefit from their investments at a lower cost.

Even if you’re not investing in AI immediately, there are still ways you can prepare for its widespread adoption. The most important thing you can do right now is consider what, specifically, you want AI to do for your business. What are the processes that seem ripe for efficiency gains? Where are the simple, repetitive tasks that could be handled by AI? Create a plan for how you might integrate AI technology. In each case, be sure to clearly outline how it will deliver increased business value. By doing so, you can position yourself as the smart money coming to capitalize on AI.

For many businesses, AI’s promise lies in its ability to increase efficiency. Budgets are stretched thin, and organizations of all sizes are looking to do more with less. While you wait for AI to realize that promise, there are plenty of ways to up efficiency. From Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure to Unified Communications as a Service, Roundstone Solutions can put you in touch with best-in-class vendors ready to get you the biggest return on every dollar spent. Contact us today to learn more.

As many are discovering, the time to migrate to hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) is now. 

​I’ve written before about the benefits of HCI. Put simply, no one is in the business of owning technology for the sake of owning technology. If you’re going to own tech, it should be beneficial to your business. HCI benefits businesses by offering an efficient entry to the latest infrastructure tech that will save you money.
 
Don’t just take my word for it. Public cloud solutions are taking up a lot of bandwidth lately, with many businesses following the herd to the cloud without giving a lot of thought to why or what other solutions might be available. But here’s a secret: public cloud providers and other hyperscalers use HCI. In fact, one of our top HCI vendors was created by people who built the infrastructure for one of the largest current public cloud providers.

HCI offers an evolution of traditional server architecture by automating and moving tasks to software. It provides the simplicity of a one-touch experience in a scalable solution for any enterprise user.

Here are the top 5 hyperconverged infrastructure vendors I think you should know about.   

​There are a variety of HCI vendors out there. Most of them are good. Some are great. Which HCI vendor is right for you can depend on your needs and budget.

These are the HCI vendors that would be a good fit for almost any enterprise or small business. Starting at the top, with the HCI vendor I recommend more than any other. 

Nutanix was founded in 2009 by engineers who worked at Google creating the Google file system, including a man known as the “Father of Hyperconvergence,” Mohit Aron. Google was one of the earliest pioneers of HCI. The company, in its goal to create a scalable architecture, moved many processes into automation through software. This helped streamline operations and allowed for faster data access. 

Aron was on the team that created the file system for managing all of that data, which Google still uses to this day. Believing more companies could benefit from HCI technology, Aron left Google and co-founded Nutanix. The company achieved “unicorn” status in 2013 as a startup with a valuation of over $1 billion and went public in 2016. Today, the company is worth over $8 billion.

Nutanix was the first in the HCI space and is still one of the best. It created a simple-to-use service with the power of a file system created for a hyper-scaler. 

To me, Nutanix is the industry’s best-kept secret. A lot of people haven’t heard of it, but those who know, know. 

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a survey that asks responders a single question: how likely are you to recommend this product or service? Respondents answer with a number from 0-10. Numbers 0-6 are considered “detractors,” 7 and 8 are considered “passives,” and 9 and 10 are considered “promoters.” The percentage of detractors is then subtracted from the percentage of promoters, and the result is a number between -100 and 100, which is a company’s NPS.

Nutanix’s NPS is 90+ and has been for six years. That is unheard of. Compare that to Amazon Web Services (AWS) at 59, Google Cloud Platform at 45, and Microsoft at 40. People who use Nutanix love Nutanix.

Pros:

• Created HCI from the ground up.
• High performance, high security.
• Competitively priced.
• Offers virtualization as a feature, and you can choose your own virtualization software.
• Hardware agnostic — it works with everything.
• NPS: 90+

Cons:

• Lacks the brand recognition of Dell, HP, and Cisco.

​SimpliVity was also founded in 2009 and was acquired by HPE in 2017. 

HPE has since bolted SimpliVity onto its offerings as its native HCI solution. Unfortunately, SimpliVity has always had hardware dependencies. It is not a full software solution like Nutanix. And, now that it is a part of HPE, it is wholly dependent on HPE equipment. So if you buy SimpliVity, you’re buying HPE equipment.

The other side of that coin is that it makes HPE a one-stop shop. You can actually buy hardware from them to go with your HCI solution.

Pros:

• Takes the heavy lifting of choosing hardware or virtualization software off your hands.
• Recognizable brand.
• One-stop-shop.

Cons:

• SimpliVity is bolted onto existing HPE components.
• Lack of customization and choice.
• NPS: 24

Dell’s solution is novel in that it didn’t purchase a separate HCI company, it created its own out of pre-existing parts. But unlike Nutanix, the Dell VxRail solution is not built from the ground up for HCI, it is cobbled together out of existing Dell infrastructure solutions. The result, while it functions adequately, is not as elegant or efficient a solution as Nutanix.

VxRail, like Simplivity, also eliminates choice. You’ll be running Vmware whether you want Vmware or not. You will also be tethered to Dell hardware. The upside of these dependencies is they take the guesswork out of choosing virtualization and hardware. Plus, as with SimpliVity, you can at least buy hardware from Dell. 

Pros:

• Simplifies choosing virtualization and hardware.
• Brand recognition.
• One-stop shop.

Cons:

• Lack of customization.
• Bolted together with existing solutions.
• NPS: 23

Hyperflex was created by Cisco in partnership with Springpath in 2016. Cisco then acquired Springpath in 2017 for $320 million. 

The main benefit of Hyperflex was the Cisco brand name, but given that Cisco is mainly a networking company and has no stake in the storage market, its value as an HCI solution is questionable. Hyperflex was mainly used by Cisco to seed its server business with a proprietary HCI solution, but in August of 2023, Cisco announced a partnership with Nutanix to offer a wholly new HCI solution for Cisco server equipment. Hyperflex has since been discontinued.

Pros:

• Brand recognition.
• Nutanix partnership.

Cons:

• Limited product development by Cisco.
• Not a lot of storage.

Scale Computing is the smallest of the top 5 HCI vendors. Scale was founded in 2008 and launched its HCI solution in 2012.  

Scale is a solid solution for SMBs, but it shouldn’t be considered enterprise class. If you have small workloads and a solution like Nutanix is too expensive, Scale is a solid choice. Otherwise, I’d stick with one of the other vendors.

Pros:

• Inexpensive.
• Great for SMBs with small workloads.

Cons:

• Not enterprise-level.
• Lacking in security and performance features.

Migrating to HCI doesn’t have to be complicated. Roundstone can walk you through the process and talk you through your options to find the solution that’s best for you. Whether that’s one of the five HCI vendors listed here or something entirely different. To get started with your HCI migration and to learn more about how Roundstone can help you with your technology needs, contact us today. 

By now, you've probably read about Cisco partnering up with Nutanix, after Cisco "threw in the towel" on HyperFlex.  The purpose of this post is to give you some comfort in your way forward.

First, some history.  Cisco started selling servers in 2009.  This was a strategic move by Cisco to hedge against competition in the networking space, where, at the time, Cisco held an 80+% market share.  The idea was that since Cisco was in so many corporate data centers on the networking side, there was value to being able to also supply compute, in the form of their UCS servers.  Made sense, although there was never a storage component to that idea, which I never understood.

In 2016, Cisco was seeing that companies like Nutanix and a few others were doing well selling hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI).  So, to stem eventual competition for their UCS servers, Cisco purchased a company called Springpath, which was a struggling company offering HCI.  Springpath was not a main player in the HCI space at the time.

Cisco combined their UCS servers and Springpath software to create their version of HCI, which they named HyperFlex.  HyperFlex started selling in 2016, I think.  Or, should I say, Cisco started giving away a lot of HyperFlex appliances with networking deals, in order to seed the market.  

You see, HyperFlex was never a big hit with users.  Of the HyperFlex market share (very small), many of the users got the product free as a part of a networking deal, and didn't really pay for HyperFlex itself.  I know this because I saw many HyperFlex shipping boxes sitting at customer sites, still with the appliances inside.  I would ask if they purchased HyperFlex, and most times, I learned they were given the products.  That was my experience...it may not have been yours.

Please note that I'm not saying HyperFlex didn't work.  It does, but in a different way than Nutanix.  HyperFlex consists of hardware acceleration to make UCS perform with HCI software, whereas Nutanix is all about moving function into software.

Well, after trying to make a go of it with HyperFlex for 7 years, Cisco has finally given up on the platform and announced the end of life for HyperFlex.  Cisco  has partnered up with Nutanix, which is the industry leader in HCI and has been since the start.  Which makes sense.  Why sell a product that customers weren't interested in buying when you could offer them a solution that customers love (Nutanix)?  

​So, now that Cisco has given you the word that there isn't a future for HyperFlex, what's your move?  Well, let us help.

Roundstone Solutions is one of Nutanix's primary focused partners in the Northern CA and NY/NJ markets.  We specialize in Nutanix; it's literally 80% of what we do.  We know the platform as well as the folks at Nutanix, and know how to help our Clients get the most from Nutanix.

Let us help you.  Call us at 925-324-1582 in Northern CA or 201-740-2190 in NY/NJ.  Or, email us at sales@roundstonesolutions.com.  We'll get right back to you and will be more than happy to help you chart a course towards Nutanix.

​Your future is bright with Nutanix.

You’ll only know you’ve under-invested in cybersecurity solutions when something goes wrong

Of the thousands of decisions you make at your company, choosing the right cybersecurity solutions may be the most important. Just ask the folks at Clorox. Ransomware hackers hit the company in August, and paying the ransom was only the beginning of the trouble. It spent $25 million on response, from forensic investigators to legal and technical assistance. Then, in October, it announced that the disruption caused by the attack had led to a 23-28% loss in net sales. And that’s all to say nothing of the reputational damage. Nobody wants to do business with a company that has Swiss cheese for security.

As ransomware attacks become more and more common, choosing the right cybersecurity solutions for business only grows more important. By examining the forces shaping the cybersecurity market, you’ll be better equipped to find the right solution for your company.

​As technology has grown more advanced, companies have started holding more and more of their resources within that technology. That’s especially true for cloud service providers such as Google and Amazon. Proprietary product designs, protected client information, banking information, and more now reside in virtual data centers. All that data in one place has encouraged bad actors to scale up their hacking efforts accordingly. There were more than 600 million ransomware attacks in 2021, and there were 140 million in the first half of 2023. Hackers and tech companies are now locked in an arms race, with trillions of dollars on the line.

It would make life a lot easier if cybersecurity solutions for business could be budgeted in the same way operational IT solutions are. In IT, a company can evaluate workload size and speed, and then estimate a budget based on that data. 

Estimating a budget in cybersecurity is much more opaque because there are few signs that your solutions are working. You may never know how many attacks your security repels. On the other hand, as soon as you’ve under-invested, you’ll know. And by then it will be too late. Security solutions have to be right every time, but bad actors only need to be right once. That’s why IT managers tend to over-invest in cybersecurity: Better safe than sorry.

Budgeting also requires more than investing in the right tools. Operating a cybersecurity staff of sufficient size is another critical piece of the puzzle. But this brings up another complication. Cybersecurity demands a lot of talent. That talent is in limited supply, and hiring competition is stiff, to say the least. Whatever your company can pay, Microsoft and Facebook can probably pay more. That makes it very difficult to attract the best talent to your business.

After the giants have taken their picks of the cybersecurity talent, the remaining professionals will still expect high salaries. And even if they’re within your budget, supply is so constrained that you may not be able to hire enough of them to meet your needs. There simply aren’t enough cybersecurity experts to go around.

Major corporations know that the bigger they are, the bigger the targets on their backs. The slightest misstep could let bad actors past their defenses, leading to eye-watering value losses. To combat that threat, they create departments whose sole focus is maintaining cybersecurity. These departments are known as security operations centers, or SOCs. They’re full of cybersecurity experts equipped with top-of-the-line tools who serve as the eyes and ears of the organization, taking in telemetry information, assimilating it, identifying trends and upcoming threats, and thus staying one step ahead of bad actors. 

Mid-size and smaller corporations are in a difficult position with regard to cybersecurity. They may not face the same volume of attacks as an Apple or a Walmart, but they also have far fewer resources to fend off hackers. They can’t afford to dedicate an entire department to security. Instead, those responsibilities fall to the IT department. Those workers are likely capable in cybersecurity matters, but their plates are already full of other priorities, including maintaining continuity of services. If they fail on that front because they prioritized security, we run into the spending black box problem we discussed earlier. There’s no way to know if that priority on security was misplaced.

Every device on your company’s network is a potential entry point for bad actors. That includes servers, network switches, storage devices, and even some connected printers. That’s why so many cybersecurity solutions for business focus on creating strong locks on those access points. But the truth is that, despite what movies might have you believe, 95% of cybersecurity issues are the result of simple human error. Phishing attempts, fraud, and other manipulative tricks are the most common ways bad actors get into company systems. As a result, a truly comprehensive security strategy should find ways to address and guard against those techniques.

This is where sharing knowledge gains critical importance. In an every-man-for-himself environment, each business has an incredibly limited amount of information available to it. If you’re lucky enough to have 20 staff working on cybersecurity, that’s all the intelligence you can rely on to stay ahead of hackers. But if those 20 workers can share data with another 20, let alone 200, their frame of reference for possible vulnerabilities grows enormously. And the more vulnerabilities they know about, the more they can plug up.

Companies hit by cyberattacks are often understandably cautious about discussing how their security systems failed. But if they’re able to overcome that reluctance and contribute to the knowledge of the cybersecurity community, it can build a critical mass of information about how hackers target and attempt to infiltrate business systems.

Cybersecurity firm Arctic Wolf aims to provide that wider frame of reference. Its cybersecurity experts essentially function as an outsourced SOC. They hook into your security tools and fine-tune them for maximum security. They then monitor those tools in addition to trends in hacking attempts, find new security solutions, and implement them for you. To find out how Arctic Wolf can help your business, contact us today.

There are several reasons why organizations pursue a cloud repatriation. For many, it comes from a realization that migrating their workloads to the cloud has failed to achieve any of the benefits cloud providers promised. Typically, the reasons behind cloud repatriation can be organized into three categories:

• Cost: Public cloud infrastructure costs are often 30% to 50% more expensive than on premises infrastructure. And if that cost isn’t providing the returns you’re looking for, it’s worth repatriating back to less-expensive infrastructure that can still offer the same results.
• Performance: Organizations may discover that their IT infrastructure worked faster or was more stable when running on premises and would like to avoid paying a high cost for worse performance.

Experience: Whether resulting from unexpected downtime, hidden fees, or simply poor customer service, a bad experience can sour a company’s desire to continue working with a cloud provider.